King Xavier

King Xavier is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the sixteenth episode of the second season. He is portrayed by Joaquim de Almeida.

King Xavier is based on the character "The King" from the fairytale "Rumpelstiltskin".

History
King Xavier is a wealthy king, and the father of Prince Henry. A miller's daughter is delivering flour to his palace, and while carrying three bags of flour, she is intentionally tripped by a princess. His son, Henry tries to tell him that she didn't mean any harm. King Xavier berates Cora for yelling at and blaming Eva for tripping her. Then, he forces her to kneel, and apologize to them all. During a masquerade ball to find his son a bride, he recognizes Cora dancing with his son, even though she is wearing a mask. He sees a piece of straw on her stolen dress, and she tells him that she can spin straw into gold. He drags her in front of the attendees of the ball, and they all laugh at her outlandish claims. Soon he tells Cora that if she can stay in the tower filled with straw, spin it all into gold, she can marry his son, if she fails, she must forfeit her life. To his surprise all the straw has been spun into gold, and Cora further demonstrates this by spinning it in front of him, and his son proposes marriage to Cora in front of the court. The night before her marriage to Henry, Cora visits King Xavier with the intention of ripping out his heart. When Cora visits him, he tells her she can run off with Rumplestiltskin, the man she thinks no one knows about or marry his son that he knows she doesn't love. During this he tells her that "love is weakness", a phrase that eventually became her trademark. She leaves with a heart in a box, instead of King Xavier's it is her own heart. Months later, when Henry and Cora's daughter is born, Cora shows her child to the king's court on the throne. King Xavier asks Cora what will the child be named, to which she replies her name will be Regina; for one day she will be queen.

Trivia

 * The casting call describes him as, "45, has a mean sense of humor, and worries about being able to maintain his extravagant lifestyle since gold has become more scarce in his kingdom."
 * The name "Xavier" is of French origin, which means "enlightened". It is also an Arabic name that means "bright" or "splendid".