History Main / RoyalBlood

* Invoked in GKChesterton's ''Magic''

* In RobertEHoward's ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/{{The People of the Black Circle}}", Yasmina is very proud of hers. It makes the BreakTheHaughty all the more humiliating.

* In RobertEHoward's {{Kull}}/{{Bran Mak Morn}} story "Kings of the Night", one tribe demands to be led only by a king, and one of their own blood.

* It's the reason that the {{player character}}'s sister is killed in the PC game ''Shades of Death: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Royal Blood]]'' - she's a countess and her {{royal blood}} is needed to revive the king of vampires.

* In ''{{Webcomic/No Rest For The Wicked}}'', November can detect royal blood. She tells Perrault that the Marquis has no royal or even noble blood (if you've read "Puss In Boots", you know she's right there) and later deduces that Clare is royal, but only by marriage (if you're read "The Girl Without Hands", you know she's right there, too.) On the other hand, this doesn't seem a common ability; the Marquis is widely accepted, and November's ragged appearance [[FallenPrincess convinces all and sundry that she's no princess]].

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]

[[AC: Comic Books]]

[[AC:Fairy Tales]]

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Legend]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:Theater]]

[[AC:Traditional Games]]

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[AC: WebComics]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

----

* In the ''{{Hellboy}}'' comics, [[spoiler:Hellboy]] was recently revealed to be [[spoiler: the last living descendent of King Arthur, which makes him the rightful king of England]]. Among other things, this means that [[spoiler:he can use {{Excalibur}} and call forth an army of England's dead soldiers.]]

* In ''TheLegendOfZelda'', the females of the royal family are endowed with PsychicPowers, often the [[MacGuffin Triforce of Wisdom]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the name "Zelda"]]. Also, even without the Triforce, said PsychicPowers cause her to be an almost endless source of magical energy. All of this combined causes the Princesses Zelda to be very [[DamselInDistress popular targets of supernatural kidnappers]]. Therefore, it sucks to be royal and female in Hyrule. No wonder that the Hyrulean Princesses tend to [[OcarinaOfTime develop]] [[TheWindWaker a]] [[{{Tomboy}} tomboyish]] [[RebelliousPrincess side.]]

* In most of the ''FireEmblem'' series, you have one or more 'Lord' units. Invariably of Royal (or at least highly noble) Descend, they also tend to have higher stats than any unit you haven't deliberately twinked out. (...at least ''most'' of the time...Yes, I'm talking to you, Leaf and Eliwood!) Not to mention being heroic, beautiful, inspirational, and so on and so forth...

* BabylonFive: the Triluminaries are attuned to children of Valen.

** An example of this being subverted is Isana. She's just a steadholder, and her power is apparently limited. However, in ''Captain's Fury'' and later ''Princeps' Fury'' she realizes that the concept of power being limited to station is so heavily ingrained into her - and by extension, the rest of Alera's - consciousness that it was effectively blocking her full potential.

* In CSLewis's ''TheMagiciansNephew'', Jadis treats with contempt the notion that Uncle Andrew could be anything but a king: RoyalBlood and magic go together. Who ever heard of commoners being magicians? Whether this is AuthorityEqualsAsskicking or -- in light of her ruthless use of magic for power -- AsskickingEqualsAuthority is not clear, but she certainly treats it as the former.

** In the second book of the Camber trilogy Joram points out to his father that he (Camber) could have made himself king with fewer problems then Cinhil Haldane is having. Camber argues that that would have made him no better then the Deryni Festils as he has no royal blood and no legal right to the throne of Gwynedd.

* In the ''{{Birthright}}'' campaign setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, characters with royal blood have a divine power known as Regency.
* Played With in {{Traveller}} . The Imperium is held together by a FeudalFuture. However the only advantage claimed for aristocratic blood is that something has to hold the Imperium together, it is nice to have people around who were trained to run the Imperium in their nursery's even if some of them turn out to be {{Upper Class Twit}}s, and that there has to be a way of choosing ''someone'' to be the boss and with trillions of people that is kind of a bother. And besides, ErmineCapeEffect is cool.

** Sometimes in the games, royal blood also grants powers that make them worth using over another unit. Other than plot roles such as Louise's relation to the Queen of Bern getting the characters an audience with her or the princess of a foreign land aiding the army, there are some certain combat privileges to being royal. A usual example are weapons only those of royal blood can use. (Namely weapons like the Rapier, Hector's Wolf Beil, Leaf's Light sword, etc) However, when the royal unit is a ''normal'' class unit, they may ''still'' have some specific weapons only they or another royal can use.
*** In the first game, Marth's sister Elice was kept alive because she could use the Aum staff, which can only be used by a princess.

** Some normal units actually may ''be'' royalty but they're practically just regular units. Some characters also have a plot twist about them when they suddenly reveal themselves to be of royal blood, or are found to be royalty.

* In ''[[{{Langrisser}} Der Langrisser]]'', the only ones who can wield the titular [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Langrisser]] are the Descendants of Light, of the blood of Lushiris. These individuals also tend to be highly powerful fighters on the field.

* In PatriciaAMcKillip's ''Riddle of the Stars'' trilogy, kings have a mystical bond, called "land-law" that allows them to sense their own kingdoms.

* In JohnCWright's ''Count to a Trillion'', the princess observes that despite this, she is a commoner, not having an actual title.

**** {{Tolkien}} was also influenced by the [[TheBible New Testament]], where Jesus is the rightful King of Israel and spends much of his ministry healing people. Also, in Anglo-Saxon, Christ or Messiah is translated into something very close to modern English's word "Healer".

* In RobertEHoward's ConanTheBarbarian story "The People of the Black Circle", Yasmina is very proud of hers. It makes the BreakTheHaughty all the more humiliating.

* Subverted in TerryPratchett's ''WyrdSisters''; they end up choosing between two half-brothers, but they are not the king's illegitimate and legitimate sons, but his ''court jester's'' legitimate and illegitimate sons. The king's ghost (who doesn't know any of this) is still happy.

* ''OnePiece'' has yet to show how much it is buying into this trope, but the Marines certainly believe in it. Of course, the royalty they are tracking is [[spoiler: the Pirate King's]].
** And of course then there are the Celestial Dragons, [[spoiler:descendants of the founders of the World Government]]. Their royal blood affords them immense wealth and political power which they are more than willing to abuse for the sake of their own amusement.

* In ''MahouSenseiNegima'', both [[spoiler: Negi and Asuna]] have RoyalBlood. Although in this case there's a good reason that this is important, as the person who started the royal bloodline is heavily implied to be the mage that created the Magic World.
** Konoka is also of RoyalBlood, from a totally different family. This is a key plot point in the Kyoto arc and pretty much ignored after that.

* In ''AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', her royal blood is the reason Kida is transformed into a serene goddess-like figure upon contact with the main crystal while Rourke is... well... [[NightmareFuel not so lucky]].
** Unfortunately, Disney actually did not realize this, as pointed by the fact that they accepted "any other" and excluded "some of royal blood", despite considering Rourke as an official Disney Villain.
* ''Film/{{Stardust}}'' has their royalty reappear as ghosts if they die before the next king is crowned (which they likely will, because it's a family tradition to bump the male siblings off, and the last man standing gets the crown). Unfortunately, their ghosts appear exactly the same way they did at their time of death, [[spoiler:which makes it awkward if you got killed while in the bath]]. They also are apparently ''literal'' Blue Bloods. [[spoiler:Or at least, that would explain why Septimus isn't surprised at all to see his brother dead in a bath-tub, with his throat slit and a blue bloodstain down his front. On the other hand, Septimus doesn't seem fazed by much of anything, except the sight of Robert de Niro in drag, so it's possible that he's just generally unflappable]]. Bear in mind that they're from AnotherDimension.
** Not to mention [[spoiler: Tristan being the rightful king, inheriting the royal blood from his mother, Lady Una]].

* In ''LordOfTheRings'', the royal line of Numenor/Arnor/Gondor and thusly Aragorn descend from various elven royal families and human royal families of the First Age, and even a divine spirit as the first of several cross-race-marriages. The people of Gondor have the saying of the opening quote, that royal blood gives him [[HealingHands healing powers]].

* In ''ThePrisonerofZenda'', they are willing to try the [[EmergencyImpersonation imposture]], because he is himself illegitimately descended from a {{Ruritania}}n king. Of course, the fact that the impostor looks pretty much exactly like the king helps...

* Being a member of the Royal House of [[BookOfAmber Amber]] makes one [[strike:practically]] superhuman, with great strength, impressive healing, the [[FunctionalMagic Trumps]], the ability to [[TheMultiverse walk between worlds]]... Of course, being so powerful means their only real competitors are other members of the [[BigScrewedUpFamily Royal Family]]. Being a scheming lot, this leads very quickly to a GambitPileup...

* In Fiona Patton's ''Tales of the Branion Realm'', the royal line is literally possessed by a fire god -- they all have fiery eyes, the fire growing brighter as one gets closer to the throne. This neatly cuts out the problem of illegitimacy, but one king is remembered as "The Bastard", since his foreign mother seduced the king in order to end a war by having her son inherit.
* In Christopher Stasheff's ''Her Majesty's Wizard'', the Queen is truly infallible -- whatever she says essentially becomes true. When she confers virtues (such as bravery) on a knight, the knight visibly gains those virtues.
** Please note - it only works on issues of policy or governance, being tied more into Divine Right. When the issues become personal, all bets are off.

** It's also important to note that some normal units actually may ''be'' royalty but they're practically just regular units. Some characters also have a plot twist about them when they suddenly reveal themselves to be of royal blood, or are found to be royalty.
* This is the very reason that Estelle is able to [[spoiler: use healing artes without a [[LostTechnology Blastia]].]] In ''TalesOfVesperia''. Of course [[ApocalypseMaiden Estelle's]] power is also [[spoiler: poisoning the world]].

* ''DragonAge: Origins'', the Orzammar SuccessionCrisis, puts you in the dilemma of choosing between a radical RoyalBlood heir and a more reasonable mere-noble successor named in the late king's last will. The twist is that [[spoiler:the royal heir becomes a tyrant and the other sucks as a ruler]]. Also, after the landsmeet, you have to decide between making [[spoiler:Alistair]] king, thus preserving the RoyalBlood, or confirming the IronLady Anora (the widow of King Cailan) as queen. Thankfully, there is a [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] here: persuade the two of them to marry so they can have their cake and eat it, too.
** Actually, there is even a fourth option, if your character is a human of noble blood... have one of them marry you! You just need to be suave enough.

* ''{{Drowtales}}'': Faen's empathic abilities, Ariel's shapeshifting.
** Actually, in Ariel's case, it isn't a matter of royal blood, but possibly a cross between SuperpowerfulGenetics and LamarckWasRight, due to the implication that her father is [[spoiler: a drow [[BalefulPolymorph shapeshifted]] into a giant sentient spider]]. Faen plays it straight, though.

* ''GirlGenius'': The Heterodyne family, of course! Also shows up in the lesser sparks and the royal families of Europa -- Baron Wulfenbach uses it to keep the peace by holding hostage members of prominent families.

* People who have the surname Fitzroy (or an ancestor with that surname) are typically illegitimate descendants of a (British or English) king.[[hottip:*:"Fitz" is a specifically Anglo-Norman thing, derived from the Old Norman pronunciation of the word for "son" (''fiz'', pronounced "fits", derived from Latin ''filius'' and related to French ''fils''), but used in a way unknown in the rest of the Romance-speaking world: the custom of using your language's form of "someone's son" as a surname was a Germanic--especially Scandinavian--thing, and while the Normans spoke French, they were in many ways still Vikings--even after almost 200 years in France--when they conquered England.]] Other Fitzes have been used for the illegitimate children of royalty, most notably [=FitzClarence=], the illegitimate children of [[TheHouseOfHanover King William IV of the United Kingdom]] (the children were all born while he was still the Duke of Clarence); [=FitzCharles=], for some of the illegitimate children of Charles II (others used Fitzroy, the name of their mother's husband, or in one case, the odd choice of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Tudor Tudor]]"); and Fitzjames, the illegitimate children of [[TheHouseOfStuart James II]]. We should note that most people whose name is "Fitzsomething" aren't royal bastards, though.
* Arguably, the ''entire human race'' can claim at least some strain of royal blood. It's been stated that most everyone in the Western world is descended from Charlemagne. This has to do with the fact that with every generation going backwards through time, your number of ancestors doubles - you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. - and the population of the world has been such that it would be almost impossible for an individual to not claim at least one royal ancestor. [[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/2497/ The concept is explained in detail here.]]

* ''{{Stardust}}'' has their royalty reappear as ghosts if they die before the next king is crowned (which they likely will, because it's a family tradition to bump the male siblings off, and the last man standing gets the crown). Unfortunately, their ghosts appear exactly the same way they did at their time of death, [[spoiler: which makes it awkward if you got killed while in the bath]]. They also are apparently ''literal'' Blue Bloods. [[spoiler: Or at least, that would explain why Septimus isn't surprised at all to see his brother dead in a bath-tub, with his throat slit and a blue bloodstain down his front. On the other hand, Septimus doesn't seem fazed by much of anything, except the sight of Robert de Niro in drag, so it's possible that he's just generally unflappable]]. Bear in mind that they're from AnotherDimension.

* In Randall Garrett's ''Literature/LordDarcy'' stories, the throne of England combined with that of the Holy Roman Emperor. As a consequence, it is elective, but only among the Plantagent line. At one point, we see the king's brother thinking that his nephews are more likely candidates but he is a possible one.

* In PatriciaAMcKillip's ''[[RiddleMasterOfHed Riddle of the Stars]]'' trilogy, kings have a mystical bond, called "land-law" that allows them to sense their own kingdoms.

* While there aren't any kings on Pern, the bloodline that ruled Ruatha Hold was known to produce many heirs with enhanced telepathic talents.

** RoyalBlood is noted as ''helping'' one attain status as a Knight of the Cross, but is far from ''necessary''. After all, both [[spoiler: Suan and Murphy]] become temporary Knights during ''Changes'', and there's no indication that either of them have royalty in their ancestry - just righteous amounts of love and faith, respectively.

** Some critics have attributed the sterling character of the princes in ''{{Cymbeline}}'' and the princess in ''[[TheWintersTale Winter's Tale]]'' to a belief that royal blood would show up in their character, but, on the other hand, in both those plays the older generation, just as royal, is distinctly less sterling.

* In ''ThePrisonerofZenda'', they are willing to try the [[GuiseWillBeGuise imposture]], because he is himself illegitimately descended from a {{Ruritania}}n king. Of course, the fact that the impostor looks pretty much exactly like the king helps...

* In [[{{Ptitlewo6dni8e}} Dorothy L. Sayers]]' LordPeterWimsey novel ''Have His Carcase'', the murder victim was convinced he had RoyalBlood. [[spoiler:The murderers used it to lure him to his death]]. His blood ended up being an important clue [[spoiler:He was a haemophiliac and also Russion (cf Alexei Romanov hence his belief) so when Harriet discovered the corpse covered in fresh blood he wasn't at all recently dead as they thought]].

* Done every which way in LloydAlexander's ''ChroniclesOfPrydain''. Most notably, there's the matter of the sword Dyrnwyn, which bears an inscription explaining that gets quoted early in the series as ''Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of royal blood''... The heroes give the blade to their friend Prince Gwydion, who is able to use it because he does indeed fit the description - except that the sword's runes have been mistranslated. It's actually ''Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of noble worth''... While that still applies to Gwydion, it also opens the door for someone else to use the sword later.

* Arguably, the ''entire human race'' can claim at least some strain of royal blood. It's been stated that most everyone in the Western world is descended from {{Charlemagne}}. This has to do with the fact that with every generation going backwards through time, your number of ancestors doubles - you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. - and the population of the world has been such that it would be almost impossible for an individual to not claim at least one royal ancestor. [[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/2497/ The concept is explained in detail here.]]

* One episode of ''StargateAtlantis'' is based on the premise that only those with the Ancient Technology Activation gene can be royalty, because this gene is required to activate the technology (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin) required to protect the planet.

[[AC:Opera]]
* GilbertAndSullivan use it in both ''Princess Ida'' and ''The Gondoliers''.

* Played With in {{Traveller}} . The Imperium is held together by a FeudalFuture. However the only advantage claimed for aristocratic blood is that something has to hold the Imperium together, it is nice to have people around who were trained to run the Imperium in their nursery's even if some of them turn out to be UpperClassTwit s, and that there has to be a way of choosing ''someone'' to be the boss and with trillions of people that is kind of a bother. And besides ErmineCapeEffect is cool.

* Subverted hard and then played straight by GilbertAndSullivan in ''The Gondoliers''. One of two Venetian Gondoliers is believed to be the heir to the vacant throne of the Mediterranean island kingdom of Barataria. Until it can be determined which is the actual king, they reign jointly -- but being Republicans who "hold kings in detestation" they do all of the work around the palace, allowing their servants lives of total leisure. Then played straight [[spoiler:when it turns out that the heir to the throne was someone else entirely]].

[[AC:TraditionalGames]]

* Being a member of the Royal House of [[BookOfAmber Amber]] makes one [[strike:practically]] superhuman, with great strength, impressive healing, the [[FunctionalMagic Trumps]], the ability to [[TheMultiverse walk between worlds]]... Of course, being so powerful means their only real competitors are other members of the [[BigScrewedUpFamily Royal Family]]. Being a scheming lot, this leads very quickly to a ThirtyGambitPileup...

RoyalBlood! It's real, it's significant, and only the person who's really got it is suitable for the throne. Obviously required for the RightfulKingReturns. In {{Fantasy}}, may actually endow the person with magical powers, giving additional meaning to the term MacGuffinGirl, or even be required [[FisherKing by the land]] (and, unfortunately, making it useful in BloodMagic). Features even in SF for a FeudalFuture. And even for OfferedTheCrown, RoyalBlood may encourage them to chose you.

->'''Gafgarion''': Even Princesses can die for getting in the way. That's what 'royal blood' is all about!
* In ''TheLegendOfZelda'', the females of the royal family are endowned with PsychicPowers, often the [[MacGuffin Triforce of Wisdom]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the name "Zelda"]]. Also, even without the Triforce, said PsychicPowers cause her to be an almost endless source of magical energy. All of this combined causes the Princesses Zelda to be very [[DamselInDistress popular targets of supernatural kidnappers]]. Therefore, it sucks to be royal and female in Hyrule. No wonder that the Hyrulean Princesses tend to [[OcarinaOfTime develop]] [[TheWindWaker a]] [[{{Tomboy}} tomboyish]] [[RebelliousPrincess side.]]

* Fable: In the first installment into this series it's implied that the main character descends from an ancient royal bloodline and it's outright stated a sacrefice of said blood is needed to unlock the full potential of the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sword of Aeons.]] The other installments in the series also imply a sort of inborn heroic power behind this bloodline as it is essentially the family each player protagonist descends from and the major reason your character can pull off most of their many heroic and death defying feats...like falling out a window some 10-20 stories up.
* ''DragonAge: Origins'', the Orzammar SuccessionCrisis, puts you in the dilemma of choosing between a radical RoyalBlood heir and a more reasonable mere-noble successor named in the late king's last will. The twist is that [[spoiler:the royal heir becomes a tyrant and the other sucks as a ruler]]. Also, after the landsmeet, you have to decide between making [[spoiler:Alistair]] king, thus preserving the RoyalBlood, or confirming the IronLady Anora (wife of late King Cailan) as queen. Thankfully, there is a [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] here: persuade the two of them to marry to have their cake and eat it, too.

* From the beginning of TheMiddleAges to the end of the Renaissance, monarchs in England and France were thought to be capable of healing citizens (which is likely where Tolkein got his idea of Aragorn being a healer) of scrofula (known as the "King's Evil" as it was thought only the monarch could cure it) simply by laying their hands on the person, murmuring, "God grant you good health," and giving them a coin. This ended in England after Queen Anne failed to cure the future Dr. SamuelJohnson (of Boswellian fame) and her successor George I condemned the practice as "too Catholic", and was ended by Louis XV in France, although a brief resurrection in 1825 was widely ridiculed.

[[AC:Real Life]]
* From the beginning of TheMiddleAges to the end of the Renaissance, monarchs in England and France were thought to be capable of healing citizens (which is likely where Tolkein got his idea of Aragorn being a healer) of scrofula (known as the "King's Evil" as it was thought only the monarch could cure it) simply by laying their hands on the person, murmuring, "God grant you good health," and giving them a coin. This ended in England after Queen Anne failed to cure the future Dr. SamuelJohnson (of Boswellian fame) and her successor George I condemned the practice as "too Catholic", and was ended by Louis XV in France, although a brief resurrection in 1825 was widely ridiculed.
** King CharlesII of England notoriously did not ''want'' to touch for the King's Evil, but was persuaded to do so as a sign of the continuity of the monarchy after the Restoration. He is said to have muttered to a scrofulous victim brought to him, "God grant you good health -- and better sense."
** It was also played more or less straight without the superstitious element, as the various thrones in Europe were frequently occupied by rulers of foreign lineage, which all passed without comment because they were still of RoyalBlood -- the different royal/noble houses of Europe were occasionally treated like one big intermarrying family.
* In most of the kingdoms of southern Nigeria (especially the iconic ones like Benin and Oyo), local religious beliefs hold that the gods, ancestors and other spirits upholding the kingdom have a contract of sorts with the royal family. Exercise of this franchise allows the king to perform special ceremonies to avert disaster or solve crises. For instance in 2010, amid increasing incidences of armed robbery around the city of Benin, the Oba of Benin conducted a new ritual intended to cleanse the town and place a curse on all robbers. So revered is the Oba and his office that (according to police), crime rates dropped acutely in the following monthly reports.
* People who have the surname Fitzroy (or an ancestor with that surname) are typically illegitimate descendants of a (British or English) king.[[hottip:*:"Fitz" is a specifically Anglo-Norman thing, derived from the Old Norman pronunciation of the word for "son" (''fiz'', pronounced "fits", derived from Latin ''filius'' and related to French ''fils''), but used in a way unknown in the rest of the Romance-speaking world: the custom of using your language's form of "someone's son" as a surname was a Germanic--especially Scandinavian--thing, and while the Normans spoke French, they were in many ways still Vikings--even after almost 200 years in France--when they conquered England.]] Other Fitzes have been used for the illegitimate children of royalty, most notably [=FitzClarence=], the illegitimate children of [[TheHouseOfHanover King William IV of the United Kingdom]] (the children were all born while he was still the Duke of Clarence); [=FitzCharles=], for some of the illegitimate children of Charles II (others used Fitzroy, the name of their mother's husband, or in one case, the odd choice of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Tudor Tudor]]"); and Fitzjames, the illegitimate children of [[TheHouseOfStuart James II]]. We should note that most people whose name is "Fitzsomething" aren't royal bastards, though.

[[AC:Real Life]]
* From the beginning of TheMiddleAges to the end of the Renaissance, monarchs in England and France were thought to be capable of healing citizens (which is likely where Tolkein got his idea of Aragorn being a healer) of scrofula (known as the "King's Evil" as it was thought only the monarch could cure it) simply by laying their hands on the person, murmuring, "God grant you good health," and giving them a coin. This ended in England after Queen Anne failed to cure the future Dr. SamuelJohnson (of Boswellian fame) and her successor George I condemned the practice as "too Catholic", and was ended by Louis XV in France, although a brief resurrection in 1825 was widely ridiculed.
** King CharlesII of England notoriously did not ''want'' to touch for the King's Evil, but was persuaded to do so as a sign of the continuity of the monarchy after the Restoration. He is said to have muttered to a scrofulous victim brought to him, "God grant you good health -- and better sense."
** It was also played more or less straight without the superstitious element, as the various thrones in Europe were frequently occupied by rulers of foreign lineage, which all passed without comment because they were still of RoyalBlood -- the different royal/noble houses of Europe were occasionally treated like one big intermarrying family.
* In most of the kingdoms of southern Nigeria (especially the iconic ones like Benin and Oyo), local religious beliefs hold that the gods, ancestors and other spirits upholding the kingdom have a contract of sorts with the royal family. Exercise of this franchise allows the king to perform special ceremonies to avert disaster or solve crises. For instance in 2010, amid increasing incidences of armed robbery around the city of Benin, the Oba of Benin conducted a new ritual intended to cleanse the town and place a curse on all robbers. So revered is the Oba and his office that (according to police), crime rates dropped acutely in the following monthly reports.
* People who have the surname Fitzroy (or an ancestor with that surname) are typically illegitimate descendants of a (British or English) king.[[hottip:*:"Fitz" is a specifically Anglo-Norman thing, derived from the Old Norman pronunciation of the word for "son" (''fiz'', pronounced "fits", derived from Latin ''filius'' and related to French ''fils''), but used in a way unknown in the rest of the Romance-speaking world: the custom of using your language's form of "someone's son" as a surname was a Germanic--especially Scandinavian--thing, and while the Normans spoke French, they were in many ways still Vikings--even after almost 200 years in France--when they conquered England.]] Other Fitzes have been used for the illegitimate children of royalty, most notably [=FitzClarence=], the illegitimate children of [[TheHouseOfHanover King William IV of the United Kingdom]] (the children were all born while he was still the Duke of Clarence); [=FitzCharles=], for some of the illegitimate children of Charles II (others used Fitzroy, the name of their mother's husband, or in one case, the odd choice of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Tudor Tudor]]"); and Fitzjames, the illegitimate children of [[TheHouseOfStuart James II]]. We should note that most people whose name is "Fitzsomething" aren't royal bastards, though.