Volume 56, Number 10 · June 11, 2009
Who Was Deceiving Whom?
By Jonathan Sumption
The Man Who Believed He Was King of France: A True Medieval Tale
by Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, translated from the Italian by William McCuaig
University of Chicago Press, 220 pp., $25.00
Most hereditary monarchies have been plagued at one time or another by impostors. They thrive in societies obsessed by legitimacy. They are creatures of a world in which the transmission of power is determined by legal status. Am I a king who was thought to be dead? Are you a dead monarch's lost or forgotten heir? Who cares, unless status is the sole qualification for supreme government? Where only power can command loyalty, and only success can claim affection, there is not much point in an unknown or forgotten outsider putting forward a claim. Possession is everything. The Roman Empire was not much troubled by impostors.
Review, 3909 words
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