Bibliothèque nationale de France viaWikimedia// Public Domain
The hook of grandeur — with its caparison of celebrity , renown , and riches — is such that over the years many people have tried to snap up a slice of the Proto-Indo European . Some take a elevated deed due to madness , a few through a long - lost family liaison , and others just pay for one over the Internet . Here are seven hoi polloi who have claimed a rubric :
1. THE SELF-STYLED BARON HAUSSMANN
Georges - Eugène Haussmann ( 1809–91 ) was well known as Baron Haussmann ( pictured above ) , the man who helped rebuild innovative Paris into the urban center it is today . And yet his lofty title was nothing of the kind — it was in fact anickname and not an prescribed rubric at all . Haussmann was intelligibly a man of great vision and natural endowment : under the counselling of Napoleon III , he redesigned nineteenth - century Paris from a cramped , sewage - strewn metropolis to the beautiful capital it is today , withboulevards , public spaces , and handsome facades . Haussmann ’s vast achievement is specially impressive take he had no training as an architect or urban deviser — just like he had no title .
2. JOSHUA A. NORTON, EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES
Bradley & Rulofson viaWikimedia// Public Domain
Joshua Norton had a fair lowly start , being born into a family of merchant in London around 1819 . He prompt to California in 1849 as the gilt rush arrive at and made his hazard as a man of affairs , but after a good deal went bad , he drop off it all and repair to vagrancy . In 1859 he posted a decree in theSan Francisco Bulletinproclaiming himselfNorton I , Emperor of the United States . He get wearing a military uniform and issuing frequent fiat on a variety of subjects . San Franciscans immediately took him into their hearts , and for the next 20 years he became something of a local celebrity — offer free meals and transport , and lauded wherever he went . When Norton died in 1880 some 10,000 citizenry turned out to say a fond farewell to their emperor .
3. YEMELYAN PUGACHEV, THE RUSSIAN PEASANT WHO CLAIMED TO BE TSAR PETER III BACK FROM THE DEAD
Rostov Museum viaWikimedia// Public Domain
Tsar Peter III was love by the serfs ( Russian bucolic ) forproposing legislationthat might take to their emancipation , but was forced to renounce just six month into his reign , and murdered eight daylight after stepping down . His wife and successor Catherine the Great was not keen on lay the serfs free , and instead introducedgreater powers for the nobilityover their serf .
Yemelyan Pugachevwas a helot with a score . He exclaim himself the long - lost Tsar Peter III and launched a peasant ’s insurrection ( 1773–75 ) against Catherine , anticipate to end serfdom for goodness . Many flocked to his grounds and thousands were killed in the conflict , but ultimately it was futile and Pugachev was captured and execute . The serfs did not gain emancipation until1861 .
4. SCOTT DISICK, LORD OF THE MANOR
Bettina Cirone via Wikimedia//CC BY - SA 4.0
Kourtney Kardashian ’s infant pop Scott Disick likes to be known as “ Lord Disick ” after he bought an former UK title , Lord of the Manor of Cruckton Ford , over the Internet . Contrary to Disick ’s impression , the title he buy does not make him royalty or even noblesse ; it is in fact an old vestige of theEnglish feudalistic systemand goes back to when lords of the manor house were assign an estate of land by the king , queen , or another brawny Lord to whom they owed allegiance . The lord of the manor house then hire out his manorial lands to local peasants and held certain local privilege such as hunting rights . Today most lord of the manor house titlesdo not come with any actual physical property or estate and are thus fair nonmeaningful , indeed “ Lord ” Disick ’s name should actually be style Mr. Scott Disick , Lord of the Manor of Cruckton Ford , and not “ Lord Disick ” at all .
5. CLAIMING THE SULTANATE OF SULU
A real grand Turk of Sulu . British North Borneo Chartered Company viaWikimedia// Public Domain
Back in the 15th century a powerful Sultan of Sulu reigned over enceinte swathes of the southerly Philippines and Borneo , but since then the territory has been split into many parts and no longer forms one sultanate . This fact has not stopped various descendent of the original sultan of Sulu from claiming the title and the lands . Most recently , Esmail Kiram II proclaimed himself Sultan ofSulu , and in 2013 launched an audacious plan of attack on the Malayan state of Sabah on the island of Borneo in an exertion to repossess the terra firma . The disastrous encroachment be 60 people their life-time , cause a diplomatical crisis between Malaysia and the Philippines , and got the ego - glorify sultan no nearer to his goal of reclaim his birthright .
6. ANTIPOPE BENEDICT XIII
Valdavia viaWikimedia Commons// Public land
Anantipopeis someone who claims to be pope when an officially okay Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Pope is already throw the military position . This has fall out at least 40 time in history , often because rival factions have used the pontificate as a political pawn . Benedict XIII was antipope for intimately 30 class ( 1394–1422)during the Western Schism , when the Roman Catholic Church split into two one-half . During his reign as antipope , Benedict was repeatedly call for to surrender his claim in club to bring unity back to the church , but Benedict turn away and in an extremely convoluted saga he finally served as antipope to three Roman popes and two other antipopes . After Benedict ’s death , another antipope was choose to succeed him , but the two church building were shortly resign andPope Martin Vwas at last the only Bishop of Rome claiming the title .
7. MARIA STELLA AND KING LOUIS PHILIPPE THE CHANGELING
Louis Philippe ascended to the restored Gallic throne in 1830 , becoming the last Riley B King of France , but his legitimacy was right away challenged when a mysterious woman appeared who contend his fatherhood .
Maria Stellawas an Italian eccentric who in 1821 invite a letter from her father Lorenzo Chiappini , which he had asked be delivered after his death . In it , he claimed that when his married woman had given birth to a Word some mysterious nobles had arrive and ask him to swop his boy for their girl so that they might have a son and heir . establish on somewhat flimsy grounds , Maria Stella decided that the nameless nobles must have been the Duc and Duchesse of Chartres , the parents of Louis Philippe . She take her title to an ecclesiastic judicature , who ruled that the varsity letter from her father was indeed true but that the Duc of Chartres was not the baronial in question .
Maria Stella die hard with her claims , and buoy by the fact that many thought Louis Philippe did indeedresemble an Italian peasant , she published a number of pamphlets claiming that Louis Philippe was an role player . Maria Stella ’s true sire was never categorically established and Louis Philippe succumb to another revolution , ending his days as Billie Jean King in deportee in England .
