King Who? King David, that's who! What? Huh?
Alright now, realising that you may not be from the Isle of Man (also Mann) or from Maryland, King Dave's hometown, you may not have ever heard of this newly self-proclaimed King of the Isle of Man. So, I'll provide a brief introduction into David Drew Howe and his claim as King Dave and then we can take a look at the merits of his claim.
First, David Drew Howe is an American chap who is apparently a descendant of the last King of the Isle of Man, Thomas Stanley II, also the 1st Earl of Derby (English Peerage) who died in 1504. With me so far? Well, when David found out about his great grandpa from some chap in the UK, he did what any enterprising American might do, he found an archbishop to throw some oil on him, say some keen words in Latin and slap a crown on his head. Fast forward a few months and King David is now selling titles of nobility for his charity, (which pisses everyone off because that is the protected domain of the Labour Party and King Dave's knighthoods are a fraction of the price) has been the topic of news headlines on both sides of the pond, a handful of TV News appearances and a topic for forums with anonymous
Why yet another one you may ask? I have to say that I've always liked the underdog and having followed this story for the last couple of months I decided that I'd give my twopence. Mainly I think a good number of people have been a bit daft concerning King David's rise to the throne. I don't think he deserves quite the beating he is being handed and I want to provide some balance in the arena of "experts" on his claim. I'm not going to name the names of those people who are the worst offenders, Grandma, but you know who you are. I'm not completely innocent myself either. I was one of the haters but more on that in a bit.
Claim to being the KingBack in January 2007, David Drew Howe had his claim to being the King of the Isle of Man published in the London Gazette. That is the official government paper in England and is owned by HM Queen Elizabeth II. Oh, wouldn't you know, King David is also apparently a distant cousin to the Queen. And the Plot thickens...............
In Dave's claim he says that he is a descendant of the Kings of the Isle of Man and that since the title was abandoned back 500 years blah blah blah etc etc yawn, he is claiming right to the ownership of the title. Surprisingly enough, no one disputed his claim, not even the Lord of Mann the Queen herself. According to King Dave's website his claim was even held up for publishing for about 30 days at Her Majesty's Stationary Office while they sniffed and scratched it a bit.
What does it all mean? I do not really know. My thoughts on this is that obviously the British and Isle of Man governments were well aware of Dave's claim before it was published. They no doubt knew about it and said and did nothing all the way up until October 2007 when a paper in the Isle of Man, The Independent (A bit of irony for those that are familiar with the Island), thought to ask the Isle of Man government and Buckingham Palace what they thought. Both claimed ignorance of his claim and said the Queen was the Lord of Mann. Really? So, we are supposed to believe that Buckingham Palace hadn't heard of his claim until October 2007? Come now. arr, I grow weak.
Haters unite!
The Island press sets off a chain of events that lead to a lot of coverage of King David and his claim. In a totally original move, King Dave chatter starts up on the Isle of Man forum and anything the man might have ever done is brought to light including one of the more bizarre accusations that King Dave declared himself the real Saint Nick. This started back in October and it is still going.The guy to the left is a frequent poster there. I should know, it's me. (not really but we could be brothers) This was my original response. And, like many others, I felt that King Dave was an embarrassment. Then I looked in the mirror. Yes,
I think I have been a bigger embarrassment to myself than anything King Dave has done.
Finally, I asked and answered for myself the following questions:
Finally, I asked and answered for myself the following questions:
- Who forced the Independent to run one, two, three, four plus stories on King Dave? No one!
- Who forced Manx Radio to do their interview with Derek Winterbottom while he also took the opportunity to peddle his books at our, and possibly, Dave's expense? No one!
- Did any of this slanted coverage shape my opinion of King Dave and his claim? I'm ashamed to admit it now but yes, absolutely!
- Did any of this coverage that got picked up by media off the Island shape David Drew Howe's story as it got repeated? Yes, it seems so.
It is unclear where this leaves things. The best I can tell I don't think King Dave is all that bad a chap. His claim was initially a bit of a shock but I see some potential good that can come from all of this. Any embarrassment he could have possibly brought to the Isle of Man has been eclipsed by the reactions of a hand full of protesters that speak for themselves, I having been one of the few.
He has claimed that he doesn't seek to take away power from the Queen (not sure if that is good or bad). He says he has no intention of embarrassing anyone on the Island and that he just wants to do some good by his claim. From this point forward I am giving him the benefit of doubt. I don't know him any more than I know the Queen and unlike the Queen and her predecessors he might well be the first of the Isle of Man Kings that didn't attempt to conquer the Island by force. Thinking on that, does any one know how many of our ancestors that King Orry might have slaughtered?
How about the Lords of Mann? How often did they shift there allegiance for wealth and power? Even today we have allowed ourselves bloated government with an ever increasing number of Deputy Chief Executives of this and that. My how we love to punch ourselves in the face. Yet King Dave is our embarrassment?
One web site that popped up recently seeking to debunk King David's claims seemed to have a lot of good information on it. I then saw it was set up by an aspiring town Tory from Buckinghamshire, England. Don't get me started. It fails to prove that King Dave isn't a descendant of the Stanley's. According to King Dave's official site of propaganda and promotion, that is the basis for his claim, his descent from Thomas II. Following some of the chatter about this debunk site it seems to have also gotten itself blacklisted by Wikipedia for being an attack site and lacking journalistic integrity. From a Tory, nah that doesn't seem right. 8-)
In his piece for the Manx Examiner titled "Say goodbye Liz and God Save King Dave" and dated 7, January 2007, Richard Allen says that he thinks David Drew Howe is a "decent guy and he's trying to do some good by selling honours to raise money for needy children in Malawi." Allen also feels that as abusred as the monarchy is, "King Dave's claim to throne is no more or less reasoned than any other individual's claim to be a King or Queen." Best of all , Allen states, "As far as I'm aware King Dave doesn't have a relative who, like the Duke of Windsor in the 1930s, was a Nazi sympathiser and was preparing to become head of state should Hitler's fascists have invaded."
Maybe this is the beginning of a little more balance to the story. Time will tell.
Quocunque jeceris stabit
