An anti-king, anti king or antiking (; ) is a would-be king who, due to succession disputes or simple political opposition, declares himself king in opposition to a reigning monarch.OED "Anti-, 2" The OED does not give "anti-king" its own entry, unlike "antipope", but includes it in a list of political "anti-" formations, such as "anti-emperor" and "anti-caesar". The earliest example of anti-king cited is from 1619 (and the next by Dr Pusey). Only the hyphenated form is cited or mentioned. The term is usually used in a European historical context where it relates to elective monarchies rather than hereditary ones. In hereditary monarchies, such figures are more frequently referred to as pretenders or claimants.

Anti-kings are most commonly referred to in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire, before the Golden Bull of 1356 issued by Emperor Charles IV defined the provisions of the Imperial election. Other nations with elective monarchies that produced anti-kings included Bohemia and Hungary. The term is comparable to antipope, a rival would-be pope, and indeed the two phenomena are related; just as German kings (kings of the Romans) and Holy Roman emperors from time to time raised up antipopes to politically weaken popes with whom they were in conflict, so too popes sometimes sponsored anti-kings as political rivals to emperors with whom they disagreed.

Several anti-kings succeeded in vindicating their claims to power, and were recognized as rightful kings: for example, King Conrad III of Germany, Emperor Frederick II, and Emperor Charles IV. The status of others as anti-kings is still disputed: e.g. in the case of Duke Henry II of Bavaria and Margrave Egbert II of Meissen.

List of anti-kings

Germany

Name Dates In opposition to: Arnulf the Bad 919–921 Henry the Fowler Henry the Wrangler 984–985 Otto III Rudolf of Rheinfelden 1077–1080 Henry IVHermann of Salm 1081–1088 Conrad III 1127–1135 Lothair III Frederick II 1212–1215 Otto IV Henry Raspe 1246–1247 Frederick II William II of Holland 1248–1250 1250–1254 Conrad IV Alfonso X of Castile 1257–1275 Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall Frederick the Fair 1314–1330 Louis IV Charles IV 1346–1347 Edward of Windsor (involuntary) 1348 Charles IV Günther of Schwarzburg 1349 Frederick of Brunswick-Lüneburg 1400 Wenceslaus, King of the Romans

German double elections Date King King 1198 Philip of Swabia 1198–1208 Otto IV 1198–1215 1257 Richard of Cornwall 1257–1272 Alfonso of Castile 1257–1273 1314 Frederick the Fair 1314–1330 Louis the Bavarian 1314–1346 1410 Sigismund of Luxembourg 1410–1437 Jobst of Moravia 1410–1411

Bohemia

Name Dates In opposition to: Matthias Corvinus 1469–1471 George of Poděbrady 1471–1490 Vladislaus II Frederick of the Palatinate 1619–1620 Ferdinand II Charles Albert of Bavaria 1741–1743 Maria Theresa

Hungary

Name Dates In opposition to: Ladislaus II 1162–1163 Stephen III Stephen IV 1163–1165 Japan

Korea Name Dates In opposition to:Duke Angyeong 1269 Wonjong of Goryeo (deposed by dictator Im Yŏn) Wang Ko 1320–1323 Chungsuk of Goryeo1339–1340 Chunghye of Goryeo

Scotland

Name Dates In opposition to: Edward Balliol 1332–1356 David II

See also Antipope War of succession Carlism

References

Sources Heinrich Mitteis: Die deutsche Königswahl. Ihre Rechtsgrundlagen bis zur goldenen Bulle, 2nd expanded edition, Rohrer, Brünn, Munich, Vienna, 1944, pp. 113 ff. Dietmar Willoweit: Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Vom Frankenreich bis zur Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands, 5th revised edition, expanded with a table of chronology and an attached map, Beck, Munich, 2005, pp. 71 ff., 94 ff., Gerhard Theuerkauf: Gegenkönig. In: Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, 2nd, fully revised and expanded edition. Published by Albrecht Cordes, Heiner Lück, Dieter Werkmüller and Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand as philological advisor. Edited by: Falk Hess and Andreas Karg, Vol. I: Aachen-Geistliche Bank, Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin. 2008, Sp. 1995–1996,