No, he was demonstrating to his fawning courtiers that he couldn't stop the tide. (Apologies in advance to the parent commenter @pvg if my irony / sarcasm detec

No, he was demonstrating to his fawning courtiers that he couldn't stop the tide. (Apologies in advance to the parent commenter @pvg if my irony / sarcasm detector is out of calibration.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide