D&D General Would he be happy to spend his life as A Senior Baron or as he's the only child of the king would he try for throne. PS he's the kings bastard son

[Paul Farquhar]

Last time a bastard took the English throne.

Unknown. Last time there was a coronation paternity DNA testing had not been invented.

 

[aco175]

Unknown. Last time there was a coronation paternity DNA testing had not been invented.

Spells could help. A zone of truth on the King or speak with dead once he dies, or the mother dies.

Not that it would help the political side of things and the political backstabing in court calling it 'fake' or attacking the character of the caster to foil the spell one way or the other.

 

[delericho]

Last time a bastard took the English throne.

Arguably in 1558 - Elizabeth I had been declared illegitimate when Henry VIII executed her mother for treason, and although she was restored to the line of succession (and then removed again, and then added again - it was an interesting time), she wasn't restored to legitimacy.

That said, those were all after the fact machinations. There's no particular doubt that Henry wasn't Elizabeth's father, and he was married to her mother at the time.

There is at least one other story of a miraculous pregnancy, from some time before that. But I haven't been able to track that one down with a quick Google search.

 

[delericho]

Spells could help. A zone of truth on the King or speak with dead once he dies, or the mother dies.

Both of those will only go so far - they will tell the truth as they know it. People have a great capacity for choosing what to believe.

 

[delericho]

When constructing a scenario of this case, I think I'd be inclined to set the scenario more or less as follows:

The legitimate heir is fairly clearly a poor choice, for whatever reason. The illegitimate one is widely regarded as a far better choice. Both sides have their followers, neither of which are willing to back down, and there's a lot of back-and-forth. And so there isn't a clear 'right' choice - the law says one thing, the good of the realm another. And so the PCs get to choose, and indeed their choice may end up being the thing that swings the balance of power.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There is at least one other story of a miraculous pregnancy, from some time before that.

Are you thinking of Mary of Modina, wife of James II, and the alleged "baby in the warming pan"?

Or Henry Tudor, who, although not illegitimate himself, his father almost certainly was, and therefore his entire claim was spurious?

Or the claims that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was not legal, and hence their children (the Princes in the Tower) where illegitimate?

Frankly, there are so many!

 

[delericho]

Are you thinking of Mary of Modina, wife of James II, and the alleged "baby in the warming pan"?

I don't think so, though that would certainly count.

The one I'm thinking about has a king going off to war and his wife producing an heir, with the pregnancy being either almost impossibly long or almost impossibly short. Unfortunately my memory of it all is extremely hazy - it was from a TV show I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to several years ago!

Edit: I think I've found it: The show was called "Britain's Real Monarchy", and made the claim that Edward IV was illegitimate.

(Also of note: Edward V was officially king for a few months in 1483, before his uncle declared him illegitimate and declared himself king (Richard III). I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which of them was the bastard in that situation.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which of them was the bastard in that situation

In the game of thrones, the biggest bastard is the one who is alive and sitting on the throne when the music stops.

 

[JMISBEST]

Given that the character in question is an individual, they can act in whatever way the player or GM chooses - there's no 'would' about it.

That said, if he's been raised as the supposedly-legitimate son and heir of a baron and has just learned that he's the illegitimate son of the king (and nobody else knows), then by far the smart thing to do is destroy any and all evidence of this and carry on as if he'd never found out - he has no meaningful support base for taking over the kingdom; it's very likely very few people would believe him anyway; the other heirs would want to see him dead... and in most places succession laws specifically exclude illegitimate children - meaning that if he outs himself as the king's illegitimate son his best-case outcome under the law may well be to see him lose his inheritance as baron for no gain at all.

He's not the supposedly legitimate son and heir of A Baron he is The legitimate son and heir of A Baroness

 

[delericho]

Spells could help. A zone of truth on the King or speak with dead once he dies, or the mother dies.

One thought occurred to me last night: real world monarchs are very big on "the divine right of kings". (Indeed, I think even tomorrow King Charles is going to claim that he is king by the grace of God.) But of course in most D&D settings the gods are a matter of provable fact and can be contacted by their most powerful priests.

So it's entirely possible that in a D&D setting succession would much more resemble the Prophet Samuel going and anointing some random shepherd (or PC), and much less a matter of inheritance.