King Vegeta's History
Background
In the anime only, King Vegeta became an important figure at the time when the Tuffles and the Saiyans lived together on Planet Plant. In Age 720, he alone was smart enough to rally and lead his people against the Tuffles in a conflict that raged for ten long years; this event was the Saiyan-Tuffle war. After the war's end in Age 730, the planet was renamed Planet Vegeta in his honor. In Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, Dr. Lychee commented on King Vegeta's intelligence and cunning, which Lychee himself compared to be on the same level as a Tuffle, showing that his genius was known and recognized even by his Tuffle adversaries.
At some point, King Vegeta discovered the Demon Realm planet, and used it as his secret training location.
Shortly after, Galactic Emperor Frieza came into contact with the Saiyans, and provided them with space-faring technology after submitting to his rule. Though reluctantly, King Vegeta pledged his allegiance to Frieza, knowing the Saiyans were not powerful enough to defeat him. The Saiyans worked under Frieza for several years. In Age 731, he is married to an unnamed female Saiyan who likely becomes his Queen and presumably the woman who eventually bore his sons. King Vegeta and his unnamed wife bore his first child in Age 732, Prince Vegeta. The young prince would later be given to Frieza under unknown circumstances, although King Vegeta intended to rebel before he would ever let Frieza gain his son. As revealed in Dragon Ball: The Return of Son Goku and Friends!, King Vegeta and his unknown queen had a second son named Tarble, who lacked the fighting spirit of a Saiyan, and thus was sent away from Planet Vegeta as an infant, as he considered Tarble's gentle nature to be an embarrassment to the royal family, though in doing so he saved his youngest son's life and prevented him from being taken by Frieza as the tyrant had previously done with his firstborn, Prince Vegeta.
Prior to Frieza's attack on Planet Vegeta, King Vegeta realized that Frieza had no further use for the Saiyans and no longer needed them around. He decides to rebel against Frieza's oppression, as well as retrieve Prince Vegeta, and mounts an assault with his royal guard on Frieza's capital ship.
When he arrives in Frieza's chamber room, due to his elite guards being too fear-struck to attempt to aid him, King Vegeta ends up facing Frieza alone. Zarbon and Dodoria bear witness as Frieza dodges his punch with ease and effortlessly kills the Saiyan King with a single punch to the jaw. The Saiyan elites that followed are also killed by Frieza. Shortly thereafter, Frieza was confronted by a low class warrior named Bardock (the father of Kakarot, a Saiyan who would be the greatest rival to King Vegeta's eldest son) who had also become aware of Frieza's intentions after he had sent Team Dodoria to kill Team Bardock, which Bardock himself barely survived. Bardock too tries to kill Frieza with his Final Spirit Cannon before Frieza launches his final assault and destroys Planet Vegeta and the entire remaining population of the Saiyan race with a Supernova.
Fortunately, both his and Bardock's sons (Kakarot and Raditz) survived the planet's destruction along with Saiyan General Nappa as they were off planet when Frieza attacked. Prince Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz would continue to work under Frieza, who told them that Planet Vegeta had been destroyed by a meteor, though Prince Vegeta himself suspected Frieza was responsible, though he himself at the same time had no desire to avenge either his people or his father's death. Meanwhile, his son Tarble survived and eventually married Gure.
Dragon Ball Z: Frieza Saga
King Vegeta is mentioned by Frieza (with the anime expanding it and showing a flashback of King Vegeta going to engage in a battle against Frieza), who says when he attacked planet Vegeta, where the Saiyans lived, he defeated the king, Vegeta�??s father, without even needing to transform. Hearing this, Vegeta reveals he was stronger than his father when he was just a kid. In a filler scene, Goku is battling Frieza on Namek and losing, King Vegeta appears before him in a vision along with Vegeta and Bardock, urging Goku not to give up and put an end to Frieza for the Saiyan race.
Though Goku managed to become a Super Saiyan shortly afterwards when Frieza killed his best friend Krillin, and eventually managed to defeat Frieza on the dying Namek, Frieza managed to survive both the battle and Namek's subsequent explosion (due in part to Goku showing mercy on the tyrant), though his body was heavily damaged, forcing Frieza's father, King Cold to repair Frieza's broken body with cybernetics, transforming him into Mecha-Frieza. However both Frieza and his father met their end shortly thereafter at the hands of Future Trunks, the half-breed son of Future Prince Vegeta who had traveled to the past using his mother's Time Machine to prevent Goku's death and warn him about the threat posed by Dr. Gero's Red Ribbon Androids, but ended up killing both Frieza and King Cold when he thought that Goku would not arrive in time to stop them, unaware of Goku's ability to use Instant Transmission, unintentionally altering the past and avenging both the Saiyans and the death of his grandfather in the process. Prince Vegeta would eventually fulfill the dream his father had for him by becoming a Super Saiyan. Vegeta would also continue the royal family by settling on Earth and marrying Bulma, by whom he fathered two half-breed children, Trunks and Bulla, King Vegeta's grandchildren. Additionally, both Prince Vegeta and his younger brother would later reunite on Earth with Tarble mistakenly believing it was his elder brother who defeated Frieza and avenged their parents' deaths. However, both Prince Vegeta and Tarble rejected the evil planet conquering ways of their father, though Prince Vegeta retained the fierce Saiyan pride his father instilled within him which he passed on to his own son Trunks, though without King Vegeta's elitist views.
Dragon Ball Super
God of Destruction Beerus Saga
At one point, King Vegeta met the God of Destruction Beerus and he is seen used as a stepping stone. In Dragon Ball Super, it was further explained to that King Vegeta was being mistreated because he gave Beerus the second most comfortable pillow in the universe and kept the first best for his own after Beerus had tasked him with finding the most comfortable pillow in Universe 7. Beerus admonishes King Vegeta on the extreme measures he used to obtain said pillow (destroying countless races in the process) though being a God of Destruction he would have been willing to have accepted King Vegeta's extreme methods had he handed over the pillow like he had promised him instead of keeping it for himself. However, King Vegeta willingly submitted to Beerus' punishment without protest sparing himself, his son, and his people from Beerus' wrath. However the encounter left Beerus with a poor opinion of both King Vegeta and the Saiyans, causing him to suggest to Frieza that he destroy them and Planet Vegeta (essentially giving Frieza his blessing to commit the Genocide of the Saiyans, which ultimately resulted in King Vegeta's death at the hands of Frieza and the destruction of Planet Vegeta).
While eating breakfast after a wake up from a thirty-nine-year long nap, Beerus asks his attendant Whis if Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta while he was asleep, and he says the Saiyans and Frieza were very evil and that King Vegeta was stingy. Whis confirms that he has, and not a trace of the planet remains. Beerus is glad to hear this, as he did not care much for the people on that planet, particularly King Vegeta. Years later, Prince Vegeta recalls the event he saw when he encounters Beerus on Earth, at Bulma's birthday party. During the flashback, Vegeta is shown standing up for his father and even attacks Beerus who paralyzes the boy with a simple glare, though Beerus recognized Prince Vegeta had attacked him out of youthful ignorance and respect for his father, which caused Beerus to recognize the boy's potential and along with King Vegeta submitting to punishment, lead Beerus to spare Planet Vegeta from immediate destruction.
Dragon Ball GT
Baby Saga
King Vegeta is seen in a flashback in Dragon Ball GT when Baby is explaining the Saiyan-Tuffle War to Vegeta. During the flashback, he is also seen transforming into a Great Ape.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly
When King Cold decided to retire and place his son in charge, he goes to planet Vegeta with his whole army to announce it. Although reluctant, King Vegeta leaves his throne to greet King Cold. He is introduced by the latter to Frieza and kneels before him. Later, King Vegeta goes to see his son, still in his incubator. King Vegeta is astonished by his power level and vows that his son will be the one to defeat Frieza, as well as eagerly waiting to see his son becoming the king of the Saiyans. As he leaves, King Vegeta notices a baby and angrily wonders what he was doing there. The scientists inform that that baby is the son of Paragus, named Broly, and that his power level is abnormally high. King Vegeta then decides to send Broly off to another planet called Vampa. Paragus learns this and goes to meet King Vegeta. King Vegeta explains his reasons, but Paragus does not accept it, going after Broly to Vampa. King Vegeta is later killed by Frieza, along with the vast majority of the Saiyans.
