What is the most undeserved nickname a royal in days of yore had?

Answer 1

How about 'Charles the Bald' who wasn't bald in the sense of having no hair on his head. He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin I of Aquitaine) were unsuccessful. As there was nothing left for him to inherit, i. e. he was bare of an inheritance, he received the nickname the Bald (German kahl means bald, bleak, bare or naked).

Answer 2

James VI of Scotland

Nickname: The Wisest Fool in Christendom

Dubbed the Wisest Fool in Christendom by Henry IV of France, James was highly educated and an astute political theorist, more so than most kings of the day. As King of Scots he had diligantly courted Queen Elizabeth of England to ensure he was recognised as her successor. However, he alienated most of his subjects with his lectures on religion and the Divine Right of Kings. In addition, his thick Scots accent and a tongue too big for his mouth made him seem a curious character to English courtiers.

A fun link to a Scottish royal nickname quiz below...
(and now you know one of the answers!)

Answer 3

The tenth-century Anglo-Saxon king of England Aethelred "the Unready". In fact, he was called Aethelraed the Unraed, a pun on his name in Old English. Aethelraed means "princely counsel," and unraed means (in Anglo-Saxonic) "ill-counselled". So effectively "Aethelrad the Unraed" means "Princely counsel the ill-counselled". The Anglo-Saxons had a famously dry sense of humour.

Modern historians, however, have dubbed Aethelraed "the Unready" simply because the words sound alike.

A similar linguistic confusion surrounds the Carolingian king of Francia Charles the Simple. In fact his cognomen - Simplex - did not mean 'simple-minded', but something like 'straightforward, fair-dealing.'

Answer 4

Richard III - nicknamed Dick Crouchback.

There's no historical evidence that Richard had a humpback, and a lot of historians believe that it was a rumour started by the Tudors in order to blacken his name and strengthen their rather weedy claim to the English throne.

Answer 5

Bloody Nikolas.
Last Czar of Russia
Fewer died under his rule than any of the previous Romanovs until the date of revolution.

Answer 6

Caligula the mad

he wasn't a little boot at all, he was a real live boy!

(albeit a mad one)

Answer 7

Your Majesty!