Horse 423 - King of Scotland

There is to be a film released next year about the life of the barberous, eccentric dictator Idi Amin. While in the west he was portrayed as a buffoon, this is a grave mistreatment of a man who inflicted a terrible horror on his people, this is not about him.

This post however is about titles.

The full title that Idi Amin gave himself was:
His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, King of Scotland, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.

Most of this is an out an out lie, but it's no worse than say Saladin, the Arabic leader who was financed inadvertantly by Richard III to sack Jerusalem:
Saladin, Emperor of the Universe, Sultan of All Time, Shah of All Generations.

English and French kings were sometimes given titles reflecting their character or some aspect about them:
Richard the Lionheart, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror
I somehow don't think the following would have been impressed though:
Charles the Fat, Louis the Stupid, Edwin the Bald

Still other titles are official like Dr or Sir which are either conferred by an educational institution or by the monarch for distinguished acts. Terry Wogan KBE can not for instance use his "Sir" because he is not a British Citizen.

B for a while coined his own title:
The Reverend Dr Deakin Daly
which is more for the purposes of assonance I suspect.

I however would like the more genteel and inexact title of "esquire". In proper usage it refers to one who was neither a Baron or a Lord or a Doctor or a Knight or a peasant; what Marx would have called a prole or the Romans a pleb. And I do so much think that Andrew Thomas Rollason esq. befits my position in this world which aint much.