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If you are looking for the Norwegian metal band, see Emperor (band)
An emperor is the male head of state of an empire who reigns for life. Empress is the feminine form and can either be the wife of an emperor or a woman who rules an empire. The term "emperor" is in many cases interchangeable with "dictator" or "king", but there are subtle differences.
- An emperor always adopts royal ceremony and regalia, and thus acts as a monarch, though he may not be from an established royal family. In some cases, this is the only thing making a "dictator" into an "emperor". See the Central African Empire below.
- An emperor, in theory at least, reigns over several ethnicities or nationalities, as opposed to a king, who rules a single nation.
- Emperors are always recognised to be above kings in precedence when both titles are used in a single system. While a king is subject to the conventions of a state church, an emperor often ranks above the church, answering to no one but himself. See caesaropapism.
Historical development
Roman Tradition
Roman Empire
The English term for emperor is derived from the Latin imperator (literally, "one who prepares against"; loosely, "commander"). Imperator was originally a title granted to Roman generals by his troops and the Roman Senate after a great victory, roughly comparable to field marshal. The term was later used specifically in place of the Latin word "rex" (king), which had negative historical connotations for the Romans. Augustus Caesar is considered the first monarchical imperator because the title became restricted to him and his family. When his line died out, future dynasties continued to use imperator and the name Caesar regardless of whether they had any relation to the Caesars. Thus, in German the title Kaiser is equivalent to "emperor". Kaiser/Císař/Cisár/Császár etc. was used in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In some Slavic languages tsar was used. All of these are derived from Caesar rather than "imperator".
The Roman emperors had a long list of honorifics and titles such as augustus, autocrat, and Pontifex Maximus. Another honorific of the Roman emperors was "princeps", meaning "first citizen", from which we derive "prince".
Byzantine Empire
After the third century, the Roman Empire was divided into western and eastern halves each administered by a co-emperor. Historians generally call the eastern half the Byzantine Empire due to its capital Byzantium, an ancient name for Constantinople (now Istanbul). After the fall of Rome to barbarian forces in 476, the title of "emperor" lived on in rulers of the east. In 1204, the Fourth Crusaders forced the Byzantine government into exile in Nicaea where they mounted a counter-offensive against pretenders in Epirus, Trebizond, and the pro-Crusader Latin Empire in Constantinople. They managed to force Epirus into submission and retake Constantinople by 1261 but Trebizond remained independent. The empire finally fell due to Ottoman invasion in 1453. The Trapezuntines held on until 1461.
The Byzantine empire produced three reigning empresses: Irene, Zoe, Theodora.
Holy Roman Empire
On 25 December , 800, Charles I, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome. This was seen as a revival of the Western Empire, and descendants of Charlemagne continued to be crowned in Rome through the 9th century. The increasing divisions within the Frankish lands, however, led to a suspension of the office. In 962, Otto I, King of the Eastern Franks (or Germany) was again crowned Emperor by the Pope. His successors became known as Holy Roman Emperors. The Holy Roman Empire, such as it was, consisted of the Kingdoms of Germany, Italy, and Burgundy. After the 13th century and the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the universalistic aspirations of the Emperors became increasingly theoretical, and their control over Italy, still seen as the locus of the proper empire, became increasingly tenuous. Rather than being hereditary, emperors were elected by the great German magnates, in a process codified by the Golden Bull of 1356. Coronations in Rome became rarer and rarer, until in 1508, King Maximilian I declared himself Emperor-Elect without having been crowned in Rome after receiving permission from the pope. Although Maximilian's grandson and successor, Charles V, was crowned in Bologna in 1529 by the Pope, he was the last, and thereafter the position of Holy Roman Emperor was a wholly German post until the Empire's dissolution in August 6, 1806. Even in Germany itself, real control was increasingly tenuous, as various local princes put increasing amounts of power into his own hands, so that the Habsburg emperors who ruled almost continuously from 1438 until the end of the empire derived their power much more from their hereditary lands in the eastern part of the monarchy than from their position as emperor. This became even more true after the defeat of Habsburg attempts to reassert authority over the Empire in the Thirty Years War, which ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The impotence of the Emperors' position became most nakedly apparent during the brief reign of Charles VII from 1742 to 1745. As Duke of Bavaria, Charles was the only non-Habsburg emperor for the last three hundred fifty years of the empire's existence, and his utter inability even to protect his own hereditary lands from the forces of his enemy, Maria Theresa, the Habsburg heiress, showed how empty the position of Holy Roman Emperor had become. The conquests of the French revolutionary armies in the 1790s made the Empire itself untenable, so that Emperor Francis II in 1804 took the title of Emperor of Austria as Francis I, and ultimately, allowed (perhaps illegally) the dissolution of the Empire two years later.
Bulgaria
In 913, Bulgarian king Simeon I crowned himself "Emperor and Autocrat of all the Bulgars and Greeks" following a victory over the Byzantines. His successors held on to the title Tsar until 1396 when Bulgaria fell to the invading Ottoman Empire. The title was revived from 1908 to 1946. Simeon II, the last tsar, abdicated and the monarchy was abolished.
Bulgarian tsars are frequently translated into English as kings but this is incorrect.
Spain
King Sancho III of Navarre declared himself emperor of Spain in 1034. His son, Ferdinand I of Castile also took the title in 1039. His son, Alfonso VI of Castile-Leon took the title in 1077. His grandson, Alfonso VII was the only one who actually had an imperial coronation in 1135. The title was not exactly hereditary but self proclaimations by those that had united Christian (northern) Spain often at the expense of killing rival siblings. The popes and Holy Roman emperors protested at the usage of the imperial title as a usurpation of leadership in western Christendom. After Alfonso VII's death in 1157, the title was abandoned.
Serbia
After a series of victories against his neighbors, Serbian king Stefan Uros IV proclaimed himself "Tsar and Autocrat of Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians" in 1346. His son, Stefan Uros V, was unable to retain the empire. After his death in 1371, no Serb monarch would use the title Tsar.
Russia
In 1472, the last Byzantine emperor's niece, Sophia Paleologue, married the grand duke of Moscow and began championing the idea of Russia being the successor to the Byzantine empire. Her grandson Ivan IV crowned himself tsar in 16 January 1547. On 31 October , 1721 Peter I was crowned emperor as well. He based his claim partially upon a letter discovered in 1717 written in 1514 from Maximilian I to Vasili III, Sophia's son and Ivan IV's father, in which the Holy Roman Emperor used the term in referring to Vasili. The title has not been used in Russia since the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on 15 March 1917.
Imperial Russia produced four reigning empresses all in the eighteenth century.
France
Napoleon I declared himself Emperor of the French on 18 May , 1804. He relinquished the title of Emperor of the French on 6 April and again on April 11, 1814, but was allowed to style himself Emperor of Elba, the island of his first exile. After his attempted restoration and defeat in 1815 he was stripped of even that usage during his second exile. His nephew Napoleon III resurrected the title on December 2, 1852 after establishing the Second French Empire in a presidential coup, and lost it when he was deposed on September 4, 1870 by the Third Republic. It has not been used in France since then.
Austria
On 11 August , 1804 anticipating the eventual collapse of the Holy Roman Empire at the behest of Napoleon I, Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire assumed the additional title of Emperor of Austria (as Francis I thereof). The precaution was a wise one, because two years later on August 6, 1806 he was obliged to proclaim the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. The title has not been used in Austria since Emperor Karl of Austria "relinquished every participation in the administration of the State" on November 11, 1918.
Haiti
Haiti was declared an empire by its ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who made himself Jacques I, in 20 May 1805. He was assassinated the next year. Haiti again became an empire from 1849 to 1859 under Faustin Soulouque.
Mexico
In Mexico, there were two short-lived attempts to create an Empire. Agustín de Iturbide, the general who helped secure Mexican independence from Spanish rule, was proclaimed Emperor Agustín I in 12 July 1822, but was overthrown the next year. In 1863, the invading French, in alliance with Mexican conservatives, proclaimed an empire and invited Archduke Maximilian, younger brother of the Austrian Emperor, to become emperor as Maximilian I. The childless Maximilian also adopted Agustín's grandson as his heir to bolster his claim. After the withdrawal of French protection in 1867, Maximilian was captured and executed by liberal forces.
Brazil
Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1822, and made Dom Pedro, eldest son of the then-King of Portugal, who was acting as regent, Emperor as Pedro I on 12 October. The empire came to an end with the overthrow of Emperor Pedro II in 1889.
Germany
Upon the formation of the Second Reich the Prussian king had himself crowned German Emperor as Wilhelm I on January 18, 1871, as part of the competition with the Emperor of Austria for dominance in the German-speaking lands. The Prussian Crown Prince was married to a daughter of Queen Victoria, and when he came to the throne his wife would naturally carry the title of Empress, outranking her more-powerful mother whose title was merely Queen. The title was no longer used in Germany after the announcement of the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II on 9 November 1918.
Central African Empire
In 1976, president Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, proclaimed the country to be the Central African Empire, and made himself Emperor as Bokassa I. The expenses of his coronation ceremony actually bankrupted the country, and he was overthrown three years later, and the republic restored.
Qin tradition
China
In 221 BC, Zheng, who was king of Qin at the time, proclaimed himself shi huangdi, which translates as "first emperor". Huangdi is composed of huang ("august one") and di ("sage-king"), and referred to legendary/mythological sage-emperors living several millenia earlier, of which three were huang and five were di (the sānhuáng wǔdì, see: The Three August Ones and the Five Emperors). Thus Zheng became Qin Shi Huang, abolishing the system where the huang/di titles were reserved to dead and/or mythological rulers.
The imperial title continued in China until the Qing dynasty was overthrown in 1912. The title was briefly revived from December 12, 1915 to March 22, 1916 by President Yuan Shikai and again in early July , 1917 when General Zhang Xun attempted to restore last Qing emperor Puyi to the throne.
In general, an emperor would have one empress (Huanghou, 皇后) at one time, although posthumous entitlement to empress for a concubine were not uncommon. The earliest known usage of empress was in the Han Dynasty. The emperor would generally select the empress from his harem. In subsequent dynasties, when the distinction between wife and concubine became more accentuated, the crown prince would have chosen an empress-designate before his reign. Imperial China produced only one reigning empress, Wu Zetian, and she used the same Chinese title as an emperor (Huangdi, 皇帝).
Japan
In Japan a ruler in Yamato court was called "Tenno" (天皇) (usually translated as emperor but literally as heavenly emperor[1]). They placed themselves on equal footing with Chinese emperors since 607 and also took the Chinese style "Son of Heaven". In the Japanese language, tenno is strictly distinguished from koutei who rules an empire — both are translated as emperor. Often in Japan, retired emperors would wield effective power over a child-emperor. At other times, a Shogun or Regent would wield effective power. After World War II, "Son of Heaven" and all other claims of divinity were dropped. By the end of the 20th century Japan was the only (real) country with an emperor on the throne.
Currently, Japan is under the Salic Law which prevents females from reigning but that may change soon. Previously, Japan has produced eight reigning empresses who took the male title over the female kōgō.
Manchuria
The Khitan Empire was founded in this region on 907. They were overthrown by the Jurchen Jin Empire (1115-1234) which was in turn conquered by Mongol armies. In 1616, Ming China's Jurchen vassal, Nurhaci, rebelled and crowned himself emperor of the renamed Manchus. His successors, the Qing dynasty, conquered China in 1644 and reigned until revolution toppled them in 1912. After the Japanese occupied Manchuria in 1931, they proclaimed it to be the Empire of Manchukuo, and Puyi, the last Qing emperor of China, became puppet emperor. This puppet state came to an end with the Japanese defeat in 1945.
Korea
Some early legendary dynasties used the title tanje which is translated as "emperor under the birch". The Bohai (669-926), which ruled parts of northern Korea and Manchuria used hwangje (huangdi). Following the Chinese defeat by Japan in 1895, Korea declared total independence from China and King Gojong took the title of Taehan Hwangje, translated as Emperor of Greater Korea. The empire came to an end with Japanese annexation in 1910.
Vietnam
Although the Vietnamese rulers acknowledged the supremacy of China, and were known to the Chinese emperors as simply King of Annam, domestically they took on a full Chinese-style imperial regalia in 1806, and are usually referred to as emperors in English. Axis-occupied Vietnam was declared an empire by the Japanese in March 1945. The line of emperors came to an end with Bao Dai, who was deposed after the war, although he later served as head of state of South Vietnam from 1949 to 1955.
Persian tradition
Iran
In Persia (or Iran), from the time of the Cyrus the Great, Persian rulers used the title Shahanshah which is sometimes translated as emperor and is literally "King of Kings". Persians were founders of one of the earliest and largest empires of the world, extending from India to Greece and Libya. Alexander the Great probably crowned himself shahanshah after conquering Persia. The last Shahanshah abdicated in 1979, when Iran became a republic.
Ottoman Empire
Ottoman sultans held the title Padishah, equivalent to the Persian shahanshah. Another title they used was Caliph which made them titular leaders of the Muslim world. The Mughals respected their precedence but the Shiite Persians did not. After conquering the Byzantine Empire in 1453, Mehmed II also took the title of Roman emperor. It would remain a minor title among the lists of titles carried by the Ottoman sultans until the monarchy was abolished in 1922.
India
Some Indian monarchs held the rare title Maharajadhiraja (Great King of Kings) but because it was treated as subordinate under the Mughals and the British, it is usually not considered imperial. The Mughal Emperors (1526-1857) held the title Badshah (padishah). The throne became vacant after Bahadur Shah II was unseated by the British. When a royal marriage made it obvious to the British in 1877 that their mighty Queen Victoria would be outranked by her own daughter who would someday become Empress of Germany, the British government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title Empress of India by an Act of Parliament. That title was relinquished by George VI with effect from August 15, 1947, when India was granted independence. In the valley of Swat (in modern Pakistan), Miangul Golshahzada Abdul Wadud titled himself badshah in 1918. In 1926, he was granted recognition of authority over Swat by the British in return for taking the lesser title of wali.
Victoria was the only reigning empress of India.
(In 1801 when Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland, it was proposed that George III become Emperor of the British and Hanoverian Dominions, and therefore Emperor of the British Empire. George III however rejected the idea, favouring the traditional title of king.)
Afghanistan
Ahmad Shah founded the Durrani Empire in 1747 with the title Padshah. The Sadozai were overthrown in 1823 but there was a brief restoration by Shoja Shah in 1839. The title went dormant after his assassination in 1842 until 1926 when Amanullah Khan resurrected it. The title was finally laid to rest with the abdication of Mohammed Zahir Shah in 1973 following a coup.
Afghan padshahs are frequently translated into English as kings but this is incorrect. "King" is malik which was dropped in 1926 in favor of padshah i-Afghanistan.
Other traditions
Mongol Empire
The title Khagan (khan of khans or grand khan) was held by Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire in 1206. When the empire was partitioned, the Yuan dynasty khans in China (where they also took the native title huangdi) were nominal rulers of the whole Mongol realm. After being overthrown, the Yuan fled back to Mongolia and were subsequently known to historians as the Northern Yuan. They kept their title of Grand Khan until the Manchu emperor Hong Taiji forced them to surrender it in 1634.
Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, the Solomonid dynasty used the title of "Negus Negust" which also translates to Emperor and is literally "King of Kings" beginning in 1270. This title ended following revolution in 1975. From 1936 to 1943, Italian king Victor Emmanuel III took the title of Emperor of Ethiopia when that country was under Italian occupation.
Zauditu was the only reigning empress of Ethiopia.
Aztec Empire
The only pre-Columbian North American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the Hueyi Tlatoani of the Aztec Empire (1375-1521). Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés slew Emperor Cuauhtémoc and installed puppet emperors who became vassals for Spain. Mexican Emperor Maximilian built his palace over the ruins of the Aztec one at Chapultepec.
Inca Empire
The only pre-Columbian South American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire (1438-1533). Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, a second cousin of Hernán Cortés, conquered the Inca for Spain, killed Emperor Atahualpa, and installed puppets as well.
Lists of emperors
Emperors of traditional empires
Ancient empires
Medieval empires
Newer empires
- Austrian Empire, 1804–1867 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1867–1918 (both under the Habsburgs)
- Empire of Brazil (Peter I, 1822–1831 and Peter II, 1831–1889)
- French Empire (Napoleon I, 1804–1814 and Napoleon III, 1852–1870)
- German Empire (under the Hohenzollerns, 1871–1918)
- India (under the British Raj with British Monarch as Emperor of India, 1876–1947)
- Russian Empire (under the Romanovs, 1721–1917)
- Korean Empire (Gojong, 1897–1907 and Sunjong, 1907–1910)
Emperors of short-lived 'empires'
Self-proclaimed emperors
- see Self-proclaimed monarchy
Fictional emperors
- see list of fictional rulers
Notes
- ^ Although the Emperor of Japan is classified as constitutional Monarch among political scientists, the current constitution of Japan defines him only as a symbol of the nation and no law states his status as a political monarch (head of state) or otherwise.
Trivia
The last year when there was more than one emperor on the throne was 1979 with three: Japan, Iran, and the Central African Empire. The latter two were overthrown that same year.
See also
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