History Main / KingBobTheNth

* Ferdinand I of Austria was also Ferdinand V of Hungary and Bohemia. Charles I of Austria was also Charles IV of Hungary. Hungary had also Stephen V, Ladislaus V, and Béla V, while Bohemia also had Wenceslaus IV.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few monarchs who have numbered titled names, such as Riku Dold III, the King of Dressrosa, and Elizabello II, the King of Prodence. There are also some nobles who have similar titles, such as Outlook III (Sabo's father). In addition, there is also a Fishman pirate named Vander Decken IX, who claims to be a descendent of the legendary Captain of the Flying Dutchman, Vander Decken.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few monarchs who have numbered titled names such as Riku Dold III, the King of Dressrosa, and Elizabello II the King of Prodence. There are also some nobles who have similar titles such as Outlook III (Sabo's father). In addition, there is also a Fishman pirate who is titled Vander Decken IX, who claims to be a descendent of the legendary Captain of the Flying Dutchman, Vander Decken.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few rulers like that, like Riku Dold III, Elizabello II, or Outlook III (Sabo's father). On the non-ruler side of things, we also have Vander Decken IX.

* The current Queen of Denmark may only be the second Margrethe, but her predecessors embodies this trope to its fullest: She is the first monarch in more than 450 years who isn't named either ''Frederick'' or ''Christian'', with her father being Frederick IX and her grandfather being Christian X, and probably only because both were considered somewhat unsuitable names for a woman. She overlooked the fact that "Margrethe I" was only regent of Denmark (and Norway and Sweden, which she united with Denmark in the Kalmar Union), since medieval Nordic sensibilities did not stretch to accepting the concept of a queen regnant. The naming tradition caused a bit of trouble when naming Margrethe II's heir apparent, her first son, since she wanted to keep going with the custom; they eventually decided that since her father was a Frederick, she would be counted as a Christian, and thus he was named Frederick. As Crown Prince Frederick has named his son and eldest child Christian, it appears the tradition will resume with Frederick X followed by Christian XI.

* In fact, the French had approximately 18 kings named Louis. And one Louis-Phillippe. Oh, and ten named Charles [[note]]technically eleven, as Charles the Fat, who originally ruled East Francia (Germany) before inheriting the whole former Frankish Empire and is counted as Charles III in the German numbering, isn’t included in the French numbering[[/note]] and six named Philip and five named Henry [[note]]though the one numbered as the fifth generally isn’t counted by historians as reigning, given that he was never officially proclaimed king and his disputed reign only lasted a week.[[/note]]. The current heir to the house of Bourbon styles himself as Louis XX (Louis XIX having been the nominal king of France for 20 minutes in 1830).
** Deliberately invoked from the 17th Century through to the French Revolution: every heir in direct line for the throne was given the first name Louis, for '''eight generations''' beginning with Louis XIII.[[note]]XV was XIV's great-grandson; XVI and XVIII were XV's grandsons; XVII was XVI's son, never crowned. In each case, the intervening generations, who predeceased their antecedents, were also all named Louis.[[/note]] In fact, Louis XVI and Louis XVIII were brothers, both named Louis but with different middle names. The first Bourbon king (Henry IV, who succeeded in 1589) was ten generations from his last royal ancestor, Louis IX (who died in 1270), and it was perhaps to reinforce their claim to the throne that the Bourbons named most of their sons Louis, although the fact that Louis IX was the only Capetian king to be canonised as a saint may have been even more important, especially considering that Henry IV was originally a Protestant but converted to Catholicism following his accession in the midst of the French Wars of Religion and there was continuing strife amongst the religious groups.

** Deliberately invoked from the 17th Century through to the French Revolution: every heir in direct line for the throne was given the first name Louis, for '''eight generations''' beginning with Louis XIII.[[note]]XV was XIV's great-grandson; XVI and XVIII were XV's grandsons; XVII was XVI's son, never crowned. In each case, the intervening generations were also all named Louis.[[/note]] In fact, Louis XVI and Louis XVIII were brothers, both named Louis but with different middle names. The first Bourbon king (Henry IV, who succeeded in 1589) was ten generations from his last royal ancestor, Louis IX (who died in 1270), and it was perhaps to reinforce their claim to the throne that the Bourbons named most of their sons Louis, although the fact that Louis IX was the only Capetian king to be canonised as a saint may have been even more important, especially considering that Henry IV was originally a Protestant but converted to Catholicism following his accession and there was strife amongst the religious groups.

** The British monarchy is also relatively tame on this trope and no regnal numbers have gotten into the double digits yet. There have been eight Henrys and Edwards, but because the last kings with those names had troubled reigns they may be unofficially retired. After that, there have been seven Jameses, six Georges, four Williams in England plus one in Scotland, and four Malcolms.
** Averted with, among others, King Stephen, King John and Queen Anne. No numbers since they're the only monarchs to bear that name on the English/British throne.
*** Anne doesn't stand out since there haven't been that many reigning queens but Stephen hasn't been used since 1154. This isn't all that surprising, since King Stephen reigned during a disastrous civil war and also was the first and only member of the House of Blois to sit on the English throne, without becoming part of the ancestry of his successors. Queen Anne, on the other hand, was quite a successful monarch and Queen Elizabeth II had no problem using that name for her daughter.
*** Contrary to a popular misconception, the name John has been reused in the English and British royal family, though admittedly mostly for younger sons; while King John's grandson Edward I "Longshanks" named his eldest son John (who died before his father), later royals named John have all been younger sons. The most significant of these is probably John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III, a major political and social figure in his day[[note]]He was ''de facto'' regent of England during the minority of his nephew Richard II, and he was a major patron of the arts, most especially Creator/GeoffreyChaucer[[/note]] and founder of the House of Lancaster (and thus ancestor of all English and British monarchs since Henry VII.[[note]]Henry VII was the the heir to the Lancastrian cause, being a descendant of John of Gaunt and his third wife Katherine Swynford--who was, incidentally, Geoffrey Chaucer's sister-in-law.[[/note]] More recently, the youngest son of George V was Prince John (1905–19).
** UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria has also not been recycled, but considering that she was relatively recent and that there has only been one queen regnant since her, this may not mean anything. It may be permanently unused to preserve the uniqueness, but then people thought the same thing about Elizabeth until 1952 (when UsefulNotes/ElizabethII first learned of her accession, her personal secretary Martin Charteris asked her, "By what name shall you be known?" expecting her to pick a different regnal name[[note]]Most likely her second middle name Mary, becoming Mary III[[/note]]; the ever-practical Queen surprised him and said, "My own, of course.")

Often, if a work wants to portray an old kingdom with entrenched rulers, they will have a leader who has a number,[[note]]called an ordinal, or regnal number[[/note]] after their name (e.g. King Bob IX). These are always written in Roman numerals and the large ones can actually be TruthInTelevision: France, for example, had 18 Kings named Louis.[[note]]Louis XVII never actually ruled but royalists proclaimed him the 'rightful king' from 1793-95 and when his uncle reclaimed the throne in 1814 he took the name Louis XVIII in deference to this. Louis XIX reigned for a few hours in 1830, between his father's abdication and his own abdication in favour of his nephew, in an unsuccessful bid to stave off revolution and is usually not considered an actual monarch.[[/note]]

** 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, and six Georges. There's also four Williams in England plus one in Scotland, which also had four Malcolms.

*** Anne doesn't stand out since there haven't been that many reigning queens but Stephen hasn't been recycled since 1154. This isn't all that surprising, since King Stephen reigned during a disastrous civil war and also was the first and only member of the House of Blois to sit on the English throne, without becoming part of the ancestry of his successors. Queen Anne, on the other hand, was quite a successful monarch, Queen Elizabeth II had no problem using that name for her daughter.

** Charles Philip Arthur George once said he intended to be "King George VII", not "Charles III", as the two previous Kings named Charles had been rather unlucky. If this had happened, his grandson would in all likelihood have been George VIII (assuming he doesn't want to troll his people by becoming Louis I[[note]]Louis VIII of France was technically ruler of England from 1216-17, a mostly forgotten bit of trivia now but sure to be brought up if another King Louis ever seems likely[[/note]] or Alexander IV).[[note]]There having been three Kings Alexander of Scotland, the British government established in 1952 that monarchs whose numerals are different in England and Scotland use the higher numeral[[/note]] In the end, he went with "Charles III" anyway, likely due to his 70-year tenure as Prince of Wales cementing him as "Prince Charles" in the eyes of the public. Charles' first son William on the other hand will presumably be become "William V" (which, interestingly, probably puts a William on the throne for the 1000th anniversary of the Conquest[[note]]Using Christmas Day 2066 as the reference point (the 1000th anniversary of the Conqueror's coronation), he'd be 84. While that's definitely old, between modern medicine and good longevity genes (remember, his paternal grandparents lived well into their 90s) it's reaonably likely he'll get there.[[/note]]).
** In the (now highly unlikely) event that Prince Harry became king, he would likely be Henry IX. (Although [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII the last Henry]] was somewhat unsavoury, the alternatives are worse; his full name is "Henry Charles Albert David. "Charles" is not especially likely, given the bad blood between him and his dad--or at least between [[Creator/MeghanMarkle his wife]] and his dad; "Albert" is permanently reserved for Queen Victoria's Prince Consort; and "David" would not only require English people to be confused about "David III" because there were two prior Davids of Scots, but would also remind his aunt and uncles about the other David--their late and unpleasant great-uncle Edward VIII, known to his family by that name.)
* [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope John XXIII]] (actually the 21st Pope of this name, due to some confusion in numbering; Antipopes make everything terrible -- the 20th century John XXIII is also the second John XXIII), plus John Paul II. And to complete the dual names, there was Paul VI. Also Benedict XVI, Gregory XVI, Pius XII, Leo XIII, Clement XIV, Innocent XIII, Stephen IX (once called Stephen X, due to one dying before officially becoming Pope. While Pope-Elect Stephen was once counted in the numbering, modern lists tend to exclude him, resulting in the subsequent Stephens being renumbered one spot lower), Boniface IX, Urban VIII, Alexander VIII, Adrian VI, Celestine V, Nicholas V, Sixtus V, Martin V (technically there were only three of the name, but a mistranslation of two Popes named Marinus led to the confusion), Anastasius IV, Eugene IV, Honorius IV, Sergius IV, and Felix IV, plus an Antipope Felix V. There were also two different Antipopes Victor IV and an Antipope Sylvester IV. Before our current Pope Francis, the last Pope to have an original name was [[Franchise/StarWars Lando]] (no, honestly!), reigned AD 913–14 (unless one counts "John Paul" as original).

** Andrew Russell is the 15th Duke of Bedford, of the Fifth Creation (1694) of that title. The First Creation was in 1414; and before that, there were two creations of Earls of Bedford, one of which remains as a subsidiary title of the Duke of Bedford, so the Duke of Bedford is also the (N+4)th Earl of Bedford, as the Dukedom was created for the 5th Earl. As a result, in addition to being the 15th Duke of Bedford of the Fifth Creation, Andrew Russell is also the 19th Earl of Bedford of the Third Creation. This isn't entirely academic; if the male heirs of the first Duke ever die out, the heir of a younger son of the fourth Earl will become Earl ''but not Duke'' of Bedford.

* The current Queen of Denmark may only be the second Margrethe, but her predecessors embodies this trope to its fullest: She is the first monarch in more than 450 years who isn't named either ''Frederick'' or ''Christian'', with her father being Frederick IX and her grandfather being Christian X, and probably only because both were considered somewhat unsuitable names for a woman. She overlooked the fact that "Margrethe I" was only regent of Denmark (and Norway and Sweden, which she united with Denmark in the Kalmar Union), since medieval Nordic sensibilities did not stretch to accepting the concept of a Queen Regnant. The naming tradition caused a bit of trouble when naming Margrethe II's heir apparent, her first son, since she wanted to keep going with the custom; they eventually decided that since her father was a Frederick, she would be counted as a Christian, and thus he was named Frederick. As Crown Prince Frederick has named his son and eldest child Christian, it appears the tradition will resume with Frederick X followed by Christian XI.

* The German Duchy of Anhalt had Leopold IV.

* In the German House of Hesse, Louis X, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt became the first Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine as Louis I, being followed by Louis II, Louis III, and Louis IV, making for a total of 13 rulers named Louis. From another branch of the family, William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was elevated to Elector of Hesse, with his son and successor William II being the tenth overall ruler named William. From yet another branch, there was Frederick VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg.

* In Tsarist Russia, the most often used name for the Tsars was, unsurprisingly, Ivan. There were six of them, alternating with Vasilies and Feodors. But after the final two Ivans turned out to be ill-fated (Ivan V was a weak-minded co-regent to the more famous UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, and Ivan VI was deposed as a baby, grew up in prison, then was killed), the Romanovs ceased to use this name (the name Feodor turned out to be even less lucky, with none of the three Feodors turning out to be any good). Soon after they started to alternate Alexanders and Nicholases, but [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Revolution]] happened before they managed to accumulate a lot of these.

* In ''Fanfic/MirrorsTLOZ'', Sheik would have been Queen Zelda IX of Hyrule if he hadn't UsefulNotes/{{trans|gender}}itioned. Instead, he becomes King Zelda I, with his reign name differing from the name he casually uses.

* The Princes of Wallachia included Radu XI, Vlad VII, Basarab VI, Alexandru V, Mircea IV, and Grigore IV.

* The Princes of Wallachia included Radu XI, Vlad VII, Basarab VI, Alexandru V, and Mircea IV.

** James I and James II are properly "James I and VI" and "James II and VII" (of England and Scotland respectively), double dipping this trope. Most of the other monarchs of the UK, both before and after the act of Union, haven't recycled names from before the Scottish and English thrones merged. The only other monarch with dual numbers was William III and II, as there had been two prior English kings named William,[[note]][[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy The Conqueror and his son William II Rufus]][[/note]] but only one in Scotland.[[note]]William the Lion[[/note]] Current protocol is that the higher number takes precedence, hence William IV, Edward VII, Edward VIII and Elizabeth II. In the case of Mary II the numbers happen to match: England and Scotland had had one Mary each[[note]]The rough contemporaries "Bloody" UsefulNotes/MaryTudor in England and UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots in Scotland[[/note]] before the crown union. Neither had an earlier Charles, Anne, George, or Victoria, so that wasn't an issue. Conveniently, since 1707, no monarch has had a name with a higher Scottish numbering than English, and the royals are unlikely to do so; thus we are unlikely to see James VIII, Malcolm V, Kenneth IV, Donald IV, Constantine IV, Alexander IV, Robert IV, David III, Duncan III or Macbeth II on the throne any time soon.

** There have only been four sets of Presidents that were knowingly related (One geneologist worked out that every president up to Obama is a cousin to some degree of all the others if you trace their lineage back to the 12th Century), the aforementioned Adams and Bushes were both father/son presidents. The two Roosevelts (Theodore and Franklin, who were paternal line 5th cousins[[note]]But much closer by marriage—FDR's wife Eleanor was Teddy’s niece, and as her father (Teddy’s younger brother) has died young, Teddy gave her away at the wedding.[[/note]] are distinguished by nicknames (Teddy and FDR, Respectively). William and Benjamin Harrison (grandfather/grandson) tend not to have much trouble with distinguishing between them, possibly because William died in office after a month without ever having the opportunity to actually do anything. Another trend is to refer to the President by the order in which they ascended (former President Donald Trump is occasionally referred to simply as "45". Roman Numerals are almost never used by Americans when discussing the President, with the earliest known precedent of ignoring this rule established by Washington, who upon retiring after 2 terms (he could have easily managed a third) quipped "I did not fight George III to become George I."

** There have only been four sets of Presidents that were knowingly related (One geneologist worked out that every president up to Obama is a cousin to some degree of all the others if you trace their lineage back to the 12th Century), the aforementioned Adams and Bushes were both father/son presidents. The two Roosevelts (Theodore and Franklin) are distinguished by nicknames (Teddy and FDR, Respectively). William and Benjamin Harrison (grandfather/grandson) tend not to have much trouble with distinguishing between them, possibly because William died in office after a month without ever having the opportunity to actually do anything. Another trend is to refer to the President by the order in which they ascended (former President Donald Trump is occasionally referred to simply as "45". Roman Numerals are almost never used by Americans when discussing the President, with the earliest known precedent of ignoring this rule established by Washington, who upon retiring after 2 terms (he could have easily managed a third) quipped "I did not fight George III to become George I."

** James I and James II are properly "James I and VI" and "James II and VII" (of England and Scotland respectively), double dipping this trope. Most of the other monarchs of the UK, both before and after the act of Union, haven't recycled names from before the Scottish and English thrones merged. The only other monarch with dual numbers was William III and II, as there had been two prior English kings named William,[[note]][[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy The Conqueror and his son William II Rufus]][[/note]] but only one in Scotland.[[note]]William the Lion[[/note]] Current protocol is that the higher number takes precedence, hence William IV, Edward VII, Edward VIII and Elizabeth II. In the case of Mary II the numbers happen to match: England and Scotland had each had one Mary before the crown union. Neither had an earlier Charles, Anne, George, or Victoria, so that wasn't an issue. Conveniently, since 1707, no monarch has had a name with a higher Scottish numbering than English, and the royals are unlikely to do so; thus we are unlikely to see James VIII, Malcolm V, Kenneth IV, Donald IV, Constantine IV, Alexander IV, Robert IV, David III, Duncan III or Macbeth II on the throne any time soon.