History Main / RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething

** Altea, the Duchess of Vallenberg: a member of the royal family of Benglait by marriage, was one of two royals with a modicum of common sense, serving as a nurse during the first terrorist crisis of the Grey Ravens, and [[IgnoredExpert giving useful but ultimately ignored advice to the king and his son]] (and thus being the only member of the royal family still able to go around in Benglait after the revolution). Even after the revolution, she's still active in charities, [[TheyFightCrime helping her fiancee Ginko to try and arrest Diabolik]], and, occasionally, doing some secret investigations for her country (one of which ended with her holding a gun on ''the leader of the Grey Ravens''. Then Diabolik, having a vendetta against the guy, killed him).

%% * ''Myth/KingArthur'' in all various film adaptations. Please replace with films that feature King Arthur.

[[caption-width-right:331:"'God Save the King'? Nah, he's got this."]]

* 'Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', which is set roughly two years after the Avengers:

** Robert and Stannis are kings who both lead forces from the front in war. Stannis is also a far more engaged king than Robert was in canon; apparently he is building roads in the Crownlands and demolishes the Dragonpit to have a royal garden built.
** [[spoiler:[[AChildShallLeadThem Viserys]]]], [[TheRemnant even lacking a proper kingdom]], strives to be this. Even if he can do little but stand behind a battle line and be seen, or preside over diplomatic meetings being actually carried out by his underlings, he'll do it proudly.

* At least one ComicBookAdaptation of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' goes into detail about Aquata's, the heir to the throne, grooming into being the next queen of the ocean.

* Under his title as King of Dreams, Morpheus of Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' seems to fit here -- one later issue runs through a week of the royal itinerary of diplomacy, judicial duties, and dreamcrafting as a counterpoint to the frequent stories of Morpheus going out and doing things. Also, the first volume is all about him actively going out and recovering his three talismans of power, which are needed to restore the Dreaming; in his absence, it decayed badly. He also re-captures renegade dreams/nightmares, and stops a vortex that would have destroyed his realm and the mortal world. It's really only in the later books that he starts going on more personal quests.

* Characters/DoctorDoom is a villainous example. He is the monarch of Latveria (most of the time) and there can be little doubt that he's spent most of his reign being a thorn in the side of the ComicBook/FantasticFour (and pretty much every other hero in the Marvel Universe).

* The clan nobles in ''Webcomic/DrowTales'' are universally taught some degree of fighting skills and specialize in either weapon or {{mana}}-based combat.

** ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'': The Beast qualifies, as he does rather effectively govern a large household and lands. He also fights wolves in the snow and (eventually) helps to fend off an invasion of his castle. Oh, yeah, and [[spoiler:he's [[BalefulPolymorph actually]] a prince]].

* Loki in ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', which is set roughly two years after the Avengers, is a ReformedButNotTamed and spymaster and is explicitly directed by Odin to make use of his talents in the defence of Asgard as TheManBehindTheMan. This is largely because the qualities that make Thor a future great King make him a terrible statesman. While Loki would not be a great King, [[DarkIsNotEvil he is a brilliant statesman]].
** Thor's heroics also fall under this category, leading in battle from the front.

** King Arthur was this, back in the day.

* In ''Fanfic/AllThatGlitters'', Anna and Hans search for an artifact that can stop the Endless Winter. Anna also takes on a job at the Arendellian embassy at Corona. Later, [[spoiler:Elsa is on the frontlines of a war, conjuring up snow soldiers and controlling whether the fjord is frozen, depending on whether Arendelle's enemies are trying to cross it by ship or foot. After Hans takes over Arendelle, she and Kristoff search for a way to defeat. And when he becomes a king, Hans takes an active interest in the work of ruling and politics, something Anna begins helping him with as she works on a plan to convince him to give up his power]].

** ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes gives us Princess Projectra, a longtime member of the team who after a long term absence leading her people as Queen, returned as Sensor Girl.
** In ''ComicBook/SupermanDoomsdayHunterPrey'', members of the Calaton royal family sacrifice their lives by merging their psychic energies together to form the Radiant, an energy being created to put down the rampaging creature later known as Doomsday. They do this twice in the story, although the second time it does not work, as Doomsday is now immune to the energy attack of the Radiant that once killed him before.
* ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'': Plourr Ilo, it turns out, is crown princess of Eiattu. Upon becoming empress, she only does the "pomp and ceremony" as strictly required, striving to improve her planet.

* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': The princess does not sit around waiting to be rescued demurely. Instead, using her skill in combat she takes on Julius and his soldiers. Julius himself is a match for her.

* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': The princess does not sit around waiting to be rescued demurely. Instead, using her skill in combat she takes on Julius and his soldiers.

* ''Film/ThePrincess'': The princess does not sit around waiting to be rescued demurely. Instead, using her skill in combat she takes on Julius and his soldiers.

* The discoverer of tea is often credited as being a Chinese emperor who had practised medicine, and tested many of his experiments on himself. Tea must have been his best discovery.

** Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters rode their dragons into battle when conquering Westeros, as [[spoiler:Daenerys does in the Battle for Meereen]].
** [[spoiler:Jon fights in the Battle for Winterfell before being declared King of the North.]]
** This seems to be so commonplace that morale is significantly lowered if the royalty and noblemen do NOT participate in the battle. [[spoiler:Joffrey retreating to the Red Keep during the Battle of the Blackwater, and Cersei's refusal to make him return in fear for his safety, results in much of the city watch deserting and the city almost being taken]].
** Tywin Lannister is also a very hard-working and able administrator which is revealed as a character trait in his very first scene when he has a conversation with Jaime while skinning a deer, work he could easily have left to servants.

** Euron Greyjoy becomes King of the Iron Islands, and actually pays the iron price by leading his men into battle.

* The whole idea behind the cancelled show ''Series/{{Kings}}''. Even though King Silas' rule is marred by corporate politics and the whim of the general crowd, he still has almost-absolute power.

** In general, royals and nobles actually fight in battles as soldiers. King Robert Baratheon was a famed warrior and killed equally-famed warrior Prince Rhaegar Targaryen in battle during his rebellion to seize the throne. However, falling into self-pity after the death of his betrothed Lyanna whose rescue had been his chief motivation, and having no real desire to rule, he became an AdiposeRex who did as little as humanly possible that didn't involve food, strong drink or women, preferably all three, and a notable exception to this trope by late in his reign.

** In general, royals and nobles actually fight in battles as soldiers. King Robert Baratheon killed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen in battle during his rebellion to seize the throne. However, he became an AdiposeRex who did as little as humanly possible that didn't involve food, strong drink or women, preferably all three, and a notable exception by late in his reign.

This trope is very much TruthInTelevision, so any RealLife examples are redundant.

%%* Both Tara and Mandrake in ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'', although the latter is a villainous example.

* [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ Maxima]] is Queen of Almerac and has a period as a superhero before pulling a HeroicSacrifice by blocking a planet-destroying blast.
* ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes gives us Princess Projectra, a longtime member of the team who after a long term absence leading her people as Queen, returned as Sensor Girl.
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanDoomsdayHunterPrey'', members of the Calaton royal family sacrifice their lives by merging their psychic energies together to form the Radiant, an energy being created to put down the rampaging creature later known as Doomsday. They do this twice in the story, although the second time it does not work, as Doomsday is now immune to the energy attack of the Radiant that once killed him before.

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]
* OlderThanDirt: [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] did lots of things after the gods answered his subjects' prayers to get him the heck out of their city and away from their wives.
* Literature/TheBible has most of the prominent rulers of Israel actually doing something; mostly the earlier kings like Saul, David, and Solomon. For better or for worse the rulers are involved in the lives of their citizens.

* Nearly any king or prince mentioned in myth will have long careers, primarily as warriors and/or monster-slayers. [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hercules, Achilles, Theseus, Odysseus]], Myth/KingArthur, Literature/{{Beowulf}}, Solomon, all of them were royals. The Iranian national epic ''Shah Namah'' has lots of real heroic kings in it along with the mythological ones.
** And the same with religion: among them, the kings of Israel and Judah in the Bible, and before them Moses, who'd been raised as an Egyptian prince. Unusually, Moses really doesn't want to Do Something and tries to persuade God to send someone else instead.

Besides combat, kings have also been directly responsible for a lot of the decision-making in running their societies, such as drafting laws, spending public money and negotiating with other political factions such as the clergy or the artistocracy. While Europe's monarchies are the most famous examples, monarchies have existed all over the world at different points in history, including the Americas, Africa and Asia.

*** Blaze is a princess who safegaurds and retrieves her dimension's Sol Emeralds, and can fight anyone who threatens any of them. She also can match with Sonic.

* [[Franchise/GreenLantern The Green Lantern Corps]] includes Princess Iolande of Betrassus, now ruler of her planet since everyone else in the royal family is dead. Iolande, however, much prefers being in the corps.
* During his brief reign as king of the planet Sakaar, [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk The Hulk]] did a lot of things, from actively achieving peace with a group of StarfishAliens to personally helping in the reconstruction of his damaged kingdom. After the three days of peace and prosperity ended in a massive explosion, he personally led an army to Earth to do a lot of other things, which [[ComicBook/WorldWarHulk amounted to punching a lot of people who deserved it in the face repeatedly.]]

* Common in {{superhero}} universes. Among others:

** ComicBook/BlackPanther is primarily a king and does superheroics as a sideline, as did his ancestors.
** Characters/DoctorDoom is a villainous example. He is the monarch of Latveria (most of the time) and there can be little doubt that he's spent most of his reign being a thorn in the side of the ComicBook/FantasticFour (and pretty much every other hero in the Marvel Universe).
** ComicBook/BlackAdam was ruling his country until his massive non-HeroicBSOD
** Queen Hippolyta of Themyscira isn't above getting her hands dirty (and, in [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 one bit of comics continuity]], was Franchise/WonderWoman during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). Her daughters, Diana, Nubia, and Donna, are more than happy to follow in their mother's footsteps, Diana as the current Wonder Woman and Donna as the first ComicBook/WonderGirl (now Troia). Nubia also became Wonder Woman during ''ComicBook/DCFutureState'' and was crowned Queen of the Amazons in ''ComicBook/InfiniteFrontier'' when her mother joined the Justice League. Donna's close friend (and fellow [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titan]]) ComicBook/{{Starfire}} is also a princess, though whether or not she counts as "acting" monarchy is debatable since she's in willing exile.
** [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ Maxima]] is Queen of Almerac and has a period as a superhero before pulling a HeroicSacrifice by blocking a planet-destroying blast.
** ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes gives us Princess Projectra, a longtime member of the team who after a long term absence leading her people as Queen, returned as Sensor Girl.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' examines this trope. Mufasa is TheGoodKing ''because'' he has responsibilities that he takes care of. He teaches Simba that "there's more to being king than getting your way all the time". Indeed, after Scar murders Mufasa and usurps the throne, the Pridelands become a wasteland thanks to Scar's selfish negligence. Simba eventually becomes a good king by deciding to leave his exile to reclaim the throne from Scar. In the sequel, his daughter follows in his paw-steps, putting herself between Simba and Scar’s devotee Zira as the divided pride is coming to blows. Everyone but Zira listens to her and the pride re-unites.

** In ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'', the rulers of all four civilized underwater kingdoms (King Orm of Atlantis, King Nereus of Xebel, the Princess of the Fishermen, and the King of the Brine) personally lead their forces into battle. It's heavily implied by Orm that his his father Orvax was also like that. Even Arthur himself is the son of an Atlantean queen and spends his days helping others (although he wants nothing to do with Atlantis). ComicBook/{{Mera}} is the daughter of King Nereus and spends most of the movie helping Arthur and fighting; she's also an excellent pilot. Even Queen Atlanna is shown to be a competent fighter.

* ''Film/{{FlashGordon}}'' is full of royalty who take matters into their own hands. Prince Barin (played by Creator/TimothyDalton) leads a guerilla army of rebels, engages the eponymous hero in mortal combat, and single-handedly storms Ming's Palace to shut down the lightning field, and then Prince Baltan (Brian Blessed) storms the palace at the spearhead of his army of Hawkmen. Emperor Ming (Max von Sydow) is himself a villainous example -- he gets his hands dirty having conquered the galaxy, dispatching worthless underlings and occasionally manning his own Death Ray.
* In the movie adaptation of ''Film/TheHobbit'', Thorin Oakenshield, the King Under the Mountain, is trying to take back his home with the help of twelve other dwarves, a Wizard, and a Hobbit. Fíli and Kíli count as well, as they are Thorin's nephews and heirs. Hell, most of the company is somehow related to Thorin. Thorin is indeed a royal who does something, though for most of the story (and indeed most of his life) he hasn't had the opportunity to be a royal who does ''nothing'', since his kingdom is under the control of an occupying power. He's only "King Under the Mountain" in the same way that, say, Charles de Gaulle was President of France in 1943.

* Franchise/MonsterVerse: {{Justified}}. Practically all of the Alpha Titans have a RedBaron calling them a King/Queen (King of the Monsters, Queen of the Monsters, King of the Primates, etc.), and they at times have to fight other Titans to maintain their positions of dominance due to the creatures' AsskickingEqualsAuthority.

* ''Series/TheOtherKingdom'' gives us Princess Astral, who's the princess of Athenia that already shows how loyal, bold and brave she is, as she's not afraid to take a stand or call out whether somebody does something unjust, or try to talk somebody out of placing her homeland in danger or destroying it -- even by harmless, non-hostile methods -- all worthy qualities fit for a true ruler. When Athenia's in danger of being destroyed by Mr. Quince, rather than just returning to Athenia and leaving her parents to fend the threat, she stays in the human world and takes matters into her own hands. Also, the penultimate Season 1 episode has Astral gather a group of people ([[TheInternetIsForCats via creating a trendy cat video with a message to save Evermoor Woods on the internet, but still]]) who would rally on the day of the planned destruction and rebel against the woods' destruction, and Astral would personally encourage the crowd to form a chain that would block the bulldozer meant to tear the main tree down.

* In ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'', King Mondo was a villainous example, having fought the Rangers personally on more than one occasion. His eldest son Prince Gasket was even more capable, apparently.
** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' gives us a heroic example, with Prince Philip III of Zandar, who becomes the [[GuestStarPartyMember Graphite Dino Charge Ranger]]. He is a little hamstrung on how often he gets to fight due a combination of stock footage[[note]]His [[Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger Sentai counterpart]], though not royalty, was only a recurring ally[[/note]] and actually being a prince, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome so he can't be in Amber Beach all the time and has to attend to his homeland duties]], but [[CommutingOnABus he does show up as much as he can]] to aid his friends, especially during the big battles. Otherwise, he lends control of his Zord to the core team when he's unavailable.

** The Draconis Combine is somewhat more informal, but their ProudWarriorRace culture and adherence to ''bushido'' means Coordinators (and their heirs) either earn the respect of their armed forces by feats on the battlefield or become {{Puppet King}}s because their soldiers won't obey them.

* The Silver Fang tribe from ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' is considered to be nobility amongst the Garou; as such, they are expected to lead the tribes in battle, in judgment, and in the fight for Gaia. Key word being "supposed," as the tribe's star has fallen in recent centuries due to [[{{Lunacy}} an ancient curse of madness from Luna herself]]. Some Silver Fangs, like High King Jonas Albrecht, are the shining lights of the Garou Nation; others are so deluded or egotistical that some of the other tribes are considering a coup.
* In ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'', there are the Monarchs (Emperors in Japan), an archetype of Monsters based on Attributes; all the base Monarchs (except Zaborg) are Level 6, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking they all have an ATK of 2,400]], there is one for each Attribute (except Light, which has two), and most gain their effects from being Tribute Summoned. [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Mobius_the_Mega_Monarch Mobius the Mega Monarch]] is an evolved Level 7 form of one of them, released in the latest set, suggesting more Mega Monarchs are to follow.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' the vast majority of the Martian Silthuri are actually bureaucrats and military officers, despite being the royal caste. However, many of the ruling sub-caste have also been forced into more proactive roles and actions, to avoid being crushed by imperial Earthling powers or the Martians that have allied with them.

* As the CEO of the Crown Estate (Britain's dominiant Megacorp), King Charles IV is pretty much absolute ruler of the UK in the cyberpunk future of ''Carbon 2185''.

* Several royals in ''Literature/MaleRising'' take this to heart, the most notable of which is the Ethiopian Empress [[spoiler:Anastasia Romanova]], who personally handles anti-aircraft weaponry during the bombings of the capital by the [[spoiler:Republic of Egypt]].
* ''LetsPlay/{{Mahu}}'': In "Frozen Flame", Prince Arius personally leads his men into battle against all manner of foes. He does this both for moral and practical reasons. After all, as an exiled prince he now requires all the assistance he can get, including royal troops who will fight for him as hard as he fights for them.

matters into her own hands.