History Main / KingBobTheNth

* Examples from Spain include Alfonso XIII, UsefulNotes/FerdinandVII, Charles IV, and the current monarch Felipe VI. Prior to Spanish unification, there were Ordoño IV of León, Henry IV of Castile, Sancho IV of Castile, and Peter IV of Aragon. Note that the post unification numbers are based on the Castilian/Leonese numbering, although no Aragonese numbering of names was higher. Taking Aragon into the equations, there were an additional five Alfonsos and another Ferdinand (Ferdinand II of Aragon was also Ferdinand V of Castile). There was also a Peter in Castile in addition to the four Aragonese. There's also four Johns and five Ramiros between Castile/León and Aragon. Interestingly, the father of King Juan Carlos I, Juan Count of Barcelona, who was bypassed at the insistence of General Franco when the latter declared that after his death the monarchy would be restored and later officially renounced his claim after his son succeeded to the throne upon Franco's death, was buried with the honors of a king as Juan III, which would technically bring the number to five.

** 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 continued strife amongst the religious groups.

* 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 numbering of Holy Roman Emperors, isn't included in the French numbering[[/note]], six named Philip, and five named Henry [[note]]though the one numbered as the fifth generally isn't counted by historians as having been an official monarch, 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).

* The Kings Of/In Prussia and later German Emperor had a confusing regnal number system. With Frederick I followed by Frederick William I (using both names) having a total of four Frederick Williams followed by German Emperors William I, Frederick III, and finally William II, with Frederick III using his Prussian regnal number as opposed to becoming Frederick I - as he had wanted to become Frederick IV, following Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, though Bismarck stopped him warning him of the political and legal implications.

* [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/NotableSwedishMonarchs Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden]] is probably only the 10th king named Carl/Charles/Carolus; when Swedish kings first adopted regnal numbers in the 16th century, they based them on a history that was pretty much entirely fabricated for events before the 11th century, and this history listed a number of Carls who likely never existed. It also lists a few rulers who ''did'' exist, but whose described connection to Sweden is questionable -- for instance, in the unlikely event that an Attila rises to the throne of Sweden, he would be Attila [[UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun II]] according to that history. (That's a common name in Iceland, spelt ''Atli''.)

* The numbering of the kings and emperors of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire not surprisingly is a bit chaotic, even though the ordinal numbers go up as high as 7 (Henry (Heinrich) VII and Charles (Karl) VII); whether a king was crowned Holy Roman Emperor or not did not affect the ordinal number. However, as at various points you had a ruler appointing his eldest son co-ruler and having him crowned during his lifetime in a bid to turn the elective monarchy into a hereditary one or two rulers vying for the title, often when either the great feudal lords or the pope set up an "anti-emperor". Co-rulers who predeceased their fathers and anti-emperors usually did have a number assigned to them, but that rule was not strictly enforced. In one case they may also have forgotten that there already was a king or emperor of the same name and number, thus the list includes two rulers called Louis (Ludwig) IV, to wit Louis the Child (r. 900-911) and Louis the Bavarian (1314-1347). There are also rulers listed as Henry (VI.) (crowned in 1147 as co-ruler of Conrad III, but predeceased him) and one called Henry (VII.) (he was the son of Frederick II, crowned as co-emperor in 1222, but deposed by his father after he rebelled against him) as well as Henry VI (1169-1197) and Henry VII (1308-1313). Another complication occurred when Frederick of Habsburg came to the throne: when he was made king in 1440, he was assigned the number IV, counting his Habsburg predecessor Frederick the Fair (anti-king to Louis IV the Bavarian 1314-1330) as legitimate, but when he was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1452 he was renumbered Frederick III. There was also an Otto IV, plus a co-ruler named Ferdinand IV.

* 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]], six named Philip, and five named Henry [[note]]though the one numbered as the fifth generally isn’t counted by historians as having been an official monarch, 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).

* At one point in ''Fanfic/HereticPride'', Obi-Wan and Anakin act as bodyguards for the pompous King Marlontan, whose [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard very long list of formal titles]] includes referring to him "Seventh of that Line," indicating that there have been six King Marlontans at some point prior to him.

** The kings of earlier Thai/Siamese dynasties included four kings named "Ramathibodi" (Overlord Rama), four named "Borommarachathirat" ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS or "Borommaracha Thirat" or "Boromma Rachathirat"]]), nine named "Sanphet", and four named "Borommaracha", all of which are numbered. Though many were ultimately better known by their birth names.

*** In the 1950s, some Scottish nationalists launched a campaign of blowing up mailboxes with the "EIIR" cypher (ironically thereby punishing the ''senders'') to highlight the fact that Scotland had never had an "Elizabeth I", so could not have an "Elizabeth II". As a result, new post boxes in Scotland no longer have the EIIR cypher, just the crown.[[note]]As recently as 2018, a new post box was erected in Dunoon which had the EIIR cypher on it, to the considerable annoyance of some of the locals.[[/note]]