<Li> Player King, Player Queen, Lucianus etc.--Players </Li> <P> The protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor . Claudius hastily married King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and took the throne for himself . Denmark has a long - standing feud with neighboring Norway, in which King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle some years ago . Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbras's infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian king's son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent . </P> <P> On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle, the sentries Bernardo and Marcellus and Hamlet's friend Horatio encounter a ghost that looks like the late King Hamlet . They vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed . </P> <P> As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, Hamlet looks on glumly . After the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage . Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself . </P>

Who was on the throne when hamlet was written