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Offered the Crown: Difference between revisions
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* 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 the [[Backstory]], General Tacticus is an example: a general of Ankh-Morpork, he was chosen as Genua's king—and promptly attacked Ankh-Morpork as the greatest danger to Genua.
** 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.]]
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** Londo is, however offered the Imperial Throne, takes it. So Does Vir. Delenn refused leadership of the Grey Council several times, only taking it to break the old council. The there is Sheridan...
* [[Star Trek TNG]] Worf at least twice, once as [[Regent for Life]] with the Duras Sisters, and again after a [[Klingon Promotion]].
* The song "Alligator King" from ''[[Sesame Street]]''. It's about [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|an alligator king]] whom, because of his constant unhappiness, orders his seven sons to bring him gifts as an attempt to cheer up their father, and the one whose gifts are liked the most is given the King's crown. The first six sons attempt to do what the King tells them to, but unfortunately fail, and in the process, the King falls down and gets hurt. Finally, [[Youngest Child Wins|the youngest son]] offers to help his father get back up and as a reward, he inherits the King's crown.
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* In the Bastard of Kosigan, your character ends up being offered the title of Count of Kosigan by virtue of everyone with a better claim having been killed off by each other/you/Alex/French assassins.
* This happens to {{spoiler|Velleman}} at the end of one of the routes of ''[[Blaze Union]]''.
* At the end of [[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]], Micaiah becomes the Queen of Daein despite having no blood relation to any of it's former rulers. This can happen one of two ways: If former King Pelleas is alive, he appoints Micaiah as the new Queen before revealing his own lack of royal blood. If he's [[Killed Off for Real|dead]], then Micaiah is crowned at her [[The Messiah|subject's entreaty]].
* The canonical ''[[King's Quest]]'' games have this for Graham (''[[King's Quest I]]'') and Alexander (''[[King's Quest VI]]''). The [[Fan Remake]] version of ''[[King's Quest II]]'' has this as an option during the Air Gem test where Connor (protagonist of the [[Contested Sequel|controversial eighth game]]) can be declared First Knight of Daventry.
* At the end of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', Cecil is the new King of Baron. The After Years later revealed that Yang became King of Fabul.
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** It's also been said that a King had traditional limitations on his power, but a Lord Protector did not—Cromwell would actually weaken himself if he became King.
** 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).
* C. B. Fry, a famous British [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|sportsman, politician, diplomat, academic, teacher, writer, editor and publisher]] (also a relative of [[Stephen Fry]]), claimed that in 1920 he was offered the Albanian throne, but declined. This was probably made up.
* The Ostrogoths offered to support Byzantine general Belisarius as ruler of the Western Roman Empire after he invaded Italy on behalf of Eastern Emperor Justinian and they realized they simply couldn't defeat him. Belisarius, ever loyal, refused.
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* 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.
* When Norway declared its union to Sweden dissolved, it offered the throne to someone in the Swedish royal family. When the King of Sweden refused it, they looked around—the Great Powers were out, and after some consideration of a Greek or Spanish prince they offered it to a Danish prince. When the King of Sweden ''officially'' refused to let someone in his family take the throne, the prince 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".
** Plus that constitution was ''shit'' for the monarch. Much better to actually rule in Prussia than reign impotently in a united Germany.
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* During King John's turbulent reign, the barons opposed to him offered the crown to Prince Louis of France in exchange for his aid in getting rid of John. Of course, when John finally died, the barons seemed to reconsider having a French king and responded by switching their allegiance to John's son, Henry III.
* In a way, this is how the selection of popes happens during Conclave. The College of Cardinals elect a new pope by secret ballot, and when there's an agreed majority of votes, the now pope-elect is offered the Papacy. By tradition, the new pope-elect turns down the initial request out of humility before "reluctantly" accepting.
* Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, [[Albert Einstein]] was offered the opportunity to be its President<ref>Although this position is mostly ceremonial today, it was not clear in 1948 that this would be the case; the person who actually took the job, Chaim Weizmann, tried to make the positio of President more relevant, but was consistently outmaneuvered by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.</ref> though he ended up turning it down.
* The Glorious Revolution of 1688 had the British Parliament overthrow the Catholic James II and offer the throne to the Dutch Protestant William of Orange.
** Actually, it was offered to James' daughter, Mary, along with William, who was her husband.
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[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
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