History Main / TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone

* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' crown prince Jun'er is intelligent, capable, and not really a bad guy, but also irresponsible, lazy, and moody due to being spoiled. With Xiaxi's influence he becomes more stable and hard-working, but [[spoiler:when the king dies and Ping Yang Hou takes the throne in a coup]] people don't really want to see him become king, reasoning that [[spoiler:Ping Yang Hou]] seems capable and even-tempered. [[spoiler:It's subverted when Jun'er begins behaving much more seriously and his uncle turns out to be TheCaligula, causing most important officials to realize they need the proper heir on the throne after all.]]

* ''Fanfic/ShadowsOverMeridian'': The cornerstone of Jade's plan to put Phobos back on the throne is to exploit the flaws in Elyon's reign to [[BrokenPedestal beak the general public's blind faith in her]] by making it clear that this trope is at play. As she points out, while Phobos may have been a tyrant, he [[RepressiveButEfficient at least got things done]], most prominently managing to maintain a fragile peace between Meridian's various races; by contrast, despite being the heir by tradition and having the Heart of Meridian, Elyon was until recently a normal Earth teenager with no training for being a monarch, and thus has no idea what she's doing, giving more fanatical members of the victorious rebellion free reign to do whatever they want, including persecuting [[FantasticRacism the more "monstrous" races]] and anyone suspected of being a Phobos loyalist with [[FullCircleRevolution no regard for rule of law]].

* UsefulNotes/PhilipII of Spain is viewed this way in the Netherlands. The Habsburgs controlled lands covering most of Western Europe, including Spain, Italy, and much of the Holy Roman Empire. However, UsefulNotes/CharlesV was viewed very favorably, in part because of his personal ties to the Low Countries (he was born in Ghent) and his relatively conciliatory rule. When the Netherlands passed to the Spanish branch, Philip was viewed as a foreign king whose preference for top-down absolute monarchy and the DivineRightOfKings clashed strongly with the parochial interests of the small Netherlandish statelets. The Protestant Reformation exacerbated this, with the iconoclasm against Catholic churches prompting Philip to institute draconian measures in response, resulting in the UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar.