There’s been tons of books, also movies, where an American finds that they have a claim to, or can take, the throne of another country, usually European. There’s the Princess Diaries, also made into a movie. There was King Ralph, the movie, with John Goodman. Even Edgar Rice Burroughs had a swing at it, with The Mad King. And there’s a host, I’m sure, of lesser works.
But has there been a story wherein the American who could become a monarch refuses to do so, for whatever reason? “Dammit, I’m an American, Jim, not a monarch!”
Why do little girls fantasize about being princesses?
This happens in the children’s book A Royal Pain, by Ellen Conford. A girl discovers that she was switched at birth, and she moves back to her country to be a princess. She hates it, and the former princess hates being an American, and they make themselves so obnoxious that both sets of parents pretend that the original mistake never happened.
Two characters in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series have refused the throne of Ankh-Morpork - and one of them is in fact the legitimate heir (details avoided so as not to spoil things).
In Charles Stross’ Merchant Princes series, a woman from our world learns that she is a rich and powerful duchess in another world - but medieval society, even for a noble, is far worse than middle-class American life, so she struggles to avoid being entangled in that society as much as possible.
Power, subservient citizens bowing to you and catering to your wishes, bling (ponies and pretty dresses), and usually light on the responsibility end of things. If you’re unlucky you’ll need some dude to help you defeat the Big Bad but after that, it’s all Happily Ever After and you’re set.
FADE IN on SNOOKUMS, an outstandingly pretty, shining apple-cheeked teenager, checking her cell phone.
SNOOKUMS: “OMG, guys, my great-aunt on my mother’s side, Marie, the Queen of South Northeast Roumaniacland, just died!”
BOOKSIE, who we can tell is smart because she wears glasses: “I was just reading about her on The Straight Dope. She has no heirs, except maybe for one who escaped to America after their civil war and was adopted by two lesbian and two gay parents!”
SNOOKUMS: “Yes, that’s me! The text says I’m the new Queen of South Northeast Roumaniacland!”
BOOKSIE and EXTRAS: “Your Majesty!”
SNOOKUMS: “Don’t be silly. I’m not going back to that hellhole when I’ve got you guys. And a Pinkberry.”
BOOKSIE, to herself in voiceover: ‘That means I still have a chance to marry her!’
I do, he gave it up. But not for his son. If you look at the credits in the movie his son, whom you see as a toddler right at the end, is listed as “Ralph II”. So I guess it went from O’Tooles character to the boy sometime later on.
There used to be a text computer game based on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As the player, you were given situations and then offered a choice of what you would do. Then based on your choice, you’d go on to the next situation.
One of the first situations you face is when your friend Ford Prefect offers you an opportunity to hitch a ride on a passing Vogon ship. You can join him or decline his offer and hang out in the bar.
If you decide to stay in the bar, the game tells you that you have a few drinks, make some new friends, tell some jokes, everyone thinks you’re a great guy, and then you die as the Earth blows up. The end. Game over.
The point is that you don’t hear stories about the people who refuse to do something worth telling a story about.
I’m sure there was a Star Trek episode or two where one of the characters was offered a chance to marry some space princess and rule her world, but declined because he was already married to the ship or some such.
Or does it only count it they refuse to inherit the throne, not if they refuse to marry into it?
In Raymond Feist’s first “Magician” (Riftwar) books, there are three brothers inheriting the throne and two abdicating in favor of the third. That’s not what the tales are about, though. It’s just an interesting point in the story’s development.
Yes, I was thinking that there must be some romances in which the protagonist has to choose between taking the kingdom (and the spouse that comes with it) or the humble American boyfriend/girlfriend. Sort of a variant on Edward VIII.
King Ralph was loosely based on a 1980 novel, which I read not long ago: Headlong (Williams novel) - Wikipedia (warning: spoilers!). Very different from the movie, and much, much better, although there were two plot points which had me rolling my eyes.
Just to make it clear, Ralph accepts the throne and abdicates, but only because it turns out that Peter O’Toole’s character was higher in the succession list and he had refused the throne by failing to let anyone know that.
Good movie. The gorgeous princess with the beer-hall baritone never fails to crack me up.
the country descends into civil war between the newly ascended king, who is a power-mad tyrant, and his younger brother. At the end of the series, the king is killed, and the younger brother fakes his own death to escape the throne, allowing it to be passed on to the series’ protagonist, who is descended from an older line of monarchs thought to have been extinguished.
In Lois Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga, the titular hero is never actually offered the throne of Barrayar, and one of his primary motivations throughout the series is to keep it that way.
His father was the Regent for the current Emperor of Barrayar, when he was still to young to rule, and just about everyone expected him to quietly do away with the kid and take the throne for himself. He didn’t.
In robin McKinley’s Spindle’s End, the princess and her best friend Peony decide the friend is far more princess-like and would love the life far more than the actual princess, so they just say Peony’s the princess.
Miller - IMHO, Miles never had a chance to take the throne of Barrayar, even if he wanted it, which he didn’t. He was perceived as a mutie and someone would’ve taken him out, even with Sgt. Bothari guarding him. His father could easily have ascended the throne, though.
