In the era of the great monarchies, the royal families of European nations were people of dignity and culture, above the low and filthy lifestyles of the poor. At least, that’s what they wanted people to believe. The reality, though, is a bit different. There was enough inbreeding between the monarchs of Europe to spark some strange decisions—and some truly disgusting lifestyles.

10 Henry VIII Had A ‘Groom Of The Stool’

Among his many reforms, King Henry VIII introduced an all-important job to the English monarchy: the groom of the stool. One lucky boy, chosen from the sons of his most trusted nobles, got the job of following the king around with a portable toilet.

The groom of the stool needed to be ever vigilant. He was expected to watch the king as he ate, make notes of what he consumed, and prepare for the job to come. When the moment came, the groom would help the king undress and then clean up his mess.

This was actually a highly respected job. The groom of the stool was trusted with unparalleled intimate access to the king. He also got to live in the castle with a handsome salary.

Wiping up after the king of England became a proud tradition that continued for almost 400 years.

9 Christian VII Pleasured Himself So Often That It Became A National Crisis

Denmark’s 18th-century King Christian VII knew no love greater than his own hand. He spent so much time at it that the Danish government organized meetings to figure out what to do about it.

The doctors who looked after him were convinced that chronic masturbation was the cause of all his problems. Christian VII was mentally ill, afflicted with porphyria. In reality, mental illness was probably the root of his masturbation problems.

His chief physician, Johann Friedrich Struensee, wrote a whole book about Christian’s “masturbatic insanity.” When Struensee couldn’t get the king to put his pants back on and focus on ruling a kingdom, the doctor ended up taking over. He did most of Christian VII’s decision-making for him, which freed up some time for the king to follow his passions.

8 Joanna Of Castile Traveled With Her Husband’s Dead Body

Joanna of Castile, the mother of Emperor Charles V of Spain, spent the better years of her life married to a man known as Philip the Handsome. Apparently, she thought Philip deserved his nickname because she refused to let anyone bury him when he died.

Instead, Joanna kept her husband’s dead body in her room. Over 12 months, while Philip’s body slowly decayed, Joanna went on acting as if he was still alive. Whenever someone asked, she would simply insist that he was asleep and would wake up soon.

She would sleep with the body at night, and she would make the servants treat it with the respect due to a king. In a fit of jealousy, she wouldn’t let any women enter the room with the dead body, apparently worried that they would be overwhelmed by lust.

7 King Charles II Kept A Wig Of His Mistresses’ Pubes

In 1651, King Charles II started a new project. Every time he slept with a woman, he plucked a few hairs from under her skirt. Then he stitched them all together into a wig that gradually grew into an unnervingly thick mane of female hairs.

When the wig got big enough to cover a man’s head, Charles II donated it to a Scottish drinking club called the Beggar’s Benison Club. They loved it so much that they wore it during their ceremonies. One person even stole it and used it to start his own club, where he made people kiss it.

In 1822, King George IV took up the tradition again and kept a box full of his lover’s lower locks for his own collection. Like Charles II, George planned on making them into a wig but tragically died without ever fulfilling his dream.

6 Queen Maria Eleonora Slept With Her Husband’s Heart

Queen Maria Eleonora didn’t love her husband, King Gustavus Adolphus, for his power or his money. She loved him for his heart. When he died, she had his heart ripped out of his body so that she could sleep with it.

Maria Eleonora kept her dead husband’s organ in a golden box that she placed above her bed each night. On some nights, she even made their daughter climb into bed with her so that she could be close to her father’s heart.

It was a traumatizing experience that her daughter never forgot. She later wrote that her mother was horribly abusive and never stopped crying, saying that she “carried out her role of mourning to perfection.”

5 King Farouk Had The World’s Largest Porn Collection

Legend has it that King Farouk of Egypt had the greatest and largest collection of pornography in the world. He boasted that he had “warehouses full of the stuff” scattered around the world, with whole storage compartments filled to the brim in Rome, Monaco, and Cairo.

Writer and former pimp Scott Bowers claims that he convinced Farouk to ship several crates of porn to the famous sexologist Alfred Kinsey. According to Bowers, the crates arrived filled almost exclusively with pictures of Arab men with young boys.

When Farouk’s empire fell, looters scavenged his porn collection. Little pieces of it started showing up around the country, flooding a market with a whole new type of monarchy memorabilia.

4 King Adolf Frederick Ate Himself To Death

Swedish King Adolf Frederick had a habit of eating a dessert called semla, which is a sweet roll filled with cream. This, in itself, is not disgusting, but he ate so many that it killed him.

In 1771, the Swedish king sat down to a meal of lobster, caviar, and every other decadent food you can think of. When the meal was done, he wolfed his way through 14 semlas in a single sitting.

When he managed to stand up, his stomach, unsurprisingly, was bothering him, and he died shortly after. He went down in history as the king who ate himself to death—which wasn’t totally fair. King Henry I of England had already died from eating too many lamprey eels, apparently unable to get enough of the slimy taste.

3 King James I Only Cleaned The Tips Of His Fingers

According to a less than flattering description from Sir Anthony Weldon, King James I wasn’t the most hygienic person. Legend has it that King James never bathed, and according to Weldon, James needed to.

“His tongue,” Weldon wrote, was “too large for his mouth.” Whenever James drank, the liquid would dribble down the side of the king’s chin. James wouldn’t do much about it. “He never washed his hands,” Weldon claimed, “only rubbed his fingers’ ends slightly through the wet end of a napkin.”

This was apparently the only type of hygiene the king ever practiced. It might have been out of necessity. King James made regular use of his fingers. According to Weldon, they were “ever in that walk fiddling about his codpiece.”

2 Charles VI Didn’t Change His Clothes For Five Months

King Charles VI of France was horribly mentally ill. He would break into fits where he would run wildly through his home. On other days, he became convinced that he was made of glass and would not move a single muscle. The worst bout lasted for five long months—during which he did not bathe or change his clothes even once.

For nearly half a year, the king just stayed very still and carefully tried to avoid bumping into anybody. Then, at last, he had a brief moment of lucidity that lasted long enough for someone to change him and to clean what must have been the most disgusting pair of pants in history.

1 Louis XIV’s Throne Doubled As A Toilet

Of all the people in history, French King Louis XIV must have been the smelliest. His throne doubled as a toilet, and he would use it while conducting court sessions.

One would expect the court to notice the smell. But when Louis XIV was in the room, there were enough smells going around already to block it out. The man only bathed three times in his entire life, which was on the low side even by 17th-century standards.

The king made up for the stench by filling his rooms with flowers and dousing himself in perfume. In fact, he had a team design him a new perfume every week.

He would also change his shirt three times a day, which he firmly believed was all one really needed to do to stay clean. Like the toilet, his wardrobe changes were never affairs to be done behind closed doors. Every morning, the king of France called 100 men into his room to watch him while he got dressed.

You get paid royalties if you own the rights to something, whether that’s a physical asset, a song, even a name, and someone else wants to use it commercially. If someone else is making money off of something that’s yours, you are probably owed money for it. But it’s not as cut and dry as it sounds and sometimes there are some very bizarre rules over what does and doesn’t qualify for royalties. There are many people out there paying or get paid for very unexpected reasons.

10. Finnish Cabbies Have to Pay Royalties for Songs on Their Radios

Cab drivers exist in just about every city in the world. If a place is big enough people will always need to get around so someone can always make a living by driving them. But there are plenty of rules and regulations about how this has to work and those rules can vary from one place to another.

Finland has one of the most obscure and unusual rules that cabbies have to abide by. They are required to pay royalties for the songs that play in their cabs because, strictly speaking, they make money while music is playing in the car. 

A court ruling in 2002 applied to all cabbies in the country. If they turn on the radio in the presence of a customer, then they need to pay for the music that plays. Music in a cab is a public performance at that point, and subject to such fees.

It wasn’t a ton of money and it wasn’t like the cabbies had to write down what song played when. Instead, they were tasked with paying a yearly fee of just £14 to the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society. Cabbies are, of course, free to keep the radio off and not pay anything.

9. Alice Cooper Pays His Band Royalties to Use The Name

Alice Cooper spent decades as an icon of rock. One of the earliest performers to blend horror esthetic and showmanship with his music he’s something of a founder of the whole “shock rock” genre which led to acts like Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and Gwar among many others. He’s a trailblazer is what he is. He also pays for his name.

Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier though he legally changed his name to Alice Cooper in 1975. The story of the name was shared by Cooper in a book in which he claimed the story of a medium using a Ouija board to spell it out, which is the popular myth, was untrue. Instead, it was just a random name that popped into his head that he felt would conjure confusing imagery for fans because the band was all men. The name was not his; it was the band’s.

As the frontman, he became known as Alice Cooper even though that wasn’t precisely the intent. But he went with it and, as a result, pays yearly royalties to the rest of the band to use the name because it belonged to all of them. 

8. Everyone Who Uses HDMI Pays Royalties for the Technology

When it comes to plugging in video peripherals these days, you need to use an HDMI cable. It’s what DVD, Blu-ray, video game consoles and everything else use and it gives you some high-quality video and audio. It’s also proprietary, and that means people pay royalties to one company to use it. 

The name HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, which is trademarked. Anyone who wants to use HDMI has to pay a yearly fee to HDMI for adopting it. That was a $10,000 base fee plus $0.15 per unit sold unless they clearly use the HDMI logo, then the price drops to a nickel. 

If a company makes less than 10,000 units of whatever they’re selling, they can opt for a different plan to save some money. But whatever the case, if it’s your Xbox or just a cable you pick up loose, if it says HDMI on it, that company paid a royalty fee.  

7. Climbers Have to Pay Royalties to Nepal to Climb Everest

If you’re the adventurous type, you may have an incline to one day live the ultimate adventure and climb Mount Everest. And why not, it’s a big accomplishment. It’s also not very cheap.

If you’re not a Nepalese citizen, the government of Nepal is going to need you to pay royalties to climb their mountain. This varies by season but if you decide to go up in the Spring, as most climbers do, then you’re looking at an $11,000 royalty payment. You’ll also be asked to provide a $4,000 garbage management fee which you can have refunded if you bring enough trash back down with you.

In 2023, that fee faced a proposed increase to $15,000 in an effort to control the numbers because people keep going up there and dying. The new fee will go into effect in 2025.

6. DC Pays Much Bigger Royalties to Comics Creators Than Marvel

If you follow comic book news, this one may not be a surprise to you but it might be to the casual movie fan. It’s no secret comic book movies are huge business and they make literal billions of dollars. Many of those movies are based on whole storylines that were first printed in the comics. All the characters are, of course, from the comics as well. So do the writers or artists behind Deadpool and Thanos and Joker get their piece of the pie? Not as much as you’d think. 

Jim Starlin, for instance, is credited with creating Thanos, the huge villain from the MCU’s long and elaborate film series. He also created Gamora and Drax. Starlin never said what Disney paid him for putting his creations in so many films but it has been confirmed by several sources that Marvel/Disney give the comics creators $5000 and a ticket to the movie premier. 

Contrast that with Starlin’s admission that DC also paid him for the use of the character KGBeast in the Batman v Superman movie and they paid him substantially more. If you don’t remember KGBeast it’s because in the movie he was just a regular guy and they never called him by that name. But DC still paid for him, meaning DC pays significantly higher royalties for even minor characters that Marvel does for major ones.  How much more? According to Starlin, more than all the Marvel movies combined. 

5. Marvel Got Paid Royalties Every Time Hulk Hogan Wrestled

Speaking of comic book royalties, let’s look at the Hulk. The Incredible Hulk debuted in 1962, one of Marvel comics’ oldest characters appearing before the X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and many others. The name Hulk became synonymous with the big green monster forever afterwards. But there was another pop culture hulk most of us remember, too. Hulk Hogan.

Although hulk is a perfectly normal noun that refers to anything large and unwieldy you can’t just call yourself Hulk and be a big, muscular dude at the same time. Marvel comics owns the big, muscley Hulk. So, for 20 years, Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, paid royalties to Marvel comics to use his stage name. 

Hogan had appeared in a promotional photo with Lou Ferrigno back in the 70s when Ferrigno played the Incredible Hulk on TV. Someone made the joke that Hogan, taller and more muscular, was the real Hulk. The nickname stuck, and he carried it through a few wrestling promotions until the WWE (then WWF) signed him. 

Hogan was an instant star, and the WWF was just becoming the biggest, and only, name in wrestling for most people. They kept introducing him as the Incredible Hulk Hogan and by the time they were drawing crowds to Madison Square Garden, Marvel stepped in.

Hogan had to drop “incredible” and, from then on, Marvel got $100 for every match he wrestled. For 20 years. They also got a small portion of all Hulk merchandise. The deal likely made Marvel millions.

4. Warner Paid Royalties to John Hinckley for a Devo Song

Sometimes paying royalties makes perfect sense, like if a musician uses a sample of someone else’s work in a song. That happened to the band Devo and Warner, their label, had to pay when the band used a sample of poetry in a song. But it’s the “who” that makes it a little more off-putting in this case. They used the words of John Hinckley, the man most famous for trying to assassinate Ronald Reagan. And Warner had to pay.

The song I Desire came out in 1982, a year after Hinckley tried to kill the President. He had also infamously written love poems to Jodie Foster, and it was one of those poems Devo sampled for their song. The band asked him if they could use it and he said yes. Thus, he was a co-writer of the song. But Warner didn’t know until it was too late. 

In 2021, Hickley said on Twitter that he hadn’t been paid in decades. 

3. The Seattle Space Needle is Trademarked And You Need To Pay to Use It

A lot of cities have something that stands out on the skyline to make them easily identifiable. For Seattle, it’s the Space Needle. But you can’t go off and use the image of the Space Needle all willy-nilly if you’re trying to promote something in the city. The building is a trademark and you need to pay royalties for its likeness. 

In 2022, a coffee chain was sued by the company that owns the Space Needle for trademark infringement but the two companies came to a settlement. 

If you want to use an image of the Seattle skyline for anything commercial, Getty Images points out that you cannot do so if the key feature is the Space Needle. Even the name “Space Needle” is protected and the company will ask anyone using it commercially to change it when it comes to their attention. You can go to the Space Needle website and fill out a form if you wish to use the image, however.

2. Alaskan Residents Get a Yearly Oil Royalty Check 

If you like free money, but not a lot of free money, consider moving to Alaska. Residents of the state are given a yearly royalty check just for living in a state that’s full of oil. In 2023, Alaskans were issued a $1,312 check as their portion of the state’s oil fund.  The year before it was over $3,000.

The money changes from year to year and apparently it’s an absolute nightmare of political red tape as the government has to decide how to allocate the funds through the year to cover all kinds of unrelated things like education or transportation when there are shortfalls in those budgets. But all of that aside, there’s always something for the people of Alaska, whatever the politicians end up deciding, and it’s unique to the state. 

1. The US Had to Pay Royalties to Germany for the Springfield Rifle 

There’s a lot of business that goes into war and many people make money off of it. That’s more of a modern realization and not something everyone was concerned with back in the day. But maybe they should have been. After all, it looks like the US was paying royalties to Germany for rifles based on the German Mauser. And they were paying them during WWI.

The Mauser 98 is arguably the most famous rifle ever made. Between 91 and 125 million have been made and countries around the world copied the design for their own. This included the United States. Because of this, governments were paying royalties to Germany for the design.

The US had worked out an agreement in 1905 to pay $0.75 per rifle plus $0.50 per thousand clips to a maximum of $200,000. Later, the Springfield M1903 would try to duplicate the Mauser design but tweak a few elements to avoid royalties, which failed in the long run. The US ended up paying a number of penalties and fees to Germany even after the First World War began, while the US was still neutral.

They walk among us! No, not aliens. Royals have a long and illustrious history of shrugging off their robes and crowns and getting stuck in with the general public. Sometimes, they did so because they had no choice or because they wanted to suss out what the “real” people thought of their rule. Other times, they just wanted to let loose and have a bit of fun.

Royalty today like the Dutch royal family live quite like the rest of us, and others like the British royals still live in castles. Find out how they used to rub shoulders with the great unwashed and why!

10 The French Royal Family

In the summer of 1791, the French royal family were forced to flee the revolt of the peasants and lower classes.^[1] They were aided by Swedish count Axel Fersen in planning their escape, disguising themselves as a group of German nobility. On June 21, 1791, Fersen came to the Tuileries disguised as a coachman to pick up the royal children and their governess, with Prince Louis dressed as a girl to further avoid suspicion. The king and the queen, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, left on foot separately and slipped away to meet Fersen later on. They were nearly caught by a night watchman as they left but managed to join their children and Fersen and take a coach to Varennes.

They might have made it and escaped the guillotine had they taken a faster coach, but Marie Antoinette insisted on a large, yellow coach that would be big enough to take the whole family. Traveling at only 11 kilometers per hour (7 mph) and experiencing a wreck on a bridge meant that they were severely delayed. A postmaster recognized the king and rode ahead of the party to Varennes, where they were arrested on their arrival.

9 Mary, Queen Of Scots

Mary was imprisoned at Loch Leven castle after being denounced as an adulteress and murderer and was forced to abdicate to her son.^[2] She had two escape attempts there, the second being considerably more successful than the first. She tried at first to flee as a washerwoman but was caught when the boatman saw her white hands under the rags. During this attempt, a set of keys to the castle were dropped in the lake and were not found again for 300 years.

She managed to escape on May 2, 1568, when her accomplices drugged half the island with wine and had “pegged” the boats to the shore, preventing them from following her. It was during the May Day festival when Mary walked out of the castle gates in full view. Her accomplice, a young boy called Willie Douglas who had dressed as the “Abbot of Unreason” for the festival, had dropped a handkerchief over the castle keys belonging to Sir William Douglas. Sir William noticed nothing, as he had indulged in a little too much wine at this point. Mary escaped that day but could not escape her fate, as she met the executioner at Fotheringhay Castle in 1586.

8 King Abdullah II Of Jordan

In 1999, King Abdullah of Jordan was reported to have gone undercover as a journalist, a practice his father had also often undertaken during his reign.^[3] On this occasion, his identity was revealed. The king had arrived in Zarqa with an accomplice, the head of the palace press center, who was masquerading as another journalist.

The king wanted to hear from businessmen and traders without fearing that they were not telling him the truth about the kingdom’s duty-free zone. The disguise was a shaggy white beard, a white robe, and a red headdress and held up only until the zone’s officials began asking for the TV crew’s license. The king had to unmask himself at that point but has continued to visit hospitals, border crossings, and public services to find out what people really think, without his royal status getting in the way.

7 Princess Elizabeth

On V.E. (Victory in Europe) Day, May 8, 1945, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were permitted by King George VI to leave Buckingham Palace and join in the celebrations when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied forces.^[4] Sixteen members of the royal household were to accompany them in the biggest party in history. They left from one of the palace’s back entrances and walked down the Mall with everybody cheering and shouting, this time to mark the end of war instead of at the sight of royalty.

Princess Elizabeth wore the uniform of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, as she had been serving with them during the war, but Princess Margaret did not disguise herself, instead wearing glamorous clothes befitting her royalty. Their cousin, Margaret Rhodes, remembers them all entering the famous Ritz Hotel and joining a conga line to many raised eyebrows from the older ladies there. The party didn’t return to the palace until 6:00 AM the next day. The queen remembers it as being “one of the most memorable nights of [her] life.”

6 King Charles II

In September 1651, Charles II had lost to Oliver Cromwell’s army, and a £1,000 reward was issued for Charles’s capture.^[5] Charles had to cross the country from Worcester to Shoreham on the coast and sail to France to escape the Roundheads, a feat he managed in a little over five weeks. The king was a tall man, over 183 centimeters (6′), with a dark complexion and a voice and manner that naturally made him stand out from a crowd.

Brothers George and Richard Pendrell helped the king to adopt a local accent and to walk like a laborer. Charles disguised himself as a manservant to a woman named Jane Lane, who had a pass permitting her to travel 161 kilometers (100 mi) to Bristol. He evaded capture so many times that the journey became known as the Royal Miracle. His trek included 965 kilometers (600 mi) of travel by any means necessary and can be followed today on the Monarch’s Way footpath. Afterward, from the safety of France, Charles spoke of his journey as one that allowed him to understand his subjects in a way no other king possibly could.

5 Roman Emperor Nero

Nero, who was not much more than a teenager when he became emperor of Rome, would put on a cap or wig and gallivant around the city with his friends.^[6] Sometimes, they just played pranks on people, but oftentimes, they would beat and accost men in the streets, stabbing those who resisted them and throwing them into the sewers. Nero would break into and steal from shops and sell his loot at the market in the palace, divide the proceeds among his group, take his earnings, and carry on carousing.

Nero caused so much trouble that he nearly lost his eyes on one occasion, and he was almost beaten to death by a man of the Senate whose wife Nero had maltreated. After this, Nero would travel with tribunes behind him at a distance, ready to intervene at any sign of trouble.

4 King Charles XI Of Sweden

Charles XI (reigned 1660–1697) is said to have traveled throughout the land wearing a grey cloak to conceal his royal uniform in order to speak with local officials, who he would test for corruption, and to local people, who could reveal any perceived oppression to him.^[7]

The king may have taken inspiration for this disguise from the Old Norse legend of Odin, who would speak to mortals in disguise in a similar fashion. Charles’s disguise became legendary, and he came to be referred to as the Greycoat (or Grakappan).

3 King Matthias Corvinus Of Hungary

King Matthias Corvinus was crowned in 1464 and was a very popular ruler.^[8] His justice reformations and advocacy of talented people regardless of social standing made him a celebrated ruler of the people. He was a patron of science and art with a good military career, and although taxes had to be raised in lieu of being at war (mainly with Turkey), he remained well-liked.

One legend of King Matthias concerns a disguised visit to one of the Turkish camps. Dressed as a food seller, he remained all day outside the Turkish general’s tent. The next day, he sent a message to the general, describing his camp and the food that was to be found there as proof. Completely unnerved that the king had been in the camp, the general fled right away back to Turkey.

On another occasion, at the Siege of Shabacz, Matthias, disguised as a soldier, rowed with one other soldier along the fortress to discover where best to launch an assault. The Turks opened fire, and his companion was killed, but the king calmly continued to search the walls for the best point of attack.

2 Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah Of Malacca

Malacca is a state in Malaysia that was ruled by Sultan Alauddin from 1477 to 1488.^[9] He regularly checked on his people’s opinion toward his ruling decisions by walking among them in disguise and is said to have been a fair and good sultan. He would walk about at night to reduce the chances of being discovered, and on one occasion, he came upon a thief and ran after him, feeling appalled that this should happen in his kingdom.

Alauddin ultimately died under mysterious circumstances, and his family members were fighting each other for supremacy even in his lifetime. His two wives were fighting as to which child should become heir after his death, his brother was envious of his position on the throne, and his court was full of possible enemies from surrounding Malaysian nobles.

1 Princess Diana

Comedian Cleo Rocos wrote an account of when Princess Diana went to a London pub with her and Freddie Mercury in her book The Power of Positive Drinking, published in 2013.^[10] In the late 1980s, Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury, and Rocos went for a night out in South London at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

They gave Diana a disguise of an army jacket, sunglasses, and a cap. She was mistaken for a gay young man, and nobody recognized her, so much so that she was the only one out of her famous group to be able to order their drinks at the bar unmolested by the crowd in the pub.

Alexa is a psychology, sociology, and anthropology researcher in Ireland.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A rock star? An actor? A knight? Some of the lucky celebrities on this list have achieved all three! Each year, the royal family bestows honorific titles of the Order of the British Empire. This practice goes back centuries.

In recent years, many celebrities have been given these titles. Most commonly, the men are knighted, while the women become dames. These titles are rewarded because of service, loyalty, or gallantry (or sometimes all three!).

You may be surprised at some of the names on our list. From authors to inventors, directors to music legends, all of the celebrities on our list have done something to be considered knights and dames. So, let’s look at an eclectic mix of celebrities with at least one thing in common: they all have titles of honor. However, I am not sure any of them know how to joust.

10 Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is known for many things. She is the daughter of well-known actor Jon Voight. She is also known for her acting ability, her relationship with Brad Pitt, and her willingness to give to charity. As of 2014, she became officially known as a great actor and philanthropist and an Honorary Dame. She was given recognition at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth herself. The official emblem was of an Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George.

According to the royal family, Jolie was given this distinction because of her work to end war-zone sexual violence. Jolie was the co-chair of the End Sexual Violence in Conflict (ESVC) global summit in 2014. Throughout her career, Jolie has shown compassion, kindness, and generosity to important organizations such as these. While there is no telling where she ranks a damehood amongst her significant accomplishments, it is certainly no mean feat. And by all accounts, she earned her honorific title.

9 Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger is a rock and roll legend, the frontman of the Rolling Stones. Jagger is unique on this list because he received public backlash from his knighting. Some of that may relate to Jagger’s unique history. He was a typical rock and roll star for decades. This includes multiple arrests and eight children from five different mothers. His band, the Rolling Stones, is generally seen as rebellious and anti-establishment, two ideals that clash greatly with those of the royal family.

Still, Jagger was willing to take on the title. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, not by Prince Charles. Perhaps he thought that Jagger was not suitable to be a knight. The other person who took exception to Mick Jagger becoming “Sir Mick” was his longtime bandmate, Keith Richards. The legendary guitarist was also offered a knighthood but turned it down. When asked about Jagger’s knighthood, Richards reportedly said, “It’s not what the Stones is about, is it?” I guess you can’t always get what you want. Despite some opposition to Jagger’s knighthood, the ceremony continued, and he became a knight in 2003.

8 J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling is best known for the Harry Potter series and related books. Obviously, she has received numerous accolades for her writing. She is one of the most famous authors on the planet and has inspired many. The Harry Potter movie franchise has also been a huge success, and two of the actors from those movies have received honorary titles themselves!

As far as Rowling goes, she has been awarded three titles. Two were awarded by the British royal family, an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Companion of Honor. The other came from the French government when she was knighted in 2012 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The OBE was awarded to Rowling by the royal family for her work with charitable and welfare organizations. She established the charity Lumos, as well as the Volant Charitable trust.

Most of Rowling’s charitable efforts focus on the needs of at-risk women and children. Her French knighthood was awarded to her for her efforts in literature. In fact, the fifth book in the Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix) was the first English book to become a top bestseller in France. As if Rowling didn’t have enough connections with royalty, two Harry Potter cast members also have OBE titles: Helena Bonham Carter and Maggie Smith.

7 Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter is a well-respected actress with many iconic roles and movies. She is known for Fight Club, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Planet of the Apes, Corpse Bride, The Harry Potter movies, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and so many more.

In 2010, she starred in The King’s Speech, playing the role of Queen Elizabeth. While she did not win the Oscar for the best-supporting actress, she received a different (arguably more important award). She was awarded a Commanders of the Order of the British Empire, commonly abbreviated to CBE, in 2011. She dedicated the award to her late father. This award was given to her for her services to drama in the British Empire.

Following this award, Bohman Carter was appointed to Britain’s National Holocaust Commission, another significant honor. However, Helena Bonham Carter was not the only Harry Potter star with a title.

6 Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith is an English actress who has been active since the early 1950s. While she has a very impressive resume, she is well known worldwide as Professor Minerva McGonagall, the no-nonsense professor (and head of Gryffindor house) at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

However, before the Harry Potter series had even been written, Maggie Smith had a title of honor, an OBE. She became a dame back in 1990. She received a second royal title as well! In 2014, in the aftermath of the Harry Potter movie series, Smith was awarded another title, Companion of Honor (CH). These awards are given to individuals who contribute to arts, sciences, medicine, or government over a long period. Considering Dame Maggie Smith is still a working actress (and has been since 1952), she certainly fits the bill!

5 Steven Spielberg

If you like any movies, you probably like at least one Steven Spielberg movie. He is one of the most prolific directors of all time. Some of his most successful movies include Jurassic Park, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List, to name a few.

Because of his incredible contributions to the film industry, the royal family recognized him with an honorary knighthood. It is important to know that only British citizens can be official knights (or dames), so many of the titles on this list are unofficial honorary ones.

Still, as of 2000, Spielberg is a Knight of the British Empire or KBE for short. For a man with so many accomplishments, it is well-deserved for Spielberg to be officially an (honorary) knight. His knighthood may inspire his next great film.

4 Bill Gates

Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world. He was not recognized for his work with Microsoft, however. Instead, he was recognized for his work after retirement. Gates has made many charitable efforts worldwide, including in parts of the British Commonwealth. He has focused his efforts on employment, enterprise, education, and volunteer work.

Overall, he looks to reduce poverty in the developing world, often through technological advances. Bill Gates was awarded a knighthood in thanks for all his great work. He was awarded KBE (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). Since he is not a British citizen, he is not technically “Sir Bill Gates,” but he could call himself Bill Gates, KBE if he wanted to. He may prefer Bill Gates, Billionaire. All jokes aside, it is inspirational to see a person with so much money wanting to help others to live a better life.

3 Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis is a celebrity with quite a lot of connections. She has had a very impressive career of her own and is well-known for the Halloween films and Freaky Friday, among others. She was born as a part of “Hollywood royalty” as well. Her father, Tony Curtis, was a famous actor in the ’50s and ’60s. Her mom, Janet Leigh, was also famous. She starred in the iconic Hitchcock movie Psycho.

However, Jamie Lee Curtis also has an official title of nobility. That is because she is married to Christopher Guest. Or to give him his official title, Baron Christopher Guest. When Guest’s father passed away in 1996, his title passed on to his son. This made Jamie Lee Curtis both Hollywood royalty and an official baroness.

2 Elton John

Elton John is an iconic musician whose songs are well-known around the globe. He grew up in suburban London. John is not only known for his musical prowess but also for his open sexuality. He came out as bisexual back in 1975. In 1998, he was the first openly gay person to be awarded as a knight.

Elton John has contributed to many charities, including the Elton John AIDS foundation. He was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for his work with this foundation for over 15 years. While John may seem somewhat aloof, the knighthood clearly meant a great deal to him, as he brought his parents and partner along for the ceremony. He has won six Grammys, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe, but none of these hold “a candle in the wind” to call himself “Sir Elton John.”

1 Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton is the most recent knight on our list. He is a successful Formula One race car driver, one of the most successful of all time. In 2021, Hamilton just barely missed out on a historic eighth title. Just three days later, in December of the same year, Hamilton was invited to Windsor Castle to receive a knighthood from the Prince of Wales, making him the first Grand Prix driver to be knighted while still active.

At the time of the ceremony, Hamilton was only 36 years old, and his mother was in attendance. While Hamilton was surely upset to miss out on his record-breaking eighth title, a knighthood is definitely a worthy consolation prize!