The King of America?

Can anyone help me?
An aquaintance asked me recently whether I heard that
the was once a possibility that America nearly had a king.
Apparently this nearly occured after getting independence.

Can anyone assist?

George Washington was offered King-ship by some people and turned it down.

I've askied some guys here where I work and
one of them has said that a Stewart, one of the
Scottish Stewarts was asked.

I'll investigate further.

Thats was after Washington was asked and refused Kingship. Thats when I think it was offered to exiled Charles Stuart III. But seeing that Washington turned it down it wasnt really realistic that Charles was ever going to get it.

Joshua Norton, emperor of the united states and king of california. mid 19th cent. a loon to be sure but perfectly harmless and well loved and honored (unlike the current pretender) loon in San Fransisco, his currency was accepted city wide, was the first to propose the golden gate bridge and have a funeral that included over 25,000 people.

Does the legend about the king of america go some thing like, He who shall pull the Double Tall Grande Latte Frapacino from the Scone of Destiny shall be named King of America, he (or she) will also receive a 20 dollar gift card to starbucks and like three months of free aol or something like that.

In all seriousness:

Joshua Norton, emperor of the united states and king of california. mid 19th cent.

Grover beat me too it. Perhaps your friend was talking about the old emperor.

Links, just cuz it's a very interesting story. I love eccentrics.

www.sfmuseum.org...

Wikiwiki:

en.wikipedia.org...

Spiderj

[edit on 6/8/2006 by Spiderj]

Originally posted by grover
Joshua Norton, emperor of the united states and king of california. mid 19th cent. a loon to be sure but perfectly harmless and well loved and honored (unlike the current pretender) loon in San Fransisco, his currency was accepted city wide, was the first to propose the golden gate bridge and have a funeral that included over 25,000 people.

Wow thats fasinating.. he had his own currency???? He declared himself emperor lol? Never heard of the guy actually, Washington I know was offered King-ship and when asked what to call his new office many people wanted things like "Your Hieness" "Your Majesty" "Lord" in the end, washington said president will do. Could you imagine calling Bush "Your Majesty"

Found it.
After Shadow XIX responded I did some digging.

Apparently in November 1782 four Americans visited
Charles Edward Stuart an asked him to be 'King of
America'.
I'm not sure at this time why he was asked or why he
declined, but the four people that visited him were:
a Mr. Galloway of Maryland, the Sylvester brothers from
Pennsylvania and Mr. Fish from New York.

Oh, Hon Charles Hervey-Townshend was witness to the
visit, apparently he became Britain's ambassador to The
Hague.

Boring Nuh?

Arron Burr also seems to have intended to establish his own little empire over the appalachian mountains.

Originally posted by IronMan
Found it.
After Shadow XIX responded I did some digging.

Apparently in November 1782 four Americans visited
Charles Edward Stuart an asked him to be 'King of
America'.
I'm not sure at this time why he was asked or why he
declined

I think he turned it down because he had no male heir. Either that or he realized it was very likely he would be accepted as such by the American people.

Washington was huge in America they wanted him to got past two terms as well. So im inclined to believe he had the best chance of becoming a real and reconized King of America

Originally posted by Spiderj
Does the legend about the king of america go some thing like, He who shall pull the Double Tall Grande Latte Frapacino from the Scone of Destiny shall be named King of America, he (or she) will also receive a 20 dollar gift card to starbucks and like three months of free aol or something like that.

In all seriousness:

Joshua Norton, emperor of the united states and king of california. mid 19th cent.

Grover beat me too it. Perhaps your friend was talking about the old emperor.

Links, just cuz it's a very interesting story. I love eccentrics.

Like I always say if you ahve reached a certian age and are not a character and eccrentic you are just a slacker and just not trying.

BTW Emperor Joshua Norton is featured quite accurately in one of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. It is in the 6ht volume "Fables and Reflections" and the name of the story is "Three Septembers and a January", but that is not where I first heard of him, that honor goes to Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminiti trilogy. Gee i wonder if my old hippiedom is showing?

I Was under the impression That the United States of America is not a Actuall Country but a instead a Piece of land owned by the king of england and or england itself.

Originally posted by Spiderj
Does the legend about the king of america go some thing like, He who shall pull the Double Tall Grande Latte Frapacino from the Scone of Destiny shall be named King of America, he (or she) will also receive a 20 dollar gift card to starbucks and like three months of free aol or something like that.

I'm guessing it goes something like "The first who gets the people of the US to pull their heads out of their collective asses and see how their elected officials are doing the exact opposite of serving the public will be crowned king of the america's"

Phat chance that ever happening it seems.

HAIL NORTON!!! E Clampus Vitus' Patron Saint!!!

SATISFACTORY!!!

Good question, and good replies.

We may have a King yet.

I just finished a new book on Washington and found out that he was actually called "His Excellency" while he was General of the Army in the fight for independence against Britian. I thought that was kind of interesting. A really interesting man.

One was George III.

The other was born in Tupelo, Mississippi last century and his reign appears to have outlived him, which is a first for kings unless you believe in Bible tales.