Just Can’t Wait to Be King

It’s not exactly a secret that Claudius wanted that crown.  I mean, he did kill his own brother and all.  Kind of like how Scar killed Mufasa and eventually took power.  So here’s something I’ve been wondering: how exactly did Claudius become king when King Hamlet died?  Super weird, right?  Shouldn’t the throne have gone to Hamlet Jr.?

Well, not exactly, because a parliament elected the Danish monarch.  In this election, only guys who had royal blood could be elected, and only some of the nobles got to vote. Usually that meant that the “next-in-line” just got the crown (in this case, Prince Hamlet), but it was possible for someone else to receive parliament’s approval.  In Act 5, Scene 2, Hamlet references “elections.”  And as we discussed in class, Claudius claims, “Nor have we herein barr'd your better wisdoms, which have freely gone with this affair along,” insinuating that the nobles (and presumably the parliament, therefore) are totally fine with the marriage.  Claudius could have even used Gertrude to intervene in the election process so that he could get the crown.  Not to mention that Gertrude is called an “imperial jointress,” meaning that she, too, has power, power that Claudius could have simply leeched onto to strengthen his own position in the eyes of the parliament.  Hamlet was also off at school in Wittenberg, so perhaps he wasn’t there for the election process, a situation of which Claudius no doubt took advantage. 

However, it does seem strange that Claudius would have won an election over Hamlet, seeing as Claudius complains about how the people love Hamlet so much…guess it just speaks to how manipulative Claudius can be.