roi fainéant

Whether it be some Visigothic chieftain raised on a shield above the shoulders of his shouting warriors, some Roi Fainéant of the Merovingian race, a listless, pallid, long-haired kingling, dragged languidly through the streets in a painted wagon by sleek oxen, […] it seems clear to me that we must have some sort of a show, and a pageant, and a ‘barbaric pomp’ of procession.

He is a King Do-Nothing, a Roi Fainéant, who shirks and evades all the responsibilities of his position […]