Arguing with a friend, who's right?

Question

My friend says that if a prince kills a king, he won't be sent to jail or put to death himself.
and i say that he will, and gave examples like the lion king, hamlet, oedipus rex.

and then she said to look at Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, which i don't know too much about.

So who's right?

Answer 1

There is a recent example - Nepal 2001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_royal_massacre



Crown prince Dipendra (heir to the throne of Nepal) shot and killed the King and other members of The Royal family before shooting himself. However, he did not die immediately and was in a coma for three days. Upon the death of his father (at his own hand) he constitutionally became king. He died three days later as the last but one king of Nepal, as following the massacre the country shortly afterwards became a republic.



If he had survived the coma there would have been a huge constitutional problem in Nepal.



"While Dipendra lived, (the last king of Nepal, King) Gyanendra maintained that the deaths were the result of an "accidental discharge of an automatic weapon". However, he later said that he made this claim due to "legal and constitutional hurdles", since under the constitution, and by tradition, Dipendra could not have been charged with murder had he survived. A full investigation took place, and Crown Prince Dipendra was found to be responsible for the killing..."

Answer 2

You have to understand how monarchy actually works to find the answer. It would depend of the reason the prince kills a king. Sometimes it's not about power, and another successor could take the position. As far as royalty goes, kings are made, not born. With the case in Nepal, the royalty ended royalty with a great bang of murder. Which is quite common amongst royalty. So what happened in Nepal was more for the people, than it was about the royal family and thus what royalty means. They gave up their power, because the people did not believe they had their best interests at heart, and by all of them dieing, they'd be forced into a new system of governance. They could have kept royalty with a parliament, which would have still been a republic, but where is the juicy story of their monarchy left in history then? With that story, they left a legacy and something interesting in history to read about.

Answer 3

Well your examples are works of fiction, so they dont count. I cant think of any instances where this happened, but i doubt he would be sent to jail, because the prince would have the throne and kings were above the law back when they ruled.

Answer 4

i think that your friend is right, because he wont be put in jail or put to death. i think that if this were to happen in real life, the prince would just be declared crazy and probably lose his right to the throne.