Pretender
A
Pretender is a claimant to an abolished or already occupied
throne.
[Note that the French word prétend, a source of the English word "pretend", simply means "claim", with no implication of falsity, and that for the present purpose the English word retains the sense of the French word and not the modern English definition. In the context of the modern languages, they are, therefore, false friends, because the two words have noticeably different meanings in the two languages despite being almost identical (except for the acute accent in the former, bearing in mind that French has adopted the use of diacritical marks only since the French Revolution). Therefore a pretender, whether to a throne or anything, as the phrase meant in the past, is simply a claimant. Indeed in the cases of pretenders to a throne, they would not be a serious problem if there were no hint of validity to the claim. Contrariwise, persons with a potential claim to a throne automatically become pretenders, whether they press their claim or not, and this has led such persons to take extraordinary measures, such as emigrating to a foreign country under an assumed name, to preserve their safety against threats from other claimants or their allies.] Deposed monarchs are not seen as pretenders, as the term only applies to those who have
never occupied the throne. The
papal equivalent is the
antipope.
State |
Pretender |
Link to Past Monarchy | | Albania | Leka Zogu, Crown Prince of Albania | son of the last king, Zog of Albania |
| Albania | Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg | Descendant of Scanderbeg |
| Anhalt | Eduard, Duke of Anhalt | Son of last Duke Joachim Ernst of Anhalt |
| Austria-Hungary | Archduke Otto, Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary | Otto is the eldest son of Karl, last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Otto "renounced" his claim in order to pass freely into Austria, however, he continues to act (and is supported) as Head of the House of Habsburg. Some royalists maintain that his renunciation had no validity and that the republican government in Austria is an illegitimate successor to the empire. |
| Baden | Maximilian, Margrave of Baden | Descendant of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden |
| Bavaria | Franz, Duke of Bavaria | head of the Wittelsbach family; great-grandson of Bavaria's last King Ludwig III |
| Brazil | Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza | head of the Vassouras branch of the last Brazilian Emperor Pedro II |
| Brazil | Prince Pedro Gastao of Orléans-Braganza | head of the Petrópolis branch of the last Brazilian Emperor Pedro II |
| Central African Empire | Crown Prince Jean-Bedel Bokassa Jr | son of Emperor Bokassa I |
| China | Yuyan | cousin of Puyi |
| Croatia | Amadeo, Duke of Aosta | son of King Tomislav II |
| Ethiopia | Zera Yacob Amha Selassie of Ethiopia | grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie |
| France | Henri, Count of Paris, Duke of France (Orleanist) | descendant of Louis-Philippe of France |
| France | Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou (Legitimist) | descendant of Louis XIV of France |
| France | Charles Bonaparte (Bonapartist) | descendant of Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte |
| Germany and Prussia | Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia | descendant of the last Emperor, Wilhelm II |
| Georgia | Giorgi Bagrationi | head of the Bagrationi-Mukhraneli line which branched off from the senior line in the 16th century but still claims the Georgian crown |
| Great Britain and Ireland | Statutory monarchy and republic. | See discussion below. |
| Hanover and Brunswick-Lunenburg | Ernst August V, Prince of Hanover | Head of the House of Hanover which ruled Hanover as Kings until 1886, and Brunswick-Lunenburg as Dukes until 1918 |
| Hawai'i | Quentin Kawananakoa | senior of the remaining relatives of Queen Liliuokalani |
| Hesse-Kassel and Hesse & by Rhine | Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse | descendant of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel |
| Hohenzollern | Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern | descendant of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the Sigmaringen line claimed Hechingen following the death of the last prince, Friedrich Wilhelm, in 1869. |
| Hyderabad State | Barkat Ali Khan Mukarram Jah | grandson of the last Nizam Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII |
| Iran | Reza Cyrus Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran | son of the last Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi |
| Iran | Mohammad Hassan Mirza II | heir presumptive of the Qajar dynasty, descendant of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar |
| Iraq | Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein | cousin of the last king, Faisal II |
| Italy | Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples | son of the last king, Umberto II of Italy |
Italy| Amadeo, Duke of Aosta | descendant of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, declared Head of the Italian royal house by the Council of the Senators of the Kingdom, alledges that the Prince of Naples' marriage was non-dynastic |
>| Japan | Tenno Kumazawa | descent of the last Tenno of Nancho (the Southern Dynasty) |
| Korea | Seok, Prince of Korea | son of Prince Gang of Korea |
| Korea | Won, Prince of Korea | Prince Gu's adopted son from one of the descendant of Prince Gang of Korea |
| Laos | Soulivong Savang | grandson of Savang Vatthana, the last king of Laos |
| Libya | Sayyid Muhammad bin Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi | son of Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi |
| Lippe | Armin, Prince of Lippe | son of Leopold IV of Lippe |
| Lithuania | Karl Anselm, Duke of Urach | grandson of King Mindaugas II |
| Maldives | Prince Muhammad Nur ud-din | son of Sultan Hassan Nooraddeen Iskandar II who ruled from 1935 till 1943. |
| Manchukuo | Puren | only surviving brother of Puyi |
| Mecklenburg | Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia | heir-representative of the Margraves of Brandenburg, to whom Mecklenburg would have passed on the extinction of the house |
| Mecklenburg | Georg Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg | Morganatic descendant of Karl II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz with a ducal title of Russian creation, alledgedly recognized as a dynast. |
| Mexico | Maximilian von Götzen-Iturbide | descendant of Prince Salvador de Iturbide who was the grandson of Emperor Agustín of Mexico and the adopted son of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico |
| Montenegro | Nikola, Prince of Montenegro | descendant of the last king, Nikola I of Montenegro |
| Miskito | Norton Cuthbert Clarence | since 1978 Pretender to the Miskito Kingdom and hereditary chief of the Miskito Nation |
| Navarre | Alice, Duchess of Calabria | "representative of the ancient Kings of Navarre" as evidenced by their website [1] |
| Oldenburg | Anton Günther, Duke of Oldenburg | Grandson of the last Grand Duke Frederick Augustus II |
| Ottoman Empire | Ertugrul Osman V | grandson of Abd-ul-Hamid II Sultan from 1876 to 1909. |
| Parma | Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma | descendant of, Robert I, Duke of Parma |
| Portugal | Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza | great-grandson of king Miguel I and great-great-great-grandson of Pedro IV through is mother Maria Francisca of Orléans-Braganza, the widely recognised would-be King of Portugal |
| Reuss | Heinrich IV, Prince of Reuss | head of the house of Reuss |
| Russia | Maria Vladimirovna, Grand Duchess of Russia | descendant of the former Emperor Alexander II |
| Russia | Prince Nicholas Romanovitch of Russia | descendant of the former Emperor Nicholas I |
| Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | Prince Andreas | grandson of last reigning duke, Carl Eduard |
| Saxe-Meiningen | Johann Friedrich-Konrad, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen | Descendant of Bernard III of Saxe-Meiningen |
| Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | Prince Michael | Grandson of last Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach |
| Saxony | Maria Emanuel, Margrave of Meissen | Grandson of the last King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III |
| Schaumburg-Lippe | Alexander Christian, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe | Descendant of last Prince Adolf II of Schaumburg-Lippe |
| Serbia and Yugoslavia | Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia | son of the last king, Peter II |
| Sikkim | Wangchuk Namgyal | son of the last Chogyal, Palden Thondup Namgyal |
| Tunisia | Prince Muhi ud-din Bey | descendant of Ali Muddat ibn al-Husayn |
| Tuscany | Archduke Sigismund, Grand Duke of Tuscany | descendant of Ferdinand IV |
| Two Sicilies | Ferdinando Maria, Duke of Castro | descendant of Ferdinand II |
| Two Sicilies | Carlos, Duke of Calabria | descendant of Ferdinand II |
| Vatican City | many | The Catholic Church has experienced over 25 antipopes in 2000 years, the oddest circumstance being the so-called "Great Schism" (1378-1417) when up to three men simultaneously claimed to be pope with sizeable portions of clergy and laity supporting each of them. Since the Second Vatican Council in 1965, a few Catholics believe that Popes could not have allowed such changes in the Church and reject post-Vatican II popes, considering them illegitimate. Among these many sedevacantists, a few have gone so far as to take it upon themselves to elect one. |
| Vietnam | Crown Prince Bao Long | son of the last emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty, Bao Dai |
| Waldeck and Pyrmont | Wittekind Adolf, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont | Grandson of last Prince Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont |
| Württemberg | Carl, Duke of Württemberg | senior male-line descendant of Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg |
| Yemen | Ageel bin Muhammad al-Badr | son of the last King Muhammad al-Badr |
Ancient Rome knew many pretenders to the office of
Roman Emperor, especially during the
crisis of the Third Century, the
number of pretenders and/or usurpers ran exceptionally thick.
These are customarily referred to as the
Thirty Tyrants, which was an allusion to the
Thirty Tyrants at
Athens some five hundred years earlier; although the number is questionable, and the Romans were separate aspirants, not (as the Athenians were) a Committee of Public Safety. The
Loeb translation of the appropriate chapter of the
Augustan History therefore represents the Latin
triginta tyranni by "Thirty Pretenders" to avoid this artificial and confusing parallel. Not all of them were afterwards considered
pretenders; several were actually successful in becoming Emperor (at least in part of the Empire), although most of those were slain after holding the office for a brief period.
Disputed successions to the Empire continued at
Constantinople. Most seriously, after the fall of Constantinople to the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, and its eventual recovery by
Michael VIII Palaeologus, there came to be three Bysantine successor states, each of which claimed to be the Roman Empire, and several Latin claimants (including the
Republic of Venice and the houses of
Montferrat and
Courtenay) to the
Latin Empire the Crusaders had set up in its place. There were sometimes multiple claimants to some of the inheritances, as well.
Following the defeat and death of King Jacques III of Cyprus in 1474, his younger and illegitimate brother,
Eugene Matteo de Armenia (c1485-1523) had moved to Sicily, then Malta. He was acknowledged as Heir to Cyprus, Armenia, Jerusalem and Antioch, though never took it seriously. From a genealogical point,
Eugene Matteo (de Lusignan) de Armenia was created a
Sicilian title and worked as a
Jurat in Malta and in
Sicily.
Following the death of the childless legitimist pretender "Henry V",
Comte de Chambord, grandson of King
Charles X of France in the 1880s, the majority of French monarchists accepted the Comte's selection as heir, his distant relative, the Orleanist pretender, the
Comte de Paris, grandson of King
Louis-Philippe (who descends from King
Louis XIII) as the pretender to the French throne. A small minority refused to accept this designation, and chose instead a descendant of Louis XIV and the Spanish line.
The arguments are, on one side, that
Philip V of Spain renounced any future claim to the French throne when he became King of Spain, and that the
Dukes of Orleans were therefore recognized as the next heirs before the
French Revolution. On the other side, that this renunciation was invalid and impossible, and (in some cases) that
Philippe Égalité and Louis-Philippe forfeited any remaining right to the crown for disloyalty. Hence there are two pretenders to the French throne; though the
Orleanist pretender, the present
Comte de Paris, is accepted by most French monarchists as
the pretender, as the list above shows.
There is also a pretender to the imperial throne of France, in the person of
Charles Bonaparte, descendant of the
Prince Napoléon.
There is much debate over who is the legitimate heir to the Russian throne.
George of Russia, son of
Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, is considered by some to be the legitimate heir, being the grandson of a cousin of Czar
Nicholas II of Russia. Unequal marriages have made tracking a legitimate heir to the Russian throne very difficult, and some believe there is no legitimate heir at all.
Nicholas Romanov, the president of
Romanov Family Association, a junior male descendant of the imperial family, is regarded by some as the head of the family, but he is born of a
morganatic marriage and therefore not entitled to inherit the throne under strict Russian succession law. Those who impersonated the murdered daughters of Nicholas II were not pretenders to the throne, as women could not succeed to the Russian throne while a male dynast was alive. The last male dynast,
Grand Duke Vladimir, did not die until
1992. There was also a woman named
Anna Anderson who attempted to prove she was the lost daughter of
Nicholas II,
Anastasia, but DNA testing on her alleged remains seemed to prove her claim false.
Pretenders to the thrones of the United Kingdom and its predecessor realms, as well as the other historical jurisdictions that are modernly England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, were essentially taken care of by making the Irish and English (and subsequently, British) monarchies purely statutory institutions. Ireland further precluded any and all possible pretenders by declaring itself a republic in 1949.
Prior to the
Norman Conquest of
1066,
Anglo-Saxon England used a system of elective kingship. England originated, in fact, about the year
802, as an amalgam of several kingdoms (
Wessex,
Sussex,
Kent,
Mercia,
East Anglia, etc.) under the transnational leadership of
Egbert of Wessex. The
Witenagemot (pronounced "WEE-tun-aye-yuh-mut" in Old English), had the final say in who would or would not be "King of all Engla Land." Ultimately, the Witenagemot - an assembly of wisemen, aldermen, clergy, thegns, etc. - was the forerunner of the House of Lords, while the forerunner of the House of Commons was
The Thing.
The Norman Conquest eliminated elective kingship in England - for a few centuries - by replacing the Witegenot with the Norman institution known as the King's Council, while The Thing simply disappeared. Gradually, however, the Normans became English; and modern forms of the old Anglo-Saxon institutions began to re-emerge. To this day, the form of Coronation contains vestigial elements of the consent of the people. In time, the new "Parlement" began to re-assert its ancient predecessor's right to choose the king, culminating in an Act of 1649, without the Royal Assent of
King Charles I, on the morning of his execution. However, the power is now held to be vested in the Crown in Parliament, so that an Act was necessary to effect the abdication of
King Edward VIII in 1936. It is arguable whether or not the Sovereign has the right to withhold either the Sovereign's Consent to consider such a Bill, or the Royal Assent to such an Act)
The change was first noticeable in England following the accession of
Henry VIII, after a long period of strife and civil wars that began when
Henry IV deposed
Richard II. When Henry drafted his deed of succession - naming, first, his son, Edward, to succeed him; then, his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, in birth order - he submitted the document to Parliament for approval. When the regents for Edward then tried to change the succession to skip the teenage king's sisters, in favour of his cousin
Lady Jane Grey - (in fact, Edward's cousin
Mary Stewart/Stuart, the girl Queen of Scots was the next heir after Elizbeth and before Jane) - Edward signed the document but it did not have the approval of Parliament. Jane is still counted England's first queen regnant, but she only reigned nine days before Mary Tudor arrived from Lincoln. Mary was instantly recognised as Queen without fuss or question.
Attempts to disrupt the statutory nature of the monarchy in England were made by some of the Stuart monarchs, who had not experienced the English checks on royal power when they ruled in Scotland. The
Act of Settlement 1701 took care of that problem, and the
Act of Union 1707 essentially extended the Act of Settlement to Scotland. The
Act of Union 1800 subsequently extended the Act of Settlement to Ireland, but the Irish monarchy had already been made a statutory institution when
Henry VIII of England was named King of Ireland by the Irish Parliament in 1542. Previously, the English kings had been styled Lord of Ireland.
Nevertheless, there have been some great pretenders over the centuries. A few famous ones are noted here, and a few passive claims are still made.
James Francis Edward Stuart was the Roman Catholic son of the deposed King
James VII and II, forever eclipsed in the succession to the throne by the
Act of Settlement 1701. Notwithstanding the
Act of Union 1707, he claimed the separate thrones of Scotland, as James VIII, and of England and Ireland, as James III, until his death in 1766.
James's sons carried on their own claims.
Charles Edward Stuart, the would-be Charles III, still famously known as
Bonnie Prince Charlie, died in 1788. He is unquestionably the most famous pretender in British history, if not world history. His younger brother,
Henry Benedict Stuart, took up the mantle after his death, if only symbolically, as the would-be Henry IX of England. He died in 1807.
James VIII & III was commonly called "the King over the water", because he was resident in France (across the Channel) and is also known as
The Old Pretender. (As no Jacobite monarch since has resided in Britain, Jacobites ever since have toasted 'the King/Queen over the water'.) Bonnie Prince Charlie is also called
The Young Pretender. See
Jacobitism and
the related category for more information including the current Jacobite "pretender".
Owain Glyndŵr (1349-1416) is probably the best-known Welsh pretender, though whether he was pretender or Prince of Wales depends upon your source of information. Officially,
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who died in 1282, was the last native and arguably greatest Prince of Wales. Since 1301, the Prince of Wales has been the eldest living son of the King or Queen Regnant of England (subsequently of Great Britain, 1707, and of United Kingdom, 1801). The word "living" is important. Upon the death of
Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry VII invested his second son, the future Henry VIII, with the title. The title is not automatic, however, but merges into the Crown when a prince dies or accedes to the throne, and has to be re-conferred by the sovereign.
Nevertheless, it is Glyndŵr whom many remember as the last native Prince of Wales. He was indeed proclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters on 16 September 1400, and his revolt in quest of Welsh independence was not quashed by
Henry IV until 1409. Later, however, one of Glyndŵr's cousins, Owain Tudor, would marry the widow of
Henry V, and their grandson would become
Henry VII, from whom the current British monarch is descended (through his daughter Margaret Tudor, who was married off to
James IV of Scotland). So, in a way, Glyndŵr might be said to have had the last laugh.
The business of Irish pretenders is rather more complicated because of the nature of kingship in Ireland before the Norman take-over of 1171. In both Ireland and Scotland, succession to kingship was elective, often (if not usually) by contest, according to matrilineal descent. That is, the head of state of any kingdom, sub-kingdom, high kingdom, etc., was always a king, but the king always inherited the crown through his mother, as a ranking princess royal, not through his father. (See, e.g.,
The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History, by John Prebble ISBN 0140036520 ; among other works.)
Thus, you, as king, would not be succeeded by your own son but would normally be succeeded by your mother's other sons; then by your sisters' sons; then, your maternal aunt's sons; and so on, traveling through the female line of the royal house. This combination of male succession through matrilineal descent produced a cumbersome system under which the throne passed cyclically from brother to brother, then uncle to nephew, and then cousin to cousin, before starting over as brother to brother, uncle to nephew, etc. {See, e.g.,
The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History, by John Prebble; among other works.} In Ireland, however, the high king from the time of Maelsheachlainn I (died 862) exercised a measure of control over the country. He belonged to the Ui Neill dynasty and under the Brehon laws, succession was open to any kinsman up to and including second cousin. His dynasty is today represented by the O'Neill family who would regard their head as the pretender. The O Conor dynasty provided two high kings and the head of the family, the O Conor Don, would also be considered a pretender to the Irish throne. The descendants of Brian Boroimhe are represented by Lord Inchiquin, who is also regarded as a claimant. In addition, pretenders or claimants exist to the localised kingdoms of Breifne, Fermanagh, Tyrconnel and Leinster. The O'Neills would also be regarded as claimants to the throne of Aileach and Lord Inchiquin to the throne of Thomond.
In Scotland,
Malcolm II tried to get around this system by killing off all of the heirs between himself and his grandson, Duncan; except for Prince
Lulach of Moray, who was just five years old at the time and - more importantly - was successfully rumoured to be half-witted (thus, he survived).
Duncan I did become king, but Lulach's step-father, Maelbeth -rendered "
Macbeth" in English - successfully claimed the throne in his own right and on Lulach's behalf.
Duncan I's son,
Malcolm III 'Canmore', ultimately returned from exile in England and took the throne from Maelbeth and Lulach (the latter reigning 1057-1058, after the death of Maelbeth in battle against Malcolm). Malcolm was succeeded by his brother, as Duncan II, but then by four of his own sons - one of whom,
Edgar (1097-1107), changed the official language of Scotland from Gàidhlig (then, still a Scottish dialect of Old Irish) to Scots (then, a language similar to English but missing the Saxon element that has always been part of standard English). Gaelic dominance of Scotland ended during the reign of
Alexander I (1107-1124), and the old Celtic system of matrilineal kingship finally ended and was replaced by a system of primogeniture.
Such a transition never happened in Ireland, but civil war and the imposition of Anglo-Norman rule intervened. Although Ireland had been culturally unified for centuries, it was not politically unified, even as a tribal nation. The Romans having ignored the big green island west of Britain, the Gaels themselves were the last people to successfully invade Ireland and, notwithstanding 750 years of English rule, it is very arguable whether the Norman English ever truly
conquered Ireland. (They controlled Ireland, certainly, but that is not all there is to conquest.) So, even serious coastal encroachments by the Vikings a millennium after their arrival did not prompt the Gaels of Ireland to see a need for political unity even to build a concerted national defence. When a people believe they and their country are immune from invasion, it takes a while for them to realise how vulnerable they actually are.
The High King of Ireland was essentially a ceremonial, pseudo-federal overlord (where his over-lordship was even recognised), who exercised actual power only within the realm of which he was actually king. In the case of the southern branch of the Uí Niall, this would have been the Kingdom of Meath (modernly the counties of Meath, West Meath and part of County Dublin). High Kings from the northern branch of the family ruled various kingdoms in what eventually became the province of Ulster.
Nevertheless, the Uí Niall were apparently powerful in ceremony if not in politic, so that political unification of Ireland was not aided by the usurpation of the high kingship from Mael Sechnaill II and the southern Uí Niall in 1002 by
Briain ‘Boruma' mac Cennédig, of the Kingdom of Munster. This was the third of the so-called "Three Usurpations of Brian Boru."
Brian Boru was a strong king who could have unified Ireland politically, and there is some suggestion he intended to make himself High King of Scotland as well. But he was killed in the Battle of Contarf in 1014, and twelve years as High King was not long enough to unify the island politically. Mael Sechnaill II was restored to the High Kingship but
he died in 1022, too soon to undo the damage done by Brian's "coup." From 1022 through the Norman take-over of 1171, the High Kingship was held by "Kings with Opposition" - that is, whoever was strong enough to overthrow the High King of the day and take the Hill of Tara simply did so. This 150-year period of regnal unrest between families now called O'Brian, O'Conner, McLoughlin/O'Melaghlin, and others, was eventually immortalised in the children's game called "King of the Hill." The game is still popular among American children, who take turns trying to push each other off a low stool, chair, or other make-shift hill while arguing, "I'm king of the hill!" "No! I'm king!"
Because the native Irish high kingship never transitioned to a system of nation-state kingship primogeniture but simply faded into an oblivion of civil war between competing Irish royal families, there are literally as many as a million or more people who can make a claim to the ancient high kingship of Tara that is as equally valid as anybody else's under the old system disrupted by what may be called Brian Boru's "coup de tribe." Indeed, as a reputed descendant of Brian Boru and of the Uí Niall Dynasty both through his late grandmother, the current heir to the statutory throne that includes Northern Ireland,
Prince Charles, could be considered a viable pretender to the high kingship of Ireland, especially as he
would be making the claim through the female line of his ancestry. {The British Royal Family has publicly claimed descent from Brian Boru through the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and from other ancestors associated with the Ui Niall Dynasty - usually via marriage through the Royal Family's Scottish ancestry; see the history section of the Royal Family's website for bloodlines and timelines.) But see the remarks above regarding existing native dynasties, whose claims are more valid than those of the current British royal family.
Interestingly, there was some talk right after the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland about inviting the Kaiser's son, Prince Joachim of Prussia, to be King of Ireland. This was obviously anti-English sentiment following the execution of the leaders of the rebellion (except for Eamonn De Valera, who was an American citizen - born in New York City). Paradoxically, Irish public opinion was
against the Easter Rising and the leaders were spat upon when they surrendered - but when the government executed them instead of just sending them to prison, public opinion swung completely the other way, against Britain and
for independence - except in the northeast, where the majority of people were (still are) an ethnic mix of Scots-Irish, Anglo-Irish, Norse-Irish, and native Irish minorities.
Insomuch as the whole of Ireland was a province of United Kingdom in 1916, Prince Joachim would never have become King of Ireland even if he had wanted the job. But if he
had become king, and Ireland still had subsequently become a republic, Joachim's grandson,
Franz, would be an Irish pretender; and, afterward, his son,
George of Russia, would be an Irish as well as a Russian pretender. But if the Irish could not put up with the constitutional monarchs of Britain, it's highly unlikely they would ever have put up with the
absolute monarchs of Germany and Russia.
Some sources suggest that Alice, Duchess of Calabria, is a pretender to the throne of England. This is because she is the senior descendant of King Edward the Confessor.(See, [
2]). However, this is debateable - firstly, because the kingship of England in the Anglo-Saxon period was elective; secondly, because Edward had no children and, thus, cannot possibly have any living descendants; and, thirdly, senior descandant means she is the
eldest living representatives of Edward the Confessor, rather than the closest living relation.
On the first point, when Edward the Confessor died, the Witenagemot convened the next day and selected
Harold Godwinson to succeed him as king. Except by election by the Witenagemot, no person could be pretender to the throne of England who was not at least somehow related to Harold II Godwinson.
On the second point, Edward the Confessor had no children. His nearest blood relatives were William II of Normandy (later William I "The Conqueror" of England), and the rest of the Norman royal family. Edward - through his mother, Emma - was a grandson of Richard I of Normandy, while William was a great-grandson of Richard I. Edward and William's father were thus first cousins, making Edward and William first cousins once removed.
Edgar Atheling, however, as the son of
Edward the Exile, who was the son of
Edmund Ironside - elder half-brother of Edward the Confessor - would have been a nearer relative than William II of Normandy. But this becomes a moot point, since Edgar's sister, Margaret, married
Malcolm III of Scotland, and their descendants include the current monarch, Queen
Elizabeth II.
The third point requires no real elaboration. The dowager Duchess of Calabria is the "senior representative" of living relatives of Edward the Confessor because she was born in
1917, very likely making her the eldest of the living relatives of Edward the Confessor.
Eldest son during the reign of his father,
Mehmet the Conqueror claimed the Sultanate although he was defeated in battle months later by his eldest brother (by birth)
Bayezid II. He fled to Rhodes Island then eventually to the Papal Territories. His
descendants claimed
Cem rights until
Malta defeated the Ottomans in the 16th century.
There are two claimants to the throne of
Iraq:
*Prince
Ra'ad, Head of the Royal House of Iraq
*
Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, leader of the
Iraqi Constitutional Monarchy party
Some well-known
impostors who claimed to be genuine pretenders include:
* Various impersonators of
Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, notably
Anna Anderson, who some still believe was authentic.
* The fake
Baldwin I of Constantinople, whose real name probably was
Bertrand of Rais*
Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be
Edward, Earl of Warwick*
Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be
Richard, Duke of York*
Yemelyan Pugachev, who claimed to be
Peter III of Russia* The three
false Dimitris of Russia
*
Eugenio Lascorz who claimed connection to the
Byzantium*
Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, one of over 30 pretenders who claimed to be
Louis XVII of France*
Alexis Brimeyer who claimed connections to various European royal houses
*
Michel Lafosse, who claims to be the Jacobite heir to the Scottish throne.
*
Rosario Poidimani, (aka "Rosario Saxe-Coburg-Bragança"), self-styled
Duke of Bragança and heir of
Hilda Toledano (self-named
Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburg-Bragança), claimed
adulterine descendant of King
Carlos of Portugal.
