However, it does give me an excuse to celebrate the long-overdue demise of an over-hyped programme by presenting a follow-up to my “Game of Gay Thrones” article which featured five lgbt claimants and pretenders to various crowns. There are actually enough lgbt wannabe monarchs to stretch the theme into three more articles. So here is the second.
Several of today’s pretenders can be described as hypothetical. There are different reasons why they may never have been actual claimants to a throne, but they have, to some extent, been considered as heirs, one way or another.
Let’s have a look at them in chronological order.
1) Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus (c.35-68 AD), claimant to the throne of the Roman Empire. During the reign of Emperor Nero Gaius was a Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, the elite unit of the Imperial army. Although he was the son and grandson of freed slaves Gaius managed to rise in power thanks to the uncovering on a conspiracy to assassinate Nero. After Nero eventually did die Gaius began claiming to be an illegitimate son of a previous emperor, Caligula. To secure his claim Gaius married Nero’s widowed male empress Sporus (it is said that Nero’s body was still burning on his funeral pyre when the marriage took place, Gaius was obviously wasting no time). While it doesn’t necessarily indicate that Gaius had any sexual interest in young Sporus, it is known that Roman emperors indulged in pederastic activity, and as a member of the Praetorian Guard Gaius may even have formed a sexual relationship with a younger soldier. Both activities were influenced by the ancient Greeks. As a Roman soldier Gaius wasn’t allowed to get married anyway, so as soon as Nero was out of the way he married someone with an imperial title and rank to boost his claim to the throne. The only other surviving spouse of Nero was a rather dull woman with no power or influence. However, a rival to the throne, Galba, was approaching Rome with an army and the Praetorian Guard considered him a better prospect as emperor than Gaius, so they murdered Gaius and put Galba on the throne instead.
2) St. Boris, Prince of Rostov (990-1015), regarded by some during his lifetime as the preferred successor to his father Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev. I wrote a bit about St. Boris twice before, most recently here. Succession to the throne of Kiev was not by male-preferred primogeniture (as the throne of the UK was until recently) but was often decided by which of the nearest male relatives on the reigning monarch was the most powerful. Rivalry between brothers often resulted in one assassinating the others. This is the case with St. Boris. Grand Prince Vladimir, who converted to Christianity and founded the Russian Orthodox Church, had twelve sons. Not all of them shared their father’s new faith so you can imagine some of them were keen to ensure that their father’s successor was a pagan (none of the Christian sons had any intention of killing off their brothers). This meant that any brother who converted to Christianity was a threat. Boris was a popular ruler in his own principality of Rostov, a popularity which may also alarmed his pagan brothers. This is what eventually led to St. Boris’s assassination in 1015 by his brother.
3) Prince Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Condé (1621-1686), claimant to the throne of Poland-Lithuania – twice. I’ve also written about the Duke before regarding his attempts to be elected king in last year’s “Around the World in Another 80 Gays”. You can read the details there.
4) Harry Domela (1905-1979) claimed to be Prince Wilhelm of Germany, grandson and heir to Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was, in fact, a Latvian-Russian of German ancestry. After World War I Harry moved to Germany where he began to claim various false identities. He was imprisoned several times for being an imposter but this didn’t stop him. He managed to make the acquaintance of several German aristocrats and made such an impression that they thought he was Prince Wilhelm of Germany travelling incognito. There was some resemblance between the two and Harry did nothing to deny it. In fact he willingly went along with it and began adopting the lifestyle that implied he was the disinherited heir to the German empire. This was in despite of the fact that the real Prince Wilhelm was studying at the University of Bonn at the time. Very shrewdly Harry kept well away from people and places where the real Prince would likely to be known. It wasn’t long before Harry was uncovered as a fraud and once again arrested in 1926. While in prison he wrote his autobiography “A Sham Prince”. The courts decided his imposture was harmless and released him. His book sold well, and he even starred as himself in a 1927 film and a play. During this period he lodged in the guest rooms of the Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. Openly gay and something of an enigmatic figure after the 1930s Harry had many other adventures, often accompanied by French gay writer André Gide. I’m sure I’ll write about them in the future. Incidentally, the real Prince Wilhelm renounced his rights to the German throne in 1933.
5) James Knight Ord III (b.1976), claimed by perpetually unreliable and homophobic “Daily Mail” and “Mail Online” as the “true heir to the British throne” in an article in 2016. I debunked this claim in this article in which I give proof with actual documentary evidence, something any experienced Daily Mail journalist could have researched for themselves. Last year Mr. Ord himself contacted this blog to welcome my research. He had been aware of his family legend of an illegitimate descent from King George IV of Britain, but has not paid any serious attention to it.
In October I’ll present another set of lgbt claimants and pretenders.
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