Gather ’round, my readers, and I will tell you the tale of an unsung American legend. About a man who would be king and the city that played along. His name was Joshua Abraham Norton, and he was the first and only Emperor of these United States.

Fear not the fall of democracy, for Emperor Norton I was a self-proclaimed monarch. Penniless, homeless and more than a little crazy, Norton ruled only so far as the citizens of San Francisco in the mid-1800s would indulge. But therein lies the magic of this one man’s life: the people did indulge. This story is all true. The man was very real.

And all of it’s amazing.

Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

In September 1959, Joshua Norton issued a royal proclamation on the streets of San Francisco that declared him Emperor of the United States. The written proclamation requested that the heads of all the states meet downtown to discuss where the country would go from there. Craziness, sure, but some rather influential people decided to take it a bit further. Seeking a bit of humor in the face of frequent bad news, an editor at the San Francisco Bulletin decided to print the proclamation in full on the front page.

And so an emperor was crowned.

Norton was no one special. Born in England, he spent much of his life in South Africa before coming to California and losing all of his money on rice. He disappeared for a short time, then returned to San Francisco as the Emperor. Following his initial proclamation, Norton continued to issue royal decrees. He ordered the Army to forcibly remove Congress, since the country no longer needed a legislature under his rule. And he ordered the Catholic and Protestant churches to ordain him Emperor. He forbade further use of the nickname ‘Frisco’ for the city. And he demanded they build a bridge across the bay between San Francisco and Oakland.

That last one, at least, came true about 100 years later.

The people came to love and regard their emperor. If one passed him on the street, they were to greet, “Good day, your highness,” and he would respond in kind. He ate in the finest restaurants, free of charge, and was reserved the nicest seats at shows and plays. When he started printing off his own money, it was accepted as real currency by local bars and shops. Now it’s a collectors item. A nearby Army unit gave him a uniform, and Norton wore a hat adorned with a peacock feather. He wandered the streets inspecting public buildings and transportation features, and gave lectures to anyone wandering by in earshot.

In one more famous encounter, Emperor Norton positioned himself between innocent Chinese citizens and anti-Chinese rioters. Legend has it that he simply recited the Lord’s Prayer until the violence dispersed.

What about the authorities? Why didn’t they arrest this crazy man? Well they tried. In 1867, Police Officer Armand Barbier took Norton into custody to try and get him committed for his craziness. So outraged were the people and newspapers of San Francisco that the police chief dropped all charges and issued a formal apology to the Emperor, writing, “that he had shed no blood; robbed no one; and despoiled no country; which is more than can be said of his fellows in that line.”

From then on, all police officers saluted Emperor Norton when he passed. And the Emperor graciously pardoned Officer Barbier.

But all good things must come to an end. Emperor Norton died in the gutter on Jan. 8, 1880. Those nearby rushed to his aid, but he passed before he could be hospitalized. Word spread far and wide: “The King is Dead”.

Between 10,000 and 30,000 people lined the streets of San Francisco for Emperor Norton’s funeral. Funds were raised to give him a proper, respectable coffin rather than the pauper’s grave he would have otherwise received. Eventually the Emperor’s body was moved to a nearby town, like a lot of cemeteries at the time. I visited the grave recently on my trip to San Francisco.

A friend of mine once wrote a story on the Emperor for the San Francisco Chronicle, interviewing several people about the man and his ongoing legend. The article is available here. He ended it with a quote that he called the greatest quote he ever received as a reporter.

“He marched to his own drummer. And everybody else pretended they could hear the music, just because they wanted to be part of the band.”