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From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: USURPERS, IMPOSTERS, ILLEGAL CLAIMS and FANTASISTS
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 10:34:00 -0700

Usurpers are those who successfully or otherwise claim
the throne of an existing state, with the intention of
establishing themselves as monarchs. When successful -
as for example with Colonel Reza Pahlavi who in 1925
deposed the reigning Shah of Persia and established
himself the following year as Shah - a new dynasty may
be founded. When unsuccessful, as with most such
attempts, they generally lose their lives or disappear
into permanent exile. One such was the claim to the
throne of Araucania by Orelie-Antoine de Tounens. Even
more bizarre is the revival of the so-called Kingdom
of Sedang, without even a claimant to the non-existent
throne.

Imposters are those who attempt to supplant the
reigning Monarch by claiming to be the "real"
claimant, or descended from such a claimant. Two early
examples of pseudo-princes were Lambert Simnel and
Perkin Warbeck, who challenged the power of Henry VII
of England. Simnel (c. 1475-1535) was a dupe of
Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of King Edward
IV and an Oxford priest, Richard Symonds who had him
crowned in Dublin as Edward VI in 1486 (claiming that
he was Edward, Earl of Warwick, heir of the
unfortunate Princes in the Tower). Simnel's birth as
the son of a joiner rendered him singularly
unqualified to act the role of a great noble and it
seems few who had any contact with him were long
convinced by the claims made on his behalf. After a
crushing defeat at the battle of Stoke, during which
the rebel commander, the Earl of Lincoln, was killed,
Simnel and Symonds were captured and imprisoned. While
Symonds remained in the Tower, Simnel was released and
allowed to work in the royal kitchens.

Illegal Claimants are those generally junior,
illegitimate or morganatic members of a reigning or
formerly reigning dynasty who claimed the succession
by right of a reinterpretation of the laws of
succession. Such claims have bedeviled the European
Monarchies and whether successful or otherwise, their
legacy caused civil wars in Spain, Portugal and Serbia
in the last century and several dynastic disputes in
this one. One of the most complex, and continuing
disputes, is that which has divided the Two Sicilies
dynasty since 1960. Another such claimant is Paul
Hohenzollern (ex-Lambrino), self-styled H.R.H. Prince
Paul of Romania.

Fantasy Royalty. The world of self-delusion has for
long been inhabited by a variety of pretenders to
long-extinct or invented thrones. While sometimes
motivated by political ambition - either their own or
others - more often these individuals are con-men or
fantasists, living in a world of delusion and
make-believe.

http://www.chivalricorders.org/royalty/fantasy/fantasy.htm


Sally Rolls Pavia

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