Did You Know? A Real-Life Tyrant King Inspired the Male Lead in "Bon Appetit, Your Majesty"

The drama is adapted from Park Guk Jae’s popular web novel Surviving as Yeonsangun’s Chef. In the book, the tyrant isn’t disguised; he is very much King Yeonsangun himself, one of Joseon’s most notorious monarchs. For the Netflix series, the name was softened to King Lee Heon. According to TIME, this creative choice gives the production space to craft a star-crossed romance without getting too mired in history’s darkest chapters.

So while the banquets, palace intrigue, and systemic abuses depicted on screen may feel larger than life, they actually nod to real events tied to a very real king.

King Yeonsangun, born Yi Yung, reigned from 1494 to 1506. Historians widely agree he was one of the cruelest rulers of the Joseon Dynasty. His reign is remembered for censorship, excess, and violent purges of political rivals.

His path to tyranny was also shaped by personal tragedy. As historians note, Yeonsangun grew up believing his stepmother was his real mother—only to learn later that his biological mother, Deposed Queen Yun, had been executed by poison on his father’s orders. This revelation ignited a desire for vengeance. He punished scholars, relatives, and courtiers he believed complicit, with brutal consequences.

His excesses didn’t stop there. He banned the use of Hangul, suppressed Buddhism, and even shut down the royal academy, converting it into a personal pleasure ground. Yeonsangun is also noted to have ordered the abduction of women across the country to serve in his court, a practice known as chaehong. Eventually, after 12 years of increasingly despotic rule, he was overthrown in a coup and exiled, where he died only two months later.

While the drama draws on Yeonsangun’s legacy, it doesn’t attempt a faithful retelling. Instead, it reimagines him as King Lee Heon, whose cold exterior softens under the influence of YoonA’s time-traveling chef, Yeon Ji-young.

Elements of history remain: the king’s traumatic backstory, the forced recruitment of women, and his authoritarian tendencies. But the show weaves these details into a lighter narrative, as part romance, part fantasy, part culinary escapade.

While Bon Appétit, Your Majesty borrows elements from the story of Yeonsangun, it doesn’t attempt to rehabilitate his image. Instead, it reshapes fragments of the past into a backdrop for fantasy, highlighting how K-dramas often use history as a stage rather than a script. By fictionalizing the king as Lee Heon, the series keeps its focus on the playful clash between eras, cuisine, and K-drama’s signature dash of romance, reminding viewers that even the darkest corners of history can inspire entirely new kinds of storytelling.