Random Modern-Day Pretenders to Historical Thrones (12 items)

• 

  (#1) Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris

  • Family member

  Henri d'Orléans is a pretender to the French crown (under the name Henry VII) and a member of the former French ruling dynasty, the House of Bourbon. He is backed by French royalists loyal to the succession of Louis-Philippe, who call themselves Orleanists.

  Henri is the oldest son of the previous Henri d'Orléans, his father, and Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza. He was born in Belgium in 1933 because 1886 law banned the heirs of formerly reigning French dynasties from entering the country (this law was later repealed).

  Henri married the Duchess Marie Therese of Württemberg and had five children, but when he divorced her and remarried outside of the Church, he lost the support of some Catholic French royalists and was temporarily disinherited by his father, though eventually tempers cooled, Henri was reinstated as heir, and in 2009, the Vatican arranged to have his second marriage legitimized.

  In an attempt to establish himself as the one true king of France, Henri sued his rival Louis-Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, over the right to use royal insignia. The French court ruled, essentially, that the entire thing was nonsense.

  Henri has his own line of perfume.

  Just before Henri's father died of cancer in 1999, he told one of his daughters, "I will leave you nothing but hatred," and told his other estranged children, "You will have nothing but your tears to cry with."

  It turns out that Henri's father did, in fact, leave them practically nothing, as he sold off all his assets or left them to the state of France. Ever since, Henri and his siblings have been trying to reclaim the fortune their father refused to leave them.
• 

  (#2) Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou

  • Noble person

  A member of the Royal House of Bourbon and a pretender to French throne under the name Louis XX, Louis Alphonse is backed by the faction of French royalists who call themselves Legitimists, in a jab at the "illegitimate" claims of his rival, Henri d'Orléans.

  At 42, Louis is the oldest living male descendant of France's last Bourbon king, Louis XIV. More controversially, he is also the great-grandson of Francisco Franco, the Spanish fascist dictator, on his mother's side.

  Louis's good looks and royal ties not only to France but also to Philip V of Spain have gotten him many headlines, including a cover in the Spanish edition of Vanity Fair. However, Louis is Spanish by birth, which makes many of his right-wing, nationalist supporters dubious about his claim to the throne.
• 

  (#3) Constantine II of Greece

  • Notable Figure

  Constantine II is the former King of Greece, who ruled from 1964 until a coup ended the monarchy in 1974 in favor of a republic. He was forced to flee the country and went into almost five decades of exile.

  During his long exile, Constantine socialized with Europe's royals past and present, including England's Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and Prince Philip, his cousin; Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía, his sister; and Denmark's Queen Margrethe, his sister-in-law.

  Constantine led a dramatic life, from barely escaping death at the hands of communist agents as an infant, to falling in love with his wife, the Danish princess Anne-Marie, when she was only 13. He was also an Olympic gold medalist in sailing. He survived two assassination attempts. When he and his family fled Greece in 1967, it was in a small plane he piloted himself.

  "I had to borrow $300 from my valet to refuel the plane," he said, "and my brother-in-law [King Juan Carlos] had to send me clothes."

  In 2015, Constantine was finally allowed to return to Greece; he now lives in the seaside town of Porto Heli.
• 

  (#4) Leka Zogu: King of Albania

  Born in 1939, just two days before Italy invaded Albania, Leka Zogu (who was nearly 7 feet tall) spent most of his life in exile with his domineering mother, Queen Geraldine. His father was Albania's first king, King Zog, whom Leka boasted was the only monarch in history known to have returned fire during an assassination attempt.

  After WWII ended, the new communist Albanian government didn't recognize his family's claim to rule. For years, he worked to establish his legitimacy to the throne. He was also an avid collector of weapons and traveled with a large personal arsenal, often to the dismay of international border patrol officers.

  After communism fell in the early 90s, Leka was determined to regain his family's throne. He was arrested at an Albanian airport and deported. It turns out his passport listed his profession as "King of Albania."

  During a 1997 rebellion in Albania, Leka returned and a vote was held about restoring the monarchy. When Leka and his monarchist cause lost by a small margin, violence broke out, with claims the election had been rigged. Leka himself was almost arrested and fled the country.

  For the rest of his life, he worked to provide humanitarian aid to Albanians until his death in 2011.
• 

  (#5) Franz, Duke of Bavaria

  • Noble person

  Franz (aka, His Royal Highness Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria von Bayern, Duke of Bavaria, Duke in Franconia and Swabia, and Count-Palatine of the Rhine) is an 81-year-old German duke descended from James I, the king who first united England and Scotland in 1603.

  The Jacobites, members of a movement to restore the Stuart Kings of England, Ireland, and Scotland, see Franz as the legitimate heir to the English throne under the name Francis II. (Franz could also lay claim to the title King of Bavaria, as his great-grandfather, Ludwig III, was the last Bavarian king before the royal title was abolished during WWI.)

  During the Second World War, Franz's family opposed the Nazis and as a boy, Franz spent time in several concentration camps, including Dachau. He now devotes himself to various charitable enterprises, including aid for displaced orphans.

  Even though the Duke has no interest in being a king (he's perfectly happy just being Duke of Bavaria), if Scotland had voted for independence in 2014, there was a chance he would have been offered their new throne.
• 

  (#6) Prince Charles Napoleon: Emperor of France

  Prince Charles Napoleon's great-great-grand-uncle was indeed Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Prince Charles is considered by the Bonapartists (a group that hopes to restore Napoleon's regime) as the rightful heir to the house of Bonaparte and thus France itself. His claim to this title was proven, in part, by a DNA sample taken from Napoleon I's beard.

  However, Charles himself remains skeptical about his own claim to the throne of France. Because of Charles's republican political opinions, his father's will declared that Charles's son Jean-Christophe Napoleon was the rightful heir. As for Charles's views on the French government, he's gone on record saying he believes he's upholding Napoleon's own political stance when the general originally defended the French Republic.
• 

  (#7) Karl von Habsburg: Emperor of Austria

  Karl von Habsburg is an Austrian politician and the grandson of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I. Before careers in politics and business investment, he was a game show host on Austrian TV.

  Karl was born in exile in Germany, in 1961, as his family had been banished from their native Austria. His father Otto von Habsburg later renounced his claims to the Austrian throne as a condition of being allowed to return to his country.

  Karl's full name is Archduke Karl of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia; however, it is illegal to use royal titles in both Austria and Hungary, so he usually goes by either Karl von Habsburg or Karl Habsburg-Lothringen in those nations.

  As a descendant of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Karl has gone on record defending the old Austria-Hungary government against those who blame them for World War I. "It would be wrong to point the finger at one state," he said.
• 

  (#8) Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza

  • Noble person

  Duarte Pio is the heir to the defunct Portuguese throne. Originally exiled from his home country when he was born in 1945, the exile was revoked in 1950 and he has been living in the country ever since.

  Pio served in the Portuguese Air Force as a helicopter pilot during the Portuguese Colonial War. Though he is not a politician, he has involved himself in many of the country's foreign and domestic affairs, including campaigning for the independence of former Portuguese colonies such as Timor-Leste, which became a sovereign nation in 1999.

  For many years, Pio has been calling for a restoration of the monarchy so he can attempt to fix economic problems in Portugal, though he does not want to abolish the country's elected officials. He claims that Portugal was better off before they deposed their last monarch, Manuel II, in 1910.
• 

  (#9) King Michael: King of Romania

  Michael was, in fact, the King of Romania, from 1927-1930 and again from 1940-1947. He dined with Hitler and Mussolini during World War II, and was later awarded medals by both President Truman and Joseph Stalin. He is also the great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and the cousin of Queen Elizabeth.

  In 1944, Michael ordered the arrest of the fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, and helped engineer Romania's switch from the Axis to the Allies, thus likely shortening the war.

  Michael lost his throne for good and was forced into exile when his country fell under control of the Communist Party. At 94, he's the oldest surviving World War II-era head of state, and during his exile took jobs ranging from test pilot to running a chicken farm to stay afloat. During the era of the Warsaw Pact, Michael lived in Switzerland. When the Soviet Union fell, he refused to run for Romanian office and instead opted for the quiet life.
• 

  (#10) Carlos, Duke of Parma

  • Noble person

  Carlos Hugo was a direct male descendant of Louis XIV. He was born Hugues Marie Sixte Robert Louis Jean Georges Benoît Michel, but in 1963 a French court renamed him simply Charles Hugues.

  Inheriting a contested claim to Spain's throne that spawned three civil wars in the 19th century, Carlos worked hard to rally support behind his cause. He married Princess Irene of the Netherlands in 1964, a move that helped make him a more attractive candidate for Spanish rule (though the marriage caused a political crisis in the Netherlands).

  However, when the fascist dictator Franco declared Juan Carlos de Bourbon King of Spain in 1969, Carlos changed his cause to a Spanish socialist movement. After his socialist movement lead to violence, Carlos abandoned his claim and went to teach at Harvard. Then, suddenly, in 2003, Carlos took up his claim to the Spanish throne once again and bestowed it to his son, Carlos Javier.

  Carlos died in 2010 at the age of 80.
• 

  (#11) Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples

  • Noble person

  Vittorio Emanuele is the son of Umberto II, the last king of Italy. His full name is Vittorio Emanuele Alberto Carlo Teodoro Umberto Bonifacio Amedeo Damiano Bernardino Gennaro Maria di Savoia.

  After the end of World War II, the royal family was forced into exile after supporting fascism during the war. The current Italian government does not legally recognize Emanuele's claim to rule the country.

  In the years during his exile, Vittorio was caught up in several incidents that have given him an infamous reputation. In 1969, he tried to declare himself King of Italy in exile, effectively usurping his own father's claims to the throne. He was also arrested for shooting and killing someone who had taken his yacht's rubber dinghy, but only received a six-month suspended prison sentence. He has also been accused of anti-semitism, he punched the Duke of Aosta at a wedding party, and he was arrested on counts of corruption, criminal association, and exploitation of prostitution in 2006. He is also suspected of having Mafia ties.
• 

  (#12) Tsar Simeon II: Tsar of Bulgaria

  Tsar Simeon II (also known as Simeon Borisov Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) is the son of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria, who died under suspicious circumstances shortly after meeting Hitler in 1943 and refusing to aid Hitler in his fight against Russia.

  Six-year-old Simeon then became Tsar of Bulgaria, but was forced to leave the country shortly after when the Soviet Union invaded and overthrew the monarchy. While living in exile in Spain, Simeon declared an oath to the Bulgarian people as their monarch. He attempted to form a government in exile, but it never coalesced.

  In 1996, he finally returned home and his properties were returned to him. He formed a new political party and was elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria until he stepped down in 2005.

  As of 2016, Simeon holds several distinctions, including being one of the last three living heads of state from the time of World War II (where he is joined by King Michael I of Romania and the Dalai Lama), the only living person who was once a Tsar, and one of only two former monarchs in history to have become the head of their government through a democratic election.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking