Was there some kind of real-world instance or happening we can point to that caused purple to become the “royal colour”?
In: 51
Yes.
The purple in question Tyrian purple, also known as Phoenician red, which was made out of the mucus of two species of Hexaplex trunculus snails native to the waters around Lebanon. This dye was VERY expensive to produce. Since they dyes discovery at around 1300 BCE by the Phoenicians it was merely an expensive dye until the Romans came into the story. Being a natural dye the color varied wildly unlike modern synthetics but that’s beside the point.
The connection for purple and royalty comes to us from the period of transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. In an attempt to embarrass and alienate Julius Caesar from his populous support the Roman senate lauded him with all kinds of odd honors. One of these honors was that he was now the only person allowed to wear Tyrian purple in Rome.
This one action changed an ultra luxury good into a symbol of Empire as Augustus picked up on it. Later empires and kingdoms attempted to mimic the Romans and voila purple is a royal color in Europe. This doesn’t count the Byzantine empire which didn’t adopt this idea by imitating the tradition they continued it being the literal Eastern Roman Empire and all.
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