Flutterby™! :

Larry asked who Emperor Norton was. He was a San Francisco real estate developer who tried to corner the rice market in 1854, and lost everything. Wandering the streets in rags, September 17, 1859, he proclaimed:

At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Fransisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States. - September 17, 1859

And he undertook to be a benevolent Emperor, taking a personal interest in the governance and goings on in San Francisco. He's said to have at least once single-handedly stopped one of the anti-Chinese riots. Many of his proclamations were printed in local newspapers, he printed his own currency, which was accepted by many, and his funeral procession was two miles long when he died in 1880. Proof that government exists in the hearts and minds of the governed.