April 2, 2025 • 32 mins
Want to know how a British pickle merchant was almost crowned Chinese royalty? Or why San Francisco's policemen regularly doffed their caps to a man who claimed to be America's Emperor? And what happened when a lion tamer just started wandering around pretending to be King of Albania? This week Will and Mango dive into the ridiculous stories of some very unusual royals and what happened when they declared themselves king.
Photo of Emperor Norton on his royal chariot, via the Emperor Norton Trust.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, mango, what's that?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right, so we're going to go back to two
thousand and seven and there's a Maryland auto repair man
and he declared himself King of the Isle of Man.
And the crazy thing is he may have actually had
a real claim to that title.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So this is a lot to unpack from the start here.
But first of all, the Isle of Man, that's the
island between England and Ireland, right.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's right. And technically it's a self governing Crown dependency,
meaning it's got its own government to handle domestic issues,
but Great Britain represents it in international settings and also
oversees its military.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Got it. So how does a guy from Maryland enter
the picture here?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Ancestry dot Com, Mango. So David Howe did what so
many Americans do. He logged on to the genealogy site
to research his family tree and along the way he
discovered that he was the descendant of Thomas Stanley, who
was an early Lord of Man and that's what they
call the island's head of state. But ever since seventeen
sixty five, the reigning British monarch has held the title,
(01:13):
which is why it's such a big deal. When How
publishes his claim in the London Gazette, which is the
official government record of the UK.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And so what's you say, like, surprise, I'm the king now.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I mean, that's basically what he says. So when the
British press caught wind of this, some articles made fun
of him, others questioned his legitimacy. Meanwhile, the residents of
the Isle of Man declared themselves loyal to the British crown.
And this was during Queen Elizabeth the Second's reign, and
some folks even started petitioning, calling for How to be
banned from visiting the island.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Altogether, not a warm welcome, no.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, And that's probably why in twenty seventeen, How issued
a statement saying, quote, after careful consideration, I've decided to
abdicate any rights, responsibilities, and or privileges that my claim
to his store kingship of the Isle of Man affords me.
It's been an interesting ten years.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I love it. So what sort of impact does this
have on the Isle of Man?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Absolutely nothing. But it's a great story. And you know,
usually when Kings Advocate. It's at least a minor deal.
This time. It was just an amusing footnote in the
local papers. But you know, if there's one thing about us,
it's that we love amusing footnotes and unusual stories, which
is what today's episode is full of. We're talking about
people who, for one reason or another, declared themselves royalty.
(02:32):
So grab a crown if you happen to have one,
and let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Hey, our podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
mungish always, I'm doined by my good friend Will Pearson,
and over there in the booth wearing a purple suit
with a shockingly risk neckline is our pal and producer
Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It is actually hard to convey the full impact of
this outfit, especially in an audio medium, But you know
what's going on here, right.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And I go, yeah, he's declared himself prince, right.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That is exactly right. I expected no less from you, Dylan.
I'm proud.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, I can't promise that any of the people we
talked to in this episode will be as stylish as
Prince or Dylan pretending to be Prince. But this is
a topic I've been waiting to cover for a very
long time, so I'm really excited we're doing this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm curious, though, is there any particular reason why you're
so excited. I mean, yes, it's fascinating, but actually you
never told me where you got the idea of this episode.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean since our Metal Flast days, I've been obsessed
with people who suddenly realize they're royals, right Like, there
was that woman in DC who's working as a secretary.
Her name is like King Peggy, and she got a
phone call. Suddenly she realized she was supposed to be
king in this Ghanaian village, which is just an amazing story.
There's this middle class guy in India who always like
(04:09):
claimed his French roots because his house set house of
bourbon over it or something, and then suddenly he did
kind of an ancestry thing and realized he's next in
line for the French monarchy if they bring it back,
which I don't know anyone's trying to. And of course
I'm also obsessed with historical people who have tried to
con their way into being kings. And you know, one
(04:31):
night I was going down this rabbit hole on Wikipedia
and I learned about this guy known as the Pickle
King of Sheldrake.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The Pickle King. It sort of sounds like an infomerci salesman,
like like the Beeper King of New York or whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I know, but this is a story about a
gentleman named Khalid Sheldrake who was actually born Bertram Sheldrake.
And this was back in England in eighteen eighty eight. Now,
Khaled's family ran a company that manufactured pickles, ketchup and
other condiments, and the shelters were actually Catholic. In nineteen
oh four, when he was just sixteen years old, Bertram
(05:08):
converted to Islam. Now, as you can imagine, this was
pretty unusual for an English kid at the time, and
his family was pretty unhappy about it. But Bertram took
on the name Khalid. He actually learned Arabic and he
even founded an Islamic youth society. And as a young man,
he worked in the family pickle business for a while,
but then he left to pursue a career in journalism,
(05:30):
and he was really prolific. He wrote extensively about the
Islamic faith and political issues in the Muslim world. He
also launched news publications aimed at Muslim readers. And to
put this in perspective, this was back when Great Britain
controlled the Indian subcontinent, right, So by the nineteen twenties
the British Empire included more than half the world's Muslim population.
(05:54):
So there were thousands of Muslims in England who come
over from Asia, and people in the UK were actually
are familiar with Islam. Is just that they saw it
through this very limited colonial lens at the time.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And I'm curious when Bertram became Khaleid, did he face
any kind of consequences for converting.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It depends on how you define consequences. When World War
One broke out, Khalid enlisted, but the British military regarded
converts to Islam with a lot of suspicions, so actually
he only got assigned to domestic duties. He wasn't allowed
to join any units that went overseas to fight, which
you know is kind of a mixed blessing if you're patriotic,
but it's obviously a safer position. Anyway, Khalid got married
(06:35):
in his late twenties and his wife converted as well.
He helped establish a couple of mosques in London to
serve the city's growing Muslim community, and he kept writing
and speaking out about this faith, even helping other Britons
who decided to convert.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, it's a good story, but I don't know
if you remember at the top here you mentioned something
about him being the pickle King. Are we ready to
get to that part yet?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah? Soon. The first I have to give you some
very condensed backgrounds. So, Shinjiang is a region in China
that's home to the Weiger people, most of whom are Muslim.
And you've probably heard about this population in recent years
because of human rights abuse going on against the Weiger
minority there. Anyway, this conflict goes back centuries. In the
(07:21):
early nineteen thirties, Muslim groups rebelled against the Chinese governor
in Shinjiang, and one such uprising in the western part
of the region led to the formation of the East
Turkistan Republic, which declared itself an independent Islamic state. Now,
word of Khaled's work promoting Islam in England had reached
the leaders of this rebellion, so they actually asked him
(07:44):
if you wanted to be king of this new state.
Apparently there was some thought that appointing an outsider might
prevent some of the infighting among the various tribes and
warlords in the area, and it would unify the groups. Anyway,
Khalid accepted the invitation and declared himself King of Islamistan,
which is what he decided to rename this province. He
(08:04):
and his wife set out for China so they could
visit their kingdom for the first time, and along the
way he gave lectures about the situation there. And by
the time the couple reach Beijing, which was called pe
King at the time, King Sheldrake was on the Chinese
government's radar. So it's probably not a coincidence that rumors
started to spread about the Sheldrakes. There were allegations that
(08:25):
they were spies, or that they were like propped up
by Great Britain, or that they were just going to
annex Shinjong for the UK.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And so what happened when they finally made it to Islamistan.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Unfortunately, they actually never made it there.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
They never got there at all.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
No, so, Soviet forces aligned with the Chinese government had
been schwarming Shinjong to crush these uprisings, and right around
the time the Sheldrakes got to China, they succeeded. So
the Muslims who had led that rebellion and established the
new state, all of them actually had to run for
the lives, and that meant the Sheldrakes had to flee
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
All right, So the Pickle King of Islamistan lost his
kingdom without ever setting foot in it, right.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah. And as a side note, the moniker the Pickle
King came from the British press. Obviously they had this
huge field day with the story because you know, it's wild.
But what's interesting is if you look back at some
of the articles that ran in nineteen thirty four, they
don't really get into any of the history of Shinjong.
They really just played the whole thing up as a farce.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, I mean, we see this like it's one of
those things that's funny, but there's definitely some serious stuff
below the surface as.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, exactly, and it says a lot about the times
and how people in the UK perceived the East. I mean,
some of the news articles about Khalid didn't even use
Sheldrake's photo. They used stock images of a man in
a fez. Anyway, after the Sheldrakes returned home, they kind
of sank into obscurity. Khalid continued working with Muslim organizations.
(09:54):
He raised money for MOSS, and he continued giving talks
about Islam until his death in nineteen forty seven, but
he led kind of a quiet life after that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, all right, Well, the next time I need to
pickle at least, I think I'll dedicate it to King
Khalid Sheldrake.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I think that he would appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
All right, Well, we're gonna take a quick break, but
when we come back, I'm going to introduce you to
one of the most colorful characters in San Francisco history,
which is really saying something, So don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about royals. Well,
before the break, you said you're taking us to San
Francisco for this next story. That is one of my
favorite cities, so let's get to it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I like the city as well. All right. Well, do
you remember the electronica band Lady tronh.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, kind of they're like popular in the mid adds.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's right, and along with many other artists, they were
on a label called Emperor Norton Records. When we started
researching this episode, it was the first thing I thought of,
because Emperor Norton was actually a real person. The Emperor
was born Joshua Abraham Norton in London. This was back
in eighteen eighteen, and as a young man he immigrated
to the United States. He landed in Boston and eventually
(11:15):
made his way to San Francisco. So in eighteen fifty
soon after he arrived there, he established a real estate
and an importing business, and it took off. Norton became
super wealthy and well connected, an active member of the
city's social circles. But in eighteen fifty two he got
some bad investment advice and he lost a ton of money.
Norton tried to get the problem fixed. He went to court,
(11:37):
he claiming he'd been duped and misled, but after years
and years of appeals, the California Supreme Court actually ruled
against him. By that point, he was broke, like he'd
spent the rest of his money just trying to fight
this case. So in eighteen fifty six he declares bankruptcy,
and by eighteen fifty eight he was living in a
cheap boarding house.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So in just eight years he'd started a business. He'd
made a fortune, He'd lost a fortune, took a case
of the Supreme Court, went bankrupt, and lost his home. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I mean, it was definitely a roller coaster for him.
But despite his misfortunes, or perhaps because of them, Norton
never lost interest in civic affairs. In eighteen fifty eight,
he placed an ad in a local paper, This was
the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, and he announced that
he was running for US Congress as an independent. He
pledged to represent all constituents regardless of party, and promised
(12:30):
to support immigration and construction of the Pacific Railroad.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's interesting, but I'm guessing you didn't get elected because
you don't refer to him as Senator Emperor Norton.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Quite the title. Now, he didn't even make it on
to the ballot, but apparently he kept thinking about national
politics because he ran another ad in July of eighteen
fifty nine, just a few months before the election. The
headline on this one read Manifesto from Joshua Norton, and
it was addressed to the citizens of the Union. He
lamented the growing tension between northern and southern states. Remember
(13:03):
this is just before the Civil War, and he wrote
about how other countries were losing faith in the American government,
and he concluded by asking, quote, will you inaugurate a
new state of things? Which is a decent campaign slogan?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I think, yeah, I mean for the whole time, Yeah,
phrasing of it, but yeah, I can see people sticking
it on their horse and buggies.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
But Norton was just getting started. So a few months later,
September seventeenth, eighteen fifty nine, yet another ad appeared in
the Daily Evening Chronicle. I don't know where he's getting
the money to put these ads in there, And this
one is a doozy. It read quote at the preemptory
request and desire of a large majority of the citizens
of these United States, I Joshua Norton declare and proclaim
(13:45):
myself Emperor of these United States. And so he went
on to order representatives from every state to meet in
San Francisco and quote, make such alterations in the existing
laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under
which the country is labor ring. And you know, if
they'd done it, Mango, maybe we could have avoided the
Civil War.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I love this so much. I love the idea of
just like taking an ad out and declaring yourself emperor
because a lot of people have asked for it.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yes, everybody was asking.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I'm so curious about his big ideas though, tell me
about him.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, he had a lot of them, So we're going
to have to sort of pick and choose here, and
they weren't half bad for these times. So in the
years that followed, Norton placed a flurry of ads. He
wasn't done with all of his ads or proclamations in
the local paper, and he used it like an early
form of social media. And so here's some of his policies.
He supported the separation of church and state. He supported
(14:38):
the women's right to vote. He called for improvements to
roads in public transportation. He believed that black children should
be allowed to attend public schools, that Chinese people should
be treated fairly by the judicial system, and that federal
agents who committed fraud against Native American tribes should be punished.
So that's kind of amazing. Yeah, I was going to say,
like the guy was a little lonely, but the ideas themselves,
(15:00):
you know, this wouldn't have been half bad obviously, And
so like any emperor, not all of his ideas were great.
He also ran an ad in which he abolished Congress,
and when that didn't happen, he ran another ad ordering
the US Army to quote proceed with suitable force and
clear the halls of Congress.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I was voting for Emperor Norton until that point.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, yeah, anyway. It would be easy to write Emperor
Norton off as a random eccentric, but he actually became
a beloved local character. In eighteen sixty one, two years
after he first declared his title, he was listed in
the city directory as Emperor Joshua Norton. That same year,
a local theater put on a historic bur lesque titled
Norton the First or an Emperor for a Day, and
(15:42):
Norton settled into a pleasant routine, even if it was
different from his life as a businessman. He spent his
days in the library reading newspapers, drafting more proclamations. He
attended lectures and debates. He even traveled the Sacramento to
observe the state legislature. But perhaps my favorite part of
this story is that after declaring himself emperor, he began
(16:02):
dressing in secondhand officer's uniforms that he got from a
nearby military base, so on special occasions he added gold applets,
a sword, and a hat with an ostrich plume. Of course,
that is amazing. You know.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
One of the things that I love most about that
is that, like he's listed in the city directory as
Emperor Joshua Norton because my father in law had himself
listed in the phone book as mister Wonderful the years
before a shark tanker or whatever, as he had on
his briefcase the initials MRW for mister.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Wonderful, but that it is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Lizzie would get calls like from you know, marketers saying
like it is mister Wonderful there.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But I'm very curious about Norton himself, Like, obviously he's
putting all these ads up, he's buying secondhand costumes. How
is he supporting himself during this period?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, well, you know, as I mentioned before, he became
this sort of beloved local character, and his friends and
former associates chipped in to cover his living expenses, but
he refused to say he was accepting charity. He called
their gifts taxes, and because he was so well known,
local businesses started supporting him too. Even the police recognized
the Emperor. After one unfortunate incident in which he was
(17:19):
arrested for the crime of lunacy, which apparently was a
crime back then, Norton received a personal apology from the
chief of police, and it said that from then on,
officers in the street would salute when he walked up.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I love that, And it sounds like he still remembered
in California, at least by this record.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Label, right, Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, especially in
San Francisco. There's actually a nonprofit organization called the Emperor
Norton Trust, and it's dedicated honoring his life, and their
website was an invaluable research when we were putting together
this episode. So they've built the world's most comprehensive archive
of Emperor Norton related material, and they've launched a campaign
(17:57):
to name San Francisco's famous ferry building the Emperor Norton Tower.
Now I don't live in San Francisco. Maybe my vote
doesn't count, but I actually think they should consider it.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, maybe we should start a petition. Well, our next
self declared monarch wasn't quite as politically savvy as Emperor Norton.
But he did have plenty of other skills, including lion
taming and sword swallowing. And this is a story about
a man named Auto vite Otto was born in eighteen
seventy two. He was a German circus performer who left
(18:30):
home and began traveling around Europe. But I should mention
here that it's hard to separate fact from fiction when
it comes to Auto's life. He told a lot of stories.
Some might be true, some really seem far fetched. But
I found this one newspaper article that described him as
a globetrotter, which he definitely was. And it goes on
to say, quote he was an artist, magician, deep sea diver,
(18:54):
fortune teller, circus strongman, animal hunter, butcher, and a major
in the Turk Armies.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So you're I thought, you're gonna just keep going there.
That's pretty good resume.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
But the reason we're talking about Auto today has little
to do, you know, with any of that. In nineteen twelve,
Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, and as is
so often the case in situations like this, things get
a little chaotic. So the Albanians were trying to set
up a new system of government and gain recognition from
the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, these pro Ottoman forces wanted
(19:28):
one of their people to take the throne of the
new principality. So somehow Auto Vta enters the picture. I
say somehow because there are different reports of what he
was actually doing. And according to one story, this was
around the time he was serving in the Turkish army.
According to another story, he was just traveling through the
Balkans with a circus troop at the.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Time, So slightly different accounts here, I guess, yeah, And
the point is Auto was in the area.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And here again we have a few versions of what
happened next. Either someone noticed that he bore a striking
resemblance to a minor Turkish prince who happened to be
vying for Albania's throne. Or he decided that his Liontamer's
uniform looked sufficiently regal that he could just declare himself
King of Albania. So one of those two things, buddy
definitely was headed towards monarchy.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Here this takes us back to our sort of our
choose your own adventure days. But I am curious and
we were talking about Auto like he's a real person,
and we are certain that he was a real person, right.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
He was definitely real Anyway, In nineteen thirteen, Auto decides
to make his way to Albania to begin his reign.
He sends official looking telegrams announcing his arrival, He puts
on his fancies costume, and he heads into the country. Now,
depending on which story you believe, he either manages to
impersonate this other Turkish prince or he shows up and
(20:48):
just convinces Albanian's that he's their new king. Auto the first. Now,
according to a British news report, quote, he knew that
man's better judgment is often blinded by pomp and display.
He set out by train with no other credentials than
his gorgeous uniform, and he was given a royal welcome.
Albania cheered lustily this picturesque commanding figure of their king
(21:12):
end quote.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So how did they figure out he wasn't really royalty?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah? So there are a few different accounts about that too.
Either he slipped out of town quietly to avoid getting caught,
or there was an investigation that led to him leaving
the country, But either way, he ends up back in Germany,
where he walks the street of Berlin selling pictures of
himself that he claims were taken during his brief reign,
and for the rest of his life. He insists that
(21:38):
people refer to him as Auto Vite ex King of Albania.
He even has the title added to his official ID card.
But there is one catch here. A lot of historians
believe none of this ever happened, despite all the newspaper
reports and everything else. The details they don't quite add up,
and it's believed that Auto died in nineteen fifty eight,
(22:00):
having spent his life pretending to have pretended to be
the King of Albedia.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
That is a pretty amazing sentence, Mango, and you kind
of have to admire the commitment to the whole bit.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah you do.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
All right, we have to take a quick break. But
when we come back, here's what's going to happen, Mango.
We're going to talk about a man named Boris and
he's going to go to Andorra. You ready for that.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I am welcome.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Back to Part time Genius. All right, Mango, for our
final faux monarch, I want to tell you about a
guy named Boris Scasi ref So. He was born in
eighteen ninety six in Lithuania, which back then was part
of the Russian Empire ruled by Zar Nicholas the second,
and Boris was from an aristocratic family, so he fled
his homeland during the Russian Revolution. He ended up working
as a liaison to the British Army. He was likely
(23:00):
involved in some kind of spy work as well. Bars
reportedly spoke dozens of languages and was good at adopting
various personas, although he wasn't always on the up and up.
At one point he actually got busted for Czech fraud
in London.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Czech fraud. I feel like that's not particularly James Bond
of him.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Not at all. And by the nineteen thirties he'd settled
down on the Spanish island of Majorca with a wealthy
American divorcee who acted as his secretary. Now he claimed
to have worked for the Dutch royal family, and he
told people he'd held the title of the Count of Orange,
all of which he totally made up. Meanwhile, back on Majorca,
he became interested in Andorra, a tiny country sandwich between
(23:41):
France and Spain. Now it had this unusual political model
instead of a single monarch. They are actually two co princes.
One is the President of France, the other is the
Bishop of Urgel, head of the Catholic diocese in Catalonia.
Are you with me so far?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Mango?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I know, this is a lot of information.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's fascinating, So so I think so. I mean, like
he's kind of a con man, kind of a spy,
and he is intrigued by Andorra.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So Boris decides to visit and
while he's there, he starts talking to locals about political
issues in the country. And the population at the time
was under six thousand people, so he probably got to
know people pretty quickly, and he decides what Andorra needs.
It's more Boris of course. Now in an interview with
the London Daily Herald, he revealed his plans, saying, quote,
(24:30):
I shall deliver the endurance from oppression. The Bishop of
Orgel in Spain is keeping them in ignorance and backwardness
while they are exploited by the French Republic. We shall
hold elections and I shall be chosen king.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
That is incredible and it also doesn't sound that democratic.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Well compared to some of the alternatives. It almost was so.
Around the same time as Chicago businessman was trying to
bribe the Bishop of Orgel, he reportedly offered to pay
him one hundred thousand dollars to be named King of Endora.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I didn't realize that Doorra was up for sale, but
that definitely sounds worse than an election.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, for sure. And Boris actually put a lot of
effort into planning reforms for Andorra. He wanted to increase
foreign investment to bolster the economy, even printed up thousands
of copies of a new constitution, had them sent to
celebrities in Spain and France to really to kind of
build support for his cause. And finally, after consulting Andorra's
General Council, he issued a statement saying he'd taken control
(25:28):
of the country as King Boris the first. He even
claimed to have the backing of five hundred soldiers who'd
help him hold the title. Just a few days later,
he was arrested by Spanish authorities, who hold him away
to Barcelona. He was briefly in prison, then kicked out
of the country, and he spent the rest of his
life bouncing around Europe, in and out of prisons, I guess.
(25:48):
And you know, during World War Two he worked as
an interpreter for the German Army in Russia. At the
end of the war, he was arrested by the Allied forces.
So this is just a crazy life. A few years later,
he gets arrested by this Soviets in West Germany under
the suspicion of being a spy and sentenced to hard
labor in Siberia. He was finally released after six years
(26:09):
and died in Germany in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Eighty nine. Wow, and that's definitely a checkered life. So
did he leave behind any sort of legacy in Andorra?
Or is he just you know, one of those footnotes
we talked about at the top of the episode.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
You know, his story actually lives on. In nineteen eighty four,
the Andoran writer and diplomat Anthony Morel Mora wrote a
novel was called Boris, the First King of Andorra, and
it's loosely based on his escapades. And more recently, an
Andoran filmmaker made a documentary called Boris Gassirov The con
Man who was King.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh that's interesting. I'm actually gonna put that on my
netflix Kew, speaking of which I know we've got to
finish off here, but before we do, why don't we
do the fact off. In nineteen thirty one, the Lieutenant
Governor of Nebraska decided to give some prominent local citizens
the title of Nebraska Admiral. Of course, admiral is a
(27:05):
high ranking naval title, and Nebraska is completely landlocked. Nevertheless,
the idea caught on, and to this day the state
gives out honorary admiral ships. I love this so much.
The citation reads quote, I do strictly charge and require
all officers, cmen, tadpoles, and goldfish under your command to
be obedient to your orders as Admiral, and you are
(27:26):
to observe and follow from time to time such directions
you shall receive according to the rules and discipline of
the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. Now to
be clear that Nebraska Navy is not a thing that exists.
It's believed, though, that thousands of admiral ships have been
given out over the years. Some notable recipients Bill Murray,
(27:46):
John Glenn, and Queen Elizabeth II. There's even a Nebraska
Admirals Association, which is dedicated to promoting the state end
quote to enjoy fun activities such as walking the plank.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Stuff. All right, So while I was researching this episode,
I went down this very deep rabbit hole about British
succession laws, and while I was there, I learned about
the twenty thirteen Succession to the Crown Act. This was
a major reform that changed a lot of long standing rules. So,
for example, you're no longer disqualified from inheriting the throne
if you marry a Roman Catholic, so keep that in mind.
(28:22):
But perhaps the biggest change it made was ending what's
called the male preference primogenitor. Now that's the rule that
said male heirs took precedence over female heirs regardless of age.
Today it's gender neutral. So for example, if you look
at Prince William's kids, George was born first, then Charlotte,
then Lewis. Now, under the old laws, the succession order
would have been George than Lewis than Charlotte. Thanks to
(28:45):
the twenty thirteen Act, Prince Charlotte is ahead of her
little brother, making her currently third in line to the throne.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I like that. So Summroyles makes such an impression on
history that they earned themselves in epithet, and so you
can think of Catherine the Great or Flat the Impaler.
We actually ran a list of these at Mental Loss
so many years ago, and it is really wonderful. But
my favorite of all of these is Evillo the Cabbage. Now,
(29:14):
Evillo was a farmer from Bulgaria who'd led a peasant
uprising against the Emperor Constantino Tique in twelve seventy seven.
After killing the emperor and marrying his widow, Ivelo declared
himself Emperor of Bulgaria, and he spent the next year
fighting the Mongol and Byzantine invaders. Eventually he was overthrown,
(29:34):
forced into exile, and murdered, but his nickname lives on.
It was likely given by nobles who mocked his poor upbringing,
but in a way, it just makes him even more
of a folk hero, and I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
All right, all right, Well, I know, this whole time
we've been talking about monarchs as in royalty, but I
can't help it here. I just have to share this
fact about monarchs as in the butterfly. Now, it turns
out there's a butterfly call the Viceroy that's known for
its uncanny resemblance to the monarch, even though they're totally
different genus and species. Now the Viceroy shares the monarchs
(30:08):
orange wings and black stripes and white dots, but it
tends to be slightly smaller than the true monarch and
has an extra black line across its hind wing. Now,
monarch butterflies are notoriously bad tasting to predators, so for
a while, scientists thought the Viceroy practice bitsy and mimicry.
That's what it's called when a tasty species evolved to
resemble a not tasty species in order to avoid getting eaten.
(30:32):
But newer research has actually suggested that at some point
the Viceroy begin eating plants that made it taste bad too.
In other words, it didn't just learn how to look
like a monarch, it learned how to be a monarch.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You know, I'd actually heard that monarchs aren't tasty, and
that's part of why they admit it. But I had
no idea that the Viceroy tasted bad as well and
evolved to do that. That's pretty amazing. Well, I know
this episode was my idea, but I love that Emperor
no Stories so much and the fact that he placed
ads and uses social media, so I'm going to give
(31:05):
you today's trophy. There is no crown, unfortunately, just a trophy.
I'm very sorry, but that is it for today's episode.
D shore to follow us on Instagram at part Time Genius,
but from Gabe, Dylan, Mary, Will and myself, thank you
so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
(31:30):
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will
Pearson and me Mongais Chatikler and research by our good
pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
(31:53):
trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, mango, what's that?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right, so we're going to go back to two
thousand and seven and there's a Maryland auto repair man
and he declared himself King of the Isle of Man.
And the crazy thing is he may have actually had
a real claim to that title.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So this is a lot to unpack from the start here.
But first of all, the Isle of Man, that's the
island between England and Ireland, right.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That's right. And technically it's a self governing Crown dependency,
meaning it's got its own government to handle domestic issues,
but Great Britain represents it in international settings and also
oversees its military.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Got it. So how does a guy from Maryland enter
the picture here?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Ancestry dot Com, Mango. So David Howe did what so
many Americans do. He logged on to the genealogy site
to research his family tree and along the way he
discovered that he was the descendant of Thomas Stanley, who
was an early Lord of Man and that's what they
call the island's head of state. But ever since seventeen
sixty five, the reigning British monarch has held the title,
(01:13):
which is why it's such a big deal. When How
publishes his claim in the London Gazette, which is the
official government record of the UK.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And so what's you say, like, surprise, I'm the king now.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I mean, that's basically what he says. So when the
British press caught wind of this, some articles made fun
of him, others questioned his legitimacy. Meanwhile, the residents of
the Isle of Man declared themselves loyal to the British crown.
And this was during Queen Elizabeth the Second's reign, and
some folks even started petitioning, calling for How to be
banned from visiting the island.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Altogether, not a warm welcome, no.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, And that's probably why in twenty seventeen, How issued
a statement saying, quote, after careful consideration, I've decided to
abdicate any rights, responsibilities, and or privileges that my claim
to his store kingship of the Isle of Man affords me.
It's been an interesting ten years.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I love it. So what sort of impact does this
have on the Isle of Man?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Absolutely nothing. But it's a great story. And you know,
usually when Kings Advocate. It's at least a minor deal.
This time. It was just an amusing footnote in the
local papers. But you know, if there's one thing about us,
it's that we love amusing footnotes and unusual stories, which
is what today's episode is full of. We're talking about
people who, for one reason or another, declared themselves royalty.
(02:32):
So grab a crown if you happen to have one,
and let's dive in.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Hey, our podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
mungish always, I'm doined by my good friend Will Pearson,
and over there in the booth wearing a purple suit
with a shockingly risk neckline is our pal and producer
Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It is actually hard to convey the full impact of
this outfit, especially in an audio medium, But you know
what's going on here, right.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And I go, yeah, he's declared himself prince, right.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
That is exactly right. I expected no less from you, Dylan.
I'm proud.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, I can't promise that any of the people we
talked to in this episode will be as stylish as
Prince or Dylan pretending to be Prince. But this is
a topic I've been waiting to cover for a very
long time, so I'm really excited we're doing this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm curious, though, is there any particular reason why you're
so excited. I mean, yes, it's fascinating, but actually you
never told me where you got the idea of this episode.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean since our Metal Flast days, I've been obsessed
with people who suddenly realize they're royals, right Like, there
was that woman in DC who's working as a secretary.
Her name is like King Peggy, and she got a
phone call. Suddenly she realized she was supposed to be
king in this Ghanaian village, which is just an amazing story.
There's this middle class guy in India who always like
(04:09):
claimed his French roots because his house set house of
bourbon over it or something, and then suddenly he did
kind of an ancestry thing and realized he's next in
line for the French monarchy if they bring it back,
which I don't know anyone's trying to. And of course
I'm also obsessed with historical people who have tried to
con their way into being kings. And you know, one
(04:31):
night I was going down this rabbit hole on Wikipedia
and I learned about this guy known as the Pickle
King of Sheldrake.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The Pickle King. It sort of sounds like an infomerci salesman,
like like the Beeper King of New York or whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I know, but this is a story about a
gentleman named Khalid Sheldrake who was actually born Bertram Sheldrake.
And this was back in England in eighteen eighty eight. Now,
Khaled's family ran a company that manufactured pickles, ketchup and
other condiments, and the shelters were actually Catholic. In nineteen
oh four, when he was just sixteen years old, Bertram
(05:08):
converted to Islam. Now, as you can imagine, this was
pretty unusual for an English kid at the time, and
his family was pretty unhappy about it. But Bertram took
on the name Khalid. He actually learned Arabic and he
even founded an Islamic youth society. And as a young man,
he worked in the family pickle business for a while,
but then he left to pursue a career in journalism,
(05:30):
and he was really prolific. He wrote extensively about the
Islamic faith and political issues in the Muslim world. He
also launched news publications aimed at Muslim readers. And to
put this in perspective, this was back when Great Britain
controlled the Indian subcontinent, right, So by the nineteen twenties
the British Empire included more than half the world's Muslim population.
(05:54):
So there were thousands of Muslims in England who come
over from Asia, and people in the UK were actually
are familiar with Islam. Is just that they saw it
through this very limited colonial lens at the time.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And I'm curious when Bertram became Khaleid, did he face
any kind of consequences for converting.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It depends on how you define consequences. When World War
One broke out, Khalid enlisted, but the British military regarded
converts to Islam with a lot of suspicions, so actually
he only got assigned to domestic duties. He wasn't allowed
to join any units that went overseas to fight, which
you know is kind of a mixed blessing if you're patriotic,
but it's obviously a safer position. Anyway, Khalid got married
(06:35):
in his late twenties and his wife converted as well.
He helped establish a couple of mosques in London to
serve the city's growing Muslim community, and he kept writing
and speaking out about this faith, even helping other Britons
who decided to convert.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, it's a good story, but I don't know
if you remember at the top here you mentioned something
about him being the pickle King. Are we ready to
get to that part yet?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah? Soon. The first I have to give you some
very condensed backgrounds. So, Shinjiang is a region in China
that's home to the Weiger people, most of whom are Muslim.
And you've probably heard about this population in recent years
because of human rights abuse going on against the Weiger
minority there. Anyway, this conflict goes back centuries. In the
(07:21):
early nineteen thirties, Muslim groups rebelled against the Chinese governor
in Shinjiang, and one such uprising in the western part
of the region led to the formation of the East
Turkistan Republic, which declared itself an independent Islamic state. Now,
word of Khaled's work promoting Islam in England had reached
the leaders of this rebellion, so they actually asked him
(07:44):
if you wanted to be king of this new state.
Apparently there was some thought that appointing an outsider might
prevent some of the infighting among the various tribes and
warlords in the area, and it would unify the groups. Anyway,
Khalid accepted the invitation and declared himself King of Islamistan,
which is what he decided to rename this province. He
(08:04):
and his wife set out for China so they could
visit their kingdom for the first time, and along the
way he gave lectures about the situation there. And by
the time the couple reach Beijing, which was called pe
King at the time, King Sheldrake was on the Chinese
government's radar. So it's probably not a coincidence that rumors
started to spread about the Sheldrakes. There were allegations that
(08:25):
they were spies, or that they were like propped up
by Great Britain, or that they were just going to
annex Shinjong for the UK.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And so what happened when they finally made it to Islamistan.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Unfortunately, they actually never made it there.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
They never got there at all.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
No, so, Soviet forces aligned with the Chinese government had
been schwarming Shinjong to crush these uprisings, and right around
the time the Sheldrakes got to China, they succeeded. So
the Muslims who had led that rebellion and established the
new state, all of them actually had to run for
the lives, and that meant the Sheldrakes had to flee
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
All right, So the Pickle King of Islamistan lost his
kingdom without ever setting foot in it, right.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah. And as a side note, the moniker the Pickle
King came from the British press. Obviously they had this
huge field day with the story because you know, it's wild.
But what's interesting is if you look back at some
of the articles that ran in nineteen thirty four, they
don't really get into any of the history of Shinjong.
They really just played the whole thing up as a farce.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, I mean, we see this like it's one of
those things that's funny, but there's definitely some serious stuff
below the surface as.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, exactly, and it says a lot about the times
and how people in the UK perceived the East. I mean,
some of the news articles about Khalid didn't even use
Sheldrake's photo. They used stock images of a man in
a fez. Anyway, after the Sheldrakes returned home, they kind
of sank into obscurity. Khalid continued working with Muslim organizations.
(09:54):
He raised money for MOSS, and he continued giving talks
about Islam until his death in nineteen forty seven, but
he led kind of a quiet life after that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, all right, Well, the next time I need to
pickle at least, I think I'll dedicate it to King
Khalid Sheldrake.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I think that he would appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
All right, Well, we're gonna take a quick break, but
when we come back, I'm going to introduce you to
one of the most colorful characters in San Francisco history,
which is really saying something, So don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about royals. Well,
before the break, you said you're taking us to San
Francisco for this next story. That is one of my
favorite cities, so let's get to it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I like the city as well. All right. Well, do
you remember the electronica band Lady tronh.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, kind of they're like popular in the mid adds.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's right, and along with many other artists, they were
on a label called Emperor Norton Records. When we started
researching this episode, it was the first thing I thought of,
because Emperor Norton was actually a real person. The Emperor
was born Joshua Abraham Norton in London. This was back
in eighteen eighteen, and as a young man he immigrated
to the United States. He landed in Boston and eventually
(11:15):
made his way to San Francisco. So in eighteen fifty
soon after he arrived there, he established a real estate
and an importing business, and it took off. Norton became
super wealthy and well connected, an active member of the
city's social circles. But in eighteen fifty two he got
some bad investment advice and he lost a ton of money.
Norton tried to get the problem fixed. He went to court,
(11:37):
he claiming he'd been duped and misled, but after years
and years of appeals, the California Supreme Court actually ruled
against him. By that point, he was broke, like he'd
spent the rest of his money just trying to fight
this case. So in eighteen fifty six he declares bankruptcy,
and by eighteen fifty eight he was living in a
cheap boarding house.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So in just eight years he'd started a business. He'd
made a fortune, He'd lost a fortune, took a case
of the Supreme Court, went bankrupt, and lost his home. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I mean, it was definitely a roller coaster for him.
But despite his misfortunes, or perhaps because of them, Norton
never lost interest in civic affairs. In eighteen fifty eight,
he placed an ad in a local paper, This was
the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, and he announced that
he was running for US Congress as an independent. He
pledged to represent all constituents regardless of party, and promised
(12:30):
to support immigration and construction of the Pacific Railroad.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's interesting, but I'm guessing you didn't get elected because
you don't refer to him as Senator Emperor Norton.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Quite the title. Now, he didn't even make it on
to the ballot, but apparently he kept thinking about national
politics because he ran another ad in July of eighteen
fifty nine, just a few months before the election. The
headline on this one read Manifesto from Joshua Norton, and
it was addressed to the citizens of the Union. He
lamented the growing tension between northern and southern states. Remember
(13:03):
this is just before the Civil War, and he wrote
about how other countries were losing faith in the American government,
and he concluded by asking, quote, will you inaugurate a
new state of things? Which is a decent campaign slogan?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I think, yeah, I mean for the whole time, Yeah,
phrasing of it, but yeah, I can see people sticking
it on their horse and buggies.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
But Norton was just getting started. So a few months later,
September seventeenth, eighteen fifty nine, yet another ad appeared in
the Daily Evening Chronicle. I don't know where he's getting
the money to put these ads in there, And this
one is a doozy. It read quote at the preemptory
request and desire of a large majority of the citizens
of these United States, I Joshua Norton declare and proclaim
(13:45):
myself Emperor of these United States. And so he went
on to order representatives from every state to meet in
San Francisco and quote, make such alterations in the existing
laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under
which the country is labor ring. And you know, if
they'd done it, Mango, maybe we could have avoided the
Civil War.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I love this so much. I love the idea of
just like taking an ad out and declaring yourself emperor
because a lot of people have asked for it.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yes, everybody was asking.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I'm so curious about his big ideas though, tell me
about him.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, he had a lot of them, So we're going
to have to sort of pick and choose here, and
they weren't half bad for these times. So in the
years that followed, Norton placed a flurry of ads. He
wasn't done with all of his ads or proclamations in
the local paper, and he used it like an early
form of social media. And so here's some of his policies.
He supported the separation of church and state. He supported
(14:38):
the women's right to vote. He called for improvements to
roads in public transportation. He believed that black children should
be allowed to attend public schools, that Chinese people should
be treated fairly by the judicial system, and that federal
agents who committed fraud against Native American tribes should be punished.
So that's kind of amazing. Yeah, I was going to say,
like the guy was a little lonely, but the ideas themselves,
(15:00):
you know, this wouldn't have been half bad obviously, And
so like any emperor, not all of his ideas were great.
He also ran an ad in which he abolished Congress,
and when that didn't happen, he ran another ad ordering
the US Army to quote proceed with suitable force and
clear the halls of Congress.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I was voting for Emperor Norton until that point.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, yeah, anyway. It would be easy to write Emperor
Norton off as a random eccentric, but he actually became
a beloved local character. In eighteen sixty one, two years
after he first declared his title, he was listed in
the city directory as Emperor Joshua Norton. That same year,
a local theater put on a historic bur lesque titled
Norton the First or an Emperor for a Day, and
(15:42):
Norton settled into a pleasant routine, even if it was
different from his life as a businessman. He spent his
days in the library reading newspapers, drafting more proclamations. He
attended lectures and debates. He even traveled the Sacramento to
observe the state legislature. But perhaps my favorite part of
this story is that after declaring himself emperor, he began
(16:02):
dressing in secondhand officer's uniforms that he got from a
nearby military base, so on special occasions he added gold applets,
a sword, and a hat with an ostrich plume. Of course,
that is amazing. You know.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
One of the things that I love most about that
is that, like he's listed in the city directory as
Emperor Joshua Norton because my father in law had himself
listed in the phone book as mister Wonderful the years
before a shark tanker or whatever, as he had on
his briefcase the initials MRW for mister.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Wonderful, but that it is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Lizzie would get calls like from you know, marketers saying
like it is mister Wonderful there.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But I'm very curious about Norton himself, Like, obviously he's
putting all these ads up, he's buying secondhand costumes. How
is he supporting himself during this period?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, well, you know, as I mentioned before, he became
this sort of beloved local character, and his friends and
former associates chipped in to cover his living expenses, but
he refused to say he was accepting charity. He called
their gifts taxes, and because he was so well known,
local businesses started supporting him too. Even the police recognized
the Emperor. After one unfortunate incident in which he was
(17:19):
arrested for the crime of lunacy, which apparently was a
crime back then, Norton received a personal apology from the
chief of police, and it said that from then on,
officers in the street would salute when he walked up.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I love that, And it sounds like he still remembered
in California, at least by this record.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Label, right, Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, especially in
San Francisco. There's actually a nonprofit organization called the Emperor
Norton Trust, and it's dedicated honoring his life, and their
website was an invaluable research when we were putting together
this episode. So they've built the world's most comprehensive archive
of Emperor Norton related material, and they've launched a campaign
(17:57):
to name San Francisco's famous ferry building the Emperor Norton Tower.
Now I don't live in San Francisco. Maybe my vote
doesn't count, but I actually think they should consider it.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, maybe we should start a petition. Well, our next
self declared monarch wasn't quite as politically savvy as Emperor Norton.
But he did have plenty of other skills, including lion
taming and sword swallowing. And this is a story about
a man named Auto vite Otto was born in eighteen
seventy two. He was a German circus performer who left
(18:30):
home and began traveling around Europe. But I should mention
here that it's hard to separate fact from fiction when
it comes to Auto's life. He told a lot of stories.
Some might be true, some really seem far fetched. But
I found this one newspaper article that described him as
a globetrotter, which he definitely was. And it goes on
to say, quote he was an artist, magician, deep sea diver,
(18:54):
fortune teller, circus strongman, animal hunter, butcher, and a major
in the Turk Armies.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So you're I thought, you're gonna just keep going there.
That's pretty good resume.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
But the reason we're talking about Auto today has little
to do, you know, with any of that. In nineteen twelve,
Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, and as is
so often the case in situations like this, things get
a little chaotic. So the Albanians were trying to set
up a new system of government and gain recognition from
the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, these pro Ottoman forces wanted
(19:28):
one of their people to take the throne of the
new principality. So somehow Auto Vta enters the picture. I
say somehow because there are different reports of what he
was actually doing. And according to one story, this was
around the time he was serving in the Turkish army.
According to another story, he was just traveling through the
Balkans with a circus troop at the.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Time, So slightly different accounts here, I guess, yeah, And
the point is Auto was in the area.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And here again we have a few versions of what
happened next. Either someone noticed that he bore a striking
resemblance to a minor Turkish prince who happened to be
vying for Albania's throne. Or he decided that his Liontamer's
uniform looked sufficiently regal that he could just declare himself
King of Albania. So one of those two things, buddy
definitely was headed towards monarchy.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Here this takes us back to our sort of our
choose your own adventure days. But I am curious and
we were talking about Auto like he's a real person,
and we are certain that he was a real person, right.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
He was definitely real Anyway, In nineteen thirteen, Auto decides
to make his way to Albania to begin his reign.
He sends official looking telegrams announcing his arrival, He puts
on his fancies costume, and he heads into the country. Now,
depending on which story you believe, he either manages to
impersonate this other Turkish prince or he shows up and
(20:48):
just convinces Albanian's that he's their new king. Auto the first. Now,
according to a British news report, quote, he knew that
man's better judgment is often blinded by pomp and display.
He set out by train with no other credentials than
his gorgeous uniform, and he was given a royal welcome.
Albania cheered lustily this picturesque commanding figure of their king
(21:12):
end quote.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So how did they figure out he wasn't really royalty?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah? So there are a few different accounts about that too.
Either he slipped out of town quietly to avoid getting caught,
or there was an investigation that led to him leaving
the country, But either way, he ends up back in Germany,
where he walks the street of Berlin selling pictures of
himself that he claims were taken during his brief reign,
and for the rest of his life. He insists that
(21:38):
people refer to him as Auto Vite ex King of Albania.
He even has the title added to his official ID card.
But there is one catch here. A lot of historians
believe none of this ever happened, despite all the newspaper
reports and everything else. The details they don't quite add up,
and it's believed that Auto died in nineteen fifty eight,
(22:00):
having spent his life pretending to have pretended to be
the King of Albedia.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
That is a pretty amazing sentence, Mango, and you kind
of have to admire the commitment to the whole bit.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah you do.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
All right, we have to take a quick break. But
when we come back, here's what's going to happen, Mango.
We're going to talk about a man named Boris and
he's going to go to Andorra. You ready for that.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I am welcome.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Back to Part time Genius. All right, Mango, for our
final faux monarch, I want to tell you about a
guy named Boris Scasi ref So. He was born in
eighteen ninety six in Lithuania, which back then was part
of the Russian Empire ruled by Zar Nicholas the second,
and Boris was from an aristocratic family, so he fled
his homeland during the Russian Revolution. He ended up working
as a liaison to the British Army. He was likely
(23:00):
involved in some kind of spy work as well. Bars
reportedly spoke dozens of languages and was good at adopting
various personas, although he wasn't always on the up and up.
At one point he actually got busted for Czech fraud
in London.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Czech fraud. I feel like that's not particularly James Bond
of him.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Not at all. And by the nineteen thirties he'd settled
down on the Spanish island of Majorca with a wealthy
American divorcee who acted as his secretary. Now he claimed
to have worked for the Dutch royal family, and he
told people he'd held the title of the Count of Orange,
all of which he totally made up. Meanwhile, back on Majorca,
he became interested in Andorra, a tiny country sandwich between
(23:41):
France and Spain. Now it had this unusual political model
instead of a single monarch. They are actually two co princes.
One is the President of France, the other is the
Bishop of Urgel, head of the Catholic diocese in Catalonia.
Are you with me so far?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Mango?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I know, this is a lot of information.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's fascinating, So so I think so. I mean, like
he's kind of a con man, kind of a spy,
and he is intrigued by Andorra.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So Boris decides to visit and
while he's there, he starts talking to locals about political
issues in the country. And the population at the time
was under six thousand people, so he probably got to
know people pretty quickly, and he decides what Andorra needs.
It's more Boris of course. Now in an interview with
the London Daily Herald, he revealed his plans, saying, quote,
(24:30):
I shall deliver the endurance from oppression. The Bishop of
Orgel in Spain is keeping them in ignorance and backwardness
while they are exploited by the French Republic. We shall
hold elections and I shall be chosen king.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
That is incredible and it also doesn't sound that democratic.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Well compared to some of the alternatives. It almost was so.
Around the same time as Chicago businessman was trying to
bribe the Bishop of Orgel, he reportedly offered to pay
him one hundred thousand dollars to be named King of Endora.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I didn't realize that Doorra was up for sale, but
that definitely sounds worse than an election.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, for sure. And Boris actually put a lot of
effort into planning reforms for Andorra. He wanted to increase
foreign investment to bolster the economy, even printed up thousands
of copies of a new constitution, had them sent to
celebrities in Spain and France to really to kind of
build support for his cause. And finally, after consulting Andorra's
General Council, he issued a statement saying he'd taken control
(25:28):
of the country as King Boris the first. He even
claimed to have the backing of five hundred soldiers who'd
help him hold the title. Just a few days later,
he was arrested by Spanish authorities, who hold him away
to Barcelona. He was briefly in prison, then kicked out
of the country, and he spent the rest of his
life bouncing around Europe, in and out of prisons, I guess.
(25:48):
And you know, during World War Two he worked as
an interpreter for the German Army in Russia. At the
end of the war, he was arrested by the Allied forces.
So this is just a crazy life. A few years later,
he gets arrested by this Soviets in West Germany under
the suspicion of being a spy and sentenced to hard
labor in Siberia. He was finally released after six years
(26:09):
and died in Germany in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Eighty nine. Wow, and that's definitely a checkered life. So
did he leave behind any sort of legacy in Andorra?
Or is he just you know, one of those footnotes
we talked about at the top of the episode.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
You know, his story actually lives on. In nineteen eighty four,
the Andoran writer and diplomat Anthony Morel Mora wrote a
novel was called Boris, the First King of Andorra, and
it's loosely based on his escapades. And more recently, an
Andoran filmmaker made a documentary called Boris Gassirov The con
Man who was King.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Oh that's interesting. I'm actually gonna put that on my
netflix Kew, speaking of which I know we've got to
finish off here, but before we do, why don't we
do the fact off. In nineteen thirty one, the Lieutenant
Governor of Nebraska decided to give some prominent local citizens
the title of Nebraska Admiral. Of course, admiral is a
(27:05):
high ranking naval title, and Nebraska is completely landlocked. Nevertheless,
the idea caught on, and to this day the state
gives out honorary admiral ships. I love this so much.
The citation reads quote, I do strictly charge and require
all officers, cmen, tadpoles, and goldfish under your command to
be obedient to your orders as Admiral, and you are
(27:26):
to observe and follow from time to time such directions
you shall receive according to the rules and discipline of
the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. Now to
be clear that Nebraska Navy is not a thing that exists.
It's believed, though, that thousands of admiral ships have been
given out over the years. Some notable recipients Bill Murray,
(27:46):
John Glenn, and Queen Elizabeth II. There's even a Nebraska
Admirals Association, which is dedicated to promoting the state end
quote to enjoy fun activities such as walking the plank.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Stuff. All right, So while I was researching this episode,
I went down this very deep rabbit hole about British
succession laws, and while I was there, I learned about
the twenty thirteen Succession to the Crown Act. This was
a major reform that changed a lot of long standing rules. So,
for example, you're no longer disqualified from inheriting the throne
if you marry a Roman Catholic, so keep that in mind.
(28:22):
But perhaps the biggest change it made was ending what's
called the male preference primogenitor. Now that's the rule that
said male heirs took precedence over female heirs regardless of age.
Today it's gender neutral. So for example, if you look
at Prince William's kids, George was born first, then Charlotte,
then Lewis. Now, under the old laws, the succession order
would have been George than Lewis than Charlotte. Thanks to
(28:45):
the twenty thirteen Act, Prince Charlotte is ahead of her
little brother, making her currently third in line to the throne.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I like that. So Summroyles makes such an impression on
history that they earned themselves in epithet, and so you
can think of Catherine the Great or Flat the Impaler.
We actually ran a list of these at Mental Loss
so many years ago, and it is really wonderful. But
my favorite of all of these is Evillo the Cabbage. Now,
(29:14):
Evillo was a farmer from Bulgaria who'd led a peasant
uprising against the Emperor Constantino Tique in twelve seventy seven.
After killing the emperor and marrying his widow, Ivelo declared
himself Emperor of Bulgaria, and he spent the next year
fighting the Mongol and Byzantine invaders. Eventually he was overthrown,
(29:34):
forced into exile, and murdered, but his nickname lives on.
It was likely given by nobles who mocked his poor upbringing,
but in a way, it just makes him even more
of a folk hero, and I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
All right, all right, Well, I know, this whole time
we've been talking about monarchs as in royalty, but I
can't help it here. I just have to share this
fact about monarchs as in the butterfly. Now, it turns
out there's a butterfly call the Viceroy that's known for
its uncanny resemblance to the monarch, even though they're totally
different genus and species. Now the Viceroy shares the monarchs
(30:08):
orange wings and black stripes and white dots, but it
tends to be slightly smaller than the true monarch and
has an extra black line across its hind wing. Now,
monarch butterflies are notoriously bad tasting to predators, so for
a while, scientists thought the Viceroy practice bitsy and mimicry.
That's what it's called when a tasty species evolved to
resemble a not tasty species in order to avoid getting eaten.
(30:32):
But newer research has actually suggested that at some point
the Viceroy begin eating plants that made it taste bad too.
In other words, it didn't just learn how to look
like a monarch, it learned how to be a monarch.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You know, I'd actually heard that monarchs aren't tasty, and
that's part of why they admit it. But I had
no idea that the Viceroy tasted bad as well and
evolved to do that. That's pretty amazing. Well, I know
this episode was my idea, but I love that Emperor
no Stories so much and the fact that he placed
ads and uses social media, so I'm going to give
(31:05):
you today's trophy. There is no crown, unfortunately, just a trophy.
I'm very sorry, but that is it for today's episode.
D shore to follow us on Instagram at part Time Genius,
but from Gabe, Dylan, Mary, Will and myself, thank you
so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
(31:30):
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will
Pearson and me Mongais Chatikler and research by our good
pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
(31:53):
trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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