Opportunistic impostors claiming to be deceased kings and the like have occasionally attempted to seize power (or served as puppets for others attempting to do so), particularly in the days before the printing press and other modern communications methods made it possible for most people to know what their rulers actually looked like. For instance, Suetonius mentions several "false Neroes" in the years after that emperor's death, at least two impostors claiming to be the last members of the House of York raised rebellions in late fifteenth-century England, etc. The custom of having recently deceased VIPs lie in state for public viewing probably originated as a method of making it certainly known to as many people as possible that the person was indeed dead. [SMB