Claiming to be king is unnecessary if there is already such evidence, and ineffective if there is not.
Actual kings thought otherwise strongly enough to have others who claimed to be king of their realm killed if at all possible. Repetition of royal pomp within a king’s lifetime implies that claiming to be king is not redundant for an already-acknowledged king either. Often there were annual or even more frequent reaffirmations, plus constant reinforcement via local protocol among whoever was physically near the king.
Sorry, I was making a distinction between a lone individual making a claim (“I’m the king, listen to me” or “I have social skills, listen to me”) vs enough OTHER people making the claim (“he’s the king, listen to him”) to give evidence that it’s already accepted. The first is useless, the second is powerful enough to obviate the first.
Actual kings thought otherwise strongly enough to have others who claimed to be king of their realm killed if at all possible.
My model for this: other claims to being king say nothing about the claimant, but send signals about the current king they need to quash.
1. There was always a population of people who are opposed to the king, or think they could get a better deal from a different one. This makes any other person who claims to be king a Schelling Point for the current king’s enemies, foreign and domestic. Consider Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth, where Mary garnered support from domestic Catholics, and also the French.
2. In light of 1, making a public claim to the throne implicitly claims that the current monarch is too weak to hold the throne. I expect this to be a problem because the weaker the monarch seems, the safer gambling on a new one seems, and so more people who are purely opportunistic are willing to throw in their lot with the monarch’s enemies.
Actual kings thought otherwise strongly enough to have others who claimed to be king of their realm killed if at all possible. Repetition of royal pomp within a king’s lifetime implies that claiming to be king is not redundant for an already-acknowledged king either. Often there were annual or even more frequent reaffirmations, plus constant reinforcement via local protocol among whoever was physically near the king.
Sorry, I was making a distinction between a lone individual making a claim (“I’m the king, listen to me” or “I have social skills, listen to me”) vs enough OTHER people making the claim (“he’s the king, listen to him”) to give evidence that it’s already accepted. The first is useless, the second is powerful enough to obviate the first.
My model for this: other claims to being king say nothing about the claimant, but send signals about the current king they need to quash.
1. There was always a population of people who are opposed to the king, or think they could get a better deal from a different one. This makes any other person who claims to be king a Schelling Point for the current king’s enemies, foreign and domestic. Consider Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth, where Mary garnered support from domestic Catholics, and also the French.
2. In light of 1, making a public claim to the throne implicitly claims that the current monarch is too weak to hold the throne. I expect this to be a problem because the weaker the monarch seems, the safer gambling on a new one seems, and so more people who are purely opportunistic are willing to throw in their lot with the monarch’s enemies.