The book is a thematic collection of 14 episodes of exemplary types from history, who - like President Lincoln - died in a cause. 'King' is used not so much in the sense of worldly power, but, rather, to symbolise the martyrdom of the 'King of the Jews'; we see a procession of such exemplars, from a slain pagan king's surviving son being adopted by victorious Christians, to the establishment of the United States of America in the blood of Lincoln's sacrifice. Buchan seeks to demonstrate a kind of spiritual succession down to modern times.