Your Favorite Usurpers Pre-1900

Just like my favorite monarch thread, who is your favor usurper(s) pre-1900 and why?

Extra points if you talk about the "what ifs" regarding he/she maintaining their rule and establishing a dynasty (if you chose one that didnt)
 

TinyTartar

Banned
Anyone from the Balliol dynasty. The prospect of union in Britain, or something analogous to it, in the Middle Ages, is deeply interesting to me.
 
Ekaterina II - not Russian, not Orthodox-born and with no claim to the throne, and manages to depose her legitimate husband;

Henry IV, Edward IV and Richard III (sorry, but Henry VII doesn't count as a usurper to me, since he later legitimized it by marry Elizabeth of York);

Oliver Cromwell - don't really like him enough for him to be a favorite, but the man ruled the UK with more power than the king for over a decade;

Philippe Égalite, duc d'Orléans, for his hope that he'd be chosen as king to replace Louis XVI. He gets my respect for sheer gall, even if I detest his betrayal;

Karl VII, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, married to a younger daughter and still manages to get himself elected ahead of his brother-in-law and cousins-in-law;

Frederick V of the Palatinate - because, reasons
The Bonapartes
The Coburgs - esp. Ferdinand of Kohary and Prince Albert (and Leopold I, too, since he would most likely have done the same to Princess Charlotte).
 
Basil I of Rhomania, Before there were the Komnenids (and even then, Alexios I did inherit the throne by usurption as well), there were the Macedonians.
 
Is Pepin the Short considered an usurper?

I mean, he even far lenghts to ensure a "legitimate" take-over of the Merovingian crown by enlisting Papal support, but he was a warlord who got tired of bowing to a weak prince and simply decided he was more fit for kingship :D.

I find it interesting because the Merovingians were considered divine (as in descending from ancient Germanic gods) and their legitimacy seemed unquestionable.

But Pepin didn't gave a damn about this. Also, I love the ritualistic stuff of cutting off King Childeric's hair because it was a symbol of royal majesty.
 
Ivaylo the Cabbage Tsar
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NAPOLEON I, BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE REPUBLIC, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH, KING OF ITALY, MEDIATOR OF THE HELVETIC CONFEDERACY AND PROTECTOR OF THE RHEANIAN CONFEDERATION.

Known as l'usurpateur in royalist circles.
 
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