If you listen closely, I think you'll hear them call him "Lord Miraz" and his wife "Lady Prunaprismia" prior to the coronation. In the book, Dr. Cornelius explains that at first, Miraz was the Lord Protector of the realm until Caspian was old enough to rule. After he systematically assassinated or otherwise got rid of all his brother's supporters, "his flatterers (as he had instructed them) begged him to become king. And of course, he did," 

I think actually seeing Miraz maneuver his position from just holding down the fort (metaphorically speaking) to actually being king made him a less boring villain in the movie than in the book. Then again, you could argue the whole point of his character in the book was that he was a boring villain. The Telmarines are supposed to be really generic while the Old Narnians are more varied and interesting. 

Posted by: @col-klink

If you listen closely, I think you'll hear them call him "Lord Miraz" and his wife "Lady Prunaprismia" prior to the coronation. In the book, Dr. Cornelius explains that at first, Miraz was the Lord Protector of the realm until Caspian was old enough to rule. After he systematically assassinated or otherwise got rid of all his brother's supporters, "his flatterers (as he had instructed them) begged him to become king. And of course, he did," 

I was just looking at that part today but missed the bit about it being until Caspian was old enough to rule. So that makes sense. And yeah, I know that at least Pruniprismia was called Lady Pruniprismia in the opening sequence, I remember someone posted a topic forever ago about how they made the the mistake of saying calling her a queen but they were mistaken.

The thing is, by the time the PC movie starts, I assume Miraz has already gotten rid of his brother’s supporters, so you’d think almost everyone would be begging him to be king already.  

Posted by: @nicemice2023

 

In the book, the reason Caspian has to flee the castle after the birth of Miraz Jr. is because Miraz now has a new heir to the throne. However, if Miraz ISN’T king, his son isn’t an heir, meaning Caspian shouldn’t be in danger.

 

I don’t know, I’m sure I’m missing something that explains it.

The logic of why Miraz would wait for the birth of his own son before moving to eliminate Caspian, is that untill he has an heir of his own, Caspian is still of practical value to Miraz.

If Miraz tries to seize the throne without an heir, his reign would be undermined by infighting about the issue of succession, with his rivals such as Glozelle and Sopespian certain to take advantage of it.

Miraz would certainly rather prefer that the Telmarine throne remain strong, and remain within his own House through Caspian, rather than pass to a rival House or descend into chaos.

The birth of his own son however provides the opportunity for him to eliminate Caspian, safe in the knowledge that he has a succession plan to legitimise his own claim and stabilise his reign.

I guess from the authors perspective, if Lewis is writing the book for British schoolchildren during the 1950s, there might have been a certain expectation that they would be all very familiar with the logic of these sorts to situations, since they appear countless times throughout British history, as well as prominently within Shakespeare's Henriad and Wars of the Roses plays.

@icarus I see you follow the Tudor account of Richard III. The two nephews were lodged safely in the Tower of London, not imprisoned. The Shakespeare play had to be pro-Tudor, as Queen Elizabeth was the granddaughter of Henry VII, and the play could not have been put on if it showed anything else!

We have previously suggested that Miraz was like Hamlet's uncle.

Posted by: @coracle

@icarus I see you follow the Tudor account of Richard III. The two nephews were lodged safely in the Tower of London, not imprisoned. 

To be fair, i did deliberately stop short of saying he had them murdered 😉

But yeah, it just goes to show how contentious many of the successions of the British Crown in real life were, and how they are still debated to this very day - Miraz as someone presumably well versed in the ways of the court would have been well aware of the implications of making such a move prematurely.

CS Lewis may have got some inspiration from Hamlet for Prince Caspian.

It's almost interesting that in the Walden, Miraz wasn't a king yet while in the book he was already king. I think the movie in a way fleshed out his character- gave us notions what we already know about him, and expanded on that into the narrative.