Offered the Crown: Difference between revisions

* In [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'', how their father become King of Elfland.

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'', how Verence becomes king of the ''[[Discworld]]'' kingdom of Lancre. Though the witches made everyone else, including Verence, think he ''was'' a legitimate successor.

** In ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards Guards]]'': When the dragon incinerates the prospective king, the high priest instead offers the crown to the dragon. Although the dragon doesn't take it (it's imitation gold, and the priest gets roasted instead) people aren't exactly lining up to point out this technicality.

* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'': Liu Bei is offered on multiple occasions Jingzhou, a critically strategic province, by its ruler, Liu Biao. He turns it down out of respect to Liu Biao and his heirs, much to the frustration of his generals and advisers.

** Also heavily subverted. Usurpers force the people they're usurping to offer them their throne...then turn it down in the name of propriety and force their victims to do it again. Usually they only accept on the [[Rule of Three|third offer.]]

* In the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series Rand is offered the crown of Illian (he had already taken many other places by force who feared he meant to take the crowns, but the Illainers were the first to just come out and offer it in gratitude) and also offers the Crown of Tear to a nobleman (as part of a deal to end the resistance of several recalcitrant lords - of whom the noble offered the crown used to belong before being won over) and later the throne of Arad Doman (which he was in the process of stabilizing) to another, or Amadicia if he wanted(which Rand had no presence in, but foresaw the need in the future).

* In ''The [[Belgariad]]'', the kingdom of Sendaria chose their first king by election. (Their previous ruler had been the Duchess of Erat aka Polgara the Sorceress, who had spent several centuries conditioning the population towards sensibility and levelheadedness, so it makes sense.) Due to the lengthy and muddled voting process, the winning regent (a turnip farmer) had completely forgotten he was in the running and was a bit worried when all these nobles showed up and fell to their knees before him. Mostly because he was busy fertilising the field they knelt in.

** More literally, Beldyn seeks to claim the ''Miceram'', or Crown of Power, from its hidden resting place. After entering the lower sanctum and encountering ghouls which render Beldyn unconscious, Cathan [[Mac Severin]] encounters the spirit of the last Kingpriest to hold the crown, who offers to give the crown to him rather than Beldyn. He refuses, insisting that the ''Miceram'' doesn't belong to him, but to the Lightbringer. However, due to some creative prophecy interpretation, it is later revealed that {{spoiler|Cathan really was the true Lightbringer, and thus the true heir to the Kingpriest's throne}}. However, this comes long after Beldyn (now named Beldinas) has tipped all the way into [[Knight Templar]] status and stretched the Balance to the breaking point. Cathan learns of this after crossing the continent with the Discs of Mishakel, far too late to stop Beldinas from demanding supreme power from the gods and causing the [[The End of the World as We Know It|Cataclysm]]. He angsts over [[What Might Have Been]], but {{spoiler|the god Paladine}} consoles him by telling him that it really couldn't have gone any other way for him. Now, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Lord Soth, on the other hand...]]

* In [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''Queen Zizi of Ix'', Bud is offered the crown after the king dies and the laws decree that the forty-seventh person to pass through Nole's eastern gate at sunrise is the new monarch.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' {{spoiler|Maester Aemon}} was offered the crown, even though his position would normally remove him from the line of succession. He turned them down.

** And to make sure wars would not be fought over this, he took ANOTHER vow that would keep him from inheriting a title, by joining the Night's Watch.

* On ''[[Adventure Time]],'' the goblins offer to make Finn their king, and he reluctantly accepts. It doesn't last, however.

* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' [[Grand Finale|finale]] has a discussion about who should be Fire Lord after [[Big Bad|Ozai]]'s defeat. [[Supporting Leader|Zuko]], Ozai's son, wants his uncle [[The Mentor|Iroh]] to take it, but Iroh convinces Zuko that he really is a worthy heir himself. (For added fun, Ozai himself has currently passed the title onto [[The Dragon|Azula]], his remaining loyal heir.)

* An [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]] on ''[[American Dad]]'' has Klaus somehow go to some other dimension and coming back with a crown and a sword after cutting his way out of the stomach of a monster that appeared in his place when he disappeared.

{{quote|'''Klaus:''' I was gone sixty years! How long was it here?!

** During the revolutionary war, some of Washington's officers got fed up with the lack of pay, and considered rebelling against the rule of Congress. But Washington was loyal to Congress and he convinced the rebellious officers not to rebel. This is what led to the myth that Washington had been offered Kingship and refused.

* Oliver Cromwell was offered the crown twice by Parliament but refused because of the objections of his military allies and belief God had categorically rejected the position via the result of the Civil Wars. As the civilian establishment really wanted him to accept (for one because it would widen support and limit the authority of the army), they settled for making the Lord Protector position pretty much a king in all but name.

** Not really true. For a start, the "limitations on power" of English monarchs were, as you say, just traditions: they had no real legal authority as Charles I had infamously shown. Secondly, the powers of the office of Lord Protector ''were'' limited by Parliament, in law at least. In practice, Cromwell's personal power was enormous (no English ruler had held such absolute power since, arguably, the Middle Ages) but this would have been the case whatever title had been given to the office he'd taken.

* Carl Gustaf Mannerheim was Regent of Finland in 1918, and was considered for the position of King before Finland became a republic the next year. He went on to command Finland's army and become its President (and still a national hero).

** A really interesting point is that George wasn't the Greeks' first choice; in a plebiscite, ''[[Landslide Election|95 percent]]'' of voters chose [[Queen Vicky|Queen Victoria]]'s second son Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, to become the next king. However, a treaty forbade the royal house of any of the Great Powers from taking the throne of a smaller country, and in any case, Mama was opposed to the idea. So George got it instead.

* When Belgium split off from the Netherlands, after some negotiations, the throne was offered to Leopold, a minor German prince, widower of Princess Charlotte of Great Britain, and uncle of the future Queen Victoria. He took it.

* In 1869 the Spanish revolted and overthrew the then Queen Isabella II. Though she had a son, the leaders of the coup were so fed up after a long string of bad monarchs that they decided no member of the Bourbon dynasty should occupy the throne again. So they offered it to a number of people including a retired general and war hero, and then to several minor members of other European royal houses, and all of them refused or were turned down because none of the candidates approved the nature of the new regime. One prince of the German Hohenzollern dynasty was about to accept but he was vetoed by Napoleon III of France, and the ultimate result was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 that finished the French Empire. Then an Italian prince accepted the throne after being offered it for a second time, and became King Amadeus I... for 3 years, after which he abdicated. After another year of wacky shenanigans, another coup proclaimed Isabella's son king, and the Bourbon dynasty has ruled Spain more or less to this day.

* During the Revolution of 1848 a deputation of the short-lived German parliament offered the Imperial Crown to Frederick William IV, King of Prussia. He declined, because he would not accept a crown based on the will of the common people. In his own words, he would not accept "such a diadem of dirt and clay".