Please Spare Him, My Liege!

"Spare him, my lord Raiden! American life has... enfeebled his mind! Too much television!"

— Grandfather, Mortal Kombat: The Movie

This is when you beg the monarch, or whomever is in charge, to spare the life of someone set to be executed or given A Fate Worse Than Death.

As shown in the picture, it's best done kneeling while grasping the ermine robes in a reverent manner (kissing them optional). Often it's done by insisting you know this leader is magnanimous enough to do this.

But it's usually more successful if done in the form of ego stroking ("Surely such a great king as yourself is wise enough...", "How could he possibly pose a threat to someone so great...?") or noting the good PR it will bring ("Everyone would know what a kind sovereign you are...") than by trying to appeal to any good nature ("If you just listen to your heart..."). Even if they agree, the prisoner may just be tossed into The Alcatraz instead (Iron Mask optional). A character who begs this way will be Ain't Too Proud to Beg and may promise Please, I Will Do Anything! in return.

Compare/Contrast If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In The Rose of Versailles, when Louis XV wants to execute André for accidentally endangering Marie-Antoinette by causing her horse to panic while giving her riding lessons. Oscar manages to save her before things escalate, and she successfully persuades the king that André did nothing wrong.
• Fire Emblem Sheeda does this for Oguma in the OVA.
• Bleach: Rukia does this as a last request to the highest-ranking Soul Society captain right before she's about to be executed in the Soul Society arc, since she feels guilty that Ichigo and everyone are risking their lives to try and save her. Subverted when the captain says he'll let them go free, but really has no intention of doing so. He's only saying that so Rukia can die peacefully.
• Daimos: Rowena/Margaret did this to save Erika from the wrath of Richter after he found out his sister was in love with Kazuya, the pilot.
• Hermione did this in Romeo × Juliet to stop Laertes Montague from taking Romeo's Cool Horse Ciel away. Even more so, the reason why father and son are verbally fighting is because he didn't meet up with Hermione for the Rose Festival (and unbeknownst to the others, he was with Juliet); Hermione still defended Romeo and managed to calm Laertes down.
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Mittermeyer pleads for mercy on Reuental's behalf at least twice.
• Kurumi attempts this in Haou Airen, on behalf of Reilan when Hakuron decides to shoot her dead for setting Kurumi up to be gang raped. To say it fails is, well, an Under Statement.
• One Piece: Gin tearfully asks his captain Don Krieg to spare Sanji out of gratitude for the cook giving him food while he was starving. This surprises everyone (Sanji included), since Gin had never before shown mercy to anyone. All this gets from Krieg is being ordered to die alongside Sanji.

Fan Works

• Rose of Versailles Abridged: Marie-Antoinette tries it as a Jedi Mind Trick; the King is only partly affected, but he sighs and lets André go anyway.
• The Vow: After Lord Shen's crime of panda genocide is exposed (in the middle of his wedding, no less), Gongmen City's council condemns him to be executed and Shen's devastated parents seem to have no choice but to go along with it. Lady Lianne, Shen's beloved, arrives to speak on Shen's behalf, kneels in her wedding dress and begs in a teary way for Shen to be exiled instead, hoping that he'd repent and be able to return. Unfortunately, Shen is unaware of what Lianne did for him and believes her to have simply forgotten him during his following thirty years in exile, resulting in him imprisoning her when he retakes Gongmen as per canon and desiring vengeance on her as well. When he's finally told of what Lianne did to save him, he feels remorseful for his treatment of her and fully rekindles his love for her (which saves him in the end).
• During the course of The Black Cauldron fic Hope for the Heartless, Avalina ends up several times begging the Horned King (her captor who's been resurrected) not to kill or hurt several other characters.
  • When the Horned King intends to kill Creeper for hitting Avalina and seemingly defying the lich's order to stay out of the girl's sight, she points out that the goblin didn't technically defy the order because she didn't really see him. Deciding that a good argument deserves a reward, the Horned King lets Creeper live.
  • When the Horned King intends to kill Taran and have his revenge for his downfall, Avalina comes between them and begs the lich to stop. After internal struggling, the Horned King acknowledges that he owes the pig-keeper for saving Avalina, for whom he has come to genuinely care; he repays the debt in his own way (by fixing Taran's shoulder, which the lich dislocated) and leaves with Avalina.
  • After Avalina's been rescued from a group of kidnappers and child murderers (who are all former soldiers of the Horned King), she begs on their behalf. This time the Horned King doesn't consent and has them all killed (though he makes sure to keep this out of Avalina's sight).
• In All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird, after the events of Halamshiral, Empress Celene sentences her cousin Gaspard to death. Victoria intervenes on his behalf, successfully pleading with the Empress to banish him from Orlais instead.

Films — Animation

• The Prince of Egypt: Aaron sort of does one of these when Miriam tells Moses the truth about his origins and says he's "one of [them]," to which he initially objects quite strongly and threatens to have her arrested or killed. He comes around, though.
• Maid Marian, in the Disney animated version of Robin Hood (1973), pleads with Prince John for Robin's life when he is captured after the archery contest.
• Joseph: King of Dreams has Judah and his brothers ask Joseph, who is the Vizier of Egypt, to release Benjamin from being arrested for a crime he didn't commit and beg him not to turn the boy into a slave, for it would break their father's heart again.
• Sandy Cheeks in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run begs King Poseidon not to hurt SpongeBob after speaking in his defence. She even sounds like she’s on the verge of tears.

Films — Live-Action

• History of the World Part I: Mademoiselle Rimbaud begs King Louis XVI to pardon her father. Her father is actually sentenced to prison, not execution. King Louis agrees in exchange for a "favor".
• The Other Boleyn Girl: Mary pleads with King Henry VIII to spare her sister Anne because, as her sister, Anne is one half of Mary. He doesn't want to hurt her, but you know how it ends.
• Downfall: Eva Braun begs Adolf Hitler to spare her brother-in-law Hermann Fegelein, who was ordered to be executed for treason.
• The Ten Commandments (1956): Lilia begs Moses for mercy for Joshua after he struck an Egyptian overseer while trying to save Moses' mother (though he didn't know it yet) from being killed.
• Lampshaded in The Furies (1950) where proud Juan Herrera chooses death by hanging rather than see his friend Vance, daughter of cattle baron T.C., humiliate herself.
  Vance: Do you want me to beg? Do you want me on my knees to you for his life?
  T.C.: I'd hang him anyway.
  Vance: That's what he said.
  T.C.: He did, eh? He always was smart.
  Vance: And you're not! You're old and foolish and you're made a mistake — it's me you should have hung! Because now I hate you in a way I didn't know a human could hate! Take a good long look at me, T.C. You won't see me again until the day I take your world away from you!
• In The Man in the Iron Mask, D'Artagnan pleads with King Louis to spare the life of his twin brother, Philippe, doing so in the name of his long years of devoted service, during which he never Louis asked for anything. It doesn't work, but Philippe escapes death via an inspired bit of Briar Patching, and is instead thrown in jail, where he is swiftly rescued by Aramais, Athos, and Porthos as well as D'Artagnan, who has undergone a Face–Heel Turn.
• In Mortal Kombat: The Movie, when Liu Kang denounces Raiden as a mere beggar pretending to be the Elder God of Lightning, Liu Kang's grandfather begs Raiden as per this trope to forgive him.
• Renfield (2023): After Renfield begins attending a support group for people in codependent and abusive relationships, he's inspired to try and get away from his Bad Boss Dracula, with the full support of his fellow attendees. This does not please ol' Drac, who then tracks down the support group to kill them, specifically to punish Renfield for trying to escape him. Renfield tearfully pleads for their lives, saying, "These are good people!" Unfortunately, Dracula prefers to kill good people, as their blood is tastier, and an absolute massacre occurs. Renfield is able to resurrect them in the end, as part of a very earned happy ending.

Literature

• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Sansa (unsuccessfully) begs Joffrey to spare her father. He insists later that beheading was mercy compared to his original plan. She learns from her mistakes by the second book, and when Joffrey decides in a fit of rage to execute Ser Dontos for showing up drunk at a tournament, Sansa convinces Joffrey to spare him by suggesting that it would be crueler to turn him into a court jester.
  • Her mother, Catelyn, did this many years before on behalf of Petyr Baelish, after he fought a duel and got curb-stomped by her betrothed, Brandon Stark, for her hand in marriage. Years later, this bit the kingdom in the ass as Petyr saw Catelyn's pleading for his life as demeaning and humiliating, and he sought revenge against the Starks and to become the most powerful lord in Westeros through trickery and manipulation to prove he's not a "boy" as Cate called him.
• In the book The Other Boleyn Girl, Mary wants to plead with King Henry VIII to spare her sister Anne, but her husband talks her out of it by pointing out that if she does, she'll likely share the fate of her siblings.
• In The King of Attolia of Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series, Teleus begs the Queen to reconsider executing him by reciting the invocation to the Great Goddess that Eugenides recited when in her dungeons earlier.
  • A interesting variation in that the Queen knows perfectly well that it's Eugenides who told him to make the plea and what to say
• The Black Arrow: Dick begs Richard "Crookback" Plantagenet, leader of the Yorkist faction and future King of England, to have mercy on Captain Arblaster instead of executing him as a prisoner of war. Crookback grudgingly agrees, but Dick falls out of favor with him.
• In "Hop-Frog" by Edgar Allan Poe, Trippetta begs the king to have mercy on fellow dwarf Hop-Frog. The king being the nasty piece of work that he is, it doesn't go well.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Silmarillion: after Aredhel, the sister of Turgon, King of Gondolin, is wounded by her husband Eöl; she manages to convince Turgon to spare him. Since she dies in the night (the weapon was poisoned), Turgon is not so merciful in the end.
  • Beren and Lúthien: When King Thingol finds out about his daughter Lúthien's tryst with the human Beren, Lúthien begs him not to kill him.
• In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu intercedes for Zhang Liao's life when Cao Cao wishes to execute him. This works out in Cao Cao's favour: Zhang Liao becomes a frighteningly effective general for him.
• In Harry Potter Severus Snape tried to do this in regards to Lily Evans after she became Lord Voldemort's primary target (along with her husband and son). It didn't work, although it should be noted that Voldemort would have been willing to spare her for Snape if she had just let him murder her baby. This is his idea of an honest, good-faith attempt to keep his end of the bargain.
• Vorkosigan Saga:
  • In Barrayar, Count Vorhalas begs Aral Vorkosigan, then Regent, to pardon his son for the capital crime of dueling. Vorkosigan doesn't, and the dead boy's brother later tries to assassinate him for it, leading to Aral's son Miles being crippled in the womb.
  • In The Warrior's Apprentice, twenty years later, the tables are turned when Aral Vorkosigan is forced to beg Vorhalas not to press treason charges against Miles that would lead to his execution (and Miles is technically guilty). Count Vorhalas tells Aral to get on his knees like he did when he pleaded for his son's life, and then looks like he will go on to stick the knife in, but Miles calls him out for it, warning that if he goes through with this he'll have to answer to Cordelia Vorkosigan for his revenge. The Count agrees not to lay the charges, but still votes an abstention in Miles's subsequent inquiry.
• Both Waverley and Talbot do this in Waverley to their respective lieges for each other. In Talbot's case it was downplayed as Waverley was asking that Talbot not be confined as a prisoner of war while his wife was sick and needed him.
• The Witch of Knightcharm: Soon after arriving at the evil Wizarding School which she just joined, the arrogant rookie Julia Medina challenges the top-ranked student Morgan Wolf to a Wizard Duel to see who will run the school. Morgan proceeds to demonstrate why she's the top-ranked student and utterly thrashes Julia before beginning to slowly kill her. Julia's sister Alejandra and another witch named Janet Yawkly both invoke this trope and plead for Julia's life. Unfortunately, Morgan refuses to listen and kills Julia without a second thought.
• Words of Radiance (second book of The Stormlight Archive): Variant. When Kaladin is thrown in prison for accusing a highlord of murdering his own men, King Elhokar wants him killed, or at the very least exiled. These are the standard penalties for such things, but Dalinar, the king's uncle (and also Kaladin's commanding officer) tells Elhokar that if he insists on doing so, Elhokar will make an enemy of Dalinar. Dalinar has spent the last six years fighting to keep the kingdom together and give Elhokar the power to be a worthy king—but he's willing to throw that all away for Kaladin. Elhokar ends up imprisoning Kaladin for a month. It later turns out that Elhokar knew what he was doing was wrong all along. He was just jealous of Kaladin's heroism, so he derailed his own plan in order to punish Kaladin for being better than him. Elhokar apologizes and begs Kaladin for "the secret of leadership," though unfortunately Kaladin is too depressed at the time to help.
• The climax of the classic English poem Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight is this appeal to Oliver Cromwell. The poem is itself based on an apparently true story, though it took place during the Wars of the Roses instead of the English Civil War.

Live-Action TV

• In first episode of Blackadder II, Blackadder becomes Lord High Executioner and kills one of the prisoners early so he can have the day off. After he's done that, the man's brother successfully convinces Queen Elizabeth to let him (the executed prisoner) off the hook. Hilarity Ensues. Baldrick killed the wrong guy by mistake.
• In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Iolaus tries the second form with Hercules's Evil Counterpart. It seems to work, because that made the evil Hercules laugh, but he executes the prisoner anyway.
• Merlin:
  • King Uther is tricked into believing that his son Arthur has been placed under an enchantment by Guinevere, and orders her burnt at the stake as a witch. Arthur begs for her life, but the more hysterical he gets, the more Uther is convinced that he's truly under a spell.
  • Twice, Arthur begs Uther to spare a man, once with Gawaine and once with Lancelot. The result is exile for both.
  • Merlin begs Arthur to change his mind about banishing Gwen. It doesn't work.
  • Mordred tearfully pleads with Arthur to spare his love interest, Kara. When Arthur refuses, Mordred makes an unsuccessful attempt to help her escape. Her execution is what turns Mordred against Arthur. The kicker is that Arthur (with some persuasion from Merlin) actually does offer to spare her if she repents. She refuses.
• In the episode of Firefly "Shindig," Mal sword fights a man and is about to lose, but Inara tells that man that she will accept his offer to stay with him if he spares Mal's life. Mal, being a Combat Pragmatist, takes this as an opportunity to sucker-punch his opponent.
• Star Trek: The Original Series: in "Amok Time", Spock begs T'Pau to block Kirk from entering the Kal-i-fee.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has an example during the Dominion's occupation of the station. Dukat's (naive) daughter comes to him looking for a pardon for a friend caught trying to commit sabotage on a military base. Despite a full pardon for an enemy saboteur during a war being a relatively outlandish request (which she can't seem to grasp), Dukat's reaction (criminals are enemies of the state, they never deserve mercy) finally convinces her he really is one of the bad guys. Kira has similar results with Weyoun when she tries to invoke Bajoran territorial authority in the matter.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Sansa pleads with Joffrey to exercise mercy in his treatment of Ned. Obviously she intends for Joffrey to commute Ned's death sentence to banishment to the Wall, but Joffrey has Ned beheaded. Joffrey says later that before Sansa pleaded for Ned's life, he was going to have Ned hung, drawn, and quartered before he beheaded him.
    Sansa: You said you'd be merciful.
    Joffrey: I was. I gave him a clean death.
  • King Joffrey is annoyed when Ser Dontos Holland turns up drunk for his birthday tourney, and orders him drowned in a cask of wine. Aware of what happened last time she begged Joffrey for mercy, Sansa Stark convinces him it will be more humiliating to make Dontos his fool.
  • Jaime Lannister asks his father and Dragon-in-Chief Lord Tywin Lannister to spare Tyrion's life when he looks certain of being convicted by the Kangaroo Court in which Tywin is acting as chief judge. Tywin claims his hands are tied until Jaime (the sole male heir if Tyrion dies) agrees to leave the Kingsguard (who are sworn not to take a wife or hold titles) and carry on the Lannister dynasty. Tywin agrees so quickly, it implies he was aiming for this result all along.
  • Catelyn had to persuade Brandon to not kill Littlefinger.
• In Arrow, one of the mooks of Villain of the Week, "The Mayor", pleads to his boss to spare another underling due for execution. He says that the other mook is his cousin and that he should take the blame for his cousin's failure, since he recommended him to the gang. The "Mayor" agrees to spare his cousin, and then kills him to set an example.
• On The 100, Clarke begs Lexa, the Commander of the Grounders, to spare Finn's life. Lexa refuses.
• Lois & Clark: The titular couple go back to medieval times to break a curse that a prior version of Tempus had put on them. Lois becomes Lady Loisette and Clark is "The Fox," a Zorro-like character. When Tempus threatens to kill The Fox, Lady Loisette pledges, on her royal honor, that if Tempus spares him, she will marry Tempus and be a "faithful" wife.
• Several times in Three Kingdoms. The earliest example is when Dong Zhuo, learning that Yuan Shao has gathered a coalition to oppose him, has every member of the Yuan clan still in his territory rounded up. Since the Yuan family are so highly placed, there are several high-ranking ministers among them and so fellow ministers along with other members of court call upon Dong to spare them. Dong ignores them and walks away to oversee the muster of his troops as his executioners get to work.
  • Another example is when Xu Chu kills Xu You in a fit of rage for disrespecting Cao Cao. He enters the hall where Cao is holding court and tosses Xu You's severed head onto the floor before confessing what he'd done. An enraged Cao Cao orders him executed, and when his generals and officials plead with him he points out that not only was Xu You his old friend, he was also key to their victory over Yuan Shao. When Xun Yu lends his voice to the appeal, Cao points out that if he doesn't execute Xu Chu, the people of the newly conquered territories will accuse him of getting rid of someone who annoyed him, even after they'd done great service. How can he be expected to properly rule if the people don't trust him to follow the laws he himself laid down? Xun manages to find a way to both appease Cao's wrath and soothe the worries of the people, and so manages to get Xu Chu spared (though he's heavily demoted and banned from any alcohol).

Music

• The traditional ballad "Geordie" centers on a wife pleading with the king for her eponymous husband's life. In one version, her plea is denied, and he is hanged for horse theft or poaching. In the other, he's accused of murder (the song says he was framed), and his wife rides to see the king with all her armed retainers. This plea succeeds, and she ends up paying a large fine instead of starting a civil war.

Myths & Religion

• The Bible:
  • The Book of Esther ends with Esther pleading on behalf of all Jews. It also features a subversion; after being set up by Esther to admit to Xerxes his plan to kill the Jews, Haman throws himself on Esther's mercy. Cue Xerxes suddenly entering and seeing Haman apparently attempting to rape his wife. Naturally, this does not end well for Haman...
  • A percentage of the Book of Numbers and Leviticus consists of the Israelites doing something to piss Him off, God threatening to wipe them all out and Moses pleading with Him.
  • God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if 50 righteous people were found living in it. Abraham (who was pleading for the life of the city) was able to negotiate God down to 10 righteous people. Unfortunately, the only halfway decent people living in the city were Lot and his family.

Theater

• In William Shakespeare's Richard II (yes, the play of the second named king, not the third king), the Duchess of York begs the newly crowned King Henry to spare her son (who's been accused of treason).
  • Though the convention is also parodied in the same scene, with the Duke of York going on his knees to plead for his son's execution.
• William Shakespeare was quite fond of this trope.
  • In Measure for Measure, aspiring nun Isabella goes to Angelo — the temporary ruler of Vienna — to beg for her brother Claudio to be spared a death sentence for violating an old blue law decreeing death for any man who impregnates a woman out of wedlock. Angelo's offer to spare Claudio in exchange for Isabella's virginity fuels the main plot of the play.
  • In Julius Caesar, the conspirators plead for their friend to be pardoned just before they assassinate Caesar. (And Caesar gives a ridiculously arrogant speech claiming that he is so god-like as to be above pity... presumably to remove whatever sympathy the audience have for him and prepare them for his violent death.)
  • In Henry V it's inverted: the conspirators against Henry argue against mercy for an enemy of the king, so that when he reveals their guilt, Henry takes immense delight in telling them that they have convinced him that mercy is a bad idea.
    • Also in Henry V, Pistol pleads for the life of Bardolph, who has been sentenced to death for looting a church. Both Fluellen and Henry refuse to pardon him.
• Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, for her beloved Manrico's life. Count di Luna refuses to spare his rival until she agrees to be his. (She never says she'll be alive for it, though.)

Video Games

• In Final Fantasy XII, Judge Zargabaath attempts this with Vayne Carudas Solidor to save Drace, his colleague Judge Magister, which is effectively a mix between a Four-Star Badass and a Judge, Jury, and Executioner, after Drace's failed attempt to violently refute Vayne's claim to autocratic powers with the death of his father, the Emperor Gramis Solidor. Zargabaath's considerations were likely to have stemmed from pragmatic considerations - Drace was a very talented Judge Magister, one Judge Magister had gone missing in action for a few years now, and another had perished in an accident, so they were running out of qualified men and women for the post - but given Zargabaath's portrayal as a reasonable and level-headed gentleman, sympathy probably wasn't out of the question. Unfortunately, Vayne has Drace executed anyways.
• In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, the Hot-Blooded Honor Before Reason-afflicted Adell is escorting the Defrosting Ice Queen, Rozalin, back to her father, The Overlord, whom he plans to defeat for the good of all. Rozalin is quite sure he'll have no chance whatsoever against her father, being a Puny Human in a world of demons, and while she initially relishes the thought of him being squashed, her gradual defrosting - and his clear dedication to protecting her and keeping his promise of returning her to her father - begins to change her mind. Eventually, she resolves to follow this trope and beg the Overlord to spare Adell once they reach him. And, when you first encounter him and find him unbeatable, she actually follows through. This, however, only makes him more determined to kill you, since he fears what The Power of Love could do to Rozalin...
• In the AGD King's Quest II, this is the correct answer to one of the Cloud Spirit's tests.
  • Also implied in King's Quest IV on Edgar's part when Rosella is brought before Lolotte.
• This is a possible outcome at the Winter Palace ball in Dragon Age: Inquisition, depending on what evidence has been found and presented, and also depending on whether Grand Duchess Florianne succeeds in killing Empress Celene. The Empress may sentence Grand Duke Gaspard to be executed for treason. The Inquisitor may be given the option to intervene and plead for mercy, resulting in him being exiled instead.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic, this can happen in the Sith Warrior's Alderaan storyline. When confronting a Republic-allied general for information, the player can choose to execute her soldiers one by one until she starts talking. The very first one you start choking turns out to be her lover which causes her to immediately fold and beg for his life, at which point you're given the option of sparing them or continue killing them all for putting you through all that trouble.
• The main character of Fire Emblem Fates pulls one in an attempt to spare two prisoners at the beginning of the game. It doesn't appear to work at first, when their brother Leo seemingly kills the prisoners in their place. As it turns out, Leo purposefully only knocked them out to spare them anyways.

Visual Novels

• After the culprit in the fourth case of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is found guilty, Sonia begs Monokuma to spare his life out of a combination of being in love with him and the altruistic motive of the Suicide Pact that the killer and the victim were speculated to have made. The killer willingly accepts his execution in spite of her pleas— not that Monokuma would have been willing to be lenient regardless.

Web Animation

• Played with in Shrapnel when the Commandah worriedly asks Reznya to forgive one of his bruddahs for spitting on and insulting her while refusing to accept her as his queen, because she also refuses to accept the Commandah's declaration that she is the Ugandan Knuckles new queen. Whatever the case, she ignores the Commandah's plea.

Webcomics

• Girl Genius: Feudal relationships are one of the background themes, so this situation appears. Agatha begs the Baron to spare Dr. Beetle. Zola begs Agatha to spare Gil (her only really nice moment). Not that either attempt was really necessary; the Baron considered Beetle too useful to execute even if he had committed treason (and was rather annoyed when Gil ended up semi-accidentally killing Beetle in self-defense) and Gil is Agatha's Love Interest.

Western Animation

• Arcane: In "Oil and Water", Mel has a Past Experience Nightmare of herself as a child with her warrior mother Ambessa in the devastated throne room of a kingdom they've just conquered. Ambessa has her guards bring the Sole Survivor of the defeated royal family, a girl Mel's age, and asks what she should do with her. Mel says her life should be spared to show the populace that they can be merciful. Ambessa is having none of it and cuts the girl's head off so she can't be a figurehead for future rebellions. "A wolf has no mercy."

Real Life

• According to John Smith, Pocahontas famously begged her father Wahunsenacawh, the chief of the Powhatan, to spare his life in 1607 Virginia. Depending on who you ask, the whole thing might have been a sort of initiation ritual, or Smith might have made the whole thing up in order to give Pocahontas a hero's welcome on her trip to England.
• Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III, successfully interceded with her husband for the lives of six Frenchmen. During the Hundred Years War, these six — known as "the Burghers of Calais" — agreed to let Edward execute them in exchange for him lifting the siege of Calais. Philippa, however, pleaded with Edward to spare the burghers if the town surrendered. He agreed, and all of the residents of Calais were allowed to leave unharmed. The plight of the six Sacrificial Lions was commemorated in a sculpture by Auguste Rodin. You can read more about it here.
• Henry VIII generated a couple of instances:
  • Katherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife, pleaded for the lives of the perpetrators of the "Evil May Day" massacre when she saw how devastated their families were by the death sentence — in spite of the fact that the victims were mostly Spanish aliens, and she was a Spanish princess. She succeeded.
  • A couple of decades later, the same king received a similar plea from his third queen, Jane Seymour, for the rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Unfortunately, Henry had changed considerably since the "Evil May Day" incident, and this time, the plea was not as well received.
• Roman dictator Sulla once ordered a number of political enemies killed, among them young Julius Caesar. When his followers reacted with this trope (Caesar was very young then), he stated that they had to be unintelligent if they failed to see any danger in the boy. Caesar still survived, and the rest is history.
• In the last days of World War II, Eva Braun tried to plead with Adolf Hitler to spare her brother-in-law Hermann Fegelein from being executed. It didn't work.
• This was a key function of medieval queens in general; a king could pardon someone without looking weak by maintaining that he was only doing so for his tenderhearted wife's sake, thereby saving face.

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