A Child Shall Lead Them / Real Life

• France's Louis VII (age 11 as junior king, 17 as sole ruler), IX (age 12), XIII (age 9)^note (Who had the classic mother-as-regent situation, creating an opportunity for the legendary Cardinal Richelieu to rise to power.), XIV (age 4) and XV (age 5)^note (As an aside, Louis XIV had a very long life; so much so that his immediate successor's grandfather, father, and older brother expired before he did.). Also Charles VI (age 11), VIII (age 13), and IX (age 10). And to top it off, John I, who became king at birth... and died just five days later.
  • When Napoléon Bonaparte was forced to abdicate his throne as Emperor of the French for the second time in 1815, his 4-year-old son became Napoleon II for 16 days before the Bourbon Dynasty was restored. Since Napoleon II was in Austria at the time, he didn't actually find out that he had briefly been Emperor until years later, though a council ruled in his name for those two weeks. This is why when Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon I) declared himself Emperor of the French in 1852 (having spent the preceding 4 years as President of France), he took the name Napoleon III, recognizing the brief and nominal reign of his first cousin in 1815.
• King Baldwin IV of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem was only 13 when crowned and even then he proved to be an effective leader. At age 16, he gave the Crusaders a decisive victory in the Battle of Montgisar against Saladin, who barely managed to escape. Had he not been a victim of leprosy, perhaps the crusader states would have lasted longer than they did.
• England's Henry III (age 9), Edward III (age 14), Richard II (age 10), Henry VI (age 9 months), Edward V (age 12), and Edward VI (age 9).
  • When Richard II was 14 years old, he had to deal with the Peasants' Revolt—a mass popular uprising that was something like Communism in England 500 years before Karl Marx. He met the massive peasant army in person, accompanied only by a small royal party, on a field outside of London. He promptly got them all to pledge loyalty to him. After the moment had passed, he broke all the promises he'd made and had all the rebel leaders executed. Some historians think that this helped contribute to the runaway ego and sense of invincibility that got him overthrown by Henry Bolingbroke's revolt of nobles in 1399; other historians have argued that he had actually wanted to keep his promises—later that year he'd floated the idea in Parliament of abolishing serfdom—and that his antagonistic relationship with the nobility had its roots in the fact that they wouldn't let him (after all, he was only fourteen, and the nobles were the primary targets of the revolt).
  • Edward V never officially reigned or was even crowned, as his uncle, Richard III, usurped the throne and declared that Edward and his siblings were illegitimate. More generous historians have argued that Richard did so partly because he dreaded a repeat of what had happened with the two previous boy kings — manipulative regents, resentful nobles, usurpations (admittedly Richard was ahead of the curve in that regard) civil wars and a whole lot of corpses — and he wanted to prevent any further conflict. Of course, then we get into the question of what Richard might or might not have done to young Edward and his brother...
• This was a pattern in the Scottish House of Stewart/Stuart during the 15th and 16th centuries, with seven consecutive monarchs coming to the throne in their minority:
  • James I became King of Scots at the age of 12, and in exile, a captive of the English. He was a younger son of the elderly Robert III - his much older brother, David, was captured and probably killed on the orders of their uncle, the Duke of Albany. He remained imprisoned and unmarried until 1424, at the age of 30, and a son was not born until 1430. He was assassinated in 1437, leaving the throne to...
  • James II, just six and a half years old at his accession. He married much younger than his father (at 19) and had seven children, including three sons who survived infancy, the first of whom was born in 1451. However, James II was very warlike and an artillery enthusiast, which resulted in his early death at the age of 29, having been killed by a cannon which exploded as he was besieging an English castle.
  • As a result, James III became King at the age of nine. Less warlike than his father, he also sired three boys, all of whom survived infancy. However, he was unpopular with the Scottish nobility, and he feuded constantly with his two brothers, both of whom enjoyed the support of not only much of the aristocracy but also those meddling English, plunging the country into intermittent civil wars which plagued his later reign. Surprisingly, he held out until 1488, after almost a decade of fighting, before he was finally killed in the Battle of Sauchieburn. By this time, most of the rebels had shifted to supporting his eldest son...
  • James IV, who became King of Scots at the age of 15, the closest any Stewart would come to ascending the throne as an adult in a span of over two centuries. In fact, he assumed personal rule right away, and was a very successful and popular King, today regarded as the first King of the Scottish Renaissance. Although he continued his father's conflicts with England, backing several pretenders to the throne held by Henry Tudor, he eventually agreed to a peace treaty which would see him marrying Tudor's eldest daughter, Margaret, in 1502. The King of Scots was almost 30 years old at this point, and his only child to survive infancy was not born until 1512. By this time, the alliance with England was collapsing as a result of Henry Tudor's more bellicose son (and his own brother-in-law) having succeeded him and declaring war on France in the War of the League of Cambrai. Bound by conflicting treaty obligations^note The ironically-named Treaty of Perpetual Peace with England, which had secured his marriage to Margaret Tudor, versus the Auld Alliance with France, which dated from 1295, James ultimately chose to support France, and marched his troops into England. The resulting Battle of Flodden Field was a massacre, killing an entire generation of Scottish noblemen, as well as the King himself, the last British monarch to die in battle^note The second-to-last British monarch to die in battle being his own father, as noted above - Richard III, the last English monarch to die in battle, was actually third-to-last overall, and the throne passed to...
  • James V, just seventeen months old. His mother, naturally pro-English, briefly served as Regent until she remarried, allowing for more pro-French forces to assume control of foreign policy. Protracted marriage negotiations with the King of France resulted in a short-lived union with his sickly daughter Madeleine, who survived the wedding by only six months. James then remarried to a daughter of the Duke of Guise, but although two sons were born of this union, neither survived infancy. James began warring with England once again in 1541, shortly after his mother's death, and despite some initial victories, he was badly defeated at the Battle of Solway Moss the following year. By this time, he had already fallen ill, and died of what was probably cholera just three weeks later; he had only just learned that his last child, born six days before his death, was a girl, resulting in his famous quote: "it came wi a lass, it'll gang wi a lass" - referring to the House of Stewart's accession to the throne through marriage to a daughter of Robert the Bruce, and how this dynasty would now come to an end by his own daughter's marriage. With no obvious male heirs ^note James V was the last surviving male-line descendant of Robert III who was himself male; all other claimants had ancestry which passed through a female line, and it was disputed which one had the better claim, it was ultimately accepted that his daughter would reign as...
  • Mary, Queen of Scots, the youngest monarch in the history of the British Isles, aged just six days at her accession. Her mother, Mary of Guise, was her Regent, and sought to marry her daughter to a French prince; it just so happened that the King's eldest son, the Dauphin, was available. Henry VIII, on the other hand, wanted to marry his grand-niece to his own son and heir, Prince Edward - either way, it seemed likely that a personal union with another, larger and more powerful country was in the cards for Scotland. Henry VIII went to war with Scotland for Mary's hand, in a conflict known as the "Rough Wooing" - ultimately, the Scots won out (the last time they would successfully defend their independence from England) and a marriage with Dauphin Francis ensued. His father, Henry II, died in a jousting accident, and Francis himself became King in his minority, at age 15, in 1559. However, by this time, the Protestant Reformation was sweeping through Scotland, and many Scots disliked the idea of being ruled by the arch-Catholic French. The question was rendered moot by the death of the sickly Francis II in 1560; Mary returned to Scotland and eventually married her cousin, the Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, thus shoring up their mutual claims to the English throne (both were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, making them the most senior descendants of Henry VII should Henry VIII's line due out), and conveniently securing the Stuart^note the spelling was changed from "Stewart" because Mary's French relatives and in-laws apparently kept mispronouncing it dynasty on the Scottish throne (Lord Darnley being a more distant cousin of the Scots royals in the male line). However, her second marriage was turbulent and, despite the birth of a son, James, in 1566, Darnley was violently murdered the following year. Mary then married her husband's murderer, and the resulting furor led to her forced abdication in 1567. She subsequently fled to England and, just like her ancestor James I, was imprisoned, though she was ultimately executed in 1587. Had she reigned until her death (or longer), her eldest son would not have been an example of this trope, but the way things turned out...
  • James VI of Scotland succeeded his mother as monarch at the age of thirteen months. He was raised with a Protestant education, cementing Scotland as a Protestant state, and unlike most of his ancestors, enjoyed a very long and peaceful reign, avoiding wars as much as he could and ultimately inheriting the throne of England upon the death of his childless cousin, Elizabeth, who was the niece of his great-grandmother^note two different ways: his mother's paternal grandmother and his father's maternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor. This resulted in the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland which endures to this day. James VI was the first Scottish monarch to make it past the age of fifty since Robert III (who died at 68 in 1390), and he also seems to have broken the curse which resulted in Scottish monarchs coming to the throne in their minority; when James VI (and I) died in 1625, his son Charles was already 24 years old (although, granted, said son had other problems during his own reign). In fact, no subsequent British monarch has inherited the throne before reaching the age of majority^note Queen Victoria was the youngest, acceding to the throne just over three weeks after her 18th birthday—allegedly because her uncle William IV hated Victoria's mother so much that he willed himself to live just long enough to prevent her from becoming regent. He certainly gave a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to her in his final months in which he said that this was what he wanted..
• Margaret of Norway was seen by many to be the Queen of Scots from 1286 until her death in 1290. It should be noted that she died at age seven.
• Joan of Arc was granted command of the French army at the tender age of 16. Under her leadership, the long string of English victories came to an abrupt halt. No wonder the English were so eager to see her removed when she was captured.
• Egypt's King Tutankhamun, who became Pharaoh when around 8 and died at age 18.
• Egypt's Pepi II Neferkare (reigned 2278?-2184 BC) came the throne at the age of 6 and died 94 years later (at least according to the historian Manetho). If this figure is right, he's not only the longest-reigning Egyptian monarch but the longest-reigning monarch of anywhere of all time.
  • The exact length of his reign is disputed and was probably "only" 64 years.
  • However long he actually ruled, Harkhuf, governor of the southernmost province of Upper Egypt, is recorded to have written to Pepi that he had found a pygmy during an expedition to Nubia and was planning to send him to the royal court. The king—who was all of about 8 years old at this point—apprently dictated an extremely excited letter to his governor at this news, giving all kinds of instructions about how the pygmy was to be transported to Memphis and how Harkhuf was to be rewarded richly for delivering such a gift to the king. For his part Harkhuf apparently found this missive from the excitable child monarch so cute and adorable that he had the letter transcribed verbatim on the walls of his tomb.
• In Egypt's modern era, as Farouk I abdicated the throne as King of Egypt and the Sudan, he named his 1-year old son Fuad II as his successor, in the hopes of unifying the country and appeasing the revolutionaries during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Since Fuad I was less than a year old at the time of accession and Farouk left the country for Italy, he was never formally crowned, with the Council of Regency led by Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim acting as regent for Fuad II until he came of age. In 1953, the Egyptian revolutionaries formally abolished the monarchy and declared Egypt a republic; as a result, he was the uncrowned King of Egypt and the Sudan in absentia from July 26, 1952, until June 18, 1953, even though his reign was never formally recognized.
• Charles XII of Sweden took the throne fairly at 15 and was just 18 years when he won the Battle of Narva (some historians claim his aides deserve more credit for that particular battle, no matter). He was more effective than many young rulers as he was a fairly good Strategist. However, his recklessness and weakness in long-term planning kept him from rising to the level of a Wise Prince.
• Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire took Constantinople at the age of nineteen. His father Murad II initially abdicated in his favor when he was 12, and when dealing with a Hungarian invasion two years later Mehmed reportedly summoned the more experienced leader out of retirement thus:
  "If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan, I hereby order you to come and lead my armies."
• Portugal had Afonso V (age 6), Sebastião (age 3), Afonso VI (age 12) and Maria II (age 7).
• Joan I of Navarre, who became queen of Navarre and countess of Champagne at the age of three.
• Jadwiga/Hedwig of Anjou, King of Poland. She (that's right, she) became king at the age of ten and became something of a Wise Princess.
• The future first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi (then known as Ying Zheng, King of Qin), was only 13 when he became the king of the Qin state. After some 20 years of warfare, he carved out a huge empire that remains intact two thousand years later.
• The last emperor of China, Puyi, ascended the throne when he was three. Child emperors were a favorite political tool for ambitious members of the harem, as they were too young (and spoiled) to rule effectively. The early chapters of Romance of the Three Kingdoms chronicles the (fictionalized) account of such a succession of ridiculously young emperors. However, it is historically true that the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty saw a large number of emperors who ascended the throne as children or teenagers. On the flip side, Emperor Kangxi ascended the throne at the tender age of eight, and his reign was widely considered to be the Qing dynasty's golden era.
  • Emperor Kangxi's father, Emperor Shunzhi was only five years old when he ascended the throne.
  • The final years of China's Qing dynasty saw three very young emperors succeed each other. The first, Yizhi AKA the Tongzhi Emperor, became emperor when he was five. He died when he was eighteen and was succeeded by his four-year-old cousin Zaitian, AKA the Guangxu Emperor. He was murdered when he was thirty-seven and was succeeded by his three-year-old nephew, the aforementioned Puyi.
  • The Xianfeng Emperor, Yizhi's father, became emperor when he was nineteen.
• This was pretty common in medieval Muslim kingdoms. An atabeg (literally "father-prince" in Turkish, but more like godfather/stepfather) was sometimes appointed to teach and assist a minor on the throne. Eventually, atabeg became a hereditary title roughly equivalent to duke or somesuch. The most famous hereditary atabegs are the Zengids, the rulers of Mosul; they are directly responsible for the Second Crusade (thanks to their pressure on the Kingdom of Jerusalem) and indirectly responsible for the Third (Saladin was their trusted lieutenant who took over Egypt for them; he quickly exploited the fact that the atabeg was a minor (!) to consolidate control over Greater Syria as well.
• Christina of Sweden became king of Sweden when she was six years old. She took the oath as king, not queen, and was nicknamed 'the Girl King'.
• In 1867, 14-going-to-15 Crown Prince Mutsuhito took over the reins of Imperial Japan after the death of his father. He would be known in history as the one who started the Empire's renovation (though your mileage may vary on that one)... Emperor Meiji.
  • Actually, many Japanese emperors were like this, such as the eight-year-old Antoku from the Tale of the Heikei. It was practice for hundreds of years to keep very young men on the throne so that the real ruling of the country was left to the members of the Fujiwara clan, serving as regents, who also married their children into the line whenever possible. Many emperors abdicated early and took on more power and authority as "retired emperors" while their younger successors were kept cloistered. And, of course, for about two hundred years during the Warring States period the real power fell to whoever was Shogun just then.
• The children's crusades, both led by young teenage boys with great expectations. Suffice to say that they didn't turn out so well.
• Russia's Ivan the Terrible (sixteen at the start of his reign), Mikhail Romanov (also sixteen), Peter the Great (ten) and Peter II (eleven, died at fourteen). The most extreme Russian example is Ivan VI: enthroned at the age of eight weeks, overthrown little more than a month later, imprisoned for the rest of his life, killed nearly a month before his 24th birthday.
• The Sassanid Empire took this trope to the Logical Extreme when Shapur II became the only known monarch to be crowned in utero. In other words, while his mother was still pregnant with him, a coronation ceremony was held and the crown was placed on her belly, making him the next ruler^note In most cases like this, they at least wait until the umbilical is cut and the kid washed up a little before breaking out the regalia.
• In 1885, King Alfonso XII of Spain died with no sons, but a pregnant wife. The throne was left vacant until the birth of the baby, which turned out to be a boy who was immediately proclaimed King Alfonso XIII. There was even a debate about whether his reign should be backdated to before his birth.
  • If Alfonso XIII had been female, his oldest sister would have become Queen instead (Alfonso's grandma had been the reigning queen Isabella II) ... maybe. When Alfonso's ancestor came to the throne from France as Philip V, he introduced France's Salic Law to Spain. Isabella II's father needed special and highly controversial legislation to allow her to become ruler in the first place, even though that was the historic practice of Spanish monarchy and its predecessors going back to the Middle Ages (Isabella I being a great example of a powerful woman monarch and Founder of the Kingdom) and probable inspiration for other European monarchies to allow women to rule in their own names (e.g. this seems to be what happened in England when they let first Mary I and then Elizabeth I take the throne; Mary was Isabella I's granddaughter). The ongoing controversy was a major reason for the revolution that eventually deposed her. Making it more of an issue is that while there was a powerful faction in Spanish politics at the time who wanted to make the monarchy into what it basically is today, it was far from certain that they would win.
  • King Carlos II (the Accursed) of Spain was not quite four when his aged father Felipe IV died at 60. That was the least of his problems, and he died at 38 having never held effective power.
• Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, son of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, became President of Haiti at the age of 19.
• Dom Pedro II became Emperor of Brazil when he was five years old. Nearly 60 years later, he became perhaps the most popular monarch ever to be overthrown. It's said that the only person in Brazil other than those responsible for the coup who didn't mind was Pedro himself, who'd grown tired of ruling, was unwilling to let his loyal soldiers die to keep him on the throne, and had doubts about whether his daughter Dona Isabel would be accepted as Empress (she'd acted as his regent on 3 different occasions with great competence, but earned the enmity of the same wealthy elites who overthrew her father for having abolished slavery). The citizens were pissed at how he was treated.
• King Oyo of Toro is a modern-day example. Though he's technically an adult now, he was crowned at age 3 1/2.
• William the Bastard not only had to deal with becoming the Duke of Normandy at 7 years old, as his name obviously implies, but he was also the bastard son of a tanner's daughter. As such, he dealt with multiple attempts on his line and his title, but he made it into his teens, was knighted by the King of France at 15, and by 19, was routinely seeing off all his rivals on the battlefield. Unlike most child rulers, William achieved great heights, the most notable of course being the defeat of King Harold Godwinson of England and taking the throne himself, thereafter becoming known as William The Conqueror.
• Sobhuza II of Swaziland ascended to the throne at the age of six months on the 10th of December, 1899, and reigned until his death 82 years, 254 days later, in 1982, making his reign the longest reign of recent history, and the third-longest of all time.
• Princess Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of the Netherlands was not even born when her eldest half-brother Willem, Prince of Orange died and was only four when Spare to the Throne Alexander succumbed to illness (incidentally, her mother was younger than either of them). King Willem III passed in 1890, leaving the throne to her when she was ten.
• Between the end of the Thirty Years' War and the start of The Napoleonic Wars, the Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück was alternately appointed by the Catholic Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and the Protestant Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The last ruler, Friedrich August^note (Later to be styled the Duke of York and Albany), was appointed in February 1764 by Duke Georg Wilhelm Friedrich^note (AKA King George III of Great Britain)... and was born in August 1763.
• Ladislaus Postumus/Ladislav Pohrobek/Utószülött László/Ladislav Posmrtni, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria, was another case of someone declared ruler at birth due to the premature death of his father/predecessor and the Hungarian estates elected him King four years later once his rival Ulászló got killed. His death from leukemia at 17 meant he never stopped qualifying as this.
• At the age of 10, Ptolemy XIII became co-ruler of Egypt with his 18-year old sister Cleopatra VII, as well as being formally married to her. It didn't last long; after less than six months she ousted him from power entirely, though he did make a brief comeback three years later, forcing Cleopatra to flee to Syria. The ensuing civil war was ended when Ptolemy drowned while attempting to cross the Nile, and Cleopatra appointed their younger brother Ptolemy XIV (13 years old at the time) as co-ruler (and husband) in his place, although the latter's rule was in name only even more so than his predecessor.
• Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, began leading the movement that would ultimately conquer Iran when he was only twelve. He won a major victory over the Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen at age fourteen, and thereafter was proclaimed shah of Iran.
• Amakusa Shiro was only 16 years old when he was chosen to lead the Shimabara Rebellion because of due to a vision attributed to Francis Xavier about a Chosen One coming to liberate the Japanese Roman Catholics. Shiro was very competent at gathering followers due to his charisma and was regarded as the "heaven's messenger". Unfortunately, the rebellion was crushed because of a traitor ratted them out to the Shogunate and Shiro was executed at 17 with his head placed on a pike to serve as a warning to Christians.
• The Vietnamese court was terribly fond of these. Some notable examples:
  • The last Lý emperor and the only female ruler by right of birth in the history of the country, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, ascended the throne at 7. She abdicated a year later and handed the throne over to her husband, the 8-year-old Trần Cảnh (via the machinations of General Trần Thủ Độ, Cahn's uncle and later Chieu's stepfather). Out of 9 Lý emperors, 5 came to the throne as children. She was blamed for the collapse of the dynasty, and to this day is not worshipped in the same temple as her ancestors but a separate one devoted only to her.
  • Trần Cảnh became Trần Thái Tông, the first emperor of the Trần dynasty. He was forced to "promote" his pregnant sister-in-law to Empress and demote Chiêu Hoàng to princess in order to maintain the line of succession. The Trần dynasty also established the post of the Retired Emperor, in which an emperor would abdicate but remain an influence at court. This meant a fair few emperors ascended the throne as children.
  • The youngest was Lê Nhân Tông, crowned at the age of 2, was given formal power at 12 ^note but the de facto ruler was his mother, Empress Tuyên Từ. Contemporary accounts and historians are sharply divided on whether her 20-year rule was a peaceful period or an unnatural, chaotic one., and murdered by his brother at 19.
  • The Nguyễn dynasty saw French domination towards the end, so it was in the colonizers' interest to put children on the throne. A string of them were dethroned or assassinated because they were unsuitable. Hàm Nghi was arrested and exiled to Algeria until his death. Thành Thái was forced to abdicate and sent to Reunion Island, along with his son Duy Tân.
• Matthias I Corvinus of Hungary is a curious non-hereditary example that he was actually elected. When the previous monarch died without any heirs, the nobles assembled to pick a new one and the 14-year old Matthias at the time was chosen because he was the son of the famous Hungarian hero John Hunyadi that fought several crusades against the Ottoman Empire. He turned out to be very successful (if very ruthless) king on his own right.
• II. Lajos of Hungary/Ludvík II of Bohemia was formally declared co-ruler by his father II. Ulászló/Vladislav II when he was not quite two, and said father died when he was ten. Youthful enthusiasm was probably not the only reason for the political^note (protip: When the ambassador from a considerably more powerful empire shows up to collect fairly longstanding tribute, make sure you have secured military backup before sending the guy's severed head back to his master), administrative, and tactical blunders that led up to the rout at Mohács where he died at age twenty, but it is unlkely to have helped.
• Very young kings were common in the final years of the Goryeo kingdom (modern-day Korea). Sadly many of them were assassinated while still young.
  • King Chungsuk was nineteen when he first became king. This was unusually old, considering how young his son, grandsons, and great-grandson were.
  • King Chunghye, Chungsuk's son, was king twice; his first reign began when he was fifteen. Unfortunately he was a terrible ruler with a fondness for raping and murdering women.
  • Two of Chunghye's sons became king, and both of them were this trope. Chungmok became king when he was seven and died when he was eleven. His half-brother Chungjeong became king when he was ten. He was deposed aged thirteen and murdered aged fourteen. Disturbingly, Chungjeong fathered at least two children before his death.
  • King U ^note Chungsuk's grandson and Chunghye's nephew was enthroned at the ripe old age of eleven. He was deposed when he was twenty-three and murdered a year later. His son, King Chang, was enthroned aged seven. Sadly, Chang was murdered along with his father when he was only eight.
• Earlier in the Goryeo kingdom, King Injong took the throne when shortly before his thirteenth birthday. His reign lasted twenty-four years and was full of political drama; among other things he witnessed the rise of China's Yuan dynasty and its attempts to make Goryeo a vassal state.
• Ananda Mahidol became king of Thailand when he was nine. He never had a chance to rule; he spent most of his reign in Switzerland, and died under very mysterious circumstances when he was only twenty. His younger brother Bhumibol became king when he was eighteen, though his coronation was delayed for four years.
• Emperor Ai, last emperor of the Tang dynasty, was crowned aged eleven and murdered aged fifteen.
• Emperor Shang's birthdate is uncertain, but he died when he was nineteen at the oldest.
• Shō Tai, last king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, became king when he was only six.
• Shō On became king when he was eleven and died when he was eighteen. His son Shō Sei became king when he was two and died of smallpox a year later.
• Danjong of Joseon became king when he was twelve. When he was only sixteen his uncle overthrew him and had him murdered.
• Child rulers were often installed by generals planning to usurp the throne in China.
  • Liu Xie, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, was only eight when he became emperor. He spent his entire life as a Puppet King of various generals like Dong Zhuo or more notable Cao Cao. He was forced to abdicate as an adult, and was surprisingly not murdered.
  • Liu Xie’s brother Liu Bian was thirteen when he became emperor. He was deposed by Dong Zhuo less than a year later and was forced to commit suicide aged only 14. In general, the Eastern Han had a lot of child emperors; Liu Xie and Liu Bian’s father Liu Hong became emperor at 12.
  • The Cao Wei state was also plagued with child rulers near the end of its short existence. The penultimate emperor Cao Mao was enthroned at the age of 13, and died trying to take back his own power at the age of 19. His successor Cao Huan was 14 when he became emperor. He was forced to abdicate at the age of 20.
  • Liu Zhun, the last emperor of the Liu Song dynasty, was enthroned aged ten. He was deposed and murdered shortly before turning twelve. His brother Liu Yu was nine when he became emperor. Unfortunately for the court Liu Yu was an Enfant Terrible who got depressed if he didn’t kill someone for a day.
  • Xiao Zhaowen of the Southern Qi dynasty was 14 when he became emperor. He was deposed and murdered shortly after. The last emperor of Southern Qi, Xiao Baorong, was 13 when he became emperor and 14 when he was murdered.
  • Xiao Fangzhi of the following Liang dynasty was 11 when he became emperor, 14 when he was deposed and 15 when he was killed.
  • Yuan Shanjian of Eastern Wei was 11 when he was installed as emperor. He was deposed aged 26 and murdered two years later with his 3 sons.
  • Gao Heng of the Northern Qi was only 7 when he became emperor. Northern Qi was annexed by Northern Zhou a month later and he was murdered later that year.
  • Yuwen Chan of Northern Zhou was 6 when he became emperor and 8 when he was murdered.
• Faisal II, the last King of Iraq, ascended to the throne at age 3 upon the death of his father, Ghazi I, in a car accident. During his 14-year-long regency, Iraq was ruled by his uncle, Abd al-Ilah, who also became Crown Prince.
• Peter II, the last King of Yugoslavia, was 11 when his father, Alexander I, was assassinated. Alexander's cousin Paul ruled on his behalf until 1941, when Paul was deposed in a British-backed coup to prevent Yugoslavia from allying with the Axis (Paul was forced to sign a deal with the Nazis because they had threatened to invade the country otherwise). The 17-year-old Peter was hastily crowned king on 28 March 1941... a week before the Axis made good on their threat and invaded Yugoslavia, partitioning the country among themselves. While Peter managed to escape and assumed the position as the symbolic head of the Yugoslav government-in-exile, nobody paid him any meaningful attention, in part because he's so young. Thus, nobody was sad to see him go when Yugoslavia became a republic after the war.

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