"His Majesty, McDuck" is a

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

story by

Don Rosa Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his comics about Scrooge McDuck and other Disney comics, Disney characters. Many of his stories are built on characters an ...

, first published in '' Uncle Scrooge Adventures'' #14 in August 1989. Despite thematic similarities, this story is not to be confused with the

Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comics, Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of ...

story ''King Scrooge the First''.

Plot

Scrooge McDuck Scrooge McDuck (occasionally stylized as $crooge McDuck) is a cartoon character created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company by Carl Barks. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-born American anthropomorphic duck. Like his nephew, Do ...

accidentally finds a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

plaque on the site of his

Money Bin The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the D ...

. The plaque was originally made by Sir

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

, who claimed the entire hill as property of the Queen of England back in 1579. Later, in the early 19th century, the English built a

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

there. However, a war with

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

caused England to abandon the fort, giving it away to the nearest non-English person found, who just happened to be

Cornelius Coot The Duck family is a fictional family of cartoon ducks related to The Walt Disney Company, Disney character Donald Duck. The family is also related to the Coot, Goose, and Gander families, as well as the Scottish Clan McDuck. Besides Donald, the ...

. Coot, the sole person present at the fort, drove the Spanish away with a clever plot, and continued to maintain the fort. Later, of course, Scrooge's Money Bin was erected in its place. Scrooge finds out that the hill his Money Bin stands on was never actually part of the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

, so he jumps at the chance to claim

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

and collect tax refunds from

Duckburg The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the Donald ...

. To retaliate, Duckburg imposes strict restrictions on inter-country travel, with Scrooge's own employees having to show their

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

s just to come to work. A crafty

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

shows up with the

Beagle Boys The Beagle Boys are a group of cartoon characters created in 1951 by Carl Barks for the Donald Duck universe. They are a family clan of Organized crime, organized criminals who constantly try to rob Scrooge McDuck. Their introduction and first a ...

, attempting to conquer Scrooge's own private country, initially succeeding, but Scrooge eventually fends him off. Finally, the mayor of Duckburg tells Scrooge that his tax refunds would be so large that they would bankrupt the entire city. Scrooge does not seem to care, but he "accidentally" destroys the deed that Coot signed, and irritably informs his nephews that he melted down Drake's plaque to make his crown, with materials being expensive. In the end, it turns out that this was no accident. Scrooge still has the plaque, but chooses to keep it secret, indicating that he destroyed the grant on purpose, from the good of his heart: He could not bring himself to bankrupt Duckburg, yet had to save face before his nephews who must not think of him as "soft."

Cultural references

* The panel in which Cornelius Coot's journal is removed from a vault in the Coot Library for reading is a direct homage to a scene from ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

''. * Don Rosa has stated he got the plot from ''

Passport to Pimlico ''Passport to Pimlico'' is a 1949 British comedy film made by Ealing Studios and starring Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford and Hermione Baddeley. It was directed by Henry Cornelius and written by T. E. B. Clarke. The story concerns the unea ...

''. * McDuck regains his throne and country from the usurper by defeating him in a

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

duel. When the villain turns away to flee, McDuck uses the sword to carve a

dollar sign The dollar sign, also known as the peso sign, is a currency symbol consisting of a Letter case, capital crossed with one or two vertical strokes ( or depending on typeface), used to indicate the unit of various currency, currencies around ...

behind his pants. This is a reference to

Zorro Zorro ( or , Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American Pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashin ...

, a hero who often carves a Z with his rapier as a calling card.

References

External links

*
The D.U.C.K.man: ''His Majesty, McDuck''
Disney comics stories Donald Duck comics by Don Rosa 1989 in comics Comics set in the 1950s Comics set in fictional countries {{Disney-comics-stub

Plot

Cultural references

See also

References

External links