Friends who have some interest in European history are likely to have heard many nicknames of European monarchs, such as Richard the Lionheart, Pepin the Dwarf, Frederick the Red Beard, and so on. Some of these monikers have very positive meanings, which can be understood as boasting about the exploits of a certain monarch, such as the Lionheart, the Brave, and so on. Others are very inexplicable, and even have obvious negative connotations, such as bald Charlie, Pepin the short, Bloody Mary, Lazy King Louis and so on. So what exactly do these nicknames represent? How did they come about? And who gave it to these monarchs?
Legacy of the Age of European Mythology
In fact, these nicknames of European monarchs can be said to be derived from the ancient culture of Europe. As early as some oral epics of prehistoric europe, there was a habit of giving their main characters a nickname that would summarize their lives. For example, Achilles, known in Trojan legend as the first warrior of Greece, was once "Swift-footed" in it. This practice was also used in ancient Greek and Roman religions, such as the Greco-Roman sun god Apollo, who is sometimes referred to as "Apollo Musagetes", to illustrate that he was the leader of nine literary goddesses in charge of art and science.
Achilles nicknamed "Fast Foot"
This custom evolved into a practice called "victory title" during the roman republic, whereby when a Roman general defeated an important enemy of Rome on the battlefield, the Romans would add a specific affix to the name of the enemy as part of his name. For example, in 202 BC, the Roman general Scipio the Great defeated the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal of North Africa who had once swept through Rome at the Battle of Zama, and then the Romans, in order to boast of his exploits, added the title of "Africanus" to his name, and this title means "African Conqueror", so he was later called "African Conqueror Scipio" in Rome.
Painting depicting the Battle of Zama
Therefore, in the ancient Roman era, in fact, many generals and officials once had such "victory titles". If you look at the history of ancient Rome and see a general with "Germanicus" or "Parthicus" in his name, do not think that this person was from a Germanic or Persian Parthicus dynasty, in fact, these names are likely to indicate that the general once led an army to defeat the Germanic or Persian Parthicus.
Some generals' achievements are so brilliant that their "victory title" will evolve into a family name between surname and first name, which is actually somewhat similar to the "clan" used in ancient China. For example, Geneus Pompey, one of the three most famous giants in the late Roman Republic, had achieved extremely brilliant victories in the process of leading troops to fight, so the Romans later added him the title "Magnus", which means "great". Later, some of his descendants also inherited this title in their names, which means that this title has also become part of their family name.
Painting depicting Pompey's military victory
But in the ancient Roman period, in fact, some people began to use this kind of "victory title" to engage in irony. For example, in the 1st century BC, there was another Roman general who was called Mark Antoni Criticus in later historical sources, but the "Criticius" in his name was the title given to him by the Romans, but this title was not to boast of his merits, but to satirize his failures, because he had suffered a crushing defeat in his previous attack on the Greek territory of Crete.
What did the Dominator, The Lionheart and the Hammer do?
This practice was also continued after Europe entered the Middle Ages. For example, Charlemagne, who was once close to unifying Europe, gave himself the title of "Dominator Saxonorum" after he defeated the Germanic groups such as Saxony that had not been incorporated into the European feudal system before.
Since then, many Kings of European countries have also held similar titles, such as Alfonso IV of Portugal, who reigned from 1325 to 1357 AD, because he won many military victories and made Portugal enjoy long-term peace during his reign, so he was called "brave". King Richard I of England, who reigned from 1189 to 1199 AD, was named after the lion, the king of the hundred beasts, because of his bravery and good fighting and outstanding military achievements, and was known as the "Lionheart King". King Edward I, who reigned from 1272 to 1307 AD, was known as the "Scots hammer" for his vow to fight the rebellious Scots.
Richard the Lionheart
However, sometimes this nickname is actually more arbitrary, such as another medieval figure with the iron hammer nickname, that is, the Frankish kingdom of the palace minister Iron Hammer Charles, he got the nickname "Iron Hammer" because his real name is Charlie Matt, and the word Martel (Martel) in Old French is the meaning of "iron hammer", so later when some historians translated his name into English, they directly translated the word Matt into English according to the meaning of hammer. Hammer then became his nickname.
Statue of Nevsky
This practice of giving famous generals or emperors nicknames based on their deeds was later very popular among the Rus' and In Russia. For example, Alexander Nevsky, who had mediated between the Rus' states and made peace with the Mongol Golden Horde in the form of vassals, was actually named Alexander Yaroslavich. But because he had led the Rus' armies to defeat the combined forces of The Nordic nations such as Sweden, Norway and Finland at the Battle of the Neva River in 1240 AD, and this victory was of great significance to the Rus' countries, the Rus gave him the title of "Nevsky" with the name of the Neva River, so that this title simply became his name left in the historical records, and his real name was not so famous. This practice can be said to be very common in later Russia.
Who are the people with negative nicknames?
And because many of these titles are derived from the nicknames given to the monarch and the general by the people, it has nothing to do with the acceptance or non-acceptance of the monarch or the general himself, and there have always been many kingdoms and feudal lords in ancient Europe, and many times these kingdoms and territories are also enemies of each other, so it is also normal to give some ironic or negative nicknames to the enemy monarch or will receive some ironic or negative nicknames. In addition, it is true that some monarchs or generals were evil or indeed had characteristics that were considered flaws at the time, and could not be concealed in the context of europe's long-term division. Therefore, in the history of Europe, it is only natural that many monarchs have left "names" to future generations that are full of negative connotations or very ironic.
The portrait of bald Charlie does not seem to be a bald man
For example, Charlemagne's father mentioned above was called Pepin the Short, but this nickname may have been used to disguise another characteristic, because some records seem to say that he was actually a luo pot. And Charlemagne's grandson Charles II left his name in the history books is not very good, his name is Charles the Bald. There are actually many theories about why he got this title, and the relatively mainstream view actually thinks that this statement is an irony, that is, this Charlie is actually not bald, but extremely hairy, so some people deliberately use this statement to joke about him. Another theory is ironic, but it is ironic that he got the fiefdom very late, and had nothing before like a bald man without hair.
Another very famous monarch nickname is Barbarossa, which means red beard. He was nicknamed Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, who reigned from 1155 to 1190 AD. And this nickname can be said to be completely negative. Frederick I received this nickname because he had tried to rule some cities in northern Italy during his reign, so he launched an unusually bloody conquest of them, causing heavy casualties in the local area, so these Italian cities later called him "Red Beard", that is, Barbarossa, meaning that he killed people to dye his beard red. Later Europeans also referred to the two Algerian sultans who fought the Europeans as Barbarossa, who fought the Europeans in a pirate manner.
Glass portrait of Barbarossa
There are countless monarchs in European history who have left bad nicknames, such as Mary I, who was once Queen of England, and is known as the Bloody Mary because she executed a large number of Protestant nobles during her reign. King Louis V of France was known as Louis the Lazy King because of his lack of political achievements during his reign. The Russian Tsar Ivan IV was known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Terrible because he weakened the power of the nobility and strengthened the centralization of power during his reign. Richard the Lionheart's younger brother John was known as the King of the Lost Lands or the King of the Soft Sword, as he lost all his fiefdoms during his reign and eventually died in civil war. The Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian II was known as the King of The Nose Because he was eventually overthrown by a coup d'état and had his nose cut off.
Portrait of Bloody Mary
Therefore, seeing here, many friends may also have a feeling, that is, these nicknames of these monarchs or generals in Europe are actually a bit similar to the titles of ancient Chinese monarchs to a certain extent, but most of the nicknames that have been handed down to modern times also reflect the evaluation of these monarchs by later generations, which also have obvious praise and depreciation. Therefore, most of the people with positive nicknames are also monarchs who have had the merits of opening up territory or founding the country, and many of the monarchs with negative nicknames are actually monarchs who eventually lost their positions or lost their countries, which are more similar to the monarchs known as "mourning", "Li", "You", "Jiao" and so on in ancient China, but because of the reality of the long-term division of Europe, there are also some monarchs who have not failed, but are hated by political enemies, and they have also remained in the historical record with more negative nicknames. (Image from the Internet, infringement notice deleted)