How did you become king?
There is a widespread prejudice thatOnly a lucky person can be king, who was lucky to be born in the corresponding family. But this is not true. History knows many examples of how they became kings in unconventional ways.
Beloved King of Belgium
Belgium is one of the youngest monarchies in the world. As an independent state, it began to exist only in 1830. On August 25, in the present capital of Brussels, the opera "Mute from Portici" was presented to the public, which inspired the townspeople so much that they were dressed in evening dresses and went on to create the "opera revolution". As the procession progressed, more and more participants joined them. Thus began the events that ended with the separation from the Netherlands of part of the territory and the formation of a new country.
As a sovereign state, Belgium has neverexisted and formed royal dynasties she did not have. The choice fell on Leopold Saxe-Coburg, who was a descendant of a noble ancient family and at the time of the beginning of the revolution he served in the Russian army. By 1830, he could boast of considerable success in military affairs, but he had no special prospects for taking the throne of one of the European countries. Although Leopold had very shaky chances to get the crown of Greece, but judging that it was better to accept the proposal, he agreed to consider his candidacy. By a majority of votes of the National Congress it was approved.
Leopold I became for the Belgians King with a largeletters. He did a lot for the development of his country, got up early and worked hard. And to this day, the first king remains the most beloved monarch of all the Belgians.
Oreli-Antoine de Tunan
In childhood many of us dreamed of romanticadventures and royal titles. So was Oreli-Antoine de Tunan, the son of the owner of the hotel in one of the small French towns. Parents could get him to get a lawyer's profession, but to knock the romantic dreams out of his head it did not help.
Until 1860, the French raved about the ideafind somewhere a piece of land unoccupied by any state and become its full ruler. However, he was not just dreaming, he was preparing: he studied English and Spanish languages so that he could talk to the aborigines, read books about the ways of governing the state, ensuring its functioning, forming the army.
In 35 years he persuades his two friends to takeParticipation in his adventure and sent to Argentina. They buy equipment and go deep into the country. Adventurers cross the border with Chile and find themselves on the territory of Araucan Indians, to find a common language with which helps the knowledge of Spanish.
The choice for these lands fell not accidentally. Oreli-Antoine from the works on the countries of South America knew that this nation had already tried repeatedly to get rid of the domination of Europeans who took control of many lands. With his fiery speeches, he persuades tribal leaders to create an independent state recognized throughout the world. It came in handy and a fictional story about the "blue blood" of the dreamer, finally convincing the local population to support his initiative. Thus, the kingdom of Araucania was created, which was ruled by Antoine the First. In this position he managed to hold out for less than 2 years. His rule ended with the arrest of Chilean border guards, which occurred during the inspection of the possessions of the new ruler. They then exposed its origin and expelled from the country. Later, Antoine made repeated attempts to return to Araucania, even managed to take part in the war that he lost, but everything ended with his final deportation.
Elections of monarchs
In the past, the system when the monarch was electedface, was not so rare. A classic example is the Roman Empire, where the ruler was elected by the local parliament. But even now there are countries where the king is elected by election. For example, in Malaysia, the monarch is elected once every five years. But unlike the presidential elections, where the decisive word belongs to the people, everything depends on the seven sultans, the rajas and the ruler with the unusual title Yang di-Pertuan Besar. At a special meeting they agree which of them will be king in the next five years.
