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The King of Navarre is an idealistic man who aims to transform his court into a renowned center for intellectual life—that is, “a little academe” (1.1.13). He opens the play with a rousing speech addressed to his three closest companions, the lords Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine. The speech invokes these men as “brave conquerors” (1.1.8) who are setting out together in search of undying “fame” (1). Perhaps ironically, given the military-inspired rhetoric, the King’s vision is not to venture forth into the world but rather to retreat, withdrawing from the ordinary pleasures of life to pursue study. Yet the very idealism of the King’s vision is also what dooms it to failure and leads both him and his lords into a series of fumbling attempts at wooing the Princess and her ladies. Aside from establishing the strict conditions of the oath of scholarship he and his lords swear, the King’s main function in the play is as the leader of the male nobility. He is arguably the first to break the oath by taking an audience with the Princess. His romance with the Princess also makes them the highest-ranking couple. Otherwise, his personality doesn’t much distinguish him from the other lords.
