I think it'd be better for him to be declared King, and I'll tell you why: The people of Kingston, when they won their independance from Britay were proud of being, of earning their own country "Far too much," as a Britayan historian might say. If Thedude or Lionel before him had declared McLiola Duke it would suggest to the people that they'd lost their anonymity and that risks an uprising, which he wants to avoid. to Thedude it's a game of humoring a people he knows little to nothing about. In this story you'll see that he's of the mindset that these people will surrender when they see it's over for them, but what he can't see is that they believe that anything less of freedom might as well be death.
I'll mention them, but my characters haven't had contact with a lot of that tech, so a barney bot might be called an armored dragon of them and so forth. He affected the story, but faraway is accurate. In my story I have him as having sometimes to take up residence in Crownland, which is about 378 miles away. That's a few months march for a fully arrayed military force. He plays an active role, it just takes longer to affect anything because the medieval world works more slowly than the world today, and I'd like to hold accurate to that. On top of all that, basically the worst the rest of Britay does abut Thedude's rule is gripe, so it isn't viewed as a major threat as of yet.
Thank you, I'm looking forward to more in-depth comments like this! I 'don't usually have to answer questions like i used to, so this is very refreshing.: D