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From: "Diana Gale Matthiesen" <>
Subject: RE: use of word, "pretender"
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:16:53 -0400
In-Reply-To: <BAY101-F372FCEA13429EE21C72EC7BB270@phx.gbl>


Helps very much, David. Now that I have a better understanding of "pretender,"
it looks like I'll be using "usurper," instead.

Diana

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Teague [mailto:]
> Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 12:19 AM
> To: ;
> Subject: RE: use of word, "pretender"
>
>
>
>
> >From: "Diana Gale Matthiesen" <>
> >To:
> >Subject: RE: use of word, "pretender"
> >Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 10:19:23 -0400
>
> < major snipping>
> What about someone who has no blood-right to being king
> vanquishing the
> rightful king and taking his place claiming to be the
> rightful king? He's
> not the one out of power, he's the one in power, but
> shouldn't be. Is he a
> pretender?
> <snip>
>
> No; he's a usurper, not a pretender.
>
> <snip>
> I know I'm picking this to death, but I don't want to mis-use
> the word.
> <snip>
>
> Basically, what it boils down to is this: "pretender" is one
> of those words
> -- like "usurper," for that matter -- which pretty much
> always carries a
> value judgment. If the speaker/writer wishes to pass no
> judgment on the
> situation, the term with which I am most familiar is "claimant."
>
> To use period examples:
>
> Henry Tudor (pre-Bosworth) was the Lancastrian claimant.
>
> Richard III is often (though hardly universally) refered to
> as a usurper --
> except by his partisans and defenders (then and now).
>
> Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel were either imposters, or
> pretenders, or
> both, depending on your point of view.
>
> And, of course -- as mentioned earlier in this thread -- the
> dispossessed
> Stuarts were known as the Old Pretender and Young Pretender,
> respectively.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> David Teague
>
>
>
>

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