Ananti-king,anti king orantiking (German:Gegenkönig;French:antiroi) is a would-beking who, due to succession disputes or simple political opposition, declares himself king in opposition to a reigning monarch.[1] The term is usually used in a European historical context where it relates toelective monarchies rather than hereditary ones. In hereditary monarchies, such figures are more frequently referred to aspretenders or claimants.
Anti-kings are most commonly referred to in the politics of theHoly Roman Empire, before theGolden Bull of 1356 issued byEmperor Charles IV defined the provisions of theImperial election. Other nations with elective monarchies that produced anti-kings includedBohemia andHungary. The term is comparable toantipope, a rival would-bepope, and indeed the two phenomena are related; just asGerman kings (kings of the Romans) andHoly 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, KingConrad 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 DukeHenry II of Bavaria and MargraveEgbert II of Meissen.
^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 byDr Pusey). Only the hyphenated form is cited or mentioned.
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.,ISBN3-406-52637-3
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,ISBN978-3-503-07912-4
