History Main / KingBobTheNth

** This is an {{enforced}} and {{exaggerated}} example of NamedAfterSomeoneFamous; the House of Reuss ''requires'' all male descendents to be named Heinrich after Henry (Heinrich) VI, Holy Roman Emperor.

** James I and II are properly James the I and VI and James the II and VII or James of the 1st of England and VI of Scotland, double dipping this trope. Most of the other monarchs, both before and after the act of Union haven't recycled names from before the Scottish and English thrones merged. Current protocol is that the higher number takes precedence, hence Willian IV, Edward VII, Edward VIII and Elizabeth II. Mary II is a slightly odd case since the number for England and Scotland matches up.
** The British monarchy is also relatively tame on this trope and none of the numbers have gotten into the double digits yet. Eight Henries and Edwards, seven Jameses (mostly Scottish) and six Georges.
** Averted with King Stephen, King John and Queen Ann. No numbers since they're the only monarchs to bear that name on the English/British throne. Ann doesn't stand out since there haven't been that many reigning queens but Stephen hasn't been recycled since 1154 and John since 1216. (Not all that surprising, since King Stephen reigned during a disastrous civil war and King John is pretty much a byword for awful - these are pretty much seen as unlucky names, and avoided when naming royal offspring. Queen Anne, on the other hand, was quite a successful monarch, so the current queen had no problem using that name for her daughter.)

* King Louis XVIII of France
** In fact, the French had approximately 18 kings named "Louis". And one Louis-Phillippe. Oh, and ten named Charles. The current heir to the house of Bourbon styles himself as Louis XX (Louis XIX having been the nominal last king of France for 20 minutes in 1830).

** This is an {{enforced}} and {{exaggerated}} example of NamingAfterSomeoneFamous; the House of Reuss ''requires'' all male descendents to be named Heinrich after Henry (Heinrich) VI, Holy Roman Emperor.

** Surprisingly, only two names (Ramesses and Ptolemy) were used more than 8 times (11 and 15, respectively). See, time is no excuse for lack of originality!

* ''DungeonsandDragons'' features Vlaakith CLVII, Lich Queen of the Githyanki in the ''Planescape'' setting, and through ''Planescape'' in pretty much every other setting as well. This Vlaakith, by virtue of being an ancient undead abomination, has also ruled for [[ThousandYearReign at least a thousand years]], although time doesn't exactly work the same way on their home plane.

** Averted with King Stephen, King John and Queen Ann. No numbers since they're the only monarchs to bear that name on the English/British throne. Ann doesn't stand out since there haven't been that many reigning queens but Stephen hasn't been recycled since 1154 and John since 1216.

* In ''{{Farscape}}'', Rygel XVI is a diminutive Dominar-in-exile of the Hynerian Empire, ruler of 600 billion subjects. He was overgrown by his cousin Bishan (whose number is not given) and remained in exile for over 130 cycles. He finally regains his throne in the follow-up graphic novel. His greatest hero is his ancestor Rygel I.

* Liz-Ten in ''DoctorWho'' is actually Queen Elizabeth X of Starship UK.

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* The ruler of Syldavia in the Tintin story ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' was King Muskar XII.

* Played straight in the GeneCatlow fanfic The Basalt City Chronicles, in which Priest-Emperor Zaykar Kh'Naral is the 24th of that name. His grandfather was Rraghan Kh'Naral CDLXVII (The 467th). It's said that their dynasty reaches back into prehistoric times.

* Cordwainer Smith's ''Norstrilia'' had Roderick McBan CLI.
* In the Worldwar / Colonization series by Harry Turtledove, the Race is governed by a 50,000 year old imperial dynasty headed by the Ssumaz family. The current emperor is "37th Emperor Risson".

* Averted in DeltoraQuest, in which there does not seem to have been more than one monarch with the same name in the country's history. Although the series does end by revealing that Lief and Jasmine named their one of their sons after his father, he is either a second or third son (his brother is named after Jasmine's father, in an aversion of DeadGuyJunior) and likely won't become king.
* Variation in CodexAlera. The First Lord is Gaius Sextus and the deceased heir was Gaius Septimus, meaning the First Lord is Gaius the 6th and the deceased heir is Gaius the 7th. This becomes a plot point in determining the next heir to the crown [[spoiler: Tavi is short for Octavian, aka Gaius the 8th.]]
* Rafik Schami's fictional city of Morgana is technically a democracy with an elected president but practically always ruled by a member of the family Hadahek (a very large and costantly feuding family). At first, the presidents were numbered (President Hadahek LIII) but people soon got fed up with the increasing numbers, and added adjectives intead (President Hadahek the Brave) until they ran out of adjectives. Currently they name their presidents according to their hobbies (President Hadahek the Toy-Collector)

* MisterRogersNeighborhood had King [[PunnyName Friday XIII]] of the Land of Make-Believe.

* Probably implied in [[GilbertAndSullivan ''Ruddigore'']]. At the time of the play's setting, in the beginning of the 19th century, there are depending on how you look at it, either 22 or 23 "bad baronets" of Ruddigore. As the bulk of baronetcies were from the mid 1600s, it seems a bit short of time for their to have been that many of them. Likely, since they are cursed to die if they don't commit at least one evil act daily, they have a high turn-over rate.

* KingdomOfLoathing has King Ralph [[RunningGag XI]]. Who ''constantly'' gets imprismed. By a magical, indestructible [[spoiler:sausage]] that somehow keeps coming back.

* The plot of the obscure puzzle game BlueIce begins with the death of Edward the 712th.

* SagaFrontier2: Gustave XIII [[spoiler: at least until he was proven to have no aptitude in Anima]], who also had a younger half brother named Gustave.

* {{Erfworld}} has King Saline the Fourth (IV). [[PunnyName Think about it]].

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* Parodied in ''Verhalen van de tweelingbroers'' by Tonke Dragt, when one of the main characters [[ItMakesSenseInContext suddenly becomes King of Tirania]], he has, despite being named Laurenzo, to adopt the name of Sutan the 467th[[hottip:*:which is usually not even abbreviated, but written as ''Sutan the Fourhundredsixtyseventh'']], because all his predecessors [[StatusQuoIsGod have borne that name as well]]. [[spoiler: There being actually [[ItMakesSenseInContext ''two'' Sutans the 467th]] isn't reflected in the numbering, though.]]

* The ruler of Syldavia in the Tintin story ''King Ottokcar's Sceptre'' was King Muskar XII.

** This is why Edward Longshanks of the House of Plantagenet (r. 1272-1307) is called Edward I even though three previous Edwards (Edward the Elder, Edward the Martyr, and Edward the Confessor) had been King of England (well King of the English...) before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

** The ''Dune Encyclopedia'' has a list of every Emperor along with the dates of their reigns. Shaddam IV's immediate predecessors were Fredhrick XIX, Corrin XXV and Elrood IX. Shaddam III reigned 4200 years before Shaddam IV, Shaddam II was some 3000 years before that, and Shaddam I reigned 2400 years before him. Shaddam IV was the 81st "Padishah" Emperor, but the 370th Emperor of the Known Universe.

* Due to an incident involving a prophylactic and a time-machine, all [[HitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy Zaphod Beeblebroxes]] are numbered backwards, with the youngest being "Zaphod Beeblebrox I", his father "Zaphod Beeblebrox II", grandfather "Zaphod Beeblebrox III" and so on. A maverick judge in the third novel, who lived millions of years ago, is known as Zipo Bibrok 5x10^8, i.e. Zipo Bibrok (an underlined D), implying that he is a very distant ancestor.

* Regnal numbering only began in 13th century Europe; numbers prior to this have been applied in retrospect by historians. Before this, monarchs were distinguished by nicknames, e.g. the English kings Edmund the Magnificent and Edmund Ironside) or by paternity.

* MisterRogersNeighborhood had King [[PunnyName Friday XIII.]]

* Played straight in the GeneCatlow fanfic The Basalt City Chronicles, in which Priest-Emperor Zaykar Kh'Naral is the 24th of that name. His grandfather was Rraghan Kh'Naral CDLXVII (The 467th).

* Played straight in the GeneCatlow fanfic The Basalt City Chronicles, in which Priest-Emperor Zaykar Kh'Naral is the 24th of that name. His grandfather was Rraghan Kh'Naral CDLXVII.