History Main / NobleFugitive

* In ''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'', Prince Arslan and his loyal general Daryun are forced to go on the run after a disastrous battle where the Lusitanian army achieved victory. A good portion of their journey is them trying to find supporters and allies to save Pars while trying to fight off Lusitanian soldiers.

* Turn up from time to time in ''Manga/OnePiece''. Case in point: Cavendish (banished because he was so beautiful that he wrecked the local dating scene for everyone else), Riku Dold and family (framed for raids on local villages), Wapol (up and left when his kingdom was besieged by pirates), and [[spoiler: Sanji]].

* Many a princess has to flee her WickedStepmother or her [[ParentalIncest father who wants to marry her]] and go into service as a SculleryMaid. These include Creator/JosephJacobs's "Literature/{{Catskin}}", "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/katie.html Katie Woodencloak]]", "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/rashin.html Rashin-Coatie]]", "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/bear.html The Bear]]", Creator/TheBrothersGrimm's "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html All-Kinds-Of-Fur]]", "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/kingdaughter.html The King Who Wished Marry To His Daughter]]", and "Literature/CapORushes".
* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/31girlwithouthands.html The Girl Without Hands]]", after the miller's daughter marries a king, she is driven out to the wilderness, and has to live there with her baby. Similarly with the heroine of "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/stories/onehandedgirl.html The One-Handed Girl]]".

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Contrast MosesInTheBulrushes, who was too young to know of his heritage. Compare HiddenBackupPrince, who is hidden as a child and doesn't know their true heritage. Also see KingIncognito.

* Princess Arika and Princess Theodora of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' during their time with Ala Rubra, and thanks to later events and revelations revealed after the Ostia Tournament, [[spoiler:we could add [[WarriorPrince Arika's son, Negi]] here as well.]]

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** In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', Sigurd's army is forced to seek refuge in Silesse after [[spoiler:he is framed as a traitor]]. Meanwhile, Sigurd's father is also forced to go on the run [[spoiler:after being framed for the murder of Prince Kurth]]. Later on, Sigurd is forced to send his own son, Seliph, to Isaach to keep him safe while he tries to clear up the mess. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a smart move, since Sigurd ends up being killed after being tricked into thinking his name had been cleared.]]

* A DLC quest in ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' deals with an blind old beggar who asks for stories about the various sights of Ancient Greece in exchange for his backstory. As it turns out, he's actually Artaxerxes I, the son of Xerxes and former ruler of Persia who was blinded and forced to go into hiding after surviving an assassination attempt. Eventually soldiers from Persia catch up to him and you're given the option of saving him or letting him die.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The storyteller is a traveling bard who is both part of the framing story (he's telling the tale) and has multiple random encounters with the protagonists throughout their journey. He's one of [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Ognian]]'s descendants and has memorized a great number of tales in addition to spinning his own.

Contrast MosesInTheBulrushes, who was too young to know of his heritage. Compare HiddenBackupPrince, who is hidden as a child and doesn't know their true heritage.

* Harald Hadrada. He had to flee Norway after his brother, the king, was killed in battle. After some time in Russia, he worked as a mercenary for the Byzantine Emperor, soon becoming a commander. After learning that his nephew had taken control of the country, he used his newfound wealth to raise an army and force his nephew to accept him as co-ruler. A couple years later, the nephew [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident died]], leaving him sole ruler.

* Carl La Hire in ''LightNovel/ToaruHikuushiENoKoiuta'', lost his parents after the Revolution of the Wind. In order to protect himself, the former prince takes on a new identity- Kal-el Albus.

* Almost every European head of state in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The Norwegian, Greek, Yugoslav, and Luxembourgish royals fled for Britain, as did the leadership of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Dutch royal family went to Canada to protect their younger scions, but the government-in-exile was based in London. Much of the Belgian royal family also decamped to London along with the Belgian government-in-exile, but not King Leopold himself (who remained in Belgium and was denounced as a [[LesCollaborateurs collaborationist traitor]] as a result).

* Subverted with Maladict in the Creator/TerryPratchett novel ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment''. When Maladict joins the army, the recruiting officers are wary of what would make a gentleman sign up, and Maladict immediately assures them there isn't a price on his head (before they get round to asking).

* Anak Zahard's mother in ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'', a former Princess of Zahard who broke the law by getting pregnant and "uncontrolledly spread the power of Zahard" that way.

* This describes Cassius Mass in Literature/LucifersStar by Creator/CTPhipps. The [[RedBaron Fire Count of Crius]] is wanted for war crimes against the Commonwealth of Interplanetary Systems after the end of the war. This despite the fact his home planet was destroyed during the end of the war and being the most honorable of the Crius generals. He ends up being a BrokenAce smuggler who maintains traces of his old honor.

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* Many nobles in the Franchise/FireEmblem series become disenfranchised and hunted before either joining or forming a massive army to reclaim their kingdoms, starting from the original [[TheHero Marth]], and later reflected by supporting Characters in the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Tellius]] universe in Elincia of Crimea and later Sanaki of Begnion. Other examples are Virion and Say'ri in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'' (both run out by Walhart's forces) and the [[PlayerCharacter Avatar]] in the ''Revelation'' path of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'' [[spoiler:after being unable to choose a side to fight on.]]

* A DLC quest in ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'' deals with an blind old beggar who asks for stories about the various sights of Ancient Greece in exchange for his backstory. As it turns out, he's actually Artaxerxes I, the son of Xerxes and former ruler of Persia who was blinded and forced to go into hiding after surviving an assassination attempt. Eventually soldiers from Persia catch up to him and you're given the option of saving him or letting him die.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', Sigurd's army is forced to seek refuge in Silesse after [[spoiler:he is framed as a traitor]]. Meanwhile, Sigurd's father is also forced to go on the run [[spoiler:after being framed for the murder of Prince Kurth]]. Later on, Sigurd is forced to send his own son, Seliph, to Isaach to keep him safe while he tries to clear up the mess. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a smart move, since Sigurd ends up being killed after being tricked into thinking his name had been cleared.]]
** Sigurd's nephew Prince Leif, and his friend's sister's daughter Princess Nanna lived almost their entire lives in exile.
* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses]]'', if Ferdinand is recruited out of the Black Eagles [[spoiler: or the player chooses the Black Eagles but sides with the church after the Holy Tomb incident, he goes on the run for five years until reuniting with Byleth at Garreg Mach. In his B support with Byleth on any route besides Crimson Flower, he specifically states that he fled the Empire because he refused to be Edelgard's puppet.]]

* OlderThanFeudalism: Exile was a common punishment for higher-ranked individuals in AncientGreece. Often, a disgraced individual would willingly choose exile for a stipulated period of years to wait for the feelings against him to die down and/or rally his own forces for a comeback. Democratic Athens famously institutionalized this with its practice of ostracism, in which once a year, the ''ecclesia'' (assembly of free male citizens) could send one person for any reason (or no reason) into exile for ten years. Those exiled tended to be of Athens' aristocratic class (typically being politicians whom public sentiment held had gotten too big for their britches and needed to be cut down to size).

* Jalāl al-Dīn Mingburnu, the last ruler (Khwārezm-Shāh) of the Khwarezmian Empire in Usefulnotes/{{Iran}}, who survived the invasion of his homeland by Genghis Khan and his Mongols in 1220, eluding them on the Indus River, across which his horse swam, enabling him to escape to India. Unsuccessful in his attempts to resist the Central Asian conqueror, Jalāl al-Dīn took up the life of a freebooter fighting against the Muslim rulers of Iran, Anatolia, and {{UsefulNotes/Syria}} until he was murdered in UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} in 1231.

* Jalāl al-Dīn Mingburnu, the last ruler (Khwārezm-Shāh) of the Khwarezmian Empire in Iran, who survived the invasion of his homeland by Genghis Khan and his Mongols in 1220, eluding them on the Indus River, across which his horse swam, enabling him to escape to India. Unsuccessful in his attempts to resist the Central Asian conqueror, Jalāl al-Dīn took up the life of a freebooter fighting against the Muslim rulers of Iran, Anatolia, and Syria until he was murdered in [[Kurdistan]] in 1231.

* OlderThanFeudalism: Exile was a common punishment for higher-ranked individuals in AncientGreece. Often, a disgraced individual would willingly choose exile for a stipulated period of years to wait for the feelings against him to die down and/or rally his own forces for a comeback.

* [[UsefulNotes/MaryOfScotland Mary Queen of Scots]].

* White Russian exiles from the Russian Civil War played a part in politics in the 1930s and 1940's. Many were merely mercenaries or spies, but the most notable of them was Field Marshal Mannerheim. While not all of these were hunted some were, or had reason to fear that they were.
* Almost every European head of state in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* UsefulNotes/RobertTheBruce.
* Harald Hadrada. He had to flee Norway after his brother, the king, was killed in battle. After some time in Russia, he worked as a mercenary for the Byzantine Emperor, soon becoming a commander. After learning that his nephew had taken control of the country, he used his newfound wealth to raise an army and force his nephew to accept him as co-ruler. A couple years later, the nephew [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident died]], leaving him sole ruler.
* Henry Tudor spent almost all of his early life as either a fugitive or a glorified hostage, being the [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses House of Lancaster]]'s one last hope of returning to power after the rest of the line was exterminated.
* Abd al-Rahman I, SoleSurvivor of the Ummayad family when it was massacred by the Abbasids in 750, fled in hot pursuit from Syria to Spain where he founded the Caliphate of Cordoba. He was at first accompanied by his brother Yahiya, who was caught by the Abbasids while trying to cross the Euphrates, and beheaded within sight of Abd al-Rahman.

* 120 or so years later, the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]] led to large numbers of Russian nobles fleeing all over the world. France (especially Paris) and England (especially London) were common destinations, but these emigres ended up pretty much everywhere in the world that ''wasn't'' Russia (for instance, a lot of them ended up in Shanghai).
* Exile was a common punishment for higher-ranked individuals in AncientGreece. Often, a disgraced individual would willingly choose exile for a stipulated period of years to wait for the feelings against him to die down and/or rally his own forces for a comeback.
* Charles XII of Sweden spent 1707-1714 in exile in the Ottoman Empire, where he became known as 'Fixed Asset Charles' due to expenditures on his court being a regular item in the Empire's budget. Originally welcomed by the Turks, his lavish expenditures and tendency to drag the Empire into Sweden's fights with Russia and Poland eventually got him shown the door.

* Arthur, after Morgana's power grab in season 3 of ''Series/{{Merlin}}''