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 Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:43 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:43 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:44 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:44 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:44 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:44 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:44 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:44 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:45 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:45 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:45 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:45 pm
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What's Up, King Dude?
Main
Laconic
Quotes
PlayingWith
Create New
- Create New -
"Please, go on in. The king will see anyone who wishes to see him."
— Adelhyde Castle Guard, Wild ARMs
The phenomenon in fiction (primarily in High Fantasy) of commoners being allowed improbably free access to the royal family.
In Real Life, access to royal families is usually tightly controlled, and in most cases commoners, unless they are friends with royal family members, are not allowed to have extended interaction with royals outside of formal events. Not in fiction, though. In fiction, Farmer Alice can go into the royal palace and give King Bob the Nth their secret handshake and a slap on the a** and say "What's up, King Dude?" Royals Who Actually Do Something tend to do this more than others, since they're already active anyway and "actually doing something" more often than not entails working with common folk.
The reason for this trope is probably the fact that, in ancient times, rulers of small clans and chiefdoms were often referred to as "kings". Later on, such as in the Renaissance, these stories were modified to better fit then-modern times (i.e. with bigger kingdoms and more powerful kings) but they forgot to edit the part about the farmer visiting his "king". Sometimes when erstwhile clan chiefs became actual royals by conquering neighboring tribes, they tried to keep their traditional open doors policy as much as possible to show that they "hadn't really changed". In most cases though, after a few foiled assassination attempts this practice will tend to be curtailed. The exceptions tend to be royals who are also Memetic Badasses. Or situations where the "King" wasn't actually all that powerful: such as Sparta.
Royal security did, however, remain rather porous; common peasants were certainly not allowed in the palace, but just about anyone who could afford a nice set of clothes and some bribes could enter freely, especially during the eras of feudalism where local lords held more practical power than the king did. It was in early days of colonialism that royals grew tremendously in power and thus allowed few of common blood into their courts. (The fact that easy access to concealed firearms suddenly made political assassinations depressingly easier certainly didn't help things.) Also, the smaller and less wealthy the kingdom in question, the more this trope is Truth in Television. It is important to remember that a King is not necessarily fantastically wealthy, they are just more likely to be if any wealth is flowing into the country at all. But for those whose kingdoms aren't on the trade routes or are otherwise out of the way, the King might be only marginally more wealthy than the commoners. In this case, unless he is truly tyrannical, he's unlikely to be overly worried about assassinations since there is very little for a potential assassin to gain. Importantly, this trope does not imply the royal in question has no security. It simply implies the royal in question is not a snob and/or not unduly afraid of the commoners. The royal guards will presumably still watch anyone who enters the king's presence very carefully, be heavily armored and armed to the teeth, and there may be additional security measures such as traps which the ruler can set off on anyone who tries anything funny.
In fiction, however, it's rather common for anyone — nobles, farmers, merchants, bribers, and military chaps alike — to be able to waltz into the palace with few or no repercussions. Many RPGs require players to consult the king before the adventure proper begins. In particular, this breaks immersion when the player is allowed into the King's presence fully armed and armored, particularly when the King is not. In Real Life this would definitely never be done, even in a very small and poor kingdom. Even clan chiefs in ancient times usually disallowed people from carrying weapons in their presence, except for their trusted guards.
If only one ruler in the setting invokes this trope though, chances are you're dealing with a Physical God who obviously has little to no need for security since there is almost nothing that could potentially threaten their power and basically no one who could kill them. That situation would make this a Justified Trope.
Compare Swiss Cheese Security, where supervillains do a rather poor job of securing their lairs; they often overlap in the case of Evil Overlords.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
Early U.S. presidents were fond of doing this, starting with Andrew Jackson, who often invited working-class folks to his parties, which were informal and wild and featured whiskey and roast beef instead of champagne and caviar. Grover Cleveland made sure the White House's phone number was in the phone book and answered all of the calls himself; interesting to note, he also answered his own doorbell.
"Schott's Miscellany" includes a description of Presidential meet-and-greets: everybody (from foreign aristocrats to poor folks) gathered in a waiting room, lined up. They would then file through the meeting chamber, shake hands with the President and maybe exchange a few words, and file out. To be clear, there was no vetting process, no verification of why one wanted to meet the President, or what one intended to say to him. President William McKinley was assassinated during just such an event at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and James Garfield was assassinated while walking unguarded into a crowded train station. In fact, Garfield's assassin had earlier gained entrance to the White House and met Garfield (he was trying to get a diplomatic post).
There was a time when anyone could walk up to the front door of the White House and knock. Exactly when this stopped is up to some debate - during the Civil War or World War II, but the fact is you once could. You still can! Provided you take the tour though. The end is an exit through the front door.
For those touring the White House, from time to time, the tour group might run into a member of the First Family, usually the President or the First Lady, who are not busy and happy to talk a little with the tour group. Typically these are planned but not announced, and usually favors school groups.
Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer, once called up the Vice President while on a high school trip to D.C. and got a meeting with the Veep for his class. He wouldn't begin killing until just after he graduated high school.
As late as the 1950s, Harry Truman was taking morning strolls about town, accompanied by only a single guard. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the era of semi-unfettered (semi-fettered?) access to the President ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though the Secret Service is surprisingly good at making it look like the President is mostly unguarded, don't be fooled. If you see the President, there are at least a dozen Secret Service agents close enough to tackle you and several more ready to shoot you. Also, don't be fooled by how chill the Secret Service are compared with your average goon-for-hire at an office building. They are chill because they are good at their job.
At the closing ceremony of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Swedish King Gustav V praised American Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete in the world. Thorpe's response? "Thanks, King!" This sort of thing tends to happen when people from countries that don't have royalty unexpectedly find themselves interacting with foreign royals. Usually more just awkward than threatening.
His son Gustaf VI faced even more informality after The World Cup in 1958: once he went down to the pitch to salute the victorious Brazilian team, the team dentist hugged him while saying "Hey King! How you doin'?".
Charlemagne to a great extent. As well as dressing very much like a commoner, it is also said of him that he would happily dine with commoners. His court was more or less a continuous feast, interrupted chiefly for sleep and prayers (if that), at which state business would occasionally be conducted; anyone making an appearance for any reason would be invited to participate in the merrymaking. Charlemagne is also said to have held education in such high esteem that he would sometimes sit in a schoolroom along with the children learning there (this is probably not true though: what is definitely true is that Charlemagne would have works of literature and such read to him while he bathed since he himself was illiterate).
Alfred the Great once had a set of petitioners follow him into his private chamber - in those days a separate building - and interrupt him while he was washing his face. He calmly toweled himself off while listening to their problem.
During the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, King Christian X took a daily ride through the streets of Copenhagen, unaccompanied. A German soldier is supposed to have asked "Who guards your King?", to which the response was "We all do."note . Despite Christian being a very autocratic man, he was beloved by doing this and mobbed daily, so it was probably literally true that anyone who tried to mess with the King would find himself facing several very angry Danes before he knew what had happened.
The original word King comes from the Germanic form meaning "leader of kin" or chieftain in other words. Germanic "Kings" were expected to party with their warriors and share out spoil with them. The poetic name for King is "ring-giver" meaning they gave out rewards to their followers including rings, items of jewelry that had a mystic significance because of their unending circularity and which were often attached to swords. The image expected was of a Barbarian Hero leading a Barbarian Tribe, rather than the center of attention at an extravagant ceremony.
Vladimir Lenin suffered a lot from his "What's up, Premier Dude" attitude in the middle of a civil war; one time, some gangbangers kicked him out of his car, the other time he was shot, fell ill because of the complications and died soon after. His successor, on the other hand, was very paranoid and a**l about security.
"Lenin and petitioners" was a stock scene depicted in Soviet art and theater. Apparently, he received a lot of petitioning and complaining peasants. The artwork probably made this appear more common than it actually was though. Lenin deliberately (and very successfully) tried to cultivate an aura of folksiness in order to appeal to the masses, because he was an intellectual and disaffected member of the former elite.
Modern Scandinavian monarchies are very austere and down to earth, and the monarchs freely mingle with their people. They do maintain protocol as far as addressing them goes. Addressing them by the folksy "Du" ("You"), as opposed to the honorific "De", will often result in a sharp rebuke. Modern Dutch monarchs—who, although not Scandinavian, tend to hang out with the Scandinavian onesnote —are similar, but replace "Du" with "jou/je" and "De" with "u".
Norwegian kings (at least, Olav and Harald), are known for their commonality:
Olav V was particularly notorious for this. A story goes that he was on a military parade, and asked for a smoke. When requested what kind of cigarette, he answered bluntly "Hell, whatever, as long as it smokes..." Olav was loved for his ability to talk and converse with (almost) everyone.
When he first came to Norway after being elected kingnote , Haakon VII (Olav's father), who was not known for this, was actually not officially addressed as "Your Majesty", but rather as "Mister King".
As for the current Norwegian queen, Sonja: she actually asked a journalist to drop the honorifics and address her with the common "du"note . After this, most journalists skirt the issue by using the third-person: "Is the Queen enjoying herself?"
Many small countries have this kind of attitude toward their top people; for example, it is not very difficult for just about anyone to meet with the Prime Minister of Iceland.
In 1991, Washington, D.C. resident Alice Frazier greeted Queen Elizabeth II with a folksy "How are ya doin'?" and then pulled her into a hug. The queen smiled and quickly backed out of it. British sticklers for protocol were horrified and outraged, for one simply does not touch the queen. But it was Ms. Frazier's custom to greet every visitor to her home with a big warm hug, and she wasn't about to make any exceptions. Also, even the Rules Lawyers will acknowledge that most of the reason for these protocols is actually to protect the Queen from the anti-monarchists in her own country: who are much more likely to mean her harm than any American. Notably though, the Queen has gone farther than simply tolerating American casualness. She's learned to be jocular right back, which is precisely the point.
Defied in 2018 France, where French president Emmanuel Macron scolded a teenager who greeted him with "ça va, Manu?" ("how's it going, Manu?" — "Manu" being an endearing diminutive based on the first name Emmanuel) and briefly became memetic. It happened during a public ceremony commemorating Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June, and the boy was part of the audience.
There's an old apocryphal story about some British King who met a Quaker. Quakers are vehemently anti-monarchist, and indeed anti-hierarchical. As a peaceful way of protesting the monarchy, Quakers refused to take off their hats to the King (or indeed, anyone else) back when that was still a thing people did. The story goes that since someone needed to take his hat off, the King took his hat off to the Quaker. This is almost certainly not true though. Something similar did happen with Prince Albert when he visited an abolitionist rally: but it should be noted that the Prince Consort has nowhere near the same status as the actual monarch in Britain. It definitely didn't hurt his already well-cemented reputation as Modest Royalty though.
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Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:09 am
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10 Viking Kings And Their Epic Deeds
by David Hughes
fact checked by Jamie Frater
For the Vikings, reputation was the most important thing in life. In their eyes, a person’s deeds were the only thing that survived them long after they were gone, so they loved to celebrate the actions of their ancestors and friends while trying to make a name for themselves personally, whether that be by exploring, conquering, raiding, or patronizing the people who wrote the songs: the skalds.As such, we thought that a list retelling the grandest deeds of the Viking kings would be a great way to celebrate them (and to bring some entertainment value). After all, it’s what they would have wanted. Here, we learn about ten Viking kings and their epic deeds.
10
Harald Fairhair, The First King Of Norway
Photo credit: Wikmedia Commons
Any list covering the greatest achievements of the Viking kings wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Harald Fairhair.[1] Despite his pseudo-mythical status, most historians now believe that Fairhair did exist but that his exploits were probably not as dramatic as the sagas make them out to be. He was likely a petty king in Southwest Norway who was able to subjugate his neighbors and rule over a large portion of what is now modern Norway.According to the sagas, the Battle of Hafrsfjord was a crucial moment for Harald’s young kingdom. Dated to sometime between 870 and 900, it was a large battle by contemporary standards and involved many of the petty kings of Norway. The only king mentioned in a source from the time of the battle was Kjovte the Rich, who supposedly fled after Harald’s victory, leaving many of his men to die. The place believed to be the site of the battle is now marked by the Swords in Rock, three 10-meter-tall (33 ft) monuments which represent Harald and the kings he defeated.Following Hafrsfjord, Harald established the most influential power bloc in Norway, from which he and his successors were able to exert pressure on their neighbors and ultimately form the Kingdom of Norway, which exists to this day.
9
Rurik, The Founder Of Russia
Photo credit: Dar Veter
The Rurikid dynasty was one of the longest-reigning lineages in human history: They were kings in Russia from the depths of the Viking age to the reign of Ivan the Terrible centuries later. And it was founded by a Viking.[2]The Primary Chronicle of Russia, which was assembled in 1113 from a collection of earlier pieces, tells us the story of Russia’s beginnings. According to the Chronicle, the Slavic people who lived in modern-day Ukraine and Russia invited Rurik and his two brothers to rule over them, thinking they would bring law and order to the tribes. They clearly accepted, but Rurik’s brothers died shortly after, leaving him to rule alone.In the past, some historians questioned the authenticity of the story told in the Chronicle, but most now accept it as fact. Rurik was a Varangian, warriors who served the Byzantine emperor as their personal bodyguard (and who were nearly all Norse), so he would have been well-respected. There is also evidence of significant Viking influence in the area of modern-day Russia and Ukraine: When Harald Hardrada lost the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, he fled to stay with family in Kiev. The Vikings also had trade routes across Europe, from Baghdad and beyond to the coast of Spain, so it’s not unreasonable to expect the warriors and traders who crossed from Scandinavia to Greece and the Middle East to settle down along the way. Odinist symbols and Scandinavian blacksmithing tools dating back to the Viking age, among other items, have been found in Lagoda and Novgorod, which suggests there was at least some Norse influence in the region, and the Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan encountered Viking tribes while journeying through the lands of the Rus.Either way, Rurik was a member of the Norse Varangian Guard who established a small kingdom in modern-day Russia, and his descendants (who were raised as Slavs) continued his legacy, remaining kings and princes in the area until 1612, which is no mean feat.
8
Eric Bloodaxe, The Last King Of Northumbria
Most of us have heard of Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of Northumbria. Beyond his name, however, most of us know little about him, but we assume he must’ve been a great Viking to have earned the nickname “Bloodaxe.”In fact, the name more likely comes from the connotation of “blood” meaning “family” or “brotherhood,” so an equally accurate translation could be “brotheraxe” or “familyaxe.” This nickname makes sense when we learn that he killed five of his brothers in order to win the throne of Norway![3]He only ruled in Scandinavia for a short time before he was deposed by his last remaining brother, fleeing to Britain without a fight. Why he gave up his kingdom so easily we’ll probably never know, but it might have been because he saw a brighter future for himself in the British Isles. If he did, he wasn’t wrong, because he was easily able to assert control over the kingdom of Northumbria and rule it undisputed until his death in 954.
7
Sictric Caech And The Battle Of Islandbridge
The Vikings have a long history in Ireland—the city of Dublin was actually founded by Vikings to serve as a commercial center for their slave trade. Their actual influence in Inner Ireland ebbed and flowed over the years, and in 902, they were forced out of Dublin by a united army of several Irish kings. Sictric Caech was one of these Vikings.At first, he went on to rule a small kingdom in the Danelaw, but the Anglo-Saxons had conquered most of the Danelaw by 918 and driven most of the Vikings out of England. Following this, Sictric returned to Ireland, this time at the head of an army. They won some early battles with the Irish kings and staked out a small claim for themselves, but the war was far from conclusive.Things came to a head at the Battle of Islandbridge in 919.[4] The Irish king Niall Glundub led a coalition of Northern Irish kings to drive the Vikings back out. Sictric and his army met them on the way. The battle was a crushing victory for Sictric, with five Irish kings and the High King of Ireland himself meeting their ends in the bloodbath. Sictric reigned as the undisputed king of Dublin for another three years, after which he seems to have returned to England by his own choice.
6
Sweyn Forkbeard And The Conquest Of England
Photo credit: Louis Moe/AU Library, Campus Emdrup
Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of all England in 1013, though he only reigned for five weeks before his death—not long enough to even be officially crowned.[5]But it is the reasoning behind his invasion that makes him a truly respectable Viking king.By Sweyn’s time, the Vikings had lived in England for nearly 200 years but had never managed to conquer the entire kingdom. They ruled the northeastern half of England as the Danelaw until the end of Eric Bloodaxe’s reign in 954, when they were driven out. People of Viking descent continued to live in England, however, and the Viking kings across the sea continued to have an interest in their people.So when the English king ordered the mass slaughter of Vikings living in England in 1002, Sweyn planned his revenge. While he’d been raiding the English coast on and off for a decade or so, now he mustered an invasion force. They landed in 1003, causing widespread destruction and pillaging much of the country in revenge. Ethelred the Unready was forced to pay Sweyn a ludicrous amount of silver to stop the latter from burning his kingdom.But ten years later, Sweyn was back, this time with an army big enough to seize England. They landed in Kent and rampaged through the countryside, soon reaching London. The English earls, fearing another drawn-out war and already skeptical of their own king, drove Ethelred into exile and declared Sweyn king of England.While Sweyn’s reign didn’t last long, it did pave the way for another Viking invasion, this one much more permanent.
5
King Cnut And The North Sea Empire
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
With Sweyn’s death, his son Cnut was left in charge of his father’s army in England. The English lords, however, chose to bring Ethelred back, and Cnut fled to Denmark.He immediately set about raising a larger army and even asked his brother (and rival), the king of Denmark, for warriors to help him. Poles, Swedes, and Norwegians flocked to his banner, drawn by the promise of loot. Cnut landed in Wessex in 1015 at the head of 10,000 men and laid waste to the country, conquering from Cornwall to Northumbria.[6]But London remained defiant under the leadership of the newly chosen English king, Edmund Ironside. The armies of the two kings met at the Battle of Assandun (usually accepted to be modern-day Ashington), where Cnut won a close-fought engagement. English resistance crumbled.By 1018, Cnut was also king of Denmark following the death of his brother, and he finally conquered Norway in 1028, after years of conflict with various Scandinavian lords. Though they’d originally fought against him, the English were remarkably loyal to Cnut during his reign; he spent much of his 20-year tenure putting down rebellions or fighting enemies in his homeland, leaving England to be governed by his allies, and by his death, nearly all the men on his council were English.Cnut became one of the most powerful kings in Europe, meeting with the pope and the emperor of Germany on several occasions and fostering economic links between his three kingdoms. While his empire broke apart on his death, he seems to have made little effort in his life to see it continue, abandoning Norway to rebels in the final years of his reign and leaving Denmark to his son Harthacnut and England to his other son, Harold Harefoot. The union of the three kingdoms made Cnut the most powerful king in Europe at the time, however, and his descendants would repeatedly try (and fail) to recreate his successes.
4
Harald Bluetooth’s Ring Fortresses
Photo credit: Thue C. Leibrandt
Before Cnut and Sweyn, however, someone had to turn Denmark into the strong, centralized state that it had to be to go toe-to-toe with England. This king was Harald Bluetooth, Sweyn’s father and long-reigning king of Denmark.Not all Viking strength came from conquest. Over the course of his 30-year reign, Harald transformed Denmark from a political backwater into a strong medieval state. Harald’s plans for creating a centralized government are best summed up by his Trelleborg ring forts: fortresses built across Danish territory, centered at the fort at Aarhus, in the geographical center of the region. Each one was built to exact standards, with four gates (each facing one of the compass points), a tall wall and ditch around the outside, and an open courtyard with administrative buildings in the middle.[7] These would have served as both tax collection points and places for Danish kings to muster their armies, laying the groundwork for the conquests of his son and grandson.The fortresses were all built in locations that were close to the sea, but far enough from it to be safe from sea raids, and alongside Viking land routes, where they would have been both well-connected and highly visible, a powerful symbol of the king’s authority. Their sites seem to have been meticulously chosen to efficiently defend and control the people of Denmark, which was no doubt at the forefront of Bluetooth’s mind after the history of wars in Norway and his father’s difficult reign.Unfortunately for him, the ultimate threat came from within, when his son Sweyn forcibly deposed him.
3
Harald Hardrada And The Destruction Of Heidaby
Photo credit: Colin Smith/CC BY-SA 2.0
Harald Hardrada (Hard-Ruler) is famous in history for being one of the last Viking kings and for unsuccessfully trying to seize the throne of England by force—losing the crucial Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 to Harold Godwinson, which paved the way for William the Conqueror’s ultimate victory.[8]This battle, however, came at the end of a long and distinguished Viking career which had taken Harald all around the known world, from Norway to Sicily and Palestine, over the course of 30 years. Perhaps his greatest (or worst) feat was the destruction of Heidaby. Heidaby was a Norse town at the base of Jutland with trade connections across the northern world: It rose to prominence in the late 700s and became the most important town in the Western Viking world.Harald, who was king of Norway at the time, was trying to subdue Denmark and add it to his realm, and he sought to weaken Denmark by raiding its coast. His campaign took him to Heidaby, which refused to willingly submit to him. In response, he drove burning ships into the harbor, setting it alight. The flames spread rapidly across the whole town. Snorri Sturlason writes that Harald’s men sang: “All Heidaby is burned down! Strangers will ask where stood the town. In our wild humor up it blazed, and Svein looks round him all amazed,” (albeit in Old Norse, of course).The town of Heidaby never recovered and fell from importance. It was finally brought to an end by a Slavic raid in 1066, which wiped it off the map for good.
2
Sweyn II Of Denmark And The Last Viking Invasion Of England
The death of Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 is usually considered the end of the Viking age, and many people call Hardrada the last Viking king. The truth is hardly ever that simple, however.Following William’s conquest of England, the Godwin family were deposed but not defeated. They continued to harass the new kingdom from the sea, and in 1069, Sweyn II of Denmark decided to back one of the Anglo-Saxon pretenders.[9] Why he did so is not 100-percent clear, but it may have been related to his lifelong rivalry with Hardrada. After all, Hardrada had died trying to seize England, so what better way to one-up your rival once and for all than to succeed where he failed?Sweyn was successful, too, seizing a good portion of Northern England and holding it from William, but in true Viking fashion, he was ready to seize the advantage and turned on his Anglo-Saxon ally when William offered to pay him a large sum of money to go back to Denmark; without Sweyn’s support, the rebellion crumbled, and England remained Norman. The Vikings were never able to conquer England again.
1
Olaf III, The Last Viking King
Photo credit: Gerhard Munthe
This brings us to our last epic Viking king, and the man who some consider the real last Viking king, Olaf III—who was known as Olaf the Peaceful. While not as warlike or bloodthirsty as the other Viking leaders on this list, Olaf was a great politician who effectively created the modern state of Norway.[10]Olaf may have been swayed by his involvement in his father Harald’s invasion of England in 1066. While he was not present at the battle where his father died—he remained with the ships—he was a great proponent of peace during his reign, and Norway didn’t go to war for a quarter of a century, putting him at stark contrast with his father, who was always either adventuring or trying to expand his domains.Olaf deliberately transformed Norway into a more “normal” continental European country: he drew the Norwegian church into line with the pope’s teachings and reorganized the dioceses of Norway, and it’s also believed he was the first Viking king who learned to read. He built a European-style court around himself, introducing medieval aristocratic culture to Norway. During his reign, urban growth flourished, and the town of Bergen was founded, which went on to become the capital of medieval Norway. Many Norwegian laws were officially put down in writing for the first time in Olaf’s reign.
Read more about the ever-memorable Vikings on 10 Forgotten Vikings Who Terrorized The Dark Ages and 10 Interesting Viking Rituals.
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Top 10 Explosive Facts About Epic War Movies
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10 Medieval Recipes Eaten By Kings That You Can Try At Home
10 British Kings You've Never Heard Of
10 British Kings You've Never Heard Of
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10 Best Kings Followed By Terrible Sons
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10 Kings With Weird Hobbies
fact checked by Jamie Frater
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Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:09 am
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10 Viking Kings And Their Epic Deeds
by David Hughes
fact checked by Jamie Frater
For the Vikings, reputation was the most important thing in life. In their eyes, a person’s deeds were the only thing that survived them long after they were gone, so they loved to celebrate the actions of their ancestors and friends while trying to make a name for themselves personally, whether that be by exploring, conquering, raiding, or patronizing the people who wrote the songs: the skalds.As such, we thought that a list retelling the grandest deeds of the Viking kings would be a great way to celebrate them (and to bring some entertainment value). After all, it’s what they would have wanted. Here, we learn about ten Viking kings and their epic deeds.
10
Harald Fairhair, The First King Of Norway
Photo credit: Wikmedia Commons
Any list covering the greatest achievements of the Viking kings wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Harald Fairhair.[1] Despite his pseudo-mythical status, most historians now believe that Fairhair did exist but that his exploits were probably not as dramatic as the sagas make them out to be. He was likely a petty king in Southwest Norway who was able to subjugate his neighbors and rule over a large portion of what is now modern Norway.According to the sagas, the Battle of Hafrsfjord was a crucial moment for Harald’s young kingdom. Dated to sometime between 870 and 900, it was a large battle by contemporary standards and involved many of the petty kings of Norway. The only king mentioned in a source from the time of the battle was Kjovte the Rich, who supposedly fled after Harald’s victory, leaving many of his men to die. The place believed to be the site of the battle is now marked by the Swords in Rock, three 10-meter-tall (33 ft) monuments which represent Harald and the kings he defeated.Following Hafrsfjord, Harald established the most influential power bloc in Norway, from which he and his successors were able to exert pressure on their neighbors and ultimately form the Kingdom of Norway, which exists to this day.
9
Rurik, The Founder Of Russia
Photo credit: Dar Veter
The Rurikid dynasty was one of the longest-reigning lineages in human history: They were kings in Russia from the depths of the Viking age to the reign of Ivan the Terrible centuries later. And it was founded by a Viking.[2]The Primary Chronicle of Russia, which was assembled in 1113 from a collection of earlier pieces, tells us the story of Russia’s beginnings. According to the Chronicle, the Slavic people who lived in modern-day Ukraine and Russia invited Rurik and his two brothers to rule over them, thinking they would bring law and order to the tribes. They clearly accepted, but Rurik’s brothers died shortly after, leaving him to rule alone.In the past, some historians questioned the authenticity of the story told in the Chronicle, but most now accept it as fact. Rurik was a Varangian, warriors who served the Byzantine emperor as their personal bodyguard (and who were nearly all Norse), so he would have been well-respected. There is also evidence of significant Viking influence in the area of modern-day Russia and Ukraine: When Harald Hardrada lost the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, he fled to stay with family in Kiev. The Vikings also had trade routes across Europe, from Baghdad and beyond to the coast of Spain, so it’s not unreasonable to expect the warriors and traders who crossed from Scandinavia to Greece and the Middle East to settle down along the way. Odinist symbols and Scandinavian blacksmithing tools dating back to the Viking age, among other items, have been found in Lagoda and Novgorod, which suggests there was at least some Norse influence in the region, and the Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan encountered Viking tribes while journeying through the lands of the Rus.Either way, Rurik was a member of the Norse Varangian Guard who established a small kingdom in modern-day Russia, and his descendants (who were raised as Slavs) continued his legacy, remaining kings and princes in the area until 1612, which is no mean feat.
8
Eric Bloodaxe, The Last King Of Northumbria
Most of us have heard of Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of Northumbria. Beyond his name, however, most of us know little about him, but we assume he must’ve been a great Viking to have earned the nickname “Bloodaxe.”In fact, the name more likely comes from the connotation of “blood” meaning “family” or “brotherhood,” so an equally accurate translation could be “brotheraxe” or “familyaxe.” This nickname makes sense when we learn that he killed five of his brothers in order to win the throne of Norway![3]He only ruled in Scandinavia for a short time before he was deposed by his last remaining brother, fleeing to Britain without a fight. Why he gave up his kingdom so easily we’ll probably never know, but it might have been because he saw a brighter future for himself in the British Isles. If he did, he wasn’t wrong, because he was easily able to assert control over the kingdom of Northumbria and rule it undisputed until his death in 954.
7
Sictric Caech And The Battle Of Islandbridge
The Vikings have a long history in Ireland—the city of Dublin was actually founded by Vikings to serve as a commercial center for their slave trade. Their actual influence in Inner Ireland ebbed and flowed over the years, and in 902, they were forced out of Dublin by a united army of several Irish kings. Sictric Caech was one of these Vikings.At first, he went on to rule a small kingdom in the Danelaw, but the Anglo-Saxons had conquered most of the Danelaw by 918 and driven most of the Vikings out of England. Following this, Sictric returned to Ireland, this time at the head of an army. They won some early battles with the Irish kings and staked out a small claim for themselves, but the war was far from conclusive.Things came to a head at the Battle of Islandbridge in 919.[4] The Irish king Niall Glundub led a coalition of Northern Irish kings to drive the Vikings back out. Sictric and his army met them on the way. The battle was a crushing victory for Sictric, with five Irish kings and the High King of Ireland himself meeting their ends in the bloodbath. Sictric reigned as the undisputed king of Dublin for another three years, after which he seems to have returned to England by his own choice.
6
Sweyn Forkbeard And The Conquest Of England
Photo credit: Louis Moe/AU Library, Campus Emdrup
Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of all England in 1013, though he only reigned for five weeks before his death—not long enough to even be officially crowned.[5]But it is the reasoning behind his invasion that makes him a truly respectable Viking king.By Sweyn’s time, the Vikings had lived in England for nearly 200 years but had never managed to conquer the entire kingdom. They ruled the northeastern half of England as the Danelaw until the end of Eric Bloodaxe’s reign in 954, when they were driven out. People of Viking descent continued to live in England, however, and the Viking kings across the sea continued to have an interest in their people.So when the English king ordered the mass slaughter of Vikings living in England in 1002, Sweyn planned his revenge. While he’d been raiding the English coast on and off for a decade or so, now he mustered an invasion force. They landed in 1003, causing widespread destruction and pillaging much of the country in revenge. Ethelred the Unready was forced to pay Sweyn a ludicrous amount of silver to stop the latter from burning his kingdom.But ten years later, Sweyn was back, this time with an army big enough to seize England. They landed in Kent and rampaged through the countryside, soon reaching London. The English earls, fearing another drawn-out war and already skeptical of their own king, drove Ethelred into exile and declared Sweyn king of England.While Sweyn’s reign didn’t last long, it did pave the way for another Viking invasion, this one much more permanent.
5
King Cnut And The North Sea Empire
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
With Sweyn’s death, his son Cnut was left in charge of his father’s army in England. The English lords, however, chose to bring Ethelred back, and Cnut fled to Denmark.He immediately set about raising a larger army and even asked his brother (and rival), the king of Denmark, for warriors to help him. Poles, Swedes, and Norwegians flocked to his banner, drawn by the promise of loot. Cnut landed in Wessex in 1015 at the head of 10,000 men and laid waste to the country, conquering from Cornwall to Northumbria.[6]But London remained defiant under the leadership of the newly chosen English king, Edmund Ironside. The armies of the two kings met at the Battle of Assandun (usually accepted to be modern-day Ashington), where Cnut won a close-fought engagement. English resistance crumbled.By 1018, Cnut was also king of Denmark following the death of his brother, and he finally conquered Norway in 1028, after years of conflict with various Scandinavian lords. Though they’d originally fought against him, the English were remarkably loyal to Cnut during his reign; he spent much of his 20-year tenure putting down rebellions or fighting enemies in his homeland, leaving England to be governed by his allies, and by his death, nearly all the men on his council were English.Cnut became one of the most powerful kings in Europe, meeting with the pope and the emperor of Germany on several occasions and fostering economic links between his three kingdoms. While his empire broke apart on his death, he seems to have made little effort in his life to see it continue, abandoning Norway to rebels in the final years of his reign and leaving Denmark to his son Harthacnut and England to his other son, Harold Harefoot. The union of the three kingdoms made Cnut the most powerful king in Europe at the time, however, and his descendants would repeatedly try (and fail) to recreate his successes.
4
Harald Bluetooth’s Ring Fortresses
Photo credit: Thue C. Leibrandt
Before Cnut and Sweyn, however, someone had to turn Denmark into the strong, centralized state that it had to be to go toe-to-toe with England. This king was Harald Bluetooth, Sweyn’s father and long-reigning king of Denmark.Not all Viking strength came from conquest. Over the course of his 30-year reign, Harald transformed Denmark from a political backwater into a strong medieval state. Harald’s plans for creating a centralized government are best summed up by his Trelleborg ring forts: fortresses built across Danish territory, centered at the fort at Aarhus, in the geographical center of the region. Each one was built to exact standards, with four gates (each facing one of the compass points), a tall wall and ditch around the outside, and an open courtyard with administrative buildings in the middle.[7] These would have served as both tax collection points and places for Danish kings to muster their armies, laying the groundwork for the conquests of his son and grandson.The fortresses were all built in locations that were close to the sea, but far enough from it to be safe from sea raids, and alongside Viking land routes, where they would have been both well-connected and highly visible, a powerful symbol of the king’s authority. Their sites seem to have been meticulously chosen to efficiently defend and control the people of Denmark, which was no doubt at the forefront of Bluetooth’s mind after the history of wars in Norway and his father’s difficult reign.Unfortunately for him, the ultimate threat came from within, when his son Sweyn forcibly deposed him.
3
Harald Hardrada And The Destruction Of Heidaby
Photo credit: Colin Smith/CC BY-SA 2.0
Harald Hardrada (Hard-Ruler) is famous in history for being one of the last Viking kings and for unsuccessfully trying to seize the throne of England by force—losing the crucial Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 to Harold Godwinson, which paved the way for William the Conqueror’s ultimate victory.[8]This battle, however, came at the end of a long and distinguished Viking career which had taken Harald all around the known world, from Norway to Sicily and Palestine, over the course of 30 years. Perhaps his greatest (or worst) feat was the destruction of Heidaby. Heidaby was a Norse town at the base of Jutland with trade connections across the northern world: It rose to prominence in the late 700s and became the most important town in the Western Viking world.Harald, who was king of Norway at the time, was trying to subdue Denmark and add it to his realm, and he sought to weaken Denmark by raiding its coast. His campaign took him to Heidaby, which refused to willingly submit to him. In response, he drove burning ships into the harbor, setting it alight. The flames spread rapidly across the whole town. Snorri Sturlason writes that Harald’s men sang: “All Heidaby is burned down! Strangers will ask where stood the town. In our wild humor up it blazed, and Svein looks round him all amazed,” (albeit in Old Norse, of course).The town of Heidaby never recovered and fell from importance. It was finally brought to an end by a Slavic raid in 1066, which wiped it off the map for good.
2
Sweyn II Of Denmark And The Last Viking Invasion Of England
The death of Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 is usually considered the end of the Viking age, and many people call Hardrada the last Viking king. The truth is hardly ever that simple, however.Following William’s conquest of England, the Godwin family were deposed but not defeated. They continued to harass the new kingdom from the sea, and in 1069, Sweyn II of Denmark decided to back one of the Anglo-Saxon pretenders.[9] Why he did so is not 100-percent clear, but it may have been related to his lifelong rivalry with Hardrada. After all, Hardrada had died trying to seize England, so what better way to one-up your rival once and for all than to succeed where he failed?Sweyn was successful, too, seizing a good portion of Northern England and holding it from William, but in true Viking fashion, he was ready to seize the advantage and turned on his Anglo-Saxon ally when William offered to pay him a large sum of money to go back to Denmark; without Sweyn’s support, the rebellion crumbled, and England remained Norman. The Vikings were never able to conquer England again.
1
Olaf III, The Last Viking King
Photo credit: Gerhard Munthe
This brings us to our last epic Viking king, and the man who some consider the real last Viking king, Olaf III—who was known as Olaf the Peaceful. While not as warlike or bloodthirsty as the other Viking leaders on this list, Olaf was a great politician who effectively created the modern state of Norway.[10]Olaf may have been swayed by his involvement in his father Harald’s invasion of England in 1066. While he was not present at the battle where his father died—he remained with the ships—he was a great proponent of peace during his reign, and Norway didn’t go to war for a quarter of a century, putting him at stark contrast with his father, who was always either adventuring or trying to expand his domains.Olaf deliberately transformed Norway into a more “normal” continental European country: he drew the Norwegian church into line with the pope’s teachings and reorganized the dioceses of Norway, and it’s also believed he was the first Viking king who learned to read. He built a European-style court around himself, introducing medieval aristocratic culture to Norway. During his reign, urban growth flourished, and the town of Bergen was founded, which went on to become the capital of medieval Norway. Many Norwegian laws were officially put down in writing for the first time in Olaf’s reign.
Read more about the ever-memorable Vikings on 10 Forgotten Vikings Who Terrorized The Dark Ages and 10 Interesting Viking Rituals.
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10 Epic And Totally Wacky Creation Stories From Around The World
10 Epic And Totally Wacky Creation Stories From…
10 Surprisingly Good Deeds Done By Evil Serial Killers
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10 Recent Heartwarming Deeds That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity
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10 Best Kings Followed By Terrible Sons
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fact checked by Jamie Frater
Share
Tweet
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Pin
Share
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MORE GREAT LISTS
HISTORY
Top 10 Watershed Moments In History
HISTORY
10 Crazy Exploits From The Age Of Sail
HISTORY
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HISTORY
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HISTORY
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HISTORY
10 Real Supervillain Plots That Governments Actually Tried
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Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:09 am
|
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10 Viking Kings And Their Epic Deeds
by David Hughes
fact checked by Jamie Frater
For the Vikings, reputation was the most important thing in life. In their eyes, a person’s deeds were the only thing that survived them long after they were gone, so they loved to celebrate the actions of their ancestors and friends while trying to make a name for themselves personally, whether that be by exploring, conquering, raiding, or patronizing the people who wrote the songs: the skalds.As such, we thought that a list retelling the grandest deeds of the Viking kings would be a great way to celebrate them (and to bring some entertainment value). After all, it’s what they would have wanted. Here, we learn about ten Viking kings and their epic deeds.
10
Harald Fairhair, The First King Of Norway
Photo credit: Wikmedia Commons
Any list covering the greatest achievements of the Viking kings wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Harald Fairhair.[1] Despite his pseudo-mythical status, most historians now believe that Fairhair did exist but that his exploits were probably not as dramatic as the sagas make them out to be. He was likely a petty king in Southwest Norway who was able to subjugate his neighbors and rule over a large portion of what is now modern Norway.According to the sagas, the Battle of Hafrsfjord was a crucial moment for Harald’s young kingdom. Dated to sometime between 870 and 900, it was a large battle by contemporary standards and involved many of the petty kings of Norway. The only king mentioned in a source from the time of the battle was Kjovte the Rich, who supposedly fled after Harald’s victory, leaving many of his men to die. The place believed to be the site of the battle is now marked by the Swords in Rock, three 10-meter-tall (33 ft) monuments which represent Harald and the kings he defeated.Following Hafrsfjord, Harald established the most influential power bloc in Norway, from which he and his successors were able to exert pressure on their neighbors and ultimately form the Kingdom of Norway, which exists to this day.
9
Rurik, The Founder Of Russia
Photo credit: Dar Veter
The Rurikid dynasty was one of the longest-reigning lineages in human history: They were kings in Russia from the depths of the Viking age to the reign of Ivan the Terrible centuries later. And it was founded by a Viking.[2]The Primary Chronicle of Russia, which was assembled in 1113 from a collection of earlier pieces, tells us the story of Russia’s beginnings. According to the Chronicle, the Slavic people who lived in modern-day Ukraine and Russia invited Rurik and his two brothers to rule over them, thinking they would bring law and order to the tribes. They clearly accepted, but Rurik’s brothers died shortly after, leaving him to rule alone.In the past, some historians questioned the authenticity of the story told in the Chronicle, but most now accept it as fact. Rurik was a Varangian, warriors who served the Byzantine emperor as their personal bodyguard (and who were nearly all Norse), so he would have been well-respected. There is also evidence of significant Viking influence in the area of modern-day Russia and Ukraine: When Harald Hardrada lost the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, he fled to stay with family in Kiev. The Vikings also had trade routes across Europe, from Baghdad and beyond to the coast of Spain, so it’s not unreasonable to expect the warriors and traders who crossed from Scandinavia to Greece and the Middle East to settle down along the way. Odinist symbols and Scandinavian blacksmithing tools dating back to the Viking age, among other items, have been found in Lagoda and Novgorod, which suggests there was at least some Norse influence in the region, and the Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan encountered Viking tribes while journeying through the lands of the Rus.Either way, Rurik was a member of the Norse Varangian Guard who established a small kingdom in modern-day Russia, and his descendants (who were raised as Slavs) continued his legacy, remaining kings and princes in the area until 1612, which is no mean feat.
8
Eric Bloodaxe, The Last King Of Northumbria
Most of us have heard of Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of Northumbria. Beyond his name, however, most of us know little about him, but we assume he must’ve been a great Viking to have earned the nickname “Bloodaxe.”In fact, the name more likely comes from the connotation of “blood” meaning “family” or “brotherhood,” so an equally accurate translation could be “brotheraxe” or “familyaxe.” This nickname makes sense when we learn that he killed five of his brothers in order to win the throne of Norway![3]He only ruled in Scandinavia for a short time before he was deposed by his last remaining brother, fleeing to Britain without a fight. Why he gave up his kingdom so easily we’ll probably never know, but it might have been because he saw a brighter future for himself in the British Isles. If he did, he wasn’t wrong, because he was easily able to assert control over the kingdom of Northumbria and rule it undisputed until his death in 954.
7
Sictric Caech And The Battle Of Islandbridge
The Vikings have a long history in Ireland—the city of Dublin was actually founded by Vikings to serve as a commercial center for their slave trade. Their actual influence in Inner Ireland ebbed and flowed over the years, and in 902, they were forced out of Dublin by a united army of several Irish kings. Sictric Caech was one of these Vikings.At first, he went on to rule a small kingdom in the Danelaw, but the Anglo-Saxons had conquered most of the Danelaw by 918 and driven most of the Vikings out of England. Following this, Sictric returned to Ireland, this time at the head of an army. They won some early battles with the Irish kings and staked out a small claim for themselves, but the war was far from conclusive.Things came to a head at the Battle of Islandbridge in 919.[4] The Irish king Niall Glundub led a coalition of Northern Irish kings to drive the Vikings back out. Sictric and his army met them on the way. The battle was a crushing victory for Sictric, with five Irish kings and the High King of Ireland himself meeting their ends in the bloodbath. Sictric reigned as the undisputed king of Dublin for another three years, after which he seems to have returned to England by his own choice.
6
Sweyn Forkbeard And The Conquest Of England
Photo credit: Louis Moe/AU Library, Campus Emdrup
Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of all England in 1013, though he only reigned for five weeks before his death—not long enough to even be officially crowned.[5]But it is the reasoning behind his invasion that makes him a truly respectable Viking king.By Sweyn’s time, the Vikings had lived in England for nearly 200 years but had never managed to conquer the entire kingdom. They ruled the northeastern half of England as the Danelaw until the end of Eric Bloodaxe’s reign in 954, when they were driven out. People of Viking descent continued to live in England, however, and the Viking kings across the sea continued to have an interest in their people.So when the English king ordered the mass slaughter of Vikings living in England in 1002, Sweyn planned his revenge. While he’d been raiding the English coast on and off for a decade or so, now he mustered an invasion force. They landed in 1003, causing widespread destruction and pillaging much of the country in revenge. Ethelred the Unready was forced to pay Sweyn a ludicrous amount of silver to stop the latter from burning his kingdom.But ten years later, Sweyn was back, this time with an army big enough to seize England. They landed in Kent and rampaged through the countryside, soon reaching London. The English earls, fearing another drawn-out war and already skeptical of their own king, drove Ethelred into exile and declared Sweyn king of England.While Sweyn’s reign didn’t last long, it did pave the way for another Viking invasion, this one much more permanent.
5
King Cnut And The North Sea Empire
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
With Sweyn’s death, his son Cnut was left in charge of his father’s army in England. The English lords, however, chose to bring Ethelred back, and Cnut fled to Denmark.He immediately set about raising a larger army and even asked his brother (and rival), the king of Denmark, for warriors to help him. Poles, Swedes, and Norwegians flocked to his banner, drawn by the promise of loot. Cnut landed in Wessex in 1015 at the head of 10,000 men and laid waste to the country, conquering from Cornwall to Northumbria.[6]But London remained defiant under the leadership of the newly chosen English king, Edmund Ironside. The armies of the two kings met at the Battle of Assandun (usually accepted to be modern-day Ashington), where Cnut won a close-fought engagement. English resistance crumbled.By 1018, Cnut was also king of Denmark following the death of his brother, and he finally conquered Norway in 1028, after years of conflict with various Scandinavian lords. Though they’d originally fought against him, the English were remarkably loyal to Cnut during his reign; he spent much of his 20-year tenure putting down rebellions or fighting enemies in his homeland, leaving England to be governed by his allies, and by his death, nearly all the men on his council were English.Cnut became one of the most powerful kings in Europe, meeting with the pope and the emperor of Germany on several occasions and fostering economic links between his three kingdoms. While his empire broke apart on his death, he seems to have made little effort in his life to see it continue, abandoning Norway to rebels in the final years of his reign and leaving Denmark to his son Harthacnut and England to his other son, Harold Harefoot. The union of the three kingdoms made Cnut the most powerful king in Europe at the time, however, and his descendants would repeatedly try (and fail) to recreate his successes.
4
Harald Bluetooth’s Ring Fortresses
Photo credit: Thue C. Leibrandt
Before Cnut and Sweyn, however, someone had to turn Denmark into the strong, centralized state that it had to be to go toe-to-toe with England. This king was Harald Bluetooth, Sweyn’s father and long-reigning king of Denmark.Not all Viking strength came from conquest. Over the course of his 30-year reign, Harald transformed Denmark from a political backwater into a strong medieval state. Harald’s plans for creating a centralized government are best summed up by his Trelleborg ring forts: fortresses built across Danish territory, centered at the fort at Aarhus, in the geographical center of the region. Each one was built to exact standards, with four gates (each facing one of the compass points), a tall wall and ditch around the outside, and an open courtyard with administrative buildings in the middle.[7] These would have served as both tax collection points and places for Danish kings to muster their armies, laying the groundwork for the conquests of his son and grandson.The fortresses were all built in locations that were close to the sea, but far enough from it to be safe from sea raids, and alongside Viking land routes, where they would have been both well-connected and highly visible, a powerful symbol of the king’s authority. Their sites seem to have been meticulously chosen to efficiently defend and control the people of Denmark, which was no doubt at the forefront of Bluetooth’s mind after the history of wars in Norway and his father’s difficult reign.Unfortunately for him, the ultimate threat came from within, when his son Sweyn forcibly deposed him.
3
Harald Hardrada And The Destruction Of Heidaby
Photo credit: Colin Smith/CC BY-SA 2.0
Harald Hardrada (Hard-Ruler) is famous in history for being one of the last Viking kings and for unsuccessfully trying to seize the throne of England by force—losing the crucial Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 to Harold Godwinson, which paved the way for William the Conqueror’s ultimate victory.[8]This battle, however, came at the end of a long and distinguished Viking career which had taken Harald all around the known world, from Norway to Sicily and Palestine, over the course of 30 years. Perhaps his greatest (or worst) feat was the destruction of Heidaby. Heidaby was a Norse town at the base of Jutland with trade connections across the northern world: It rose to prominence in the late 700s and became the most important town in the Western Viking world.Harald, who was king of Norway at the time, was trying to subdue Denmark and add it to his realm, and he sought to weaken Denmark by raiding its coast. His campaign took him to Heidaby, which refused to willingly submit to him. In response, he drove burning ships into the harbor, setting it alight. The flames spread rapidly across the whole town. Snorri Sturlason writes that Harald’s men sang: “All Heidaby is burned down! Strangers will ask where stood the town. In our wild humor up it blazed, and Svein looks round him all amazed,” (albeit in Old Norse, of course).The town of Heidaby never recovered and fell from importance. It was finally brought to an end by a Slavic raid in 1066, which wiped it off the map for good.
2
Sweyn II Of Denmark And The Last Viking Invasion Of England
The death of Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 is usually considered the end of the Viking age, and many people call Hardrada the last Viking king. The truth is hardly ever that simple, however.Following William’s conquest of England, the Godwin family were deposed but not defeated. They continued to harass the new kingdom from the sea, and in 1069, Sweyn II of Denmark decided to back one of the Anglo-Saxon pretenders.[9] Why he did so is not 100-percent clear, but it may have been related to his lifelong rivalry with Hardrada. After all, Hardrada had died trying to seize England, so what better way to one-up your rival once and for all than to succeed where he failed?Sweyn was successful, too, seizing a good portion of Northern England and holding it from William, but in true Viking fashion, he was ready to seize the advantage and turned on his Anglo-Saxon ally when William offered to pay him a large sum of money to go back to Denmark; without Sweyn’s support, the rebellion crumbled, and England remained Norman. The Vikings were never able to conquer England again.
1
Olaf III, The Last Viking King
Photo credit: Gerhard Munthe
This brings us to our last epic Viking king, and the man who some consider the real last Viking king, Olaf III—who was known as Olaf the Peaceful. While not as warlike or bloodthirsty as the other Viking leaders on this list, Olaf was a great politician who effectively created the modern state of Norway.[10]Olaf may have been swayed by his involvement in his father Harald’s invasion of England in 1066. While he was not present at the battle where his father died—he remained with the ships—he was a great proponent of peace during his reign, and Norway didn’t go to war for a quarter of a century, putting him at stark contrast with his father, who was always either adventuring or trying to expand his domains.Olaf deliberately transformed Norway into a more “normal” continental European country: he drew the Norwegian church into line with the pope’s teachings and reorganized the dioceses of Norway, and it’s also believed he was the first Viking king who learned to read. He built a European-style court around himself, introducing medieval aristocratic culture to Norway. During his reign, urban growth flourished, and the town of Bergen was founded, which went on to become the capital of medieval Norway. Many Norwegian laws were officially put down in writing for the first time in Olaf’s reign.
Read more about the ever-memorable Vikings on 10 Forgotten Vikings Who Terrorized The Dark Ages and 10 Interesting Viking Rituals.
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