When Kings Were the Law

When Kings Were the Law

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

May 20, 1912

Original Title

When Kings Were the Law

Director

D.W. Griffith

Description

Over the Kingdom of Romanda there reigned a King who was greatly influenced by his favorite, whom he devotedly loved. He presents her with a necklace of fabulous worth and enjoins that she never part with it, which command she swears by the stars to keep. About this time an impecunious cousin of the King calls to beg the loan of money, which is refused. The favorite promises to intercede for him. The cardinal and the favorite are bitter enemies because of her thwarting many of his pet schemes, and he plans a revenge by inciting jealousy in the King. The scheme he devises is to have the necklace missing and found in the cousin's pocket. The plan succeeds so well that the King condemns the seemingly guilty pair to an air-tight chamber, where they would have suffocated to death had not the lady-in-waiting, who helped in the plot, become horror-stricken and confessed.