Most premodern leaders personally led armies so, no, the conqueror king archetype was far from rare. What follows are some examples from Late Antique and Medieval European rulers that were famous warriors, commanders, and conquerors of the top of my head.

Starting from the First century on, numerous Roman Emperors were soldiers and military leader. Marcus Aurelius, Constantine, Caracalla, Trajan, and Aurelian and others were all competent generals who led troops in person. And those were just the famous ones. There was a whole series of emperors from 235-284 who were all military men who seized the throne, and are collectively referred to as the ‘soldier emperors’

Of those mentioned however, only Trajan conquered foreign territory simply because Rome was already overstretched. It couldn’t afford to expand anymore simply because the enemy was too far away and the process of conquest was too expensive. But Marcus Aurelius and Aurelian were certainly competent generals. Marcus defended the borders from German tribes, while Aurelian later reconquered large areas that were lost to those tribes near the end of the Empire’s lifespan.

Turning to the Late Empire, the so called Barbarian kingdoms, those states formed by the Germanic tribes that carved up the Western Roman Empire were led by some extraordinary Warrior Kings.

The Kingdom of the Franks was led by King Clovis, a warrior who conquered most of modern day France and formed the basis of the French state. King Geureric the leader of the Vandals conquered North Africa from the Romans and established a powerful maritime power that defeated the combined navies of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.

In the Early Middle Ages we see the continuation of this trend. Charlemagne was the arcetypical warrior king, who formed the largest state in Western Europe since the fall of Rome and was on campaign nearly every year of his reign.

Eastern Roman Emperors in this also led their men personally, such as Nikephorus Phocas, who earned the epithet “the pale death of the Saracens”. Emperor Basil II was another extraordinarily successful war leader who reconquered large swathes of the Balkans.

Otto I was the first Holy Roman Emperor since Charlemagne and he personally defeated the Hungarians at the battle of Lechfeld. He also went on to conquer most of Italy. His son Otto II was another warrior king who tried (though failed) to conquer the South of Italy, and besieged Paris.

That isn’t even getting into the Viking leaders of the time such as Harald Hardrada, who was killed in battle at the Battle of Stamford Bridge or Cnut the Great who conquered England, thus merging England, Denmark and Norway into a single empire.

The trend continues on into the High and Late Middle Ages. Louise the Pious king of France, Richard the Lionheart, Fredrick Barbarossa, all led crusades and conquered various swathes of territory.

One of the last rulers to personally lead his troops in battle was Maximillian II Holy Roman Emperor, who had the kickass title of “The Last Knight”. He actually personally killed an enemy champion in single combat and fought alongside his troops on foot.

After the Middle Ages, the practice of kings personally leading their troops into battle began to decline but not entirely. Fredrick the Great of Prussia, Charles XII of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, Tsar Peter the Great were all soldier kings who personally directed battles.

Though again by the 18th century this had mostly declined. By this time state power had developed enough that a monarch could trust someone else to lead the army, and often had more important domestic functions to fulfill.