King Harold

"I don't think you realize that our daughter has married a monster!"

- King Harold

King Harold (simpy known as Harold) is the husband of Queen Lillian, the late father of Princess Fiona, and the father-in-law of Shrek. He serves a major character in Shrek 2 and a posthoums character in Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After. He is voiced by John Cleese.

Shrek 2
King Harold makes his debut in Shrek 2. When his daughter Fiona arrives at the castle with her new husband, he is surprised that they are both ogres. King Harold had secretly made a promise to the Fairy Godmother that her son Prince Charming would marry Fiona. King Harold hires Puss in Boots to assassinate Shrek. King Harold then succumbs to guilt when Fiona finds out that Shrek is not around. Harold at first refuses when the Fairy Godmother asks him to give the love potion to Fiona that will cause her to fall in love with Prince Charming, because he recoils from this invasion of her free will, but he is forced to acquiesce by some dark threat of disclosure; in the event, when Fiona states that she loved the old Shrek (rather the 'new' one that Prince Charming is pretending to be), Harold swaps the cup which contains the potion for his own. At the ball toward the end of the film, Harold protects Fiona and Shrek from a blast of magic from Fairy Godmother's wand, his armor causes the blast to reflect and kill the Fairy Godmother. Afterwards, the king emerges from his suit of armor, now reverted to his original frog prince form by the blast. The wife seems not at all unhappy about this turn of events. After this, he apologizes to Shrek and accepts him into the family, his wife saying that he is more of a man for accepting Shrek and Fiona's marriage than he ever was when he was actually human.

Shrek the Third
King Harold makes a minor appearance in the third film in his death bed. Shrek does not want his father-in-law's crown; aside from not willing to give up his beloved swamp, he also doesn't think he's qualified enough to be a king. With his dying breath, Harold gives Shrek the name of the other possible heir: Fiona's cousin Artie.

Shrek Forever After
Harold and Lillian make a flashback cameo trying to wager a deal with Rumplestilskin (who wanted Harold's crown so he could so he could rule Far Far Away). At the last instant, the king and queen are informed that Shrek had saved Fiona from the keep; rendering Rumpel's deal pointless.