History Main / HiddenBackupPrince

* The short-lived manga ''Manga/{{Barrage}}'': It's revealed towards the end that [[spoiler: Astro was the real prince all along; he was stolen shortly after birth and replaced with a [[ArtificialHuman "dark matter duplicate"]] so that he could be raised away from the corruption of the court.]]
* ''Anime/{{Daltanious}}'' has a case of an entire ''Royal Backup Family''. [[spoiler: The Royal Family of Helios selectively bred and engineered a whole bloodline of clones to ensure their political power wouldn't be taken away. From cradle to grave, the clones were forced to surveil their prototype's life from their prisons. If the prototype was injured, the clone would be forced to receive the exact injury. If the prototype died, the clone was sent in their place. If an organ transplant was needed, the clone was harvested. When the clone outlived their usefulness, they would be eliminated to make way for the new successor. No matter what, the clones were simply puppets of their senior vassals. This led to their fall as one day, one former clone escaped, established the Zaal and destroyed Helios, causing refugees to be scattered to several different planets. The former clone would then go on to lead a conquest of the entire galaxy.]]

* The short-lived manga ''Manga/{{Barrage}}'': It's revealed towards the end that [[spoiler: Astro was the real prince all along; he was stolen shortly after birth and replaced with a [[ArtificialHuman "dark matter duplicate"]] so that he could be raised away from the corruption of the court.]]

* Inverted in ''Manga/FushigiYuugi''. The crown prince was a boy named Tendou, and in order to protect his life [[spoiler:from one of the concubines, who wanted ''her'' son, Hotohori, on the throne]], his father sent him to [[PrincessInRags live as a commoner]], with the intention of bringing him back to the royal family when the heat was off. Which never happened. [[spoiler:Ironically, Tendou's ex-girlfriend Houki ends up being taken to be part of the RoyalHarem, and ends up marrying Hotohori, who looks just like Tendou.]]
* In the ''Manga/MyOtome'' manga, it turns out [[spoiler:the Mashiro impostor]] really is this. [[spoiler:He's the real Mashiro's ''twin brother'' who was spirited away and raised by Lena in case Mashiro died or went crazy. In a few chapters Mashiro went from an impostor to a nobody to the sole heir of Windbloom.]]

* This is the case with Tenchi Masaki in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo''. He is technically second-in-line for the throne of Jurai (and probably, next-in-line since his grandfather probably doesn't want the crown anymore) but until recently, was ignorant of his heritage. Even now, his existence isn't known to the galactic community due to his grandparents' secret marriage.
* In the second season of ''Anime/AldnoahZero'', [[spoiler: Asseylum's illegitimate half-sister Princess [[BodyDouble Lemrina]] is this for the Martian Empire. She is largely unknown to Vers society and confined to the Moon base just in case the Vers military needs someone who can activate Aldnoah in a pinch. It's a position she greatly resents.]]
* In ''Manga/TalesOfWeddingRings'', Krystal, a princess from another world, is raised on earth under the name of Hime by her wizard guardian posing as her grandfather. Hime knows who she really is and knows she must return one day to fulfill her duty. Her childhood friend, Sato, ends up following her when she returns, which begins the plot.

* In ''Literature/TheEmpressGame'', Kayla and her brother Corinth are the only survivors of the massacre of the Ordochian royal family, and are in hiding. [[spoiler:Only it turns out they're ''not'' the only survivors, because the others were secretly captured alive for Dolan to use in his experiments]].

* {{Invoked}} in ''Literature/DeepSecret'' by Diana Wynne Jones: the Koryfonic Empire, [[MultiversalConqueror which spans multiple magical worlds]], has all of the emperor's children raised by someone else to avoid rebellion and succession problem; the novel actually opens with the current emperor [[OffingTheOffspring executing one of his sons]] for finding out the truth. Of course, this winds up ''creating'' succession problems when the emperor is assassinated, as the Empire is thrown into chaos while the protagonist, Rupert, tries to track down at least one of the heirs. (Some of whom are in our world and at least one of whom [[InterspeciesRomance isn't fully human]].)

* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': Karrnath, during the Last War, had a habit of pulling secret royalty out of nowhere right when they were needed, most notably Kaius III, who nobody had even heard of before he took the throne when Regent Moranna went off the deep end. [[spoiler:Except Kaius III is in fact Kaius I and a vampire, pretending to be an example of this trope to let him retake open control of his nation without any awkward questions.]]

** In ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', the king's infant son, Tomjon, is hidden away to protect him from his murderous relatives. Unbeknownst to everyone, there's a second son already there - Verence the fool. Though Nanny realizes at the end of the book that [[spoiler:neither is the king's son; they're both children of Verence's father, the previous fool. Tomjon is actually a bastard born to the previous fool and the queen, while Verence is the fool's son by his actual wife.]]
** Captain Carrot is implied to be the accidental version of this trope, but he has no interest in ruling Ankh Morpork, so its current ruler leaves him be.
*** It's actually more subtle than that. As ''a'' true king (and not just ''the'' true king) Carrot wants what is best for his people -- in other words, the status quo. He's perfectly happy protecting the city and leaving the messy business of ruling to the Patrician. Carrot and Vetinari iron this out in a seemingly innocuous conversation about the common roots of the words "policeman" and "politician" that is so heavy with subtext it practically capsizes.

* Franklin Sakamoto in ''Westernanimation/{{BattleTech}}'' turns out to be the illegitimate grandson of Theodore Kurita, and thus has a claim to the throne of the Draconis Combine. When the heir apparent is captured by the Clans, a rebel faction abducts Franklin and tries to force him to take power, while a group of loyalist hardliners tries to assassinate him to avert a {{civil war}}. Franlin himself has no interest in the throne, renouncing it and declaring that regardless of his ancestry, he is just a man.

** [[VideoGame/SpyroAHerosTail Ember]] Warfang, Julius' great-grandaughter, is a {{Deconstruction}}. Being fairly far down the line of inheritance, she didn't even know she had royal blood and had never been taught or trained in how to be a good ruler. When she was unexpectedly made regent for the sick king, she tried her best but was quickly corrupted by lust for power and wealth and became a horrible tyrant.
** Nova Warfang, Julius' granddaughter, is a more traditional example. She survived the assassination of her parents and siblings as an egg, and was hatched a bit later. She is a kind and gentle soul, having grown up under Julius' tutelage who cherishes her more than anyone, and even inherited the RoyalBlood element of Solar Flare. She would make a great queen if she ever took the throne, which is unlikely to happen, as Ember does everything in her power to keep Nova away from the throne by suggesting to Julius that if she's ever revealed publically, the assassins might come back to finish the job. At the moment she serves in the army as an elite Freedom Flyer under Ember's rival, general Cynder.

* ''Literature/ElementalBlessings'': [[spoiler: Rafe Adova is actually this to ''two'' thrones. His mother, Princess Subriella of Malinqua married into the royal family of Berringey as part of a peace treaty. The problem was that Berringey has the custom of killing off all extra royals once the crown prince was chosen, and Subriella drew the short end of the stick. Rather understandably, she took her baby and fled. She chose Welce, the small-and-out-of-the-way country that's the setting of the novels, since her empress mother knew about the regicide beforehand, and lived out the rest of her life in obscurity, birthing another son along the way.]]

* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': According to volume 2, there's a tradition in old mage families to create cadet branches and interbreed with them to provide backups to the main family as a hedge against disaster. Case in point, Stacy Cornwallis, who is revealed to be main cast member Michela [=McFarlane=]'s illegitimate half-sister whom her father Theodore sired on a woman from the cadet branch as a backup heir in case something happened to Chela. This ended up causing Chela and Stacy nothing but grief: Stacy grew up [[ParentalNeglect neglected by her stepfather]] because she has much greater natural talent as a mage than his biological children ([[EmasculatedCuckold at least one of whom is older than her]]), and began scheming to try to surpass Chela and force Theodore to acknowledge her as his daughter.