Oȵŀιȵ𝖊 Free Stream Emperor

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Genres: Drama / Mark Amin / Country: USA / writed by: Mark Amin

Love seeing all the Gurners out there having a good time! haha. Epic masterpiece. I remember when I first heard this in 1995. My jaw dropped. This whole scene is better than the whole new trilogy combined. Part of a series on European imperial, royal, noble, gentry and chivalric ranks in Western culture Emperor / Empress / King-Emperor / Queen-Empress / Kaiser / Tsar High king / High queen / Great king / Great queen King / Queen Archduke / Archduchess / Tsesarevich Grand prince / Grand princess Grand duke / Grand duchess Prince-elector / Prince / Princess / Crown prince / Crown princess / Foreign prince / Prince du sang / Infante / Infanta / Dauphin / Dauphine / Królewicz / Królewna / Jarl Duke / Duchess / Herzog / Knyaz / Princely count Sovereign prince / Sovereign princess / Fürst / Fürstin / Boyar Marquess / Marquis / Marchioness / Margrave / Landgrave / Marcher Lord / Count palatine Count / Countess / Earl / Graf / Châtelain / Castellan / Burgrave Viscount / Viscountess / Vidame Baron / Baroness / Freiherr / Advocatus / Lord of Parliament / Thane / Lenderman Baronet / Baronetess / Scottish Feudal Baron / Scottish Feudal Baroness / Ritter / Imperial Knight Eques / Knight / Chevalier / Ridder / Lady / Dame / Edelfrei / Seigneur / Lord Gentleman / Gentry / Esquire / Laird / Edler / Jonkheer / Junker / Younger / Maid Ministerialis v t e An emperor (from Latin: imperator, via Old French: empereor) [1] is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( empress dowager), or a woman who rules in her own right ( empress regnant). Emperors are generally recognized to be of a higher honour and rank than kings. In Europe, the title of Emperor has been used since the Middle Ages, considered in those times equal or almost equal in dignity to that of Pope due to the latter's position as visible head of the Church and spiritual leader of the Catholic part of Western Europe. The Emperor of Japan is the only currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as "Emperor". [2] Both emperors and kings are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. Inasmuch as there is a strict definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler and typically rules over more than one nation. Therefore a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, [3] or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, but an emperor should in theory be completely free of such restraints. However, monarchs heading empires have not always used the title in all contexts—the British sovereign did not assume the title Empress of the British Empire even during the incorporation of India, though she was declared Empress of India. In Western Europe, the title of Emperor was used exclusively by the Holy Roman Emperor, whose imperial authority was derived from the concept of translatio imperii, i. e. they claimed succession to the authority of the Western Roman Emperors, thus linking themselves to Roman institutions and traditions as part of state ideology. Although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German-speaking states. Although technically an elective title, by the late 16th century the imperial title had in practice come to be inherited by the Habsburg Archdukes of Austria and following the Thirty Years' War their control over the states (outside the Habsburg Monarchy, i. Austria, Bohemia and various territories outside the empire) had become nearly non-existent. However, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French in 1804 and was shortly followed by Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, who declared himself Emperor of Austria in the same year. The position of Holy Roman Emperor nonetheless continued until Francis II abdicated that position in 1806. In Eastern Europe, the monarchs of Russia also used translatio imperii to wield imperial authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their status was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, although not officially used by the Russian monarchs until 1547. However, the Russian emperors are better known by their Russian-language title of Tsar even after Peter the Great adopted the title of Emperor of All Russia in 1721. Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to describe any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia and others, are often considered as the equivalent. Sometimes this reference has even extended to non-monarchically ruled states and their spheres of influence such as the Athenian Empire of the late 5th century BC, the Angevin Empire of the Plantagenets and the Soviet and American "empires" of the Cold War era. However, such "empires" did not need to be headed by an "emperor". Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century. For purposes of protocol, emperors were once given precedence over kings in international diplomatic relations, but currently precedence amongst heads of state who are sovereigns—whether they be kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses and to a lesser degree presidents—is determined by the duration of time that each one has been continuously in office. Outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their native languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era. Roman tradition [ edit] In the Roman tradition a large variety in the meaning and importance of the imperial form of monarchy developed: in intention it was always the highest office, but it could as well fall down to a redundant title for nobility that had never been near to the "Empire" they were supposed to be reigning. Also the name of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below. The importance and meaning of coronation ceremonies and regalia also varied within the tradition: for instance Holy Roman Emperors could only be crowned emperor by the Pope, which meant the coronation ceremony usually took place in Rome, often several years after these emperors had ascended to the throne (as "king") in their home country. The first Latin Emperors of Constantinople on the other hand had to be present in the newly conquered capital of their empire, because that was the only place where they could be granted to become emperor. Early Roman Emperors avoided any type of ceremony or regalia different from what was already usual for republican offices in the Roman Republic: the most intrusive change had been changing the color of their robe to purple. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, became an essential part of the imperial accessories. Rules for indicating successors also varied: there was a tendency towards male inheritance of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known (for empires not too strictly under salic law). Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as often occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors; the Roman imperial tradition made no exception to other monarchical traditions in this respect. Probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Rome's third century rule. Roman Empire and Byzantine emperors [ edit] Classical Antiquity [ edit] When Republican Rome turned into a de facto monarchy in the second half of the 1st century BC, at first there was no name for the title of the new type of monarch. Ancient Romans abhorred the name Rex ("king"), and it was critical to the political order to maintain the forms and pretenses of republican rule. Julius Caesar had been Dictator, an acknowledged and traditional office in Republican Rome. Caesar was not the first to hold it, but following his assassination the term was abhorred in Rome [ citation needed]. Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Augustus, considered the first Roman emperor, established his hegemony by collecting on himself offices, titles, and honours of Republican Rome that had traditionally been distributed to different people, concentrating what had been distributed power in one man. One of these offices was princeps senatus, ("first man of the Senate") and became changed into Augustus' chief honorific, princeps civitatis ("first citizen") from which the modern English word and title prince is descended. The first period of the Roman Empire, from 27 BC – AD 284, is called the principate for this reason. However, it was the informal descriptive of Imperator ("commander") that became the title increasingly favored by his successors. Previously bestowed on high officials and military commanders who had imperium, Augustus reserved it exclusively to himself as the ultimate holder of all imperium. ( Imperium is Latin for the authority to command, one of a various types of authority delineated in Roman political thought. ) Beginning with Augustus, Imperator appeared in the title of all Roman monarchs through the extinction of the Empire in 1453. After the reign of Augustus' immediate successor Tiberius, being proclaimed imperator was transformed into the act of accession to the head of state. Other honorifics used by the Roman Emperors have also come to be synonyms for Emperor: Caesar (as, for example, in Suetonius ' Twelve Caesars). This tradition continued in many languages: in German it became " Kaiser "; in certain Slavic languages it became " Tsar "; in Hungarian it became " Császár ", and several more variants. The name derived from Julius Caesar 's cognomen "Caesar": this cognomen was adopted by all Roman emperors, exclusively by the ruling monarch after the Julio-Claudian dynasty had died out. In this tradition Julius Caesar is sometimes described as the first Caesar/emperor (following Suetonius). This is one of the most enduring titles, Caesar and its transliterations appeared in every year from the time of Caesar Augustus to Tsar Symeon II of Bulgaria 's removal from the throne in 1946. Augustus was the honorific first bestowed on Emperor Augustus: after him all Roman emperors added it to their name. Although it had a high symbolical value, something like "elevated" or "sublime", it was generally not used to indicate the office of Emperor itself. Exceptions include the title of the Augustan History, a semi-historical collection of Emperors' biographies of the 2nd and 3rd century. Augustus had (by his last will) granted the feminine form of this honorific ( Augusta) to his wife. Since there was no "title" of Empress(-consort) whatsoever, women of the reigning dynasty sought to be granted this honorific, as the highest attainable goal. Few were however granted the title, and certainly not as a rule all wives of reigning Emperors. Imperator (as, for example, in Pliny the Elder 's Naturalis Historia). In the Roman Republic Imperator meant "(military) commander". In the late Republic, as in the early years of the new monarchy, Imperator was a title granted to Roman generals by their troops and the Roman Senate after a great victory, roughly comparable to field marshal (head or commander of the entire army). For example, in AD 15 Germanicus was proclaimed Imperator during the reign of his adoptive father Tiberius. Soon thereafter "Imperator" became however a title reserved exclusively for the ruling monarch. This led to "Emperor" in English and, among other examples, "Empereur" in French and "Mbreti" in Albanian. The Latin feminine form Imperatrix only developed after "Imperator" had taken on the connotation of "Emperor". Autokrator (Αὐτοκράτωρ) or Basileus (βασιλεύς): although the Greeks used equivalents of "Caesar" (Καῖσαρ, Kaisar) and "Augustus" (in two forms: transliterated as Αὔγουστος, Augoustos or translated as Σεβαστός, Sebastos) these were rather used as part of the name of the Emperor than as an indication of the office. Instead of developing a new name for the new type of monarchy, they used αὐτοκράτωρ ( autokratōr, only partly overlapping with the modern understanding of " autocrat ") or βασιλεύς ( basileus, until then the usual name for " sovereign "). Autokratōr was essentially used as a translation of the Latin Imperator in Greek-speaking part of the Roman Empire, but also here there is only partial overlap between the meaning of the original Greek and Latin concepts. For the Greeks Autokratōr was not a military title, and was closer to the Latin dictator concept ("the one with unlimited power"), before it came to mean Emperor. Basileus appears not to have been used exclusively in the meaning of "emperor" (and specifically, the Roman/Byzantine emperor) before the 7th century, although it was a standard informal designation of the Emperor in the Greek-speaking East. After the turbulent Year of the four emperors in 69, the Flavian Dynasty reigned for three decades. The succeeding Nervan-Antonian Dynasty, ruling for most of the 2nd century, stabilised the Empire. This epoch became known as the era of the Five Good Emperors, and was followed by the short-lived Severan Dynasty. During the Crisis of the 3rd century, Barracks Emperors succeeded one another at short intervals. Three short lived secessionist attempts had their own emperors: the Gallic Empire, the Britannic Empire, and the Palmyrene Empire though the latter used rex more regularly. The Principate (27 BC – 284 AD) period was succeeded by what is known as the Dominate (284 AD – 527 AD), during which Emperor Diocletian tried to put the Empire on a more formal footing. Diocletian sought to address the challenges of the Empire's now vast geography and the instability caused by the informality of succession by the creation of co-emperors and junior emperors. At one point, there were as many as five sharers of the imperium (see: Tetrarchy). In 325 AD Constantine I defeated his rivals and restored single emperor rule, but following his death the empire was divided among his sons. For a time the concept was of one empire ruled by multiple emperors with varying territory under their control, however following the death of Theodosius I the rule was divided between his two sons and increasingly became separate entities. The areas administered from Rome are referred to by historians the Western Roman Empire and those under the immediate authority of Constantinople called the Eastern Roman Empire or (after the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 AD) the Later Roman or Byzantine Empire. The subdivisions and co-emperor system were formally abolished by Emperor Zeno in 480 AD following the death of Julius Nepos last Western Emperor and the ascension of Odoacer as the de facto King of Italy in 476 AD. Byzantine period [ edit] Before the 4th Crusade [ edit] Under Justinian I, reigning in the 6th century, parts of Italy were for a few decades (re)conquered from the Ostrogoths: thus, this famous mosaic, featuring the Byzantine emperor in the center, can be admired at Ravenna. Historians generally refer to the continuing Roman Empire in the east as the Byzantine Empire after Byzantium, the original name of the town that Constantine I would elevate to the Imperial capital as New Rome in AD 330. (The city is more commonly called Constantinople and is today named Istanbul). Although the empire was again subdivided and a co-emperor sent to Italy at the end of the fourth century, the office became unitary again only 95 years later at the request of the Roman Senate and following the death of Julius Nepos, last Western Emperor. This change was a recognition of the reality that little remained of Imperial authority in the areas that had been the Western Empire, with even Rome and Italy itself now ruled by the essentially autonomous Odoacer. These Later Roman "Byzantine" Emperors completed the transition from the idea of the Emperor as a semi-republican official to the Emperor as an absolute monarch. Of particular note was the translation of the Latin Imperator into the Greek Basileus, after Emperor Heraclius changed the official language of the empire from Latin to Greek in AD 620. Basileus, a title which had long been used for Alexander the Great was already in common usage as the Greek word for the Roman emperor, but its definition and sense was "King" in Greek, essentially equivalent with the Latin Rex. Byzantine period emperors also used the Greek word "autokrator", meaning "one who rules himself", or "monarch", which was traditionally used by Greek writers to translate the Latin dictator. Essentially, the Greek language did not incorporate the nuances of the Ancient Roman concepts that distinguished imperium from other forms of political power. In general usage, the Byzantine imperial title evolved from simply "emperor" ( basileus), to "emperor of the Romans" ( basileus tōn Rōmaiōn) in the 9th century, to "emperor and autocrat of the Romans" ( basileus kai autokratōr tōn Rōmaiōn) in the 10th. [4] In fact, none of these (and other) additional epithets and titles had ever been completely discarded. One important distinction between the post Constantine I (reigned AD 306–337) emperors and their pagan predecessors was cesaropapism, the assertion that the Emperor (or other head of state) is also the head of the Church. Although this principle was held by all emperors after Constantine, it met with increasing resistance and ultimately rejection by bishops in the west after the effective end of Imperial power there. This concept became a key element of the meaning of "emperor" in the Byzantine and Orthodox east, but went out of favor in the west with the rise of Roman Catholicism. The Byzantine Empire also produced three women who effectively governed the state: the Empress Irene and the Empresses Zoe and Theodora. Latin emperors [ edit] In 1204 Constantinople fell to the Venetians and the Franks in the Fourth Crusade. Following the tragedy of the horrific sacking of the city, the conquerors declared a new "Empire of Romania", known to historians as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, installing Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, as Emperor. However, Byzantine resistance to the new empire meant that it was in constant struggle to establish itself. Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos succeeded in recapturing Constantinople in 1261. The Principality of Achaea, a vassal state the empire had created in Morea (Greece) intermittently continued to recognize the authority of the crusader emperors for another half century. Pretenders to the title continued among the European nobility until circa 1383. After the 4th Crusade [ edit] With Constantinople occupied, claimants to the imperial succession styled themselves as emperor in the chief centers of resistance: The Laskarid dynasty in the Empire of Nicaea, the Komnenid dynasty in the Empire of Trebizond and the Doukid dynasty in the Despotate of Epirus. In 1248, Epirus recognized the Nicaean Emperors, who subsequently recaptured Constantinople in 1261. The Trapezuntine emperor formally submitted in Constantinople in 1281, [5] but frequently flouted convention by styling themselves emperor back in Trebizond thereafter. Ottoman Empire [ edit] Agostino Veneziano 's engraving of Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent wearing his Venetian Helmet. [note 1] Note the four tiers on the helmet, symbolizing his imperial power, and excelling the three-tiered papal tiara. [6] This tiara was made for 115, 000 ducats and offered to Suleiman by the French ambassador Antonio Rincon in 1532. [7] This was a most atypical piece of headgear for a Turkish sultan, which he probably never normally wore, but which he placed beside him when receiving visitors, especially ambassadors. It was crowned with an enormous feather. [8] Ottoman rulers held several titles denoting their Imperial status. These included: [ citation needed] Sultan, Khan, Sovereign of the Imperial House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, Khan of Khans, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe, Protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, Emperor of The Three Cities of Constantinople, Adrianopole and Bursa as well as many other cities and countries. [9] After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultans began to style themselves Kaysar-i Rum (Emperor of the Romans) as they asserted themselves to be the heirs to the Roman Empire by right of conquest. The title was of such importance to them that it led them to eliminate the various Byzantine successor states — and therefore rival claimants — over the next eight years. Though the term "emperor" was rarely used by Westerners of the Ottoman sultan, it was generally accepted by Westerners that he had imperial status. Holy Roman Empire [ edit] The Emperor of the Romans' title was a reflection of the translatio imperii ( transfer of rule) principle that regarded the Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, despite the continued existence of the Roman Empire in the east, hence the problem of two emperors. From the time of Otto the Great onward, much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia became the Holy Roman Empire. The prince-electors elected one of their peers as King of the Romans and King of Italy before being crowned by the Pope. The Emperor could also pursue the election of his heir (usually a son) as King, who would then succeed him after his death. This junior King then bore the title of Roman King (King of the Romans). Although technically already ruling, after the election he would be crowned as emperor by the Pope. The last emperor to be crowned by the pope was Charles V; all emperors after him were technically emperors-elect, but were universally referred to as Emperor. Austrian Empire [ edit] The first Austrian Emperor was the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. In the face of aggressions by Napoleon, Francis feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire. He wished to maintain his and his family's Imperial status in the event that the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved, as it indeed was in 1806 when an Austrian-led army suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz. After which, the victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the old Reich by severing a good portion from the empire and turning it into a separate Confederation of the Rhine. With the size of his imperial realm significantly reduced, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor became Francis I, Emperor of Austria. The new imperial title may have sounded less prestigious than the old one, but Francis' dynasty continued to rule from Austria and a Habsburg monarch was still an emperor ( Kaiser), and not just merely a king ( König), in name. The title lasted just a little over one century until 1918, but it was never clear what territory constituted the " Empire of Austria ". When Francis took the title in 1804, the Habsburg lands as a whole were dubbed the Kaisertum Österreich. Kaisertum might literally be translated as "emperordom" (on analogy with "kingdom") or "emperor-ship"; the term denotes specifically "the territory ruled by an emperor", and is thus somewhat more general than Reich, which in 1804 carried connotations of universal rule. Austria proper (as opposed to the complex of Habsburg lands as a whole) had been an Archduchy since the 15th century, and most of the other territories of the Empire had their own institutions and territorial history, although there were some attempts at centralization, especially during the reign of Marie Therese and her son Joseph II and then finalized in the early 19th century. When Hungary was given self-government in 1867, the non-Hungarian portions were called the Empire of Austria and were officially known as the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council ( Reichsrat)". The title of Emperor of Austria and the associated Empire were both abolished at the end of the First World War in 1918, when German Austria became a republic and the other kingdoms and lands represented in the Imperial Council established their independence or adhesion to other states. Emperors of Europe [ edit] Byzantium 's close cultural and political interaction with its Balkan neighbors Bulgaria and Serbia, and with Russia (Kievan Rus', then Muscovy) led to the adoption of Byzantine imperial traditions in all of these countries. Bulgaria [ edit] In 913, Simeon I of Bulgaria was crowned Emperor ( Tsar) by the Patriarch of Constantinople and Imperial regent Nicholas Mystikos outside the Byzantine capital. In its final simplified form, the title read "Emperor and Autocrat of all Bulgarians and Romans" ( Tsar i samodarzhets na vsichki balgari i gartsi in the modern vernacular). The Roman component in the Bulgarian imperial title indicated both rulership over Greek speakers and the derivation of the imperial tradition from the Romans, however this component was never recognised by the Byzantine court. Byzantine recognition of Simeon's imperial title was revoked by the succeeding Byzantine government. The decade 914–924 was spent in destructive warfare between Byzantium and Bulgaria over this and other matters of conflict. The Bulgarian monarch, who had further irritated his Byzantine counterpart by claiming the title "Emperor of the Romans" ( basileus tōn Rōmaiōn), was eventually recognized, as "Emperor of the Bulgarians" ( basileus tōn Boulgarōn) by the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos in 924. Byzantine recognition of the imperial dignity of the Bulgarian monarch and the patriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian patriarch was again confirmed at the conclusion of permanent peace and a Bulgarian-Byzantine dynastic marriage in 927. In the meantime, the Bulgarian imperial title may have been also confirmed by the pope. The Bulgarian imperial title "tsar" was adopted by all Bulgarian monarchs up to the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule. 14th-century Bulgarian literary compositions clearly denote the Bulgarian capital ( Tarnovo) as a successor of Rome and Constantinople, in effect, the "Third Rome". After Bulgaria obtained full independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908, its monarch, who was previously styled Knyaz, [prince], took the traditional title of Tsar [king] and was recognized internationally as such. [ by whom? ] France [ edit] The kings of the Ancien Régime and the July Monarchy used the title Empereur de France in diplomatic correspondence and treaties with the Ottoman emperor from at least 1673 onwards. The Ottomans insisted on this elevated style while refusing to recognize the Holy Roman Emperors or the Russian tsars because of their rival claims of the Roman crown. In short, it was an indirect insult by the Ottomans to the HRE and the Russians. The French kings also used it for Morocco (1682) and Persia (1715). First French Empire [ edit] Napoleon Bonaparte, who was already First Consul of the French Republic ( Premier Consul de la République française) for life, declared himself Emperor of the French ( Empereur des Français) on 18 May 1804, thus creating the French Empire ( Empire Français). Napoleon relinquished the title of Emperor of the French on 6 April and again on 11 April 1814. Napoleon's infant son, Napoleon II, was recognized by the Council of Peers, as Emperor from the moment of his father's abdication, and therefore reigned (as opposed to ruled) as Emperor for fifteen days, 22 June to 7 July 1815. Elba [ edit] Since 3 May 1814, the Sovereign Principality of Elba was created a miniature non-hereditary Monarchy under the exiled French Emperor Napoleon I. Napoleon I was allowed, by the treaty of Fontainebleau (27 April), to enjoy, for life, the imperial title. The islands were not restyled an empire. On 26 February 1815, Napoleon abandoned Elba for France, reviving the French Empire for a Hundred Days; the Allies declared an end to Napoleon's sovereignty over Elba on 25 March 1815, and on 31 March 1815 Elba was ceded to the restored Grand Duchy of Tuscany by the Congress of Vienna. After his final defeat, Napoleon was treated as a general by the British authorities during his second exile to Atlantic Isle of St. Helena. His title was a matter of dispute with the governor of St Helena, who insisted on addressing him as "General Bonaparte", despite the "historical reality that he had been an emperor" and therefore retained the title. [10] [11] [12] Second French Empire [ edit] Napoleon I's nephew, Napoleon III, resurrected the title of emperor on 2 December 1852, after establishing the Second French Empire in a presidential coup, subsequently approved by a plebiscite. His reign was marked by large scale public works, the development of social policy, and the extension of France's influence throughout the world. During his reign, he also set about creating the Second Mexican Empire (headed by his choice of Maximilian I of Mexico, a member of the House of Habsburg), to regain France's hold in the Americas and to achieve greatness for the 'Latin' race. [13] Napoleon III was deposed on 4 September 1870, after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The Third Republic followed and after the death of his son Napoleon (IV), in 1879 during the Zulu War, the Bonapartist movement split, and the Third Republic was to last until 1940. Iberian Peninsula [ edit] Spain [ edit] The origin of the title Imperator totius Hispaniae ( Latin for Emperor of All Spain [note 2]) is murky. It was associated with the Leonese monarchy perhaps as far back as Alfonso the Great ( r. 866–910). The last two kings of its Astur-Leonese dynasty were called emperors in a contemporary source. King Sancho III of Navarre conquered Leon in 1034 and began using it. His son, Ferdinand I of Castile also took the title in 1039. Ferdinand's son, Alfonso VI of León and Castile took the title in 1077. It then passed to his son-in-law, Alfonso I of Aragon in 1109. His stepson and Alfonso VI's grandson, Alfonso VII was the only one who actually had an imperial coronation in 1135. The title was not exactly hereditary but self-proclaimed by those who had, wholly or partially, united the Christian northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, 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, and the kings who used it are not commonly mentioned as having been "emperors", in Spanish or other historiography. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the legitimate heir to the throne, Andreas Palaiologos, willed away his claim to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1503. Portugal [ edit] After the independence and proclamation of the Empire of Brazil from the Kingdom of Portugal by Prince Pedro, who became Emperor, in 1822, his father, King John VI of Portugal briefly held the honorific style of Titular Emperor of Brazil and the treatment of His Imperial and Royal Majesty under the 1825 Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, by which Portugal recognized the independence of Brazil. The style of Titular Emperor was a life title, and became extinct upon the holder's demise. John VI held the imperial title for a few months only, from the ratification of the Treaty in November 1825 until his death in March 1826. During those months, however, as John's imperial title was purely honorific while his son, Pedro I, remained the sole monarch of the Brazilian Empire. Great Britain [ edit] In the late 3rd century, by the end of the epoch of the barracks emperors in Rome, there were two Britannic Emperors, reigning for about a decade. After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the Imperator Cunedda forged the Kingdom of Gwynedd in northern Wales, but all his successors were titled kings and princes. England [ edit] There was no consistent title for the king of England before 1066, and monarchs chose to style themselves as they pleased. Imperial titles were used inconsistently, beginning with Athelstan in 930 and ended with the Norman conquest of England. Empress Matilda (1102–1167) is the only English monarch commonly referred to as "emperor" or "empress", but she acquired her title through her marriage to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. During the rule of Henry VIII the Statute in Restraint of Appeals declared that 'this realm of England is an erned by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same'. This was in the context of the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and the English Reformation, to emphasize that England had never accepted the quasi-imperial claims of the papacy. Hence England and, by extension its modern successor state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is according to English law an Empire ruled by a King endowed with the imperial dignity. However, this has not led to the creation of the title of Emperor in England, nor in Great Britain, nor in the United Kingdom. United Kingdom [ edit] In 1801, George III rejected the title of Emperor when offered. The only period when British monarchs held the title of Emperor in a dynastic succession started when the title Empress of India was created for Queen Victoria. The government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title upon her by an Act of Parliament, reputedly to assuage the monarch's irritation at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her own daughter ( Princess Victoria, who was the wife of the reigning German Emperor); the Indian Imperial designation was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding the former Mughal Emperor as suzerain over hundreds of princely states. The Indian Independence Act 1947 provided for the abolition of the use of the title " Emperor of India " by the British monarch, but this was not executed by King George VI until a royal proclamation on 22 June 1948. Despite this, George VI continued as king of India until 1950 and as king of Pakistan until his death in 1952. The last Empress of India was George VI's wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. German Empire [ edit] Under the guise of idealism giving way to realism, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848 to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck 's authoritarian Realpolitik. Bismarck wanted to unify the rival German states to achieve his aim of a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany. Three wars led to military successes and helped to convince German people to do this: the Second war of Schleswig against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War against Austria in 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War against the Second French Empire in 1870–71. During the Siege of Paris in 1871, the North German Confederation, supported by its allies from southern Germany, formed the German Empire with the proclamation of the Prussian king Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, to the humiliation of the French, who ceased to resist only days later. After his death he was succeeded by his son Frederick III who was only emperor for 99 days. In the same year his son Wilhelm II became the third emperor within a year. He was the last German emperor. After the empire's defeat in World War I the empire, called in German Reich, had a president as head of state instead of an emperor. The use of the word Reich was abandoned after the Second World War. Russia [ edit] In 1472, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia Palaiologina, married Ivan III, grand prince of Moscow, who began championing the idea of Russia being the successor to the Byzantine Empire. This idea was represented more emphatically in the composition the monk Filofej addressed to their son Vasili III. After ending Muscovy's dependence on its Mongol overlords in 1480, Ivan III began the usage of the titles Tsar and Autocrat ( samoderzhets). His insistence on recognition as such by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire since 1489 resulted in the granting of this recognition in 1514 by Emperor Maximilian I to Vasili III. His son Ivan IV emphatically crowned himself Tsar of Russia on 16 January 1547. The word "Tsar" derives from Latin Caesar, but this title was used in Russia as equivalent to "King"; the error occurred when medieval Russian clerics referred to the biblical Jewish kings with the same title that was used to designate Roman and Byzantine rulers — "Caesar". On 31 October 1721, Peter I was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate. The title used was Latin " Imperator ", which is a westernizing form equivalent to the traditional Slavic title " Tsar ". He based his claim partially upon a letter discovered in 1717 written in 1514 from Maximilian I to Vasili III, in which the Holy Roman Emperor used the term in referring to Vasili. A formal address to the ruling Russian monarch adopted thereafter was 'Your Imperial Majesty'. The crown prince was addressed as 'Your Imperial Highness'. 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. Serbia [ edit] In 1345, the Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan proclaimed himself Emperor ( Tsar) and was crowned as such at Skopje on Easter 1346 by the newly created Serbian Patriarch, and by the Patriarch of Bulgaria and the autocephalous Archbishop of Ohrid. His imperial title was recognized by Bulgaria and various other neighbors and trading partners but not by the Byzantine Empire. In its final simplified form, the Serbian imperial title read "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks" ( цар Срба и Грка in modern Serbian). It was only employed by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and his son Stefan Uroš V in Serbia (until his death in 1371), after which it became extinct. A half-brother of Dušan, Simeon Uroš, and then his son Jovan Uroš, claimed the same title, until the latter's abdication in 1373, while ruling as dynasts in Thessaly. The "Greek" component in the Serbian imperial title indicates both rulership over Greeks and the derivation of the imperial tradition from the Romans. Emperors in the Americas [ edit] Pre-Columbian traditions [ edit] The Aztec and Inca traditions are unrelated to one another. Both were conquered under the reign of King Charles I of Spain who was simultaneously emperor-elect of the Holy Roman Empire during the fall of the Aztecs and fully emperor during the fall of the Incas. Incidentally by being king of Spain, he was also Roman (Byzantine) emperor in pretence through Andreas Palaiologos. The translations of their titles were provided by the Spanish. Aztec Empire [ edit] The only pre-Columbian North American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the Hueyi Tlatoani of the Aztec Empire (1375–1521). It was an elected monarchy chosen by the elite. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés slew Emperor Cuauhtémoc and installed puppet rulers who became vassals for Spain. Inca Empire [ edit] 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, conquered the Inca for Spain, killed Emperor Atahualpa, and installed puppets as well. Atahualpa may actually be considered a usurper as he had achieved power by killing his half-brother and he did not perform the required coronation with the imperial crown mascaipacha by the Huillaq Uma (high priest). Post-Columbian Americas [ edit] Brazil [ edit] When Napoleon I ordered the invasion of Portugal in 1807 because it refused to join the Continental System, the Portuguese Braganzas moved their capital to Rio de Janeiro to avoid the fate of the Spanish Bourbons (Napoleon I arrested them and made his brother Joseph king). When the French general Jean-Andoche Junot arrived in Lisbon, the Portuguese fleet had already left with all the local elite. In 1808, under a British naval escort, the fleet arrived in Brazil. Later, in 1815, the Portuguese Prince Regent (since 1816 King João VI) proclaimed the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, as a union of three kingdoms, lifting Brazil from its colonial status. After the fall of Napoleon I and the Liberal revolution in Portugal, the Portuguese royal family returned to Europe (1821). Prince Pedro of Braganza (King João's older son) stayed in South America acting as regent of the local kingdom, but, two years later in 1822, he proclaimed himself Pedro I, first Emperor of Brazil. He did, however, recognize his father, João VI, as Titular Emperor of Brazil —a purely honorific title—until João VI's death in 1826. The empire came to an end in 1889, with the overthrow of Emperor Pedro II (Pedro I's son and successor), when the Brazilian republic was proclaimed. Haiti [ edit] Haiti was declared an empire by its ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who made himself Jacques I, on 20 May 1805. He was assassinated the next year. Haiti again became an empire from 1849 to 1859 under Faustin Soulouque. Mexico [ edit] In Mexico, the First Mexican Empire was the first of two empires created. After the declaration of independence on September 15, 1821, it was the intention of the Mexican parliament to establish a commonwealth whereby the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, would also be Emperor of Mexico, but in which both countries were to be governed by separate laws and with their own legislative offices. Should the king refuse the position, the law provided for a member of the House of Bourbon to accede to the Mexican throne. Ferdinand VII, however, did not recognize the independence and said that Spain would not allow any other European prince to take the throne of Mexico. By request of Parliament, the president of the regency Agustín de Iturbide was proclaimed emperor of Mexico on 12 July 1822 as Agustín I. Agustín de Iturbide was the general who helped secure Mexican independence from Spanish rule, but was overthrown by the Plan of Casa Mata. In 1863, the invading French, under Napoleon III (see above), in alliance with Mexican conservatives and nobility, helped create the Second Mexican Empire, and invited Archduke Maximilian, of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, younger brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I, to become emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. The childless Maximilian and his consort Empress Carlota of Mexico, daughter of Leopold I of Belgium, adopted Agustín's grandsons Agustin and Salvador as his heirs to bolster his claim to the throne of Mexico. Maximilian and Carlota made Chapultepec Castle their home, which has been the only palace in North America to house sovereigns. After the withdrawal of French protection in 1867, Maximilian was captured and executed by the liberal forces of Benito Juárez. This empire led to French influence in the Mexican culture and also immigration from France, Belgium, and Switzerland to Mexico. Persia (Iran) [ edit] In Persia, from the time of Darius the Great, Persian rulers used the title " King of Kings " ( Shahanshah in Persian) since they had dominion over peoples from the borders of India to the borders of Greece and Egypt. Alexander probably crowned himself shahanshah after conquering Persia [ citation needed], bringing the phrase basileus ton basileon to Greek. It is also known that Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, was named as the king of kings when he made his empire after defeating the Parthians. Georgian title "mephet'mephe" has the same meaning. The last shahanshah ( Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) was ousted in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution. Shahanshah is usually translated as king of kings or simply king for ancient rulers of the Achaemenid, Arsacid, and Sassanid dynasties, and often shortened to shah for rulers since the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century. Iranian rulers were typically regarded in the West as emperors. Indian subcontinent [ edit] "Samraat" redirects here. For the 1982 film, see Samraat (film). The Sanskrit word for emperor is Samrāj or Samraat or Chakravartin. This word has been used as an epithet of various Vedic deities, like Varuna, and has been attested in the Rig-Veda, possibly the oldest compiled book among the Indo-Europeans. Chakravarti refers to the king of kings. A Chakravarti is not only a sovereign ruler but also has feudatories. Typically, in the later Vedic age, a Hindu high king ( Maharaja) was only called Samraaṭ after performing the Vedic Rajasuya sacrifice, enabling him by religious tradition to claim superiority over the other kings and princes. Another word for emperor is sārvabhaumā. The title of Samraaṭ has been used by many rulers of the Indian subcontinent as claimed by the Hindu mythologies. In proper history, most historians call Chandragupta Maurya the first samraaṭ (emperor) of the Indian subcontinent, because of the huge empire he ruled. The most famous emperor was his grandson Ashoka the Great. Other dynasties that are considered imperial by historians are the Kushanas, Guptas, Vijayanagara, Kakatiya, Hoysala and the Cholas. Rudhramadevi (1259–1289) was one of the most prominent rulers of the Kakatiya dynasty on the Deccan Plateau, being one of the few ruling queens (empress) in Indian history. After India was invaded by the Mongol Khans and Turkic Muslims, the rulers of their major states on the subcontinent were titled Sultān or Badshah or Shahanshah. In this manner, the only empress-regnant ever to have actually sat on the throne of Delhi was Razia Sultan. The Mughal Emperors were the only Indian rulers for whom the term was consistently used by Western contemporaries. The emperors of the Maratha Empire were called Chhatrapati. From 1877 to 1947 the monarch of the United Kingdom adopted the additional title of Emperor/Empress of India ( Kaisar-i-Hind). Africa [ edit] Ethiopia [ edit] From 1270 the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia used the title Nəgusä Nägäst, literally "King of Kings". The use of the king of kings style began a millennium earlier in this region, however, with the title being used by the Kings of Aksum, beginning with Sembrouthes in the 3rd century. Another title used by this dynasty was Itegue Zetopia. Itegue translates as Empress, and was used by the only reigning Empress, Zauditu, along with the official title Negiste Negest ("Queen of Kings"). In 1936, the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III claimed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia after Ethiopia was occupied by Italy during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. After the defeat of the Italians by the British and the Ethiopians in 1941, Haile Selassie was restored to the throne but Victor Emmanuel did not relinquish his claim to the title until 1943. [14] Central African Empire [ edit] In 1976, President Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, proclaimed the country to be an autocratic Central African Empire, and made himself Emperor as Bokassa I. The expenses of his coronation ceremony actually bankrupted the country. He was overthrown three years later and the republic was restored. [15] East Asian tradition (Sinosphere) [ edit] The rulers of China and (once Westerners became aware of the role) Japan were always accepted in the West as emperors, and referred to as such. The claims of other East Asian monarchies to the title may have been accepted for diplomatic purposes, but it was not necessarily used in more general contexts. China [ edit] The East Asian tradition is different from the Roman tradition, having arisen separately. What links them together is the use of the Chinese logographs 皇 ( huáng) and 帝 ( dì) which together or individually are imperial. Because of the cultural influence of China, China's neighbors adopted these titles or had their native titles conform in hanzi. Anyone who spoke to the emperor was to address the emperor as bìxià (陛下, lit. the "Bottom of the Steps"), corresponding to " Imperial Majesty "; shèngshàng (聖上, lit. Holy Highness); or wànsuì (萬歲, lit. "You, of Ten Thousand Years"). In 221 BC, Ying Zheng, who was king of Qin at the time, proclaimed himself Shi Huangdi (始皇帝), which translates as "first emperor". Huangdi is composed of huang ("august one", 皇) and di ("sage-king", 帝), and referred to legendary/mythological sage-emperors living several millennia earlier, of which three were huang and five were di. Thus Zheng became Qin Shi Huang, abolishing the system where the huang / di titles were reserved to dead and/or mythological rulers. Since then, the title "king" became a lower ranked title, and later divided into two grades. Although not as popular, the title 王 wang (king or prince) was still used by many monarchs and dynasties in China up to the Taipings in the 19th century. 王 is pronounced vương in Vietnamese, ō in Japanese, and wang in Korean. The imperial title continued in China until the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1912. The title was briefly revived from 12 December 1915 to 22 March 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. Puyi retained the title and attributes of a foreign emperor, as a personal status, until 1924. After the Japanese occupied Manchuria in 1931, they proclaimed it to be the Empire of Manchukuo, and Puyi became emperor of Manchukuo. This empire ceased to exist when it was occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. [16] In general, an emperor would have one empress ( Huanghou, 皇后) at one time, although posthumous entitlement to empress for a concubine was not uncommon. The earliest known usage of huanghou was in the Han Dynasty. The emperor would generally select the empress from his concubines. 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). Wu Zetian then reigned for about 15 years (690–705 AD). Japan [ edit] Emperor Hirohito (裕仁), or the Shōwa Emperor (昭和天皇), the last Japanese Emperor having ruled with prerogative powers, combined with assumption of divinity (photographed 1926). The earliest Emperor recorded in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is Emperor Jimmu, who is said to be a descendant of Amaterasu 's grandson Ninigi who descended from Heaven ( Tenson kōrin). If one believes what is written in Nihon Shoki, the Emperors have an unbroken direct male lineage that goes back more than 2, 600 years. In ancient Japan, the earliest titles for the sovereign were either ヤマト大王/大君 ( yamato ōkimi, Grand King of Yamato), 倭王/倭国王 ( waō / wakokuō, King of Wa, used externally), or 治天下大王 ( amenoshita shiroshimesu ōkimi, Grand King who rules all under heaven, used internally). As early as the 7th century, the word 天皇 (which can be read either as sumera no mikoto, divine order, or as tennō, Heavenly Emperor, the latter being derived from a Tang Chinese term referring to the Pole star around which all other stars revolve) began to be used. The earliest use of this term is found on a wooden slat, or mokkan, unearthed in Asuka-mura, Nara Prefecture in 1998. The slat dated back to the reign of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. The reading 'Tennō' has become the standard title for the Japanese sovereign up to the present age. The term 帝 ( mikado, Emperor) is also found in literary sources. Japanese monarchs were given their official title by the Chinese emperor. The new Japanese monarch after coming into power would send a representative to China and receive the anointment. They would receive their official title on several golden plates of several meters tall. Since the Japanese monarchs changed their title to 天皇 (Heavenly Emperor) in 607, the Chinese emperor refused to anoint the Japanese king, thus, ending relations with Japan for the next few hundred years. [17] In the Japanese language, the word tennō is restricted to Japan's own monarch; kōtei (皇帝) is used for foreign emperors. Historically, retired emperors often kept power over a child-emperor as de facto regent. For a long time, a shōgun (formally the imperial military dictator, but made hereditary) or an imperial regent wielded actual political power. In fact, through much of Japanese history, the emperor has been little more than a figurehead. The Meiji Restoration restored practical abilities and the political system under Emperor Meiji. [18] The last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned in 1868. After World War II, all claims of divinity were dropped (see Ningen-sengen). The Diet acquired all prerogative powers of the Crown, reverting the latter to a ceremonial role. [19] By the end of the 20th century, Japan was the only country with an emperor on the throne. As of the early 21st century, Japan's succession law prohibits a female from ascending the throne. With the birth of a daughter as the first child of the then-Crown Prince Naruhito, Japan considered abandoning that rule. However, shortly after the announcement that Princess Kiko was pregnant with her third child, the proposal to alter the Imperial Household Law was suspended by then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. On 3 January 2007, as the child turned out to be a son, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced that he would drop the proposal. [20] Emperor Naruhito is the 126th monarch according to Japan's traditional order of succession. The second and third in line of succession are Fumihito, Prince Akishino and Prince Hisahito. Historically, Japan has had eight reigning empresses who used the genderless title Tennō, rather than the female consort title kōgō (皇后) or chūgū (中宮). There is ongoing discussion of the Japanese Imperial succession controversy. Although current Japanese law prohibits female succession, all Japanese emperors claim to trace their lineage to Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess of the Shintō religion. Thus, the Emperor is thought to be the highest authority of the Shinto religion, and one of his duties is to perform Shinto rituals for the people of Japan. Korea [ edit] Some rulers of Goguryeo (37 BC–AD 668) used the title of Taewang ( 태왕; 太王), literally translated as "Greatest King". The title of Taewang was also used by some rulers of Silla (57 BC–AD 935), including Beopheung and Jinheung. The rulers of Balhae (698–926) internally called themselves Seongwang ( 성왕; 聖王; lit. "Holy King"). [21] The rulers of Goryeo (918–1392) used the titles of emperor and Son of Heaven of the East of the Ocean ( 해동천자; 海東天子). Goryeo's imperial system ended in 1270 with capitulation to the Mongol Empire. [22] In 1897, Gojong, the King of Joseon, proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire (1897–1910), becoming the Emperor of Korea. He declared the era name of "Gwangmu" ( 광무; 光武), meaning "Bright and Martial". The Korean Empire lasted until 1910, when it was annexed by the Empire of Japan. Mongolia [ edit] The title Khagan ( khan of khans or grand khan) was held by Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire in 1206; he also formally took the Chinese title huangdi, as "Genghis Emperor" ( 成吉思皇帝; Chéngjísī Huángdì). Only the Khagans from Genghis Khan to the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 are normally referred to as Emperors in English. Vietnam [ edit] Ngô Quyền, the first ruler of Đại Việt as an independent state, used the title Vương (王, King). However, after the death of Ngô Quyền, the country immersed in a civil war known as Chaos of the 12 Lords that lasted for over 20 years. In the end, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh unified the country after defeating all the warlords and became the first ruler of Đại Việt to use the title Hoàng Đế (皇帝, Emperor) in 968. Succeeding rulers in Vietnam then continued to use this Emperor title until 1806 when this title was stopped being used for a century. Đinh Bộ Lĩnh wasn't the first to claim the title of Đế (帝, Emperor). Before him, Lý Bí and Mai Thúc Loan also claimed this title. However, their rules were very short lived. The Vietnamese emperors also gave this title to their ancestors who were lords or influence figures in the previous dynasty like the Chinese emperors. This practice is one of many indications of the idea "Vietnam's equality with China" which remained intact up to the twentieth century. [23] In 1802 the newly established Nguyễn dynasty requested canonization from Chinese Jiaqing Emperor and received the title Quốc Vương (國王, King of a State) and the name of the country as An Nam (安南) instead Đại Việt (大越). To avoid unnecessary armed conflicts, the Vietnamese rulers accepted this in diplomatic relation and use the title Emperor only domestically. However, Vietnamese rulers never accepted the vassalage relationship with China and always refused to come to Chinese courts to pay homage to Chinese rulers (a sign of vassalage acceptance). China waged a number of wars against Vietnam throughout history, and after each failure, settled for the tributary relationship. The Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan waged three wars against Vietnam to force it into a vassalage relationship but after successive failures, Kublai Khan 's successor, Temür Khan, finally settled for a tributary relationship with Vietnam. Vietnam sent tributary missions to China once in three years (with some periods of disruptions) until the 19th century, Sino-French War France replaced China in control of northern Vietnam. The emperors of the last dynasty of Vietnam continued to hold this title until the French conquered Vietnam. The emperor, however, was then a puppet figure only and could easily be disposed of by the French for more pro-France figure. Japan took Vietnam from France and the Axis -occupied Vietnam was declared an empire by the Japanese in March 1945. The line of emperors came to an end with Bảo Đại, who was deposed after the war, although he later served as head of state of South Vietnam from 1949-55. Oceania [ edit] The lone holders of the imperial title in Oceania were the heads of the semi-mythical Tuʻi Tonga Empire. Fictional uses [ edit] There have been many fictional emperors in movies and books. To see a list of these emperors, see Category of fictional emperors and empresses. See also [ edit] Auctoritas Lists of emperors Notes [ edit] ^ Agostino never saw the Sultan, but probably did see and sketch the helmet in Venice. ^ Before the emergence of the modern country of Spain (beginning with the union of Castile and Aragon in 1492), the Latin word Hispania, in any of the Iberian Romance languages, either in singular or plural forms (in English: Spain or Spains), was used to refer to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, and not exclusively, as in modern usage, to the country of Spain, thus excluding Portugal. References [ edit] ^ Harper, Douglas. "emperor". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 30 August 2010. ^ Uyama, Takuei (23 October 2019). "天皇はなぜ「王（キング）」ではなく「皇帝（エンペラー）」なのか" [The Title of the Monarch of Japan: not the “King” but the “Emperor”] (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 October 2019. ^ Peng, Dr. Ying-chen. "The Forbidden City". Khan Academy. ^ George Ostrogorsky, "Avtokrator i samodržac", Glas Srpske kraljevske akadamije CLXIV, Drugi razdred 84 (1935), 95–187 ^ Nicol, Donald MacGillivray, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 74 ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1968. "Turquerie" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series 26 (5): 229. ^ Garnier, p. 52. ^ Levey, 65. ^ "Nobility of the World Volume VIII- Turkey". Almanch De Saxe Gotha. Retrieved 10 December 2017. ^ Napoleon, Vincent Cronin, p419, HarperCollins, 1994. ^ Napoleon, Frank McLynn, p644, Pimlico 1998 ^ Le Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, Emmanuel De Las Cases, Tome III, page101, published by Jean De Bonnot, Libraire à l'enseigne du canon, 1969 ^ Appelbaum, Nancy P. ; Macpherson, Anne S. ; Rosemblatt, Karin Alejandra (2003). Race and nation in modern Latin America. UNC Press Books. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-8078-5441-9. ^ Vadala, Alexander Attilio (1 January 2011). "Elite Distinction and Regime Change: The Ethiopian Case". Comparative Sociology. 10 (4): 636–653. doi: 10. 1163/156913311X590664. ISSN 1569-1330. ^ Lentz, Harris M (1 January 1994). Heads of states and governments: a worldwide encyclopedia of over 2, 300 leaders, 1945 through 1992. Jefferson, N. C. : McFarland. ISBN 0899509266. ^ "Manchukuo | puppet state created by Japan in China [1932]". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2 June 2019. ^ "Once upon a time, China anointed a 'King of Japan' - The Japan Times". The Japan Times. ^ Henry Kissinger On China. 2011 p. 79 ^ 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 subsequent legislation states his status as the head of state or equates the Crown synonymously with any government establishment. ^ Japan Imperial Succession ^ New Book of Tang, vol. 209 ^ Em, Henry (2013). The Great Enterprise: Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea. Duke University Press. pp. 24–26. ISBN 0822353725. Retrieved 3 November 2018. ^ Tuyet Nhung Tran, Anthony J. S. Reid (2006), Việt Nam Borderless Histories, Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, p. 67, ISBN 978-0-299-21770-9 External links [ edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emperors. Ian Mladjov's site at University of Michigan [ permanent dead link]: Monarchs (chronology and genealogy) [ permanent dead link] Monarchs (more genealogy) [ permanent dead link].

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Emperor movie 2020. Emperor palpatine. 🇲🇨Prince of Monaco. Emperor king vision. Emperor hirohito. One of the reasons why this Trilogy works better then the current one, is the storytelling the Emperor was current throughout. Lot 78. A portrait of the Emperor Aurangzeb (R. 1658-1707), Mughal India, circa 1700. Opaque pigments on paper, remains of faint identification inscription near the face of the standing figure in Devanagari, backed on cream paper. Painting 7 x 4 5/8 ins (17. 8 x 11. 7 cm. ). Estimate USD 40, 000 - USD 60, 000. Price realised USD 62, 500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019 Literature: The Palace Museum, Beijing 2018, p. 474, no. 180. Christie's. Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence, New Y ork, 19 June 2019.

Emperor's new groove waterfall. Emperor forneus. Emperor of china. Emperor& 39;s new groove cast. "No world shall be beyond my rule. No enemy shall be beyond my wrath. " The ruler of an empire, note usually but not always The Empire. Historically, Emperors outranked Kings, so when you need an authority figure to convey the highest possible power and rank, you can't get any higher than making them The Emperor (unless you go to The Pope, or into the otherworldly realms of Galactic Conquerors, Demon Lords and Archdevils, Celestial Paragons and Archangels, and at the most accepted highest tier, God-Emperor). The previous steps are God Save Us from the Queen!, The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask, The High Queen, She Is the King, The Good King and President Evil. If a ruler is known as The Emperor, it is almost a sure sign that he is an Evil Overlord and the Big Bad of the story, or at least a major villain, especially if you are in a Fantasy setting. Kings, Princes, and Presidents are as likely to be good ( The Good King, The Wise Prince, President Superhero) as they are to be bad ( The Caligula, The Evil Prince, President Evil) but somehow The Emperor is almost always a villain of some sort. This is probably for the same reasons as Good Republic, Evil Empire. Though, the Emperor is often distinct from the Evil Overlord in that he is much more likely to be the ruler of the world, or at least the ruler of the largest and most influential country in it, instead of simply being a Sauron/Kim Jong-Il dictator cackling it up over in Latveria/ Mordorland. They will frequently invoke Authority Equals Asskicking, which can often make them the most dangerous man on the planet. At the same time, Emperors have a tendency to be Disc One Final Bosses. It is very common for a villainous version to be hyped up as the main villain initially, before being superseded by a Greater-Scope Villain (perhaps a Sealed Evil in a Can that they released), The Man Behind the Man, or The Dragon after their defeat by the heroes and/or after betrayal from within their organization. When used like this, it is often for escalation purposes, as the initial Emperor is usually fairly normal within the setting besides his political power and ( sometimes) exceptional skills, wheras their successor often has far more intimidating powers at their command. This villainous depiction is ubiquitous in Western media. Only in historic plotlines involving the leaders of the real-life Roman Empire will they get any sympathetic depiction at all, and even then they are usually portrayed as incompetent or otherwise unflatteringly. In contrast, in China and Japan, Emperors actually served as legitimate rulers for most of recorded history, and thus Eastern media (particularly Chinese wuxia films, but also occasionally anime) do have the occasional non-evil Emperor. However, if the Emperor is legitimate and non-malevolent, his role in the plot is usually purely as a background character, often serving as an impotent foil to an Evil Chancellor who holds the true reins of power; plot-significant Emperors usually serve in the role of Big Bad. The Emperor might be: The Evil Overlord, a very standard Big Bad (often complete with Spikes of Villainy and Shoulders of Doom), is essentially a cliché bully who, despite having no real diplomatic or political skills, has attained his position through strength or special combat skills; if this is seen as too oafish, a very powerful Evil Sorcerer or Emperor Scientist, who still lacks subtlety, will suffice. Expect him to abuse his followers, intimidate his subordinates, wear battle-armor all the time, and be built like a tank. The Legions of Hell and Always Chaotic Evil races are this guy's mooks. A General Ripper, if significantly promoted, is a more intelligent derivative of this type. The Shadow Emperor is an extremely powerful form of The Emperor, who rules from behind-the-scenes with much Machiavellian scheming, delegating much of his powers, and almost always has a hidden agenda. Though they are usually not as physical as Blood Knights like the Evil Overlord, they will probably have hidden magic or Psychic Powers. Emperor Palpatine (who was originally a President Charisma) and Charles zi Britannia are prime examples. Of all these types, the Shadow Emperor will be the most likely to try and obtain immortality. He's likely to be The Ghost for at least the first part of the story, usually operating through Mooks or The Dragon. The President Charisma, typically a leader of Eagle Land, is a Villain with Good Publicity, who always puts on a good face for the public, but is a conniving Manipulative Bastard behind the scenes. A more realistic and politically oriented emperor, he is often a Take That! at the nation's current administration (or somebody else's). An Engineered Public Confession is one of his more common foes. Examples include virtually all fictional references to Richard Nixon. The Norsefire leader attempted to be this, and most other Hitler expies will usually come off as one (in his own country, anyways). The Good King. Usually located in East-Asia ( or an equivalent), the wise king is a benevolent (if usually distant from the heroes and their struggle) leader, who sides with the heroes when he finally shows up, and acts more as a promoted spiritual guide or priest than pure authority. They are the Big Good and/or Greater-Scope Paragon of the story. The few western examples will just be an expansion of the wise Royal Blood "True King". The Emperors of Mulan and The Last Samurai are prime examples. A President Charisma may be confused for this before The Reveal. A common derivative is a once-great benevolent Emperor who has grown senile and surrounded by corruption. A Knight Templar Emperor tries to be this, but usually ends up becoming one of the above. Messiah-Emperors usually qualify as one of these, though like all benevolent leaders ( some cases in particular) may use heavy amounts of Necessarily Evil. Roughly half of the Roman Emperors depicted in fiction will be of this sort. The other half will be Caligulae to a man. Just the First Citizen: Any of the above, but with a much more modest title. This trope isn't necessarily related to God-Emperor, but it may be. Not to Be Confused with the Black Metal band Emperor. Of course, just because the trope is titled "The Emperor " doesn't preclude the existence of actual Empresses, as some of the examples in both fiction and Real Life illustrate. An Empress is likely to be depicted more sympathetically than an Emperor, often incorporating elements of The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask (if mature) or the less-frivolous Princess Tropes (if youthful). Less sympathetic female rulers are more often queens. Examples: open/close all folders Anime & Manga Bleach Yhwach, the King of the Quincies and the Emperor of the Vandenreich, is the final arc's Big Bad. He's a hands-on military leader, not the "isolated on the golden throne" type, who is as willing to kill his own troops as his enemies. When he fights, he becomes an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight. There's an indication that his soul thrives on war to keep functioning. Without the ability to absorb the souls of those he kills, he would be nothing more than a vegetable who can neither move nor has functioning senses. As a result, he incites war and violence wherever he can. Souther from Fist of the North Star follows the Evil Overlord template to a tee. He calls himself the "Saint Emperor" and has his minions kidnap children to use as slave labor in the construction of a giant pyramid dedicated to his dead master, and he is one of the few villains in the series to hand Kenshiro an outright defeat. The Big Bad Emperor Charles zi Britannia in Code Geass presides over a World Half Empty, and does everything in his power to keep it that way. This appearance is actually a front for his Assimilation Plot. And to top it off, his seiyuu was given the Fan Nickname of "Emperor Wakamoto". Empresses Jiang Lihua and Nunnally vi Britannia are the good version. The Big Bad of The Vision of Escaflowne is the Zaibach Empire's Emperor Dornkirk, who is actually Sir Isaac Newton, and is currently a 200-year-old man inside a pickle jar with a telescope attached. Samurai 7 has the unnamed Emperor who kidnaps women from peasant villages and implants clones of himself within them to create a perfect line of successors. He apparently had a lot of such clones: Ukyo, the series' true Big Bad, is revealed to be his 49th clone. He promptly kills the old Emperor and takes his throne for the purpose of world domination. In Digimon, Ken's villain persona "the Digimon Emperor" fits this trope as well as his name would suggest. A whip-wielding Evil Overlord with a Floating Base of Doom and a costume which includes gold shoulder pads and a cape, his goal is to enslave all Digimon and take over their world. All at the tender age of eleven, too. Dragon Ball Z: Frieza, having spent his entire life at the top of a galaxy-spanning empire, likes to refer to himself as "emperor of the universe" while posturing. He's very much the Evil Overlord type, with his diplomatic skills amounting to "do what I say and maybe I won't kill you and destroy your entire planet. " Frieza's briefly-seen father, by contrast, is exclusively referred to as King Cold. Tenchi Muyo! : Azusa Masaki Jurai, the Juraian Emperor, is an interesting case. In the anime he is somewhat of a jerk, but actually leans to the Benevolent Emperor category, and is a kind of a ditz, easily controlled by his mother-in-law, for whom he still keeps an immense crush, despite being Happily Married (twice). You see, Juraian royalty are indeed one Big, Screwed-Up Family. His mother-in-law can control him more than because he has a crush on her. She's one of the most dangerous people in the universe to anyone: to her enemies because she is an expert tactician and leader; to her allies because she loves to use them for humor, often causing sheer chaos. Shi Ryuuki from Saiunkoku Monogatari is a rare benevolent emperor and a main character of his show. Emperor Hotohori or Saihitei from Fushigi Yuugi is another example of a Benevolent Emperor who genuinely cares and works for the improvement of his nation. When he first visited Tamahome's house, he was surprised by the poverty he found there and is seen making a mental resolution to do something about the problem, although Tamahome was his rival in love. He also went to war for his country and died fighting. He has a Foil in the form of the Kutou Emperor. Where Hotohori is young, very handsome, chaste, and does his best to rule with fairness and kindness, the Kutou Emperor is (relatively) old (maybe in his late 40s or early 50s), Hollywood Homely, lecherous, and rules with an iron fist. Later, we meet Hotohori's son and sucessor, little Boushin alias Emperor Reiteizei. With the help of his kind mother, Empress Dowager Houki, he's shaping into a Reasonable Authority Figure, and he tells Mayo to shut up and stop lying about Miaka. Grenadier gives us a benevolent Empress, though she is imprisoned and impersonated by her identical (villainous) bodyguard for the most of the story, so her other identical bodyguard has to free her. Crest of the Stars has the Humankind Empire Abh as it's series focus and at the top is none other than Empress Ramaj. A relatively benevolent figure considering she responded to provocation by plunging half of humanity into war with the other half. The Empire in Legend of Galactic Heroes is, naturally, ruled by The Emperor, an inherited title of the ruling Goldenbaum family, whose dynasty has continued unbroken since the Empire's foundation. The emperor at the beginning of the series is Friedrich IV, an old peaceful man who never aspired to the throne due to being far down on the list of claimants in his youth. He's uninterested in ruling or the ongoing war with The Federation and content with living in peace and enjoying the finer things in life, like his private rose garden, and lets his chief of staff and admirals run things. He's consequently quite impotent as an actual ruler, but reasonable and harmless and quite fond of main character Reinhart von Lohengramm. His natural death of old age one third through the series kicks off an imperial civil war between the old noble houses who seek to keep the status quo, and a reformist faction of the military and lesser houses led by Reinhard. Reinhard wins a crushing victory and takes effective control of the empire, eventually disposing of the Goldenbaum dynasty nonviolently and establishing the Lohengramm dynasty in its stead. Reinhard becomes a reformer and rules as an enlightened and quite benevolent emperor, though he thinks nothing of using his imperial authority to force reforms through. Emperor Ganishka of Berserk is of the Evil Sorcerer / Evil Overlord variety. His typical M. O. is of the Shadow Emperor variety, although he can back it up with a great deal of magical mojo when required. And here's a fascinating absence. Japan, home of anime, is ruled by an emperor. Yet in any anime set in the "real" Japan, modern, historical, or future, the actual emperor of Japan never makes an appearance. Ever. Go on, try to think of any remotely successful anime where a real Emperor of Japan has so much as a cameo. It should probably be pointed out, though, that for much of its history, the Emperor of Japan had very little concrete power. For many centuries, Japan was ruled by the Shoguns, and nowadays the country is ruled by the democratically elected government led by the Prime Minister. The most well known period when the emperor directly ruled the country is known as Imperial Japan (from the Meiji Restoration to WWII). There's also the Chrysanthemum taboo where you're not supposed to make fun of him and his family. One Piece has the Four Emperors (Yonko), the four most powerful pirates in the world, and the rulers of the New World. Currently among them is: Shanks, generally the nicest one and Luffy's childhood idol. Big Mom, a woman who doesn't give a damn about anything except her candy. Blackbeard, major contender for overall series Big Bad Kaido, who is the closest to the actual trope in terms of being an Evil Overlord, despite not having made an official appearance yet. Former includes Whitebeard, the World's Strongest Man, who died at the Paramount War. In Transformers, the Decepticon leader commonly carries the title of Emperor of Destruction. This has recently started to come up in the American media. In Fairy Tail, Emperor Spriggan aka Black Mage Zeref is the ruler of the Albareth Empire. Said empire was formed when Spriggan single-handedly united all 700+ Light and Dark guilds on the western continent and formed a magocracy that overthrew that continent's previous governments and Magic Council. Ishgar is quite wary of the man who could accomplish that. Yajeel, one of Spriggan's subordinates, claims that the Emperor is actually a Reasonable Authority Figure. He's often absent from court for years, but he has also helped maintain peace by keeping the more Hot-Blooded people like the Spriggan Twelve in check. Card Games In the Tarot the Major Arcana usually include the Empress (III) and the Emperor (IV). While encarnating different and opposite ideas (the Empress fecundity and feminity and the Emperor power and masculinity), they share to be represented seated in thrones holding symbols of power. Comic Books Ming the Merciless of Flash Gordon, Emperor of Planet Mongo. Decadently evil, magical powers (in some adaptations), the works. Legacy is a comic that takes place a hundred and thirty years after the movies. The Sith are all over the place, the Empire is back in power, there is an Emperor - but the Sith and the Empire aren't on the same side. Emperor Fel (confirmed as the descendant of Soontir Fel and the sister of Wedge Antilles, possibly also Leia and Han) isn't quite evil, though in that setting there's not a whole lot of difference. Big Bad Darth Krayt also uses the title Emperor (of the Sith and Sith-aligned Imperials). So the series has two emperors, one unambigiously evil, and the other ruthless but well-meaning. In fact, Roan Fel's empire not only lets women and aliens serve as stormtroopers, but also has more reasonable economic solutions and foreign policy. The remnants of Fel's empire even join the Jedi to fight Krayt's resurgent Sith. Tsar Vladimir the Conqueror in Nikolai Dante is somewhere between the evil overlord and shadow emperor. Fables seems to have been written by someone taking notes from this page. The Emperor: Spikes of evil and shoulders of doom, check. Nigh Invulnerable in battle, check. Built like a tank, check. (He's maybe 30-50 feet tall. ) Abuses and executes subjects, check. Secretly controlled by an unassuming ordinary man hiding in the shadows, check. One story in The Sandman involves the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar spending a day disguised as a beggar. He is rather personable and sympathetic, but may not quite qualify as benevolent: he plots to undermine the Roman Empire and bring it to an early end, with the implication that he sees this as revenge against his Creepy Uncle Julius. Issue 12 of the Invader Zim (Oni) comics sees Zim and Dib accidentally sent into a Bad Future where Earth has been successfully conquered by Zim's future self, who now styles himself as "Emperor Zim" and rules with an iron fist (and a goatee). Wonder Woman (1987): The Sangtee Emperor is the Emperor of an Empire that spans at least two star systems. Her Empire has a history of cruel and deadly misogyny and chattel slavery but under the current Emperor they're moving away from these practices. Fan Works Emperor Vakudos from Hottie 3: The Best Fan Fic in the World, later his daughter "Princess Lotora" becomes empress. In the Spin-Off, Hottie x Supetastic 6: March Madness, Princess Jody declares herself Crowned Princess and Empress after converting the Anti-Monitor's body (from Green Lantern: The Animated Series) into her new throne. My Hostage Not Yours: After Zim conquers the Earth, he declares himself Emperor. Despite that, he's still subservient to the Tallest, the true rulers of the Irken Empire. The Big Bad of Legends of Equestria is a being known only as The Emperor, leader of a race of highly advanced reptilian beings and ruler of a world-wide empire of which Equestria is merely "a speck". MLP Next Generation: Know Fear! : The Big Bad is Stratus, ruler of the Griffon Empire, who starts a war with Equestria for no reason other than Fantastic Racism and a desire to Take Over the World. Harry Potter in King Of Kings Ruling Over Rulers is crowned as the Roman and Russian Emperor in the wizarding world. In the Code Geass Alternate Universe Fic Mosaic, Suzaku is the emperor of Japan. A subplot of the fic is him taking on a larger role in governing his country. An Empire of Ice and Fire has a heroic example, as Jon and Daenerys eventually declare themselves the Emperor and Empress of the Targaryen Empire, which lays claim to all of Westeros and New Valyria (the renamed Slaver's Bay). For a villainous example, Joffrey — who is even more insane than in canon — rules over Westeros with an iron fist, eventually declaring himself a God-Emperor. Films — Animation The Chinese Emperor in Mulan is depicted as noble and wise, even grandfatherly. Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2, who is the tyrannical peacock ruler of China who actually wants to threaten his subjects with a barrage of cannons and destroy kung fu. Emperor Kuzco, the antihero of The Emperor's New Groove, is a rare example of an Emperor who is neither old, evil, powerful, or particularly impressive at all. At the end, after he's learned his lesson, he starts edging into Benevolent Emperor territory. Films — Live-Action Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars is probably the archetypical example, being an Evil Overlord, the series' main Big Bad, and an incredibly powerful Sith Lord famous for blasting people with lightning. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor features the Emperor of China (who knows Kung Fu and has superpowers) as the main villain. In Hero, the Emperor of China fills an ambivalently antagonistic role. The heroes of the story want to kill him due to the losses they suffered in his war to unify the five kingdoms into a single country (they were from the four losing kingdoms), and because they consider him as a tyrant. Ultimately the main character decides to spare the Emperor's life, since unifying the kingdoms is the only way to stop them from constantly fighting each other and thus bring peace. Regardless, midway through the film a failed assassination fight scene shows the Emperor is perfectly capable of matching a master swordsman blow-for-blow. Gladiator shows Marcus Aurelius as a Benevolent Emperor, and his son and successor Commodus, not so benevolent. The Emperor of the Galaxy from Starcrash. An interesting subversion is that the Emperor is one of the Good Guys. Emperor Hirohito is the namesake of Emperor. As portrayed near the end, he's actually really awesome! Empress Sabina in Dungeons & Dragons is an unique example that she is both female and benevolent while at the same time in charge of an corrupt and decadent regime due to the mage court. She does want to extend equal rights to her non-mage subjects, but is opposed by The Archmage Profion. Literature Anaander Mianaai from Ancillary Justice. She's not evil, exactly, but she does oversee the aggressive militaristic expansion of her multi-system empire to create a buffer zone for the Dyson's Sphere at its center, and she has no problem with turning people into meat puppets for her ships' AIs. Oh, and she oversees everything personally by using thousands of linked identical clone bodies and has been alive for a few thousands years. Emperor Jagang is a communist Evil Overlord and the Big Bad of the Sword of Truth series, especially the later books in the series. Protagonist Richard Rahl also rules an Empire, although he doesn't use the title himself. In The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan's father was known as the Emperor-Across-the-Sea. Also, when the Pevensie children are made rulers of Narnia, one of Peter's titles as High King is Emperor of the Lone Islands. In El Conquistador there are several ones, in three continents. The Neverending Story (and the films based on the same) featured the benevolent Childlike Empress. Leto Atriedes II, the God-Emperor of Dune. And before him, his father Paul who usurped the position from Shaddam Corrino IV. Leto especially appears to his subjects to be the Evil Overlord, but thanks to the omniscient narrator viewpoint, readers can see his ultimate goal is actually quite benevolent. All Padishah-Emperors and Paul and Leto II can be traced back to the ruling dynasty of the Old Empire. The Corrino line was founded by Faykan Butler (who took the name Faykan Corrino at crowning) and his wife, who is descended from the Old Emperors. Paul Atreides also has Corrino lineage through his grandmother Helena. Emperor Gregor Vorbarra of the Vorkosigan Saga matures over the series into a noble, good-hearted, and just ruler. If you didn't frequently get to see him in non-Emperor mode he'd be too good to be true. Contrasted (sort of) with Emperor the haut Fletchir Giaja of Cetaganda, who isn't precisely evil per se, but is definitely not someone you'd trust further than you could comfortably spit a dead rat. Contrasted much more directly with his grandfather, the late Emperor Ezar Vorbarra, who was such a scheming bastard that he died praying there was no such thing as an afterlife, because he knew the kind of welcome he'd get if there actually was one. But all his machinations ended up getting Barrayar more or less on the right track, as well as putting grandson Gregor on the throne as opposed to his son Prince Serg, so it was definitely a case of doing what he had to do. All of the above are much better than Emperor Yuri, who appears in such backstory references as "Yuri's massacre", "Yuri Vorbarra's Defenestration of the Privy Council", and "the Dismemberment of Mad Emperor Yuri". In David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series, each of the Seven T'ang, or kings, rules a part of the world-city Chung Kuo, and together they exercise a sort of collegial emperorship. Emperor Mage Ozorne of the The Immortals series by Tamora Pierce. He's power-hungry, narcissistic, and vengeful, ending up as the Big Bad of the next book too. His nephew, Kaddar, who takes the throne after him, is a much nicer person who actually cares about ruling the country properly. Two examples in the third series of Pierce's Circle of Magic books. Empress Berenene of Namorn, who makes no bones about enjoying sport and the company of handsome young men, but is also an extremely skilled politician and ruler who has the love (and fear) of her courtiers and no intention of having her wishes subverted. The whole book is titled The Will of the Empress. She's based on Catherine the Great of Russia, which Namorn is a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of. Emperor Weishu of Yanjing is emperor of Circleverse China, more militant and capricious than Berenene. He likes to flaunt his considerable power, deals lethal punishment for the tiniest mistakes, and wants to conquer Gyongxe to increase his standing. In David Eddings' Belgariad, Emperor Zakath of Mallorea is depicted as being effective, ruthless and icily insane. In the Malloreon his insanity is revealed to be a major plot point and we get to know all the whats and whys and he becomes a full fledged member of the good side. David Eddings likes this trope. In The Tamuli, Emperor Sarabian is personally charming, intelligent and one of the few people at court who isn't corrupt. Bizarrely, his eventual coup which overthrows the quasi-democratic government and institutes an absolute monarchy under martial law. In Nick Perumov 's Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword, we have a good emperor, fighting against the evil Magocracy, which turns out not so evil (and by fighting them he actually helps the true baddies, though he understands this in time to help ruin their plans). He is ruthless enough (when needed), however, to be a realistic emperor portrayal. In the Sten series (Bunch, C and Cole, A), the Immortal Emperor starts out as a pretty nice guy, devoted to laissez-faire capitalism, and long-forgotten recipes and skills, who only sends in the troops when the realm is genuinely threatened with instability. It helps that he has a nigh-unbreakable monopoly on AM2, the fuel that the Empire runs on, and it is worth noting that someone developing/finding another source of AM2 counts as a threat of destabilising the Empire. And then a successful assassination attempt and a random bit of meteor damage to his Resurrection Ship turn him into a megalomaniacal despot who is not only ridiculously tyrannical, but no longer capable of supplying AM2 and, more importantly, no longer immortal. In The Song of Roland, there are the good and the bad kind, Charlemagne and Baligant. Naturally, they end up in a personal life-and-death clash of civilizations. Emperor Titus from the two Dark Lord of Derkholm books by Diana Wynn Jones is a case of a benevolent emperor being surrounded by corruption. He was shown in a very positive light, in sharp contrast to the corrupt politicians of the senate trying to undermine his authority and kill his sister for being of marsh-woman blood. Emperor Mornhaven of the Green Rider series. He's the heir to the Emperire of Arcosia, although after sailing to Sacoridia and losing contact with the Empire he declares himself Emperor of a new empire, Mornhavia. Empress Lionstone XIV of the early Deathstalker series was the original Big Bad and after her death she stayed a boogey-man. Not even the Recreated could truly supplant her. In The Wheel of Time, Empress Radhanan of the Seanchan Empire is only known by name in the books, and is later succeeded by her daughter, Tuon, who becomes Empress Fortuona. Whilst the Seanchan are antagonists, they are not evil (excepting the slave trade), just very different. King Gorice of Witchland in E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, Evil Overlord and Big Bad of the book. The Lord Ruler in Mistborn is somewhere between the Evil Overlord and Shadow Emperor types until he's killed off. In the last book Elend becomes Emperor, and though he tries his hardest to be a Benevolent Emperor he's very worried about following in the Lord Ruler's footseps. Several of the characters in the Belisarius Series are Emperors(or some sort of equivalent title) which makes sense as it is about an epic war between Empires. The Malwan Emperor(before being overthrown that is) is Evil and the rest are to a greater or lesser degree Reasonable Authority Figure s. The Empress of Taysar in the Spaceforce books rules many worlds as an absolute monarch, and technically owns, personally, 'every rock and stone' on those worlds. It seems that Taysar always has an Empress, not an Emperor. Trapped on Draconica: The first one is Gothon, emperor of Baalaria, who expands his domain by swallowing those of others. The second is Taurok, who succeeds Gothon. Rana elavates from Princess to Empress by marrying him. In The Psalms of Isaak, Ahm Y'Zir is a Shadow Emperor; the founder and ruler of The Empire of Y'Zir (which reveres him as a living god), he's a hideous cyborg kept alive by a combination of Lost Technology and Blood Magic. Exactly how much direct power he has remains unclear (Regent Eliz Xhum handles the day-to-day running of things and Ahm's daughter the Crimson Empress is being groomed to take the throne once she comes of age), even his physical location remains hidden, and the processes which keep him alive have left him quite insane, but it's made clear that the Empire marches to the design he set for it two thousand years ago, and he still has hold of his ancestor's spellbook and with it enough power to pop into his enemies' dreams and threaten them. In The Witcher -saga Emperor Emhyr var Emreis of the brutal and expansionist Nilfgaard Empire, also known as the White Flame Who Dances Upon the Barrows of His Foes, is a major antagonist in the main storyline, but develops into a more well-rounded character than his Evil Overlord reputation might suggest. He's still an amoral tyrant, but not entirely without sympathetic goals or standards. Sanlitun Malkeenian Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne is of the Benevolent Emperor variation, though not everyone thinks so. His son Kaden, the current Emperor of Annur, is hopelessly inept but slowly moving down the same route. Emperor Grey in Line of Delirium. He is mostly hands-off, as far as ruling the Human Empire, and everyone still remembers how he came to power (a high-ranking Space Navy officer, who disobeyed his incompetent superiors and took charge of Earth and its colonies, prevented humanity's defeat at alien hands, established the Empire, and turned it into a galactic power). He is almost two centuries old thanks to aTan and has mostly lost interest in governance, preferring the individual worlds to run themselves, as long as they obey the Imperial laws. In his own palace on Planet Terra, he exercises his prerogative to follow any planetary law in his domain he chooses. His current sexual preferences involve prepubescent teenage girls, following a certain world's practices (he treats them with respect, though, and their families reap the benefits). He does have some harsh laws, such as a strict ban on genetic engineering and cloning. He also doesn't tolerate attempts to secede from the Empire. The population of a world attempting it ended up getting brutally slaughtered by Imperial-hired mercenaries. Also, when the Shedar colonies were invaded by the Sakkra, he had the colonies undergo Orbital Bombardment, killing all the invaders and members of La Résistance (no one really blames him, though, as attempting to retake the planets would've cost many more lives). He then proceeded to exterminate all the Sakkra in the galaxy as punishment. In Seekers of the Sky, the Roman Empire never collapsed and continues to dominate Europe (now known as the State). The ruler of the State is called the Possessor, although he's an Emperor in all but name. The backstory also mentions that the Redeemer (another Messiah sent by God after Jesus's death as a baby) became the Roman Emperor 2000 years ago, later realizing that, by doing that, he had failed God's mission. In The Goblin Emperor, Maia, the eponymous emperor. Though he's actually just half-goblin, from his mother's side. When he inherits the throne of the Elflands, many are not happy, even though Maia tries very hard to be a good emperor. The fact that he has to arrange a marriage for himself, in which the chosen lady of course will not get a veto to secure his reign, father a heir and discourage conspirators from using his underage nephew against him, does not help. It is the expected thing to do for a good emperor, but Maia feels that it is not exactly something a good person ought to do. Emperor Kellanved, instigator and ruler of the Malazan Empire in Malazan Book of the Fallen, who started out as the owner of a bar in Malaz City and assembled a group of highly competent friends with wich he took over first little Malaz Island and then entire continents. The King of Westeros in A Song of Ice and Fire is an Emperor in everything but name as he's the ruler of a large Empire made by several semi-autonomous kingdoms with their respective local lords and in one case, a prince. The man who originally united the realm, Aegon the Conqueror, pretty much did the opposite thing to the historical German Empire by demoting all of the previous Kings to High Lords rather than naming himself something like "King of Kings". The one province where the rulers are still called "prince" is the only one they weren't able to subjugate through force. Czar Alexander IV in Victoria, the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, who rules a restored Russian Empire in the story's near-future setting. He is depicted by the author as a Good King. The Traitor Baru Cormorant has an unusual example in the Masked Emperor, who sits on the Faceless Throne of the Imperial Republic of Falcrest. Because modern Falcrest is a republic founded by an anti-monarchist revolution, its Emperor is not some famous royal heir but a meritorious citizen appointed in secret for a five-year term, which It spends masked and completely anonymous even to Itself. Every Emperor drinks an amnestic potion when It takes the throne, wiping out Its memories for the duration of Its term while keeping all other knowledge and faculties intact. Without identity, It has no self-interest except the common good, ensuring just and fair rule. However, all of the above is a lie. Falcrest's chemists never figured out how to make the potion. The Emperor is some random schmuck who gets lobotomized into a drooling vegetable and propped up on the throne for five years. Imperial decrees are handed down by a secret oligarchy called the Throne, which uses the Emperor’s seal as a convenient source of absolute authority. In Shadow of the Conqueror, this was Dayless's official title when he ruled the Dawn Empire. Notably, he actually met the legal definition (a male monarch in charge of more than one country). Live-Action TV Doctor Who: The Dalek Emperors. Davros, their Kaled creator, held the title of Dalek Emperor for some time, sparking a civil war between Imperial (Davros) and Renegade factions. The most recent one showed up at the end of the 2005 series, having narrowly survived the Time War and developed a god complex after saving its followers from extinction. The Draconian Emperor from "Frontier in Space" is a Reasonable Authority Figure who doesn't favour war with Earth. The Doctor was apparently on good terms with the 15th Emperor for saving the Draconians from a plague and was made a nobleman. Oddly enough, one iteration of the Daleks has apparently eschewed Emperors and employs a parliamentary democracy, complete with a Dalek Prime Minister! I, Claudius, across its truly epic span, takes in Augustus (who only avoids looking evil by comparison to what comes after him), his scheming Magnificent Bastard of a wife Livia, her son Tiberius (a colossal pervert and largely useless as a ruler), the original Caligula (for more detail, consult his page), Claudius (unwillingly thrust onto the throne, but proves rather good at it - except for his complete blindness to the machinations of his own scheming third wife), and, in its last moments, Nero. The emperor of the Centauri Republic in Babylon 5 was a rather benevolent ruler at the start of the series, even apologizing to the Narn for his predecessor's atrocities. Unfortunately he died early in the second season and was replaced by Cartagia, who was assassinated by Vir Cotto and Londo Mollari and succeeded by Londo who was in turn succeeded by Vir. Power Rangers has a few villains that fit this trope: The first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers has Rita Repulsa, who her minions frequently call her the Empress of Evil. The second season introduces Lord Zedd, who, in his first appearance, proclaims to be the 'Emperor of all he sees'. Later the two villains form an Unholy Matrimony. Power Rangers Zeo starts with Rita and Lord Zedd being chased away by the evil Machine Empire. Like the British Empire in Real Life, the monarchs of this political body, Mondo and Machina, call themselves king and queen, rather than emperor and empress. Power Rangers in Space reveals that above mentioned empires (along with a band of space pirates) are mere vassals of the Dimension Lord Dark Specter, who leads the United Alliance of Evil and proclaims to be the Monarch of all Evil himself, thus also fitting type 1 of this trope. Strangely enough, when Astronema takes over after Dark Specter's destruction, she is proclaimed to be the queen of all evil, rather than empress. Power Rangers S. P. D. has Emperor Gruum as Big Bad and ruler over the Troobian Empire until it is revealed Gruum has a Man Behind the Man in the form of Omni the Magnificence, which is a huge godlike being rivaling Dark Specter in terms of size and power. Power Rangers Super Mega Force has Emperor Mavro of the Armada. Many evil factions in Super Sentai are Empires. Especially in the older series. This, off course, means that these factions are led by Emperors. Examples are Emperor Aton, leading the Tailed-People Clan Jashinka Empire, Underground Emperor Zeba leading the Underground Empire Tube and Emperor Ackdos Gill, leader of the Space Empire Zangyack The Goa'uld in Stargate SG-1 were divided between a number of Evil Overlords with claims to godhood, but several aspired to control over the entire Goa'uld domain. Ra of the first movie was retconned to have been a symbolic Emperor who maintained the fiction of unity, with subsequent infighting breaking out among the other System Lords over his succession. Several come close (including Lord Yu, who is a Composite Character of two mythical or semi-mythical Chinese emperors), but Ba'al is the only one to outright claim to be the 'Sovereign of the Goa'uld Domain' in his near-victory. Star Trek has the Romulan Emperor, ruler of the Romulan Star Empire. The Klingons also use to have an Emperor but the position was abolished somewhere around three centuries before the first series begins. The office gets restored under solely religious and decorative functions once the clone of Khaless (the first emperor) is created in the 24th century. The Mirror Universe has the Terran Emperor, though the only one we ever see is the mirror counterpart of Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery, whose full title is Her most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo'noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius. As mentioned in the literature section, the King of Westeros in Game of Thrones is in reality the textbook definition of an emperor despite the name "King", as he is the ruler of seven kingdoms, each with their own laws and local nobilities. Tabletop Games Warhammer has Karl Franz of The Empire, one of the few benevolent figures in the setting, a savvy ruler, and a military genius who leads from the back of his griffon while wielding the titular warhammer. Other emperor figures include Lord Settra The Imperishable of Khemri, who is able to boss around the other Tomb Kings, and the dragon-riding Witch King Malekith of the Dark Elves, who is a real momma's boy. One of the major figures in Warhammer 40, 000 is known only as The God-Emperor of Mankind. An incredibly powerful psychic genius, he guided humanity as a Shadow Emperor before launching the Great Crusade to reunite mankind in an enlightened, secular galactic empire. But the Horus Heresy wrecked all that, so the Emperor has spent the last ten thousand years stuck on a soul-eating life support system that powers the psychic lighthouse necessary for interstellar travel, while his Imperium has devolved into a totalitarian Vestigial Empire that praises him as its god even while jumping over the Moral Event Horizon in His name. The fluff suggests that the modern Imperium's worst actions are misinterpretations of the Emperor's original intent, but the more we learn about the guy in the Horus Heresy series, the more morally ambiguous he comes across as. He definitely wanted the best for humanity, but to that end he ruthlessly suppressed religion in an attempt to starve the Chaos Gods, and while not as xenocidal as the modern Imperium, still offered human colonies influenced by alien civilizations a choice between forsaking their old ways and annihilation. His intelligence and psyker powers led him to claim an Omniscient Morality License, but he made some catastrophically poor decisions leading up to the Horus Heresy, and was a terrible parent to his clone-sons. All in all, the Emperor wavers between the Messianic Archetype and a Well-Intentioned Extremist. The Scarlet Empress in Exalted cultivates an appearance of moral ambivalence: while responsible for saving the world, and running one of the most stable nations she also ruthlessly pursued war, and deliberately made her government so that it would fall apart with out her and raised her children to fight among themselves for her favor. In actuality, she originally gained control of the Imperial Defense Grid via human sacrifice, and just recently sacrificed her youngest daughter (just 12 years old! ) to one of the rulers of Hell in a failed attempt to gain at least in the first case, saved Creation by doing so. The setting goes out of its way to make the Empress' morality as grey as possible. Empress Kiova in Heroscape started out evil, but turned good. Also, oddly enough, her husband bears the title of "General. " Legend of the Five Rings has had several emperors over three dynasties. As the game is based on East Asian myths, the emperors are usually the benevolent variety, but at least one was the Evil Overlord variety, and another was a mix of that and the Shadow Emperor style after a Demonic Possession. Emperor Strephon in the Traveller default time of the GURPS version is a Reasonable Authority Figure. Queen Abrogail II of Cheliax in Pathfinder. Though she doesn't bear the title of empress, she still rules over not just Cheliax but also the neighboring lands of Nidal and Isger, who follow her edicts through puppet governments. On the other hand, the only character in the Inner Sea region who actually calls himself an emperor (among other titles) is Grand Prince Stavian III of the Empire of Taldor—a small, sniveling little man too small for his imperial crown who can barely keep his shambled empire together. He claims rulership over all of Taldor's former holdings, including Cheliax, but has no power to actually enforce his rule. He barely does anything as emperor, leaving the actual rule of Taldor to the empire's overburdened and inefficient bureaucracy. The Giovanni dynasty and later the Barbados one in Anima: Beyond Fantasy. Not only Emperors (Empress in the case of the current one), concentrating on them both the political and militar powers, but also the heads of the Church of Abel. All but one of them can be considered to fall more or less into the benevolent category of above. The Emperors of the Third Imperium in Traveller. For the most part they are presented by canon as Reasonable Authority Figures. BattleTech: In last days of the Terran Hegemony, Stefan Amaris assassinated the young First Lord Richard Cameron, and the rest of the Cameron line, and took over the Hegemony, he stamped out rebellion with nukes, and executed anyone who failed him the slightest. In the end Aleksandr Kerensky and the SLDF captured him and was executed by the Star League. Even today Amaris remembered as the most sinister man in the Inner Sphere. Pinballs Roleplay In The Gamer's Alliance, Takeshi Ofuchi is the Emperor of Yamato at the beginning of the Unification of Yamato arc in the Third Age. He's very much a selfish tyrant and a Sorcerous Overlord, but he's eventually betrayed by one of his trusted generals, Shogun Masamori Hyuga, who assassinates him and takes his place as the leader of Yamato (albeit Masamori never crowns himself emperor and instead keeps using the title shogun). Video Games Final Fantasy II was the first JRPG to play with this trope in detail, though it's since become genre standard fare. Emperor Mateus starts out as a typical Big Bad who commands monsters from hell and wants to conquer the world, well, just because. Then the heroes kill him, which has unforeseen consequences: his spirit goes to Hell, takes over, and comes back stronger than before. The GBA remake adds a sidestory where we learn that his soul was actually split in half at death, and his 'good' side has not only gone to Heaven, but taken over there as well. Light Is Not Good, indeed. Final Fantasy VI likewise features The Empire as the main enemy, led by Emperor Gestahl. Until one of his lieutenants, Kefka Palazzo, already a messed-up-in-the-head Psycho for Hire, decides to go Omnicidal Maniac... Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda series is arguably this, considering that he repeatedly is shown as ruler of the whole Dark World, a shadow mirror of the game's world. He would become one whenever he takes over Hyrule on top of whatever dark realm he had control of at the beginning of the game, otherwise, he's referred to as "The King of Evil" (or "Thieves", before the evil). Suikoden features the Scarlet Moon Emperor as the Big Bad and Final Boss, although the real villain is the (Wo)man Behind the Man, Lady Windy. Breath of Fire I features as antagonists the Dark Dragons, who are led by the Big Bad Emperor Zog (who, oddly, is the only Dark Dragon who is actually, you know, a dragon. All the other Dark Dragons are insectile monster thingys). Furthermore, while Zog is the Emperor, the Dark Dragons' organization never seems to be referred to as an Empire. Breath of Fire IV features Fou Lu, the founder and first emperor of the Fou Empire, being persecuted by the very empire he founded under the orders of incumbent Emperor Soniel. In Ninja Gaiden, the enemies are all members of the demonic Vigoor Empire, and naturally the game's Big Bad is a superdemon known only as the Vigoor Emperor. Jade Empire features the Emperor as the Big Bad. He's also a kungfu-fighting undead ghost... thingy. After he's dead, The Starscream claims the throne and takes over as the Big Bad. On the other hand, the Open Palm ending has the first Emperor's daughter ascending to the throne, and the "Where Are They Now? " Epilogue says she's a good leader. In the Closed Palm ending you decide The Starscream had the right idea, but didn't go far enough. Throughout The Elder Scrolls series and in the backstory, the leaders of various Cyrodiilic Empires have held the title of Emperor. Dozens are noted throughout the series lore, and while they vary greatly in personality and actions, the vast majority have leaned toward the " benevolent " end of the spectrum. Some of the particularly notable examples: The very first Cyrodiilic Emperor was St. Alessia, also known as the "Slave Queen". Born into Slavery during the Ayleid rule of Cyrodiil, she escaped and prayed to the Aedra for aid. As the Ayleids were primarily Daedra worshipers, the Aedra answered her prayers as part of a Bargain with Heaven. They sent Alessia divine aid, both in subtle and direct ways, allowing Alessia to defeat the Ayleids and drive the survivors out of Cyrodiil. Alessia was crowned as the first Empress of Cyrodiil, declared that the religion of the Eight Divines (which worships the Aedra who sent her aid) would be the official religion of her new Empire, was " imbued with Dragon Blood " by Akatosh (the draconic chief deity of the Aedra), and had her soul placed in the central stone of the Amulet of Kings which symbolized Akatosh's covenant with mankind to protect Mundus (the mortal plane) from the forces of Oblivion (the Daedra). This also meant that all recognized Cyrodiilic emperors would also be Barrier Maidens, able to perform the ritual of lighting the "Dragonfires", which limit the power and influence of the Daedric Princes within Mundus. Over a thousand years later, the Alessian Empire would fall apart due to religious infighting and provincial uprisings. The Ruby Throne of Cyrodiil would sit empty until Reman Cyrodiil rose to power. His father, the petty king Hrol, would be visited in a vision by the spirit of St. Alessia and Akatosh himself, with this union creating Reman. Reman was birthed from the land of Cyrodiil itself, found born atop a mound of mud the size of a small mountain with the Amulet of Kings, long since lost, in hand. He was coronated as a child and rose to the height of his power after defeating the Akaviri invaders. Though he never took the title of Emperor himself, his lineage founded the Second Cyrodiilic Empire, which would come to dominate nearly all of Tamriel. Following a series of assassinations, the Reman line would end, leading to the beginning of the 2nd Era of Tamriellic history. During a period known as the Interregnum, Tamriel would descend into chaos with various groups vying for control. Out of this chaos came one of Tamriel's most legendary figures - Tiber Septim. He was believed to be of Nordic descent, but beyond that, he has several highly-conflicting origin stories with the truth likely lost forever to history, as well as buried under centuries of Imperial propaganda, and possibly even permanently changed following his apotheosis. He was either born as Talos Stormcrown in Atmora or Hjalti Early-Beard in High Rock. In either case, he spent his youth in Skyrim and rose to prominence when he, at the age of 20, used the Voice to defeat the Witchmen at Old Hroldan. He was declared "Ysmir, Dragon of the North" by the Greybeards and then came into the service of the Colovian Petty King Cuhlecain as a General. When Cuhlecain was assassinated, Septim took over Cuhlecain's young empire. From there, he would become many things - hero, conqueror, villain - and ultimately, the Emperor of the first truly pan-Tamrielic Empire. He is said to be descended metaphysically from the Slave Queen Alessia, as well as Reman Cyrodiil. As a Dragonborn (in both senses of the word), his dynasty was one of several supernatural barriers to keep Tamriel and Oblivion distinct. Septim (possibly among others), through unclear and hotly debated means, would become the Deity of Human Origin Talos after his death, becoming the Ninth Divine. Uriel Septim VII was the 21st Emperor of the Septim line, and the Emperor during each game from Arena to his death in Oblivion. Uriel VII was both The Good King and a Reasonable Authority Figure, genuinely caring for the people of Tamriel. Nearly everything he did as Emperor wass for the greater good of the people of Tamriel. Due to the lost strength of his legions and rampant unrest in the provinces, he has to rely on his wit in order to avert multiple crises for the Empire. Uriel VII would unfortunately be assassinated by the Mythic Dawn to begin the Oblivion Crisis. Martin Septim was the bastard son (and Hidden Backup Prince) of Uriel VII. He plays a major part in the events of Oblivion, as a Supporting Leader and Reasonable Authority Figure. Ultimately, he sacrifices himself to end the Oblivion Crisis and to permanently seal the barrier between Oblivion and Mundus. Between Oblivion and Skyrim, the Septim Empire severely crumbles. The local warlord Titus Mede is able to capture the Ruby Throne, and declares himself Emperor. Later, Mede's grandson, Titus Mede II, inherits the throne. The reformed Aldmeri Dominion, the ancient enemy of the Cyrodiilic Empires under the leadership of the extremist Thalmor, goes to war with Mede's Empire. Titus Mede II was responsible for both leading the Empire to victory against and signing the highly controversial White-Gold Concordat, a treaty which (among other things) bans the worship of Talos throughout the Empire (though it is heavily hinted to be a purely political move to buy the Legion time to prepare for the inevitable next war with the Dominion). Due to Talos' popularity there, Skyrim erupts into Civil War over this move. In-game, he is met at the end of the Dark Brotherhood questline, where he's your target. He comes off as a surprisingly personable individual and remarkably calm for a man facing his killer. When you take into consideration all the things he has done up until your meeting, the worst thing that can be said about him is that his successes are overshadowed by his failures. An alien Emperor is the Big Bad and final boss of MDK 2. He's so big that part of the fight involves him eating you, and you fighting his internal organs. Emperor Percival Tachyon, the Big Bad of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. "Emperor" is likely a self-imposed title, but he has conquered a galaxy, so not many folk are in a position to object. Tales of the Abyss has Emperor Peony IX, a Benevolent Emperor — this is the man that commissions battle costumes for the party and goes incognito to fight crime. Despite his goofy tendencies and extreme informality, he's the most reliable Reasonable Authority Figure in the game. Since Avernum features The Empire, it makes sense that it features emperors as well. Emperor Hawthorne was a Big Bad in Avernum 1. After your adventuring party assassinates him, Empress Prazac takes charge and is definitely benevolent. She gets assassinated in turn at the start of Avernum 5 and the choices your adventuring party makes decides who becomes the next emperor. The Emperor of Cantha in Guild Wars is shown to be a decent and well-meaning man, but one who's hopelessly out of touch with the people he rules. One player in each galaxy plays the emperor in Imperium Nova. Because an actual player plays the emperor, the style of rulership in the game is quite varied. Every one of them is inevitably labeled an Evil Overlord by his or her opponents. Emperor Solarius of Overlord II is of the Shadow Emperor variety, having risen from power by taking advantage of the people's fear of magic due to the plague which he himself unintentionally caused by presenting himself as something of a Dark Messiah out to exterminate magical beings. He's never seen personally addressing his people, a duty he leaves for his Professional Butt-Kisser Marius and constantly hides behind a mask to hid the fact that he's an Elf. His true plan however is to collect all the magic from the lands to prepare for his ascension to Godhood. Emperor Geldoblame of Baten Kaitos is an obvious Evil Overlord Big Bad. He eventually gets deceived and betrayed by Melodia, but that's not to say he didn't have it coming. The Emperor is the Big Bad in Secret of Mana, sending out his Dragons to undo seals on the Mana Seeds in order to unleash a Forgotten Super Weapon in order to Take Over the World. But gets taken out by the Man Behind the Man Thanatos, who wishes to destroy it. The usual Big Bad of Mortal Kombat, Shao Kahn. In storyline, Onaga came before him, though. Thanks to the Continuity Reboot of Mortal Kombat 9, by Mortal Kombat X a Mayincatec fellow named "Kotal Kahn" is now the ruling body of Outworld (this also confirms that "Kahn" is merely a title, not part of Shao Kahn's full name). Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has Emperor Yoshiro, who also believes in Authority Equals Asskicking. Emperor Strada from Asura's Wrath, a rare good guy example. He gets killed off by Lord Deus in the second episode of the game. StarCraft when Mengsk overthrew the Confederacy, he immediately makes himself as the Emperor of the new Terran Dominion. In a figurative sense we have Street Fighter 's Sagat, whose Red Baron title is "Emperor of Muay Thai". He has no political power, but is one of the most badass fighters in the whole series. (Plus he was a high-ranked member of the Shadaloo organization, but ultimately left them. ) In Street Fighter III, the Big Bad Gill can be seen as the emperor of his cult, which may be a Path of Inspiration. Out of all the rulers seen in Fire Emblem, the ones that hold the Emperor/Empress title are few: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light: In Hardin 's ending, he marries Nyna and becomes the king of Archanea... but in Mystery of the Emblem, he pulls a Demonic Possession -induced Face–Heel Turn, reorganizes the Kingdom into The Empire with himself as its emperor, and becomes the Big Bad. Fire Emblem Gaiden: Rudolf is the emperor of the Rigelian Empire who is waging war on Zofia. After his death, his son Alm briefly assumes the role of de facto emperor before marrying Celica and uniting the continent as a king. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: The second generation's Arvis, formerly the Duke of Velthomer, who becomes Emperor after marrying the Princess of Grannvale (Dierdre) and unifying a good part of the continent under his leadership... which later turns into a tyrannical reign under the influence of the Lopto Sect. Also, Seliph at the end of the game (who ironically is the son of Dierdre with another man, Sigurd. It's... a long story. ). Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: "Silent Emperor" Vigarde of Grado. Before the main game, Grado was a rare example of a good Empire, with Emperor Vigarde spending a large chunk of his day listening to the needs of his people and his son Prince Lyon being a kind-hearted (if slightly misguided) soul who truly wished to use his knowledge of Black Magic to aid his people and the world at large. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn: Sanaki, Empress of Begnion. Though technically speaking, the true Empress should be her long-lost older sister, Micaiah. Sanaki remains as Empress, however, whereas Micaiah becomes the Queen of Daein instead. Fire Emblem Awakening has Emperor Walhart of Valm. He's a fairly standard "conquer and subjugate" emperor villain, although he does so out of a sincere belief that his actions will lead to peace under his rule. Fire Emblem: Three Houses has two characters going by the title of Emperor. Actually, they're one and the same. A mysterious masked villain called the Flame Emperor spends the first half of the game manipulating everyone to destroy the Church of Seiros. Edelgard is the heir apparent to the Adrestian Empire. Shortly before the end of Part I, she convinces her old and infirm father to abdicate and officially assumes the title of Emperor, which she holds for the rest of the game. Interestingly, she is a rare example of an Emperor who is a protagonist, provided you choose to join her at the beginning of the game and stay with her when she makes her move against the Church. While his official title is merely "Demon King", Bowser of the Super Mario Bros. series fits this trope, as he has a massive empire that he plans to expand, sometimes across the entire universe. He even has countless Kings as mere high-ranking minions of his. In Final Fantasy Dimensions, the Emperor of Avalon also known as Elgo looks like an Evil Overlord Tin Tyrant type at least his empty suit of armor does but he's actually a Shadow Emperor scheming to obtain eternal life and power from the Crystals. He's such a serious threat that the Crystals split the world into two dimensions just to get away from him. He "aids" the Warriors of Light and Darkness so he can personally rip the Crystals' power out of them. From Battleborn: The Empress Lenore former monarch of the star-spanning Jennerit Empire before Lothar Rendain usurped her. Having usurped Empress Lenore to become the leader of her empire now renamed the Jennerit Imperium, Big Bad Lothar Rendain is naturally this by position. In Ravenmark, the Empire of Estellion has recently lost its beloved Emperor Sergius Corvius, kicking off a Succession Crisis. While the late Emperor's daughter Adrise has no desire to become Empress, Adrise's younger brother Gratian wants nothing less than that. The crisis comes from Sergius not wanting his son from ascending to the Obsidian Perch after his death, secretly grooming another successor from the numerous ranks of royal bastards. In the sequel, Empress Livia Corvius (AKA the Scarlet Empress) has become ruthless in her determination to crush her enemies, costing the Empire its allies and starting a Mêlée à Trois with the Commonwealth of Esotre (a former ally) and the newly-risen Varishah Federation (made up of former Imperial conquests and the remaining Kaysani. The highest attainable title in Crusader Kings is Emperor, which the player can attain once their territorial holdings encompass multiple kingdoms. Alternatively, it is possible to simply choose to play as an emperor from the outset of a campaign if the player chooses, for example, to play as the Holy Roman or Byzantine imperial families. Then the challenge is staying in power. From Dragon Age: Empress Celene of the Orlesian Empire is a female example. She might appear like The High Queen at first glance, but is an utterly ruthless Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, since she doesn't consider elves worthy of living (except for her lover Briala) and is willing to make an mountain out of their corpses if it means securing her power. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, she may become better if reconciling with Briala or else she will remain the same. If the Inquisitor plays their cards right, she can be replaced by her cousin Grand Duke Gaspard, who is a straight example of this trope, since his policies are expantionism, warmongering and ruling through force rather than diplomacy. The Tevinter Imperium has the Archon, which is an position similar to the Roman Emperor (either by blood relation, apprenticeship to the previous holder or being elected by the legislative body). Throughout the history of Thedas, Archons had a sinister reputation as Sorcerous Overlords among the southern nations. However, the current one by the time the series takes place, Archon Radonis, is portrayed as a Reasonable Authority Figure with a soft spot for cats. Web Comics In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Princess Voluptua's dad is the Emperor of the local space empire (which includes Earth, though humanity is unaware of it). She clearly has some issues with him, as do his subjects the dragons of planet Butane, but there have been no indications that he is actually evil. Drive: The current Emperor killed his uncle for the position, and framed one of the protagonists. He fits the President Charisma description above. Karate Bears have a very SMALL empire. While all the Demiurges of Kill Six Billion Demons are described as emperors, Solomon David is the truest example, being the only one who actually governs his domain instead of just lording over it with his overwhelming power. He’s described as a just, even-handed, and incredibly brutal dictator, with at least one massacre attributed to his name, and his Celestial Empire is peaceful and prosperous but low on freedoms. Web Original Western Animation Averted in Avatar: The Last Airbender. When the Big Bad, Fire Nation's Fire Lord Ozai decides to promote himself to ruler of the entire world, the title he comes up with is simply "Phoenix King", even though there is already an "Earth King" (and several lesser Earth Kingdom Kings, like King Bumi). This was probably done because "Phoenix Emperor" is way too many syllables to be practical. The Earth King himself is an example of the Benevolent Emperor, though his Grand Secretariat is the one who actually rules the country. On the other hand, in Sequel Series The Legend of Korra, when Kuvira usurps Earth King Wu, she declares her new nation the Earth Empire, and herself its Emperor. One of the cases where Authority Equals Asskicking — or rather, Asskicking Equals Authority, as she conquered her way to the title. The Fairly OddParents! : Tired of being ignored by her husband and her son, the Queen of Yugopotamia used Baby Poof's scary (by Yugopotamian standards) cuteness to rule through him, passing baby Poof as Emperor. Samurai Jack has the benevolent flavor in Jack's father, who was the Emperor of Japan when Aku first invaded. He had a magic katana forged from a piece of his own soul and a substantial boon from several pantheons, kicked Aku's ass with it, and when Aku appeared a second time, gave the sword to his son so that he might do the same. In the same vein, Jack himself technically qualifies as a benevolent Emperor since he is his father's only descendant, and is busting his ass to find a way to undo Aku's oppression. However, since his kingdom was destroyed even before he got sent to the future, Jack has nothing to be emperor of anymore. And then he went back to the past in the final episode. What little we see of his royal lifestyle on the epilogue shows that he's doing a good job himself. Real Life The Western tradition of this trope can be traced back to the Emperors of Rome, who during their reigns ruled one of the greatest empires in the world. Rulers from earlier eras ( Alexander the Great, the High Kings of Persia) had a similar level of power and authority, but the title of Emperor originated with Caesar Augustus, at least in the West - India had the "Samrat Chakravartin" ("ideal universal ruler") Ashoka, China had the "Huangdi" ("sovereign of all under heaven"). The word "emperor" derives from the Latin term Imperator, or "commander" (it's also where we get the word "imperative" from), as Rome had historical reasons to oppose anyone who claimed the title of King. note Similarly, the German and Russian words "Kaiser" and "Czar" are both derived from "Caesar". During the Dark and Middle Ages, European rulers who called themselves "emperor" were specifically invoking the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire was the Roman state so their claim was obvious, the Holy Roman Empire laid claim to the former Roman empire in the West which (initially) they contested with Constantinople, the Russian Czars and Ottoman Sultans both claimed to be Byzantinian successors, and Serbia and Bulgaria both based it on Roman/Greek traditions. This practice continued until nearly the present day: until the mid-twentieth century, there was always at least one European ruler (and sometimes several) in power whose title invoked Caesar, Augustus, or some derivation thereof. Only in later eras did the title become removed from a continuation of the Roman Empire, and became used when a country was really frickin' big or powerful, prime examples being Mexico, Brazil, and Napoleonic France. Other times it was used to make a political point: the Kings of Prussia declared themselves German Emperors to make themselves higher-ranked than other German kings (like the one of Bavaria) without having to demote them (German unification being conducted by integrating the existing German states into a federal structure rather than starting from scratch); Napoleon III did it to link his regime to that of his uncle; the rulers of Austria needed a new title after the Holy Roman Empire disappeared and didn't want to step down in rank; Queen Victoria had herself declared Empress of India to make it clear that Britain was more powerful than Germany (and because she didn't want to be outranked by her daughter, who had married the heir to the German throne) note; and a couple others besides. However, Jean-Bédel Bokassa's short-lived Empire was little short of a farce. According to The Other Wiki England had already been technically an empire since 1533, however the titles King and Kingdom were retained. It is however unknown, what effects the Acts of Union had on this… The trope codifier in East Asia is Qin Shi Huangdi, the "First Emperor" of China. The word for "emperor" in Chinese and Chinese-influenced languages was first coined by Qin Shi Huangdi himself, by combining the two characters hitherto used for semidivine sage-kings from ancient Chinese mythologies. Outside China, there were four more emperor dynasties in the Sinosphere: the Tennō (literally "Heavenly Sovereign") of Japan (still reigning today) and the extremely short-lived imperial dynasty of the Korean Empire, formed in the late 19th century. No other contenders to the title were there, mostly because no-one else was bold enough to use the title that could challenge the primacy of the Chinese huangdi: Japan, being an island country, was isolated from the rest of East Asia and thus could use whatever title they wanted, while Korea only declared itself an empire when China was in decline and torn by civil war. The monarchs of Vietnam (especially those who had gave invaders from China a good beat) zig-zagged this by proclaiming themselves "emperors" while accepting the title of king from China as the formal recognition of sovereignty and diplomatic relation. There was also the short-lived Empire of Vietnam propped up by the Japanese during World War II. Many polities outside of Europe and East Asia also had imperial titles. The Achaemenid Persian rulers claimed the title Khshayathiyanam Khshayathiya, later corrupted into Shah-en-shah (King of Kings). Later on, this title was changed into Padishah (Great King), used by Persian rulers as well as the Ottoman Sultans. The Islamic world in general has the title of Caliph, meaning "inheritor". It was rougly comparable to the title of Emperor: it implied the bearer was a successor of Prophet Muhammad himself and thus, in theory, given right to rule over the entire Muslim community. However, from the late Middle Ages onwards, the Abbasid caliphs gradually lost power, becoming Puppet Kings to other rulers. Caliphs would once again become the leading power in the Middle East during the early Renaissance, but only because the Ottoman Sultans (mentioned above) took the title for themselves. After the Ottomans, the title is vacant - though the "Islamic State" terrorist group has tried to claim it for their leader. Ancient India had several imperial dynasties stretching from the ancient Maurya and Gupta dynasties to the heavily Persian-influenced Mughal dynasty. Many of the older Emperors during the Buddhist era took on the title "Chakravartin" or "turner of the wheel (of Dharma)" referring to an idealized universal monarch, and "Samrat" or (literally) "Ruler of all", and the Mughals took on the Persian title "Padishah" or "Badshah". Ethiopian monarchs for nearly 3, 000 years (according to tradition, at least) used the title Nəgusä Nägäst ("King of Kings"), which was translated as "Emperor". Legend has it that the first Emperor was a son of the Biblical Solomon, which is perhaps the only reason a small African nation was able to get away with calling itself an Empire. Well that and the fact that it was the only African nation to successfully resist European colonialism purely by military force, thoroughly embarrassing the Italians in the process. Interesting Real Life twist on the trope: Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. He wasn't really a ruling emperor; he was just some British guy who went a little bonkers following a bad trading deal that left his funds in shambles. He was enormously popular among the inhabitants of San Francisco, though - he got entry to the city's finest restaurants and theatres for free, had his own currency which was officially accepted by the city, single-handedly prevented a violent Anti-Chinese riot from breaking out, the townsfolk rallied to get him released when he was unjustly arrested by the San Francisco Police Department, and his funeral was attended by 30, 000 people at a time when San Francisco's population was 230, 000. Most of the tales surrounding Emperor Norton are really PR ploy invented by San Francisco's businesses and citizens, however. While many businesses were happy to use Norton as a prop to accentuate the city's image for tolerance and eccentricity, the man himself was actually treated miserably most of the time. His dogs were poisoned. He was kicked out of many business establishments. He lived in a crummy room at a cheap boarding house with only shabby clothes and not much more to his name. Only his funeral, ironically, matched the hype. The Bible had Solomon. Edward I and his grandson Edward III were the closest pre-UK England had for Emperors as they are the only monarchs powerful enough to get the title "Arbiter of Europe". Henry the Second and Henry V had significant continental possessions as well, the latter being the only English monarch to have his claim to the throne of France legitimized in treaty. Later, Queen Victoria took the title "Empress of India". Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, and George VI were all styled "Emperor of India" after her until the title was abolished. Sometimes they were referred to as "King-Emperor". As noted above, the status of the British monarchs is complicated, The Other Wiki even has an extra article for British Emperor. Medieval Spain had Several Emperors of all Spain. The first emperor in recorded history was Sargon of Akkad, whose armies overran most of Iraq in the twenty-fourth century, BCE. He was able to do this because he also had the first professional army in recorded history, giving him a decisive edge over his contemporaries. For thousands of years to come the kings of Assyria and Babylon would take Sargon as their idol and aim to equal or succeed his achievements. The First Emperor of México was Agustín de Iturbide, later Agustín I. After a brilliant and undefeated military career in the War of Independence on the side of the royalists, Iturbide crafted his own plan to liberate México. Said plan expressly called for an Independent México, with a Mexican congress but a Spanish ruler, leaving himself out of the possibility of becoming Emperor. After almost single-handedly achieving the Independence in 7 months, a treaty was signed with the last Viceroy of New Spain, who added a clause that allowed for congress to elect the Mexican ruler if Spain declined it's right to appoint a king for México. Spain refused to acknowledge the Mexican Independence, and public opinion turned to Iturbide, who was, for once in this trope, reluctant to take the charge (he already held what would be the equivalent to the presidency at the moment). A public proclamation then took place, hailing him as Emperor. The next day, congress ratified the election and he was made Emperor. But congress had declared itself sovereign from day one, which led to power struggles between the two powers. After members of congress conspired to kill him, Iturbide was forced to disband congress and reform it as a smaller organism, which gave his political enemies a rallying point. Iturbide eventually elected to resign and exile himself and thus ended the First Mexican Empire. The Second Emperor of México was Maximilian of Habsburg. He was installed by the french intervention in México, which in turned was brought about by the Mexican conservatives seeking to counter the U. S support of the liberal party. Maximilian accepted the offer on the condition that he be convinced that the Mexican people wanted him as a ruler. Maximilian was also largely a benevolent ruler, who truly sought to help Mexico become a better country and had many liberal ideas. However, as the U. S emerged from its Civil War to support the liberal government of Juárez, the French retreated their support of Maximilian, as they were facing the coming Franco-Prussian War. Choosing to stand his ground, Maximilian and his forces could not prevail against the U. S backed liberals. He was captured and unjustly executed by President Juárez, who had compromised Mexican sovereignty and territory in order to secure U. S support of his regime. Genghis Khan, first Khagan of the Mongol Empire. The title "Khagan" can be translated as "Khan of Khans", similar to the "King of Kings" titles mentioned in the entries for Persia and Ethiopia above. Began his ruling career leading a small tribe in east Asia, died ruling the largest land empire in history. After his death the empire split into four Khanates which themselves could have been considered empires in terms of size and power, although officially there was only one Khagan to whom the other Khans were subordinate.

Brendon: “If it feels good tastes good it must be mine” Me: “Welp guess Im yours then 🤷🏻‍♀️”. Rip Intro Yg Lama Jo. Emperortigerstar. Emperor trailer. Emperor of the Roman Empire Imperial Vexillum of the Emperor First to command Augustus 16 January 27 BC – 19 August AD 14 Details Style Imperator, Augustus, Caesar, Princeps, Dominus Noster, Autokrator or Basileus (depending on period) First monarch Augustus Last monarch Theodosius I ( Unified or Classical), Julius Nepos ( Western), Constantine VI ( Universally recognized), Constantine XI ( Eastern) Formation 16 January 27 BC Abolition 17 January 395 AD (Unified or Classical), 22 June 480 AD (Western), 29 May 1453 AD (Eastern), or 1 November 1922 AD (Turkish) Appointer Roman Senate (officially) and/or Roman Military Pretender(s) none The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period (starting in 27 BC). The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history. Often when a given Roman is described as becoming "emperor" in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific. Early Emperors also used the title Princeps Civitatis ('first citizen'). Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably princeps senatus, consul and pontifex maximus. The legitimacy of an emperor's rule depended on his control of the army and recognition by the Senate; an emperor would normally be proclaimed by his troops, or invested with imperial titles by the Senate, or both. The first emperors reigned alone; later emperors would sometimes rule with co-emperors and divide administration of the empire between them. The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king. The first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch. [1] Although Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his successors, Tiberius and Nero, could not convincingly make the same claim. [2] Nonetheless, for the first three hundred years of Roman emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, efforts were made to portray the emperors as leaders of a republic. From Diocletian, whose tetrarchic reforms also divided the position into one emperor in the West and one in the East, until the end of the Empire, emperors ruled in an openly monarchic style [3] and did not preserve the nominal principle of a republic, but the contrast with "kings" was maintained: although the imperial succession was generally hereditary, it was only hereditary if there was a suitable candidate acceptable to the army and the bureaucracy, [4] so the principle of automatic inheritance was not adopted. Elements of the republican institutional framework (senate, consuls, and magistrates) were preserved even after the end of the Western Empire. The peaceful reign of Constantine the Great, the first to openly convert to Christianity and allowing freedom of religion, witnessed the replacement of the Caput Mundi from Rome to Constantinople. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century after multiple invasions of imperial territory by Germanic barbarian tribes. Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the West after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim recognized by the Eastern Empire to the title until his death in 480. Following Nepos' death, the Eastern Emperor Zeno abolished the division of the position and proclaimed himself as the sole Emperor of a reunited Roman Empire. Emperor Heraclius made diplomatic relations with the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, but lost many territories after successful Islamic conquests. The Eastern imperial lineage continued to rule from Constantinople ("New Rome"); they continued to style themselves as Emperor of the Romans (later βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων in Greek), but are often referred to in modern scholarship as Byzantine emperors. Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire 's Mehmed II in 1453. The Muslim rulers then claimed the title of Caesar of Rome. The "Byzantine" emperors from Heraclius in 629 and onwards adopted the title of basileus ( βασιλεύς), which had originally meant king in Greek but became a title reserved solely for the Roman emperor and the ruler of the Sasanian Empire. Other kings were then referred to as rēgas. [5] In addition to their pontifical office, some emperors were given divine status after death. With the eventual hegemony of Christianity, the emperor came to be seen as God's chosen ruler, as well as a special protector and leader of the Christian Church on Earth, although in practice an emperor's authority on Church matters was subject to challenge. Due to the cultural rupture of the Turkish conquest, most western historians treat Constantine XI as the last meaningful claimant to the title Roman Emperor. From 1453, one of the titles used by the Ottoman Sultans was "Caesar of Rome" (Turkish: Kayser-i Rum) [6], part of their titles until the Ottoman Empire ended in 1922. A Byzantine group of claimant Roman emperors existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1461, though they had used a modified title since 1282. Eastern emperors in Constantinople had been recognized and accepted as Roman emperors both in the East, which they ruled, and by the Papacy and Germanic kingdoms of the West until the deposition of Constantine VI and accession of Irene of Athens as Empress regnant in 797. Objecting to a woman ruling the Roman Empire in her own right and issues with the eastern clergy, the Papacy would then create a rival lineage of Roman emperors in western Europe, the Holy Roman Emperors, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for most of the period between 800 and 1806. These Emperors were never recognized as Roman emperors by the court in Constantinople and their coronations resulted in the medieval problem of two emperors. Background and beginning [ edit] Statue of Augustus, c. 30 BC–20 BC; this statue is located in the Louvre Modern historians conventionally regard Augustus as the first Emperor whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic, a view having its origins in the Roman writers Plutarch, Tacitus and Cassius Dio. [7] However, the majority of Roman writers, including Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Appian, as well as most of the ordinary people of the Empire, thought of Julius Caesar as the first Emperor. [8] At the end of the Roman Republic no new, and certainly no single, title indicated the individual who held supreme power. Insofar as emperor could be seen as the English translation of imperator, then Julius Caesar had been an emperor, like several Roman generals before him. Instead, by the end of the civil wars in which Julius Caesar had led his armies, it became clear that there was certainly no consensus to return to the old-style monarchy, but that the period when several officials, bestowed with equal power by the senate, would fight one another had come to an end. Julius Caesar, and then Augustus after him, accumulated offices and titles of the highest importance in the Republic, making the power attached to those offices permanent, and preventing anyone with similar aspirations from accumulating or maintaining power for themselves. However, Julius Caesar, unlike those after him, did so without the Senate's vote and approval. [ citation needed] Julius Caesar held the Republican offices of consul four times and dictator five times, was appointed dictator in perpetuity ( dictator perpetuo) in 45 BC and had been "pontifex maximus" for a long period. He gained these positions by senatorial consent and just prior to his assassination, was the most powerful man in the Roman world. In his will, Caesar appointed his adopted son Octavian as his heir. On Caesar's death, Octavian inherited his adoptive father's property and lineage, the loyalty of most of his allies and – again through a formal process of senatorial consent – an increasing number of the titles and offices that had accrued to Caesar. A decade after Caesar's death, Octavian's victory over his erstwhile ally Mark Antony at Actium put an end to any effective opposition and confirmed Octavian's supremacy. In 27 BC, Octavian appeared before the Senate and offered to retire from active politics and government; the Senate not only requested he remain, but increased his powers and made them lifelong, awarding him the title of Augustus (the elevated or divine one, somewhat less than a god but approaching divinity). Augustus stayed in office until his death; the sheer breadth of his superior powers as princeps and permanent imperator of Rome's armies guaranteed the peaceful continuation of what nominally remained a republic. His "restoration" of powers to the Senate and the people of Rome was a demonstration of his auctoritas and pious respect for tradition. Some later historians such as Tacitus would say that even at Augustus' death, the true restoration of the Republic might have been possible. Instead, Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor and pleaded his case to the Senate for inheritance on merit. The Senate disputed the issue but eventually confirmed Tiberius as princeps. Once in power, Tiberius took considerable pains to observe the forms and day-to-day substance of republican government. Classical period [ edit] Ancient Rome This article is part of a series on the politics and government of ancient Rome Periods Roman Kingdom 753–509 BC Roman Republic 509–27 BC Roman Empire 27 BC – AD 395 Principate Dominate Western AD 395–476 Eastern AD 395–1453 Timeline Roman Constitution Constitution of the Kingdom Constitution of the Republic Constitution of the Empire Constitution of the Late Empire Senate Legislative assemblies Executive magistrates Precedent and law Roman law Ius Imperium Mos maiorum Collegiality Auctoritas Roman citizenship Cursus honorum Senatus consultum Senatus consultum ultimum Assemblies Centuriate Curiate Plebeian Tribal Ordinary magistrates Consul Praetor Quaestor Promagistrate Aedile Tribune Censor Governor Extraordinary magistrates Corrector Dictator Magister equitum Consular tribune Rex Triumviri Decemviri Titles and honours Emperor Legatus Dux Officium Praeses Praefectus Vicarius Vigintisexviri Lictor Magister militum Imperator Princeps senatus Pontifex maximus Augustus Caesar Tetrarch Other countries Atlas v t e Rome had no single constitutional office, title or rank exactly equivalent to the English title "Roman emperor". Romans of the Imperial era used several titles to denote their emperors, and all were associated with the pre-Imperial, Republican era. The legal authority of the emperor derived from an extraordinary concentration of individual powers and offices that were extant in the Republic rather than from a new political office; emperors were regularly elected to the offices of consul and censor. [9] Among their permanent privileges were the traditional Republican title of princeps senatus (leader of the Senate) and the religious office of pontifex maximus (chief priest of the College of Pontiffs). Every emperor held the latter office and title until Gratian surrendered it in AD 382 to Pope Siricius; it eventually became an auxiliary honor of the Bishop of Rome. These titles and offices conferred great personal prestige ( dignitas) but the basis of an emperor's powers derived from his auctoritas: this assumed his greater powers of command ( imperium maius) and tribunician power ( tribunicia potestas) as personal qualities, separate from his public office. As a result, he formally outranked provincial governors and ordinary magistrates. He had the right to enact or revoke sentences of capital punishment, was owed the obedience of private citizens ( privati) and by the terms of the ius auxiliandi could save any plebeian from any patrician magistrate's decision. He could veto any act or proposal of any magistrate, including the tribunes of the people ( ius intercedendi or ius intercessionis). His person was held to be sacrosanct. Roman magistrates on official business were expected to wear the form of toga associated with their office; different togas were worn by different ranks; senior magistrates had the right to togas bordered with purple. A triumphal imperator of the Republic had the right to wear the toga picta (of solid purple, richly embroidered) for the duration of the triumphal rite. During the Late Republic, the most powerful had this right extended. Pompey and Caesar are both thought to have worn the triumphal toga and other triumphal dress at public functions. Later emperors were distinguished by wearing togae purpurae, purple togas; hence the phrase "to don the purple" for the assumption of imperial dignity. The titles customarily associated with the imperial dignity are imperator ("commander"), which emphasizes the emperor's military supremacy and is the source of the English word emperor; Caesar, which was originally a name but came to be used for the designated heir (as Nobilissimus Caesar, "Most Noble Caesar") and was retained upon accession. The ruling emperor's title was the descriptive Augustus ("majestic" or "venerable", which had tinges of the divine), which was adopted upon accession. In Greek, these three titles were rendered as autokratōr (" Αὐτοκράτωρ "), kaisar (" Καίσαρ "), and augoustos (" Αὔγουστος ") or sebastos (" Σεβαστός ") respectively. In Diocletian 's Tetrarchy, the traditional seniorities were maintained: "Augustus" was reserved for the two senior emperors and "Caesar" for the two junior emperors – each delegated a share of power and responsibility but each an emperor-in-waiting, should anything befall his senior. As princeps senatus (lit., "first man of the senate"), the emperor could receive foreign embassies to Rome; some emperors (such as Tiberius) are known to have delegated this task to the Senate. In modern terms these early emperors would tend to be identified as chiefs of state. The office of princeps senatus, however, was not a magistracy and did not entail imperium. At some points in the Empire's history, the emperor's power was nominal; powerful praetorian prefects, masters of the soldiers and on a few occasions, other members of the Imperial household including Imperial mothers and grandmothers were the true source of power. Imperator [ edit] The title imperator dates back to the Roman Republic, when a victorious commander could be hailed as imperator in the field by his troops. The Senate could then award or withhold the extraordinary honour of a triumph; the triumphal commander retained the title until the end of his magistracy. [10] In Roman tradition, the first triumph was that of Romulus, but the first attested recipient of the title imperator in a triumphal context is Aemilius Paulus in 189 BC. [10] It was a title held with great pride: Pompey was hailed imperator more than once, as was Sulla, but it was Julius Caesar who first used it permanently – according to Dio, this was a singular and excessive form of flattery granted by the Senate, passed to Caesar's adopted heir along with his name and virtually synonymous with it. [11] In 38 BC Agrippa refused a triumph for his victories under Octavian 's command, and this precedent established the rule that the princeps should assume both the salutation and title of imperator. It seems that from then on Octavian (later the first emperor Augustus) used imperator as a first name ( praenomen): Imperator Caesar not Caesar imperator. From this the title came to denote the supreme power and was commonly used in that sense. Otho was the first to imitate Augustus, but only with Vespasian did imperator (emperor) become the official title by which the ruler of the Roman Empire was known. Princeps [ edit] The word princeps (plural principes), meaning "first", was a republican term used to denote the leading citizen(s) of the state. It was a purely honorific title with no attached duties or powers. It was the title most preferred by Caesar Augustus as its use implies only primacy, as opposed to another of his titles, imperator, which implies dominance. Princeps, because of its republican connotation, was most commonly used to refer to the emperor in Latin (although the emperor's actual constitutional position was essentially "pontifex maximus with tribunician power and imperium superseding all others") as it was in keeping with the façade of the restored Republic; the Greek word basileus ("king") was modified to be synonymous with emperor (and primarily came into favour after the reign of Heraclius) as the Greeks had no republican sensibility and openly viewed the emperor as a monarch. In the era of Diocletian and beyond, princeps fell into disuse and was replaced with dominus ("lord"); [12] later emperors used the formula Imperator Caesar NN. Pius Felix (Invictus) Augustus: NN representing the individual's personal name; Pius Felix meaning "Pious and Blest"; and Invictus meaning "undefeated". The use of princeps and dominus broadly symbolise the differences in the empire's government, giving rise to the era designations " Principate " and " Dominate ". Evolution in Late Antiquity [ edit] In 293, following the Crisis of the Third Century which had severely damaged Imperial administration, Emperor Diocletian enacted sweeping reforms that washed away many of the vestiges and façades of republicanism which had characterized the Augustan order in favor of a more frank autocracy. As a result, historians distinguish the Augustan period as the principate and the period from Diocletian to the 7th-century reforms of Emperor Heraclius as the dominate (from the Latin for "lord". ) Reaching back to the oldest traditions of job-sharing in the republic, however, Diocletian established at the top of this new structure the Tetrarchy ("rule of four") in an attempt to provide for smoother succession and greater continuity of government. Under the Tetrarchy, Diocletian set in place a system of co-emperors, styled "Augustus", and junior emperors, styled "Caesar". When a co-emperor retired (as Diocletian and his co-emperor Maximian did in 305) or died, a junior "Caesar" would succeed him and the co-emperors would appoint new Caesars as needed. The four members of the Imperial college (as historians call the arrangement) shared military and administrative challenges by each being assigned specific geographic areas of the empire. From this innovation, often but not consistently repeated over the next 187 years, comes the notion of an east-west partition of the empire that became popular with historians long after the practice had stopped. The two halves of empire, while often run as de facto separate entities day-to-day, were always considered and seen, legally and politically, as separate administrative divisions of a single, insoluble imperium by the Romans of the time. The final period of co-emperorship began in 395, when Emperor Theodosius I 's sons Arcadius and Honorius succeeded as co-emperors. Eighty-five years later, following Germanic migrations which had reduced the empire's effective control across Brittania, Gaul and Hispania and a series of military coup d'état which drove Emperor Nepos out of Italy, the idea of dividing the position of emperor was formally abolished by Emperor Zeno (480). The Roman Empire survived in the east until 1453, but the marginalization of the former heartland of Italy to the empire [ clarification needed] had a profound cultural impact on the empire and the position of emperor. In 620, the official language was changed from Latin to Greek. The Greek-speaking inhabitants were Romaioi (Ῥωμαῖοι), and were still considered Romans by themselves and the populations of Eastern Europe, the Near East, India, and China. But many in Western Europe began to refer to the political entity as the "Greek Empire". The evolution of the church in the no-longer imperial city of Rome and the church in the now supreme Constantinople began to follow divergent paths, culminating in the schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths. The position of emperor was increasingly influenced by Near Eastern concepts of kingship. Starting with Emperor Heraclius, Roman emperors styled themselves "King of Kings" (from the imperial Persian Shahanshah) from 627 and "Basileus" (from the title used by Alexander the Great) from 629. The later period of the empire is today called the Byzantine Empire as a matter of scholarly convention. [ citation needed] Titles and positions [ edit] Although these are the most common offices, titles, and positions, not all Roman emperors used them, nor were all of them used at the same time in history. The consular and censorial offices especially were not an integral part of the Imperial dignity, and were usually held by persons other than the reigning emperor. Augustus: (also " Αὔγουστος " or " Σεβαστός "), "Majestic" or "Venerable"; an honorific cognomen exclusive to the emperor Autokrator: ( Αὐτοκράτωρ, Autokratōr), (lit. "Self-ruler"); Greek title equivalent to imperator or commander-in-chief Basileus: ( Βασιλεύς), Greek for king, popularly used in the east to refer to the emperor; a formal title of the Roman emperor beginning with Heraclius Caesar: (also " Καίσαρ "), "Caesar"; initially the cognomen of Julius Caesar, it was transformed into a title; an honorific name later used to identify an emperor-designate Censor: a Republican office held jointly by two former consuls every five years for the purpose of conducting the lustrum that determined the role of citizens; the censor could audit all other magistrates and all state finances Consul: the highest magistracy of the Roman Republic with a one-year term and one coequal officeholder; the consul was the head of state within Rome. The last emperor to be bestowed the title by the Senate was Constans II, who was also the last emperor to visit Rome. Dominus ("Lord" or "Master"): an honorific title mainly associated with the Dominate Dominus Noster ("Our Lord"): an honorific title; the praenomen of later emperors. [ citation needed] Imperator ("Commander" or "Commander-in-Chief"): a victory title taken on accession to the purple and after a major military victory Imperator Destinatus ("Destined to be Emperor"): heir apparent, used by Septimius Severus for Caracalla Invictus ("Unconquered"), an honorific title. Nobilissimus: ( Nωβελίσσιμος, Nōbelissimos), ("Most Noble"), one of the highest imperial titles held by the emperor Pater Patriae ("Father of the Fatherland"): an honorific title Perpetuus ("Universal"): an honorific title of later emperors Pius Felix ("Pious and Blessed"): an honorific title Pontifex Maximus ("Supreme Pontiff" or "Chief Priest"): in the Republican era, the Pontifex Maximus was the head of the College of Pontiffs, the religious body that oversaw the ancestral public religion of the Romans; Julius Caesar had become Pontifex Maximus before he was elected consul, and the precedent set by his heir Augustus in consolidating supreme authority through this religious office was in general followed by his successors until the empire came under Christian rule Princeps ("First Citizen" or "Leading Citizen"): an honorific title denoting the status of the emperor as first among equals, associated mainly with the Principate Princeps Iuventutis: ("Prince of Youth"), an honorific title awarded to a presumptive emperor-designate Princeps Senatus: ("First Man of the Senate"), a Republican office with a five-year term Sebastos: ( Σεβαστός), ("Venerable"); the Greek rendition of the imperial title Augustus Sebastokrator: ( Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sebastokratōr), ("Venerable Ruler); a senior court title from the compound words "sebastos" ("venerable", the Greek equivalent of the Latin Augustus) and "kratōr" ("ruler", the same element as is found in "autokratōr", "emperor") Tribunicia Potestas: ("Tribunician Power"); the powers of a tribune of the people, including sacrosanctity and inviolability of his person, and the veto over any decision by any other magistrate, assembly, or the Senate (the emperor could not be a " tribune " because a tribune was a plebeian by definition, therefore the emperor had all the powers of a tribune without actually being one) Powers [ edit] When Augustus established the Princeps, he turned down supreme authority in exchange for a collection of various powers and offices, which in itself was a demonstration of his auctoritas ("authority"). As holding princeps senatus, the emperor declared the opening and closure of each Senate session, declared the Senate's agenda, imposed rules and regulation for the Senate to follow, and met with foreign ambassadors in the name of the Senate. Being pontifex maximus made the emperor the chief administrator of religious affairs, granting him the power to conduct all religious ceremonies, consecrate temples, control the Roman calendar (adding or removing days as needed), appoint the vestal virgins and some flamens, lead the Collegium Pontificum, and summarize the dogma of the Roman religion. While these powers granted the emperor a great deal of personal pride and influence, they did not include legal authority. In 23 BC, Augustus gave the emperorship its legal power. The first was Tribunicia Potestas, or the powers of the tribune of the plebs without actually holding the office (which would have been impossible, since a tribune was by definition a plebeian, whereas Augustus, although born into a plebeian family, had become a patrician when he was adopted into the gens Julia). This endowed the emperor with inviolability (sacrosanctity) of his person, and the ability to pardon any civilian for any act, criminal or otherwise. By holding the powers of the tribune, the emperor could prosecute anyone who interfered with the performance of his duties. The emperor's tribuneship granted him the right to convene the Senate at his will and lay proposals before it, as well as the ability to veto any act or proposal by any magistrate, including the actual tribune of the plebeians. Also, as holder of the tribune's power, the emperor would convoke the Council of the People, lay legislation before it, and served as the council's president. But his tribuneship only granted him power within Rome itself. He would need another power to veto the act of governors and that of the consuls while in the provinces. To solve this problem, Augustus managed to have the emperor be given the right to hold two types of imperium. The first being consular imperium while he was in Rome, and imperium maius outside of Rome. While inside the walls of Rome, the reigning consuls and the emperor held equal authority, each being able to veto each other's proposals and acts, with the emperor holding all of the consul's powers. But outside of Rome, the emperor outranked the consuls and could veto them without the same effects on himself. Imperium Maius also granted the emperor authority over all the provincial governors, making him the ultimate authority in provincial matters and gave him the supreme command of all of Rome's legions. With Imperium Maius, the emperor was also granted the power to appoint governors of imperial provinces without the interference of the Senate. Also, Imperium Maius granted the emperor the right to veto the governors of the provinces and even the reigning consul while in the provinces. Lineages and epochs [ edit] Principate [ edit] The nature of the imperial office and the Principate was established under Julius Caesar 's heir and posthumously adopted son, Caesar Augustus, and his own heirs, the descendants of his wife Livia from her first marriage to a scion of the distinguished Claudian clan. This Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an end when the Emperor Nero – a great-great-grandson of Augustus through his daughter and of Livia through her son – was deposed in 68. Nero was followed by a succession of usurpers throughout 69, commonly called the " Year of the Four Emperors ". The last of these, Vespasian, established his own Flavian dynasty. Nerva, who replaced the last Flavian emperor, Vespasian's son Domitian, in 96, was elderly and childless, and chose therefore to adopt an heir, Trajan, from outside his family. When Trajan acceded to the purple he chose to follow his predecessor's example, adopting Hadrian as his own heir, and the practice then became the customary manner of imperial succession for the next century, producing the " Five Good Emperors " and the Empire's period of greatest stability. The last of the Good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius, chose his natural son Commodus as his successor rather than adopting an heir. Commodus's misrule led to his murder on 31 December 192, following which a brief period of instability quickly gave way to Septimius Severus, who established the Severan dynasty which, except for an interruption in 217–218 when Macrinus was emperor, held the purple until 235. Crisis of the Third Century [ edit] The accession of Maximinus Thrax marks both the close and the opening of an era. It was one of the last attempts by the increasingly impotent Roman Senate to influence the succession. Yet it was the second time that a man had achieved the purple while owing his advancement purely to his military career; both Vespasian and Septimius Severus had come from noble or middle-class families, while Thrax was born a commoner. He never visited the city of Rome during his reign, which marks the beginning of a series of " barracks emperors " who came from the army. Between 235 and 285 over a dozen emperors achieved the purple, but only Valerian and Carus managed to secure their own sons' succession to the throne; both dynasties died out within two generations. Dominate [ edit] The accession on 20 November 284, of Diocletian, the lower-class, Greek-speaking Dalmatian commander of Carus's and Numerian's household cavalry ( protectores domestici), marked major innovations in Rome's government and constitutional theory. Diocletian, a traditionalist and religious conservative, attempted to secure efficient, stable government and a peaceful succession with the establishment of the Tetrarchy. The empire was divided into East and West, each ruled by an Augustus assisted by a Caesar as emperor-in-waiting. These divisions were further subdivided into new or reformed provinces, administered by a complex, hierarchic bureaucracy of unprecedented size and scope. Diocletian's own court was based at Nicomedia. His co-Augustus, Maximian, was based at Mediolanum (modern Milan). Their courts were peripatetic, and Imperial progressions through the provinces made much use of the impressive, theatrical adventus, or "Imperial arrival" ceremony, which employed an elaborate choreography of etiquette to emphasise the emperor's elevation above other mortals. Hyperinflation of imperial honours and titles served to distinguish the Augusti from their Caesares, and Diocletian, as senior Augustus, from his colleague Maximian. The senior Augustus in particular was made a separate and unique being, accessible only through those closest to him. The overall unity of the Empire still required the highest investiture of power and status in one man. [13] The Tetrarchy ultimately degenerated into civil war, but the eventual victor, Constantine the Great, restored Diocletian's division of Empire into East and West. He kept the East for himself and founded his city of Constantinople as its new capital. Constantine's own dynasty was also soon swallowed up in civil war and court intrigue until it was replaced, briefly, by Julian the Apostate 's general Jovian and then, more permanently, by Valentinian I and the dynasty he founded in 364. Though a soldier from a low middle-class background, Valentinian was made emperor by a conclave of senior generals and civil officials. Late empire [ edit] Theodosius I acceded to the purple in the East in 379 and in the West in 394. He outlawed paganism and made Christianity the Empire's official religion. He was the last emperor to rule over a united Roman Empire; the distribution of the East to his son Arcadius and the West to his son Honorius after his death in 395 represented a permanent division. In the West, the office of emperor soon degenerated into being little more than a puppet of a succession of Germanic tribal kings, until finally the Heruli Odoacer simply overthrew the child-emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476, shipped the imperial regalia to the Emperor Zeno in Constantinople and became King of Italy. Though during his own lifetime Odoacer maintained the legal fiction that he was actually ruling Italy as the viceroy of Zeno, historians mark 476 as the traditional date of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. Large parts of Italy ( Sicily, the south part of the peninsula, Ravenna, Venice etc. ), however, remained under actual imperial rule from Constantinople for centuries, with imperial control slipping or becoming nominal only as late as the 11th century. In the East, the Empire continued until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Although known as the Byzantine Empire by contemporary historians, the Empire was simply known as the Roman Empire to its citizens and neighboring countries. Post-classical assertions to the title [ edit] Survival of the Roman Empire in the East [ edit] Imaginary portrait of Constantine XI, the last Roman emperor of the Eastern Roman empire (until 1453). The line of Roman emperors in the Eastern Roman Empire continued unbroken at Constantinople until the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade. In the wake of this action, four lines of Emperors emerged, each claiming to be the legal successor: the Empire of Thessalonica, evolving from the Despotate of Epirus, which was reduced to impotence when its founder Theodore Komnenos Doukas was defeated, captured and blinded by the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen III; [14] the Latin Empire, which came to an end when the Empire of Nicaea recovered Constantinople in 1261; the Empire of Trebizond, whose importance declined over the 13th century, and whose claims were simply ignored; [15] and the Empire of Nicaea, whose claims based on kinship with the previous emperors, control of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and possession of Constantinople through military prowess, prevailed. The successors of the emperors of Nicaea continued until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 under Constantine XI Palaiologos. These emperors eventually normalized the imperial dignity into the modern conception of an emperor, incorporated it into the constitutions of the state, and adopted the aforementioned title Basileus kai autokratōr Rhomaiōn ("Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans"). They had also ceased to use Latin as the language of state after Emperor Heraclius (d. 641 AD). Historians have customarily treated the state of these later Eastern emperors under the name " Byzantine Empire ". It is important to note, however, that the adjective Byzantine, although historically used by Eastern Roman authors in a metonymic sense, was never an official term. Last Roman emperor [ edit] Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last reigning Roman emperor. A member of the Palaiologos dynasty, he ruled the remnant of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1449 until his death in 1453 defending its capital Constantinople. He was born in Mystra [16] as the eighth of ten children of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš, the daughter of the Serbian prince Constantine Dragaš of Kumanovo. He spent most of his childhood in Constantinople under the supervision of his parents. During the absence of his older brother in Italy, Constantine was regent in Constantinople from 1437–40. Before the beginning of the siege, Mehmed the Conqueror made an offer to Constantine XI. [17] In exchange for the surrender of Constantinople, the emperor's life would be spared and he would continue to rule in Mystra. Constantine refused this offer. Instead he led the defense of the city and took an active part in the fighting along the land walls. At the same time, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain the necessary unity between the Genovese, Venetian, and Byzantine troops. As the city fell on May 29, 1453, Constantine is said to have remarked: "The city is fallen but I am alive. " Realizing that the end had come, he reportedly discarded his purple cloak and led his remaining soldiers into a final charge, in which he was killed. With his death, Roman imperial succession came to an end, almost 1500 years after Augustus. After the fall of Constantinople, Thomas Palaiologos, brother of Constantine XI, was elected emperor and tried to organize the remaining forces. His rule came to an end after the fall of the last major Byzantine city, Corinth. He then moved in Italy and continued to be recognized as Eastern emperor by the Christian powers. His son Andreas Palaiologos continued claims on the Byzantine throne until he sold the title to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the grandparents of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. New Western lineage [ edit] Charles V was the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire to receive a papal coronation (until abdication in 1556). The concept of the Roman Empire was renewed in the West with the coronation of the king of the Franks, Charlemagne (Charles the Great), as Roman emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800. This coronation had its roots in the decline of influence of the Pope in the affairs of the Byzantine Empire at the same time the Byzantine Empire declined in influence over politics in the West. The Pope saw no advantage to be derived from working with the Byzantine Empire, but as George Ostrogorsky points out, "an alliance with the famous conqueror of the Lombards, on the other hand... promised much". [18] The immediate response of the Eastern Roman emperor was not welcoming. "At that time it was axiomatic that there could be only one Empire as there could be only one church", writes Ostrogorsky. "The coronation of Charles the Great violated all traditional ideas and struck a hard blow at Byzantine interests, for hitherto Byzantium, the new Rome, had unquestionably been regarded as the sole Empire which had taken over the inheritance of the old Roman imperium. Conscious of its imperial rights, Byzantium could only consider the elevation of Charles the Great to be an act of usurpation. " [19] Nikephoros I chose to ignore Charlemagne's claim to the imperial title, clearly recognizing the implications of this act. According to Ostrogorsky, "he even went so far as to refuse the Patriarch Nicephorus permission to dispatch the customary synodica to the Pope. " [20] Meanwhile, Charlemagne's power steadily increased: he subdued Istria and several Dalmatian cities during the reign of Irene, and his son Pepin brought Venice under Western hegemony, despite a successful counter-attack by the Byzantine fleet. Unable to counter this encroachment on Byzantine territory, Nikephoros' successor Michael I Rangabe capitulated; in return for the restoration of the captured territories, Michael sent Byzantine delegates to Aachen in 812 who recognized Charlemagne as Basileus. [21] Michael did not recognize him as Basileus of the Romans, however, which was a title that he reserved for himself. [22] This line of Roman emperors was actually generally Germanic rather than Roman, but maintained their Roman-ness as a matter of principle. These emperors used a variety of titles (most frequently " Imperator Augustus ") before finally settling on Imperator Romanus Electus ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Historians customarily assign them the title "Holy Roman Emperor", which has a basis in actual historical usage, and treat their " Holy Roman Empire " as a separate institution. To Latin Catholics of the time, the Pope was the temporal authority as well as spiritual authority, and as Bishop of Rome he was recognized as having the power to anoint or crown a new Roman emperor. The last man to be crowned by the pope (although in Bologna, not Rome) was Charles V. All his successors bore only a title of "Elected Roman Emperor". This line of Emperors lasted until 1806 when Francis II dissolved the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Despite the existence of later potentates styling themselves "emperor", such as the Napoleons, the Habsburg Emperors of Austria, and the Hohenzollern heads of the German Reich, this marked the end of the Western Empire. Although there is a living heir, Karl von Habsburg, to the Habsburg dynasty, as well as a Pope and pretenders to the positions of the electors, and although all the medieval coronation regalia are still preserved in Austria, the legal abolition of all aristocratic prerogatives of the former electors and the imposition of republican constitutions in Germany and Austria render quite remote any potential for a revival of the Holy Roman Empire. For rulers of Italy after Romulus "Augustulus" and Julius Nepos, see list of barbarian kings. For the Roman emperors who ruled in the East after The Fall in the West, see List of Byzantine emperors. For emperors of the Holy Roman Empire in the West, see Holy Roman Emperor. See also [ edit] Byzantine Emperor Imperial cult Interregnum Justitium King of Rome Roman Emperors family tree; also Julio-Claudian family tree and Severan dynasty family tree Roman usurper Lists [ edit] List of Imperial Victory Titles List of Roman emperors List of Roman usurpers List of condemned Roman emperors References [ edit] ^ Galinsky 2005, pp. 13–14 ^ Alston 1998, p. 39 ^ Williams 1997, p. 147 ^ Heather 2005, p. 28 ^ Kazhdan 1991, p. 264 ^ İlber Ortaylı, "Büyük Constantin ve İstanbul", Milliyet, 28 May 2011. ^ Barnes 2009, pp. 278–279 ^ Barnes 2009, pp. 279–282 ^ Murray, John (1875). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. University of Chicago. pp. 260–266. ^ a b The Oxford Classical Dictionary, entry 'Imperator', Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1996. ^ Cassius Dio, 43. 44. 2. ^ Goldsworth 2010, p. 443 ^ Rees 2004, pp. 46–56, 60 ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 387 ^ On the imperial claims of the Grand Komnenos and international response to them, see N. Oikonomides, "The Chancery of the Grand Komnenoi; Imperial Tradition and Political Reality", Archeion Pontou, 35 (1979), pp. 299–332 ^ "Constantine Palaeologus the last Hellene emperor Fall of Constantinople".. ^ Mansel, Philip (1995). "Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453–1924". Washington Post. St. Martin's Press. Retrieved 21 August 2018. ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 164 ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 164f ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 175 ^ Ostrogorsky 1957, p. 176 ^ Eichmann, Eduard (1942). Die Kaiserkrönung im Abendland: ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des kirchlichen Rechte, der Liturgie und der Kirchenpolitik. Echter-Verlag. p. 33. Sources [ edit] Alston, Richard (1998). Aspects of Roman history, AD 14–117. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-13237-4. Retrieved 2011-08-03. Barnes, Timothy (2009). "The first Emperor: the view of late antiquity". In Griffin, Miriam (ed. ). A Companion to Julius Caesar. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-0845-7. Galinsky, Karl (2005). The Cambridge companion to the Age of Augustus. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80796-8. Retrieved 2011-08-03. Goldsworth, Adrian (2010). How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300164268. Heather, Peter (2005). The Fall of the Roman Empire. ISBN 978-0-330-49136-5. Retrieved 2011-08-03. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 Ostrogorsky, George (1957). History of the Byzantine State. Translated by Hussey, Joan. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Rees, Roger (2004). Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. Williams, Stephen (1997) [1985]. Diocletian and the Roman recovery. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-91827-5. Retrieved 2011-08-03. Further reading [ edit] Scarre, Chris. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome. London: Thames & Hudson, October 1, 1995. ISBN 0-500-05077-5 (hardcover). External links [ edit] De Imperatoribus Romanis Rulers of Rome "Decadence, Rome and Romania, and the Emperors Who Weren't", by Kelley L. Ross, Ph. D. The Roman Law Library List of Greatest Roman Emperors.

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