Emperor: Encyclopedia II - Emperor - Historical development of the Roman & Christian tradition

Emperor - Historical development of the Roman & Christian tradition

Emperor - Europe & Byzantium

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 section on the Origin of the Western terminology below.

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 on the other hand 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 (for empires not too strictly under salic law) are known. 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

When Republican Rome turned into a monarchy again, 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 after Julius Caesar also Dictator (which was an acknowledged office in Republican Rome, Julius Caesar not being the first to hold it).

In fact Caesar Augustus, who can be considered the first Roman Emperor, avoided naming himself anything that could be reminding of "monarchy" or "dictature". Instead, these first Emperors constructed their office as a complicated collection of offices, titles, and honours, that were consolidated around a single person and his closest relatives (while in the republic the "taking of turns", often in shared offices, had been the principle for passing on power). These early Roman emperors didn't need a specific name for their monarchy: they had enough offices and powers accumulated so that in any field of power they were "unsurpassable", and besides: everybody just knew they had supreme power. If needed that supreme power could be demonstrated by a proces for high treason, exile, poisoning, or whatever, for those who gave semblance not to understand.

As the first Roman Emperors did not rule by virtue of any particular republican or senatorial office, the name given to the office of "head of state" in this new monarchical form of government became different depending on tradition, none of these traditions consolidated in the early days of the Roman Empire:

• Princeps (as, for example, in Tacitus' Annals). This tradition did not continue. An echo can be found in Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, where "Prince" is used as a generic name for "monarch", and later in the first dynasties of Imperial monarchs of ancient Rome being called principate by historians. This name for the Roman monarch appears to go back to the office of Princeps senatus (which can be translated as "president of the senate"), an office since Augustus held exclusively by the ruling monarch.
• 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).
• 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 "akin to divinity", it was generally not used to indicate the office of Emperor itself. Exceptions include the title of the Augustan History, a half-mockumentary biography of the Emperors 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 Imperator was a title granted to Roman generals by their troops and the Roman Senate after a great victory, roughly comparable to field marshal. This title, during the Republic, had been given to people seven times at all: in 90 BC to a Gaius Julius Caesar, in 84 BC to Cneus Pompeus, in 60 BC to the other, most famous, Gaius Julius Caesar, relative of the former, in 50 BC to Marcus Tullius Cicero, in 45 BC again to Caius Julius Caesar, in 44 BC to Marcus Iunius Brutus, and in 41 BC to Lucius Antonius (relative and ally of the more famous Marcus Antonius). Soon after the emergence of the imperial monarchy in Rome "Imperator" also became an exclusive title, adopted by the ruling monarch. This led to "Emperor" in English and, among other examples, "Empereur" in French. The Latin feminine form Imperatrix only developed after "Imperator" had gotten the connotation of "Emperor". In 15 AD Tiberius Augustus Germanicus was also imperator with the old meaning of the term during the empire of his most famous relative Tiberius Augustus.
• Αὐτοκράτωρ, βᾰσῐλεύς: although the Greeks used equivalents of "Caesar" (Καίσαρ) and "Augustus" (in two forms: Αύγουστος 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 ("autokratôr", only partly overlapping with the modern understanding of "autocrat") or βᾰσῐλεύς ("basileus", until then the usual name for "sovereign"). "Autokratôr" could be seen as a translation of the Latin "Imperator" (it was certainly used as its replacement 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 "Autokratôr" 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 in the meaning of Emperor before the 7th century.

After the problematic year 69, the Flavian Dynasty reigned for about half a century. 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.

In the 3rd century Barracks Emperors succeeded one another at short intervals. The next period, known as the Dominate, started with the Tetrarchy installed by Diocletian.

Through most of the 4th century, there were separate emperors for the Western and Eastern part of the Empire. Although there were several dynastic relations between the Emperors of both parts, they also often were adversaries. The last Emperor to rule a unified Roman Empire was Theodosius. Less than a century after his death in 395, the last Emperor of the Western half of the Empire was driven out.

Historians generally call the eastern part of the Roman Empire the Byzantine Empire due to its capital Constantinople, whose ancient name was Byzantium (now Istanbul). After the fall of Rome to barbarian forces in 476, the title of "emperor" lived on in rulers of Constantinople (New Rome).

The Byzantine Emperors completed the transition from the idea of the Emperor as a semi-republican official to the Emperor as a traditional monarch when Emperor Heraclius took the title of Basileus (the original Greek word for "King") in the seventh century. A specifically Byzantine development of emperor's position was cesaropapism, position as leader of christians.

The Byzantine empire produced also three reigning empresses: Irene, Zoe, and Theodora.

In 1204, the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople, and soon established a Latin Empire of Constantinople under one of the Crusader leaders. The Latin Empire was, however, unable to consolidate control of the whole of the former territories of the Byzantine Empire. Driven out of Constantinople in 1261 some territories in Greece still recognized their authority for some time. Eventually, the Imperial title became redundant and did not even contribute any longer to the prestige of the noblemen in their own country: it remained dormant in 1383.

In Asia Minor, after being driven out of Constantinople, relations of the last pre-Crusader emperors established the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond. Similarly, the Despotate of Epirus was founded in the Western Balkans (the rulers of the latter took the title of Emperor for a short time following their conquest of Thessalonica a few decades later).

Eventually, the Nicaean Emperors were successful in reclaiming the Byzantine imperial title. They managed to force Epirus into submission and retake Constantinople by 1261, but Trebizond remained independent. The restored Byzantine empire finally fell due to Ottoman invasion in 1453. The Trapezuntines held on until 1461.

On 25 December , 800, Charles I, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome. This was seen as a revival of the Western Roman Empire, and descendants of Charlemagne continued to be crowned in Rome through the 9th century. The increasing divisions within the Frankish lands, however, led to a suspension of the office.

In 962, Otto I, King of the Eastern Franks (or Germany) was again crowned Emperor by the Pope. His successors became known as Holy Roman Emperors. The Holy Roman Empire, such as it was, consisted of the Kingdoms of Germany, Italy, and Burgundy.

After the 13th century and the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the universalistic aspirations of the Emperors became increasingly theoretical, and their control over Italy, still seen as the locus of the proper empire, became increasingly tenuous. Rather than being hereditary, emperors were chosen by the prince-electors, in a process codified by the Golden Bull of 1356.

Coronations in Rome became rarer and rarer, until in 1508, King Maximilian I, after receiving permission from the pope, declared himself Emperor-Elect without having been crowned in Rome. Although Maximilian's grandson and successor, Charles V, was crowned in Bologna in 1529 by the Pope, he was the last, and thereafter the position of Holy Roman Emperor was a wholly German post until the Empire's dissolution in August 6, 1806.

Even in Germany itself, real control was increasingly tenuous, as various local princes increased their power, so that the Habsburg emperors who ruled almost continuously from 1438 until the end of the empire derived their power much more from their hereditary lands in the south-eastern part of the monarchy than from their position as emperor. As religious differences added to the tensions, compromise was needed (Peace of Augsburg, 1555). The Habsburg dynasty attempted to reassert authority over the Empire in the Thirty Years War, which ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that recognized princes sort of sovereign instead of dependents.

The impotence of the Emperors' position became most nakedly apparent during the brief reign of Charles VII from 1742 to 1745. As Duke of Bavaria, Charles was the only non-Habsburg emperor for the last three hundred fifty years of the empire's existence, and his utter inability even to protect his own hereditary lands from the forces of his enemy, Maria Theresa, the Habsburg heiress, showed how empty the position of Holy Roman Emperor had become.

The conquests of the French revolutionary armies in the 1790s made the Empire itself untenable, so that Emperor Francis II in 1804 took the title of Emperor of Austria (see below), and ultimately, allowed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire a few years later.

• Julio-Claudian dynasty
• Four Emperors 68 to 69
• Flavian dynasty
• Nervan-Antonian
  dynasty
  • Five Good Emperors
• Severan Dynasty

• Barracks
  Emperors
• Illyrian
  Emperors
• Gallic
  Emperors

• Constantine
  Dynasty -
  Brittanic
  emperors
• Valentinian
  Dynasty

Emperors of the
Western Empire

Byzantine emperors

→ (Much later in Western Europe:)

→ (Continuing in Eastern Europe:)

On 11 August , 1804 anticipating the eventual collapse of the Holy Roman Empire at the behest of Napoleon I, Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire assumed the additional title of Emperor of Austria (as Francis I thereof). The precaution was a wise one, because two years later on August 6, 1806 he was obliged to proclaim the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Emperor Karl of Austria, the last ruling hereditary monarch in that country, "relinquished every participation in the administration of the State" on November 11, 1918.

Following victory after the Franco-Prussian war and the founding of the German Empire, the Prussian king had himself crowned German Emperor as Wilhelm I on January 18, 1871, as part of the competition with the Emperor of Austria (whose Habsburg dynasty had de facto been hereditary in the Holy Roman Empire for centuries) for dominance in the German-speaking lands. With defeats in World War I and revolution breaking out, Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November 1918 and a republic was established.

Napoléon 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 May 18, 1804. Despite being ruled by an emperor, it continued to be the French Republic (République Française) until 1808, when it was renamed the French Empire (Empire Français).

Napoleon relinquished the title of Emperor of the French on 6 April and again on April 11, 1814, but was allowed to style himself Emperor of Elba, the island of his first exile. After his attempted restoration and defeat in 1815 he was stripped of even that usage during his second exile.

His nephew Napoleon III resurrected the title on December 2, 1852 after establishing the Second French Empire in a presidential coup, and lost it when he was deposed on September 4, 1870 by the Third Republic. It has not been used in France since then.

King Sancho III of Navarre declared himself emperor of Spain in 1034. His son, Ferdinand I of Castile also took the title in 1039. Ferdinand's son, Alfonso VI of Castile took the title in 1077. 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 proclamations by those that had, wholly or partially, united Christian (northern) Spain often at the expense of killing rival siblings. The popes and Holy Roman emperors protested at the usage of the imperial title as a usurpation of leadership in western Christendom. After Alfonso VII's death in 1157, the title was abandoned.

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.

• England

King William I of England thought it important enough to request and get a Papal blessing for his conquest of England. Throughout the high Middle Ages the English kings recognised the supremacy of the Pope in matters spiritual. For example, when Thomas à Becket was murdered, King Henry II of England was forced to recognise that, although he ruled temporal matters, spiritual matters came under the authority of the Church in Rome.

This changed with the dispute between Henry VIII of England and Pope Clement VII over Henry's wish to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. The Act in restraint of Appeals (1533) explicitly stated that

The next year the Act of Supremacy (1534) explicitly tied the head of church to the imperial crown:

The an Act by the Irish Parliament in 1541 (effective 1542) changed the traditional title used by the Monarchs of England for the reign over Ireland, from Lord of Ireland to King of Ireland and naming Henry head of the Church of Ireland, for similar reasons.

During the English Interregnum these laws were annulled, but the acts which caused the laws to be in abeyance were themselves, deemed to be null and void by the Parliaments of the English Restoration, so by act of Parliament The Crown of England and (later the British and UK crowns) are imperial crowns.

• Britain - also heir to its Indian colony

In 1801 when Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland, it was proposed that George III become Emperor of the British and Hanoverian Dominions, and therefore Emperor of the British Empire. George III however rejected the idea, favouring the traditional title of king.

When a royal marriage made it obvious to the British in 1877 that their Queen Victoria would be outranked by her own daughter who would someday become German Empress, the British government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title Empress of India by an Act of Parliament; it was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding as paramount ruler of the subcontinent the former Mughal 'Padishah of Hind', using indirect rule through hundreds of princely states formally under protection, not colonies, but accepting the British Sovereign as their 'feudal' suzerain. That title was relinquished by George VI with effect from August 15, 1947, when India was granted independence.

The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 in which it was agreed that the United Kingdom and the dominions were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations". This in effect along with the Statute of Westminster, 1931 marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire and set the basis for the continuing relationship between the Commonwealth Realms and the structure of the Crown.

In 1472, the last Byzantine emperor's niece, Sophia Paleologue, married Ivan III, grand duke of Moscow, who began championing the idea of Russia being the successor to the Byzantine Empire. Their grandson Ivan IV crowned himself tsar in 16 January 1547.

On 31 October , 1721 Peter I was crowned emperor as well. He based his claim partially upon a letter discovered in 1717 written in 1514 from Maximilian I to Vasili III, Sophia's son and Ivan IV's father, in which the Holy Roman Emperor used the term in referring to Vasili. The title has not been used in Russia since the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on 15 March 1917.

Imperial Russia produced four reigning empresses, all in the eighteenth century.

Emperor - Post-colonial emperors modeled on Europe

Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1822, and made Dom Pedro, eldest son of the then-King of Portugal, who was acting as regent, Emperor as Pedro I on 12 October. The empire came to an end with the overthrow of Emperor Pedro II in 1889.

Haiti was declared an empire by its ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who made himself Jacques I, in 20 May 1805. He was assassinated the next year. Haiti again became an empire from 1849 to 1859 under Faustin Soulouque.

In Mexico, there were two short-lived attempts to create an Empire. Agustín de Iturbide, the general who helped secure Mexican independence from Spanish rule, was proclaimed Emperor Agustín I in 12 July 1822, but was overthrown the next year.

In 1863, the invading French, in alliance with Mexican conservatives, proclaimed an empire and invited Archduke Maximilian, younger brother of the Austrian Emperor, to become emperor as Maximilian I. The childless Maximilian also adopted Agustín's grandson as his heir to bolster his claim. After the withdrawal of French protection in 1867, Maximilian was captured and executed by liberal forces.

In 1976, President Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, proclaimed the country to be the Central African Empire, and made himself Emperor as Bokassa I. The expenses of his coronation ceremony actually bankrupted the country. He was overthrown three years later and the republic was restored.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical development of the Roman & Christian tradition", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki