What did a king do in the war?

Answer 1

Yes!

"Kings" started as big powerful warriors ruling tribes they had to fight to show they were worthy of being Kings. As tribes got bigger and became countries the need for Kings to actually get hold of a sword and hit someone to prove they could rule got less and less.

Pre- Medieval (Iron age, Classical period) kings did loads of fighting in person.

So medieval kings (classic knights with crowns and swords) did quite a bit of fighting and some leading.

More modern kings did more of the being generals. They mostly started controlling battles from behind their men.

For instance:-

Harold got shot in the eye with an arrow during the Battle of Hastings 1066AD.

Several Rome emperors got killed in various wars in the period 100BC-300AD.

Napoleon (technically an emperor) lead his troops in loads of battles upto and including Waterloo in 1815.

George the Second was the last British king to actually lead his troops in a war in the 1740's - Plenty of rulers of nations did still go to war after him tho.

Answer 2

Depends on the king. Throughout history, there have been some kings who did absolutely nothing while their country was at war. And there have been others like England's Henry V and Sweden's Gustavus Adolphus who took a very active role, leading their armies in battle and setting examples of courage.

Answer 3

Yes, many Kings led their troops from the front line. Edward Longshanks 17 June 1239 - 7 July 1307 and King Richard the Lionhearted were two well known warrior kings.