# Patriarch of the family



## wainscottbl (Oct 7, 2016)

This may not be a question for this forum per se, but it's the closest that relates to my question. 

The family's business is a private corporation, meaning they govern. They are not subject to any board. They can be CEO, and they can't be voted out. No stockholders, at least that is how I understand a public vs private corporation. The story is not about that anyway. Here is the matter:

Julius is son of the older brother. The older brother died when Julius was a child. Julius is now twenty-five. He was too sick to run the family business, so his uncle remained, let's call it, his regent. Now Julius is better and capable of running the business. But he doesn't want to. Can he properly be called patriarch of the family? After all, can an heir to a throne be a king, if he allows the regent to still govern the kingdom? Is he King Emeritus, like Benedict XVI is Pope Emeritus. Ha! Rather, is Julius patriarch emeritus? The narrator calls him patriarch of the family. It's one line, but the idea is that with his parents dead, he's his father's heir. And he has the money ultimately. He is the legal heir of his father. It is willed to him, not his brother, the majority that is. His brother gets some, but Julius is the benefactor. He may be the heir, but his uncle is king, and by the prince's (or maybe king?) own will to keep him as regent.


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## K.S. Crooks (Oct 9, 2016)

Why doesn't the son give the power/authority over to the uncle and live his life free of all the obligations, with what ever amount of money he wants to keep?


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## Book Cook (Oct 9, 2016)

From what I know, an heir to a king becomes a king. But if he doesn't want to be a king, then he abdicates and someone next in line will be more than happy to step up.


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