What’s the history behind that picture?
The power of the monarchy was absolute at the time, and Canute set his chair by the ocean and commanded the tide not to rise.
He got wet of course.
See post #19.
It’s King Canute of Denmark. He was disturbed at the sycophancy of his court and quizzed them as to the limits of his own powers, asking finally, “If I command the tide not come in, will it obey?” His court affirmed to a man that it would. He then ordered that he be taken to the seaside where he made the order, only to have the sea rise and lap at his feet. He took the occasion to berate his court, in the possibly bowdlerized version that I learned from MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE WORLD or some such.
It does seem that people don’t understand that in the story it was not him, but his sycophant followers that were shown to be foolish.