Character from Hyperion by Dan Simmons
King William XXIII — a patron of the arts who founded the City of Poets near the Time Tombs, hoping beauty could survive proximity to a god of pain. The Shrike proved him wrong.
Sad King Billy was a monarch who believed in the power of art. He established a colony on Hyperion near the Time Tombs, bringing poets and artists — including Martin Silenus — to create beauty in the shadow of the Shrike. The City of Poets was his dream: a place where human creativity could exist alongside cosmic mystery. The Shrike destroyed it. Billy was taken by the Shrike. His face was carved into a mountain on Hyperion alongside Meina Gladstone — the two leaders who sacrificed civilizations for ideals.
Regal but melancholy — the kind of king who looks more comfortable in a gallery than on a throne. His sadness is constitutional, not circumstantial.
Also known as: Sad King Billy, King William XXIII