History Main / FounderoftheKingdom

* UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} has Mieszko I, who converted the Polans to Christianity and turned the tribes into a state. However, his son Bolesław Chrobry("The Brave") was the first crowned king of Poland.

** Prince Vladimir the Saint converted the Eastern Slavs to Christianity and started Kievan Rus proper.
** UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible created the Muscovite Tsardom.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Sheev Palpatine founded the Galactic Empire.

* UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, the first president of the United States. In fact, when the other founding fathers were designing the new governmental system, the office of president was specifically based upon the kind of leader that Washington was. So he was the first president, and the office of president was based on him. This is likely, not true, the office of president was created after the first US government was deemed a dismal failure and was mostly designed as a check on the powers of Congress and was originally meant to have very little powers of its own other than to oppose and carry out the will of Congress. It is only thanks to power-creep and a very open-ended interpretation of the constitution that the office has accrued as much power as it has.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' reveals that the Zonai king Rauru and his Hylian wife Sonia were the founders and the first rulers of the Kingdom of Hyrule, or at least the Hyrule of the "Wild Saga."

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' reveals that Rauru was the founder of the kingdom of Hyrule, making him and his wife Sonja the first rulers.

** What's really funny is that by modern standards, King Arthur was not English but [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]], or perhaps [[UsefulNotes/{{Cornwall}} Cornish]] - in any case, more properly described as [[UsefulNotes/BritainVersusTheUK British, i.e. Celtic, not English.]] His enemies are frequently identified in the British legends as ''Saeson'', or Saxons, or in other words, Englishmen (the word is derived from the Saxons' cousins, the Angles; Wales, Cornwall and a few other places were remnants of the Celtic British realms after the Anglo-Saxon conquest). The Welsh for their part tend to put more emphasis on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glynd%C5%B5r Owain Glyndwr]], who was more "OccupiersOutOfOurCountry" than Founder of the Nation, although Arthur is still quite important in Welsh legends (important enough that [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor Henry VII]] named his eldest son Arthur to curry favour with his Welsh supporters).[[note]]Prince Arthur died young, which is why we never got an actual, historical, nobody-doubts-it King Arthur. Instead we got—his kid brother Henry. UsefulNotes/HenryVIII.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'': King Aquila of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado exaggerates this. At first, he 'merely' appears as the legendary first king; he defended the kingdom from demonic invaders, built Mikado Castle, founded the Samurai, and had books written about his legendary feats. Late in the game, Flynn takes a jaunt into two parallel dimensions, both times helping a man named [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Akira]] build his kingdom; it's implied (and confirmed in [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse the sequel]]) that King Aquila was Flynn's version of Akira. WordOfGod is that Akira is destined to found the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado in every world.

* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead: [[TheHero Rick Grimes]] by the time of "The Farm House", set [[TimeSkip 20 years]] after the main story and his death, complete with a statue inspired by a speech he held that prevented a civil war in The Commonwealth. In the years since, he's widely considered to have been the biggest factor that allowed humanity to rebuild society after the ZombieApocalypse, as well as his leadership being instrumental in defeating [[WastelandWarlord Negan]] and [[TheSocialDarwinist Alpha]]. Ironically, Rick never agreed with this while he was still alive, [[TheChainsOfCommanding ''hated'' being a leader]], and was rather uncomfortable with his status as a LivingLegend.

* ''ComicBook/{{Shakara}}'': The former Shakara Federation was founded by Cinnibar Brenaka, the commander of the [[KnightTemplar Order of Avengers]]. A warrior who was MadeASlave and became a gladiator, he was committed to establishing order and justice throughout the universe after witnessing the evil and corruption that plagued other worlds firsthand.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** Elendil for Gondor and Arnor.
** Elros Tar-Minyatur for Númenor.
** Eorl the Young for Rohan.

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' each of the chiefs of the three tribes of the Edain can be counted as this. Durin is the founder of Moria. And so on.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Cornelius Coot is the founder of WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's hometown of Duckburg. In one story Scrooge [=McDuck=] and the Maharajah of Howduyustan compete at erecting ever-bigger statues to his memory.

-->Because they're so attractive!

** Modern Turks consider their founder to be Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who led a Turkish army to defeat the Allied Powers at Gallipoli, then did so again to drive Allied occupiers out after the Treaty of Sèvres attempted to divide Turkey between Britain, France, Italy, Armenia, and Greece. He then radically redefined the Turkish state, crafting a rigidly secular nation-state in place of the Ottoman Empire.

** [[GodEmperor Yhwach]] is the progenitor of the Quincy race and has unlimited power over them. The Quincy tell of a legend about the Sealed King of the Quincy, who will eventually return to conquer the world. He founded the Vandenreich, of which he serves as TheEmperor. His blood flows through the veins of every Quincy and those descended from them and is therefore the source of both their power and organization.

* Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan. Whether Jimmu was a person or a mythological figure is uncertain. The first emperor of Japan whose reign can be verified and assigned real dates is the 29th on the official list, Emperor Kinmei. 16th century warlord Oda Nobunaga is widely seen as the man who laid the foundations for the Edo period, a time where Japan would enjoy nearly three centuries of peace and cultural and economic growth at the expense of technological development and foreign relations - although, atypically for most RealLife examples of this trope, Nobunaga has also always held an infamous reputation as less "founding father of our nation" and more "EvilOverlord who [[DemonKingNobunaga may or may not have been literally a demon]]".

* Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan. Whether Jimmu was a person or a mythological figure is uncertain. The first emperor of Japan whose reign can be verified and assigned real dates is the 29th on the official list, Emperor Kinmei. 16th century warlord Oda Nobunaga is widely seen as the man who laid the foundations for the Edo period, a time where Japan would enjoy nearly three centuries of peace and cultural and economic growth at the expense of technological development and foreign relations.