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The word emperor (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules in her own right and name (empress regnant or suo jure). Emperors are generally recognized to be of the highest monarchic honour and rank, surpassing king. 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".
Both emperors and kings are or sovereigns, both emperor and empress are considered monarchical titles. In as much 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, 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 Queen Victoria did not assume the title Empress of the British Empire even during the British Raj, 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 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.e. 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 recognized 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. Some titles are considered equivalent to "emperor" or are translated as "emperor". Examples of that are Roman emperors' titles, King of Kings, Khalifa, Huangdi, Cakravartin, Great Khan, Aztec monarchs' title, Inca monarchs' title, etc. 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 Empire 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, the size and scope of a kingdom or empire may determine precedence in international diplomatic relations, but currently, precedence among heads of state who are sovereigns—whether they be kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses and presidents may be determined by the size and scope or time that Seniority. 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.
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 ("first citizen") from which the modern English word and title prince is descended. The first period of the Roman Empire, from 27 BC to 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:
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 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.
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 Roman 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.George Ostrogorsky, "Avtokrator i samodržac", Glas Srpske kraljevske akadamije CLXIV, Drugi razdred 84 (1935), 95–187. 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.
From the time of Otto the Great onward, much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia became the Holy Roman Empire. The 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 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.
The Holy Roman emperor was considered the first among those in power. He was also the first defender of Christianity. From 1452 to the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 (except in the years 1742 to 1745) only members of the House of Habsburg were Holy Roman emperors. Karl von Habsburg is currently the head of the House of Habsburg.Heer, Friedrich. Holy Roman Empire (2002); Lonnie Johnson "Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends" (2011), p. 81.
The title lasted just a little over one century until 1918, but it was never clear what territory constituted the "Austrian Empire". 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 part of the Archduchy of Austria since the 15th century, and most of the other territories of the Empire had their own institutions and territorial history. There were some attempts at centralization, especially during the reign of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. These efforts were finalized in the early 19th century. When the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen (Hungary) were given self-government in 1867, the non-Hungarian portions were called the Empire of Austria. They 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 World War I 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.
The Kaisers of the Austrian Empire (1804–1918) were Franz I (1804–1835), Ferdinand I (1835–1848), Franz Joseph I (1848–1916) and Karl I (1916–1918). The current head of the House of Habsburg is Karl von Habsburg.Lonnie Johnson "Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends" (2011), p. 118.Anatol Murad "Franz Joseph I of Austria and his Empire." (1968) p. 1.
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 Romanus I in 924.Mladjov 2015: 177–178. 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 tacitly confirmed by the pope, as claimed in later Bulgarian diplomatic correspondence.Mladjov 1999. The Bulgarian imperial title "tsar" was adopted by all Bulgarian monarchs up to the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule. Despite the attempt of Pope Innocent III to limit the Bulgarian monarch to the title of King ( Rex), Kaloyan of Bulgaria considered himself an Emperor ( Imperator) and his successor Boril of Bulgaria was specifically accused of improperly using the imperial title by his neighbor, the Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders.Prinzing 1973: 420–421. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian imperial title was recognized by its neighbors and trading partners, including Byzantium, Hungary, Serbia, Venice, Genoa, Dubrovnik. 14th-century Bulgarian literary compositions saw the Bulgarian capital (Veliko Tarnovo) as a successor of Rome and Constantinople.Kaimakamova 2006.
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, this time translated as King. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is the former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria.
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.
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. 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.
The role of head of the House of Bonaparte is claimed by Jean-Christophe Napoléon and Charles Napoléon.
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.
During the rule of Henry VIII the Statute in Restraint of Appeals declared that 'this realm of England is an Empire...governed 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.
The last Empress of India was George VI's wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
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 the German Reich, had a president as head of state instead of an emperor. The use of the word Reich was abandoned following World War II.
On 31 October 1721, Peter I was proclaimed Emperor by the Governing 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 Tsarevich 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.
The Russian Empire produced four reigning Empresses, all in the eighteenth century. These were Catherine I, Anne, Elizabeth, and Catherine II.
The role of head of the House of Romanov is claimed by Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (Great-great-granddaughter of Alexander II of Russia), Prince Andrew Romanoff (great-great-grandson of Nicholas I of Russia), and Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen (Great-grandson of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia).
The Triple Alliance was an elected monarchy chosen by the elite. The emperors of Tenochtitlan and Texcoco were nominally equals, each receiving two-fifths of tribute from the vassal kingdoms, whereas the emperor of Tlacopan was a junior member and only received one-fifth of the tribute, due to the fact that Tlacopan was a newcomer to the alliance. Despite the nominal equality, Tenochtitlan eventually assumed a de facto dominant role in the Empire, to the point that even the emperors of Tlacopan and Texcoco would acknowledge Tenochtitlan's effective supremacy. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés executed Emperor Cuauhtémoc and installed puppet rulers who became vassals for Spain.
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 Wars 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.
Today the headship of the Imperial House of Brazil is disputed between two branches of the House of Orléans-Braganza.
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 Mexican 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 French Mexican, Belgium, and Switzerland to Mexico. Maximilian's closest living agnatic relative is Karl von Habsburg, the head of the House of Habsburg.
In Persia, from the time of Darius the Great, Persian rulers used the title "King of Kings" ( in Persian) since they had dominion over peoples from the borders of India to the borders of Greece and Egypt. The Sassanid monarchs used the title King of kings of Iranians and Aneran to denote their rule over non-Iranian lands. The last shahanshah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) was ousted in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution.
The full style of the Ottoman sultan once the empire's frontiers had stabilized became:
After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultans began to style themselves Kaysar-i Rum (Ceaser 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.
Harun Osman is currently the head of the Ottoman dynasty.
Another type of Ancient india imperialism was called the Chakravarti system. Emperors wished to be called Chakravarti, meaning "universal monarch."
The actual condition of Samrat, which is an objective term, and the theoretical status of Chakravarti, which is a poetical concept, were connected in point of psychology.
Chandragupta of the Maurya Empire is referred to as the first emperor of the mostly unified Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta in the Encyclopædia Britannica The first references to a Chakravartin as a secular monarch appear in reference to Ashoka of the Maurya Empire. Chakravartin in the Encyclopædia Britannica
Another title used by this dynasty was . translates as Empress, and was used by the only reigning empress, Zewditu, along with the official title ("Queen of Kings").
In 1936, the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III claimed the title of emperor 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 until 1943, even though he had no standing to the title.
The current head of the Solomonic dynasty is Zera Yacob Amha Selassie.
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.
In 221 BC, Ying Zheng, who was king of Qin dynasty 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 Ying 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.
In general, an emperor would have one empress ( Huanghou, 皇后) at one time, although posthumous entitlement to empress for a concubines was not uncommon. The earliest known usage of huanghou was in the Han dynasty. The emperor would generally select the empress from his . 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 (AD 690–705).
Under the tributary system of China, monarchs of Korea and Vietnam sometimes called themselves emperor in their country. They introduced themselves as king for China and other countries (Emperor at home, king abroad). In Japan, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu a shogun was granted title of King of Japan for trade by the Ming emperor. However, the Shogun was a subject of the Japanese emperor. It was contrary to rules of tributary system, but the Ming emperor connived it for the purpose of suppressing the Wokou.
In 607, Empress Suiko sent a diplomatic document to China, which she wrote "the emperor of the land of the rising sun (日出處天子) sends a document to the emperor of the land of the setting sun (日沒處天子)" and began to use the title emperor externally.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Satoshi Yabuuchi, 時代背景から知る 仏像の秘密, The Nikkei, 10 October 2019. 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. Masataka Kondo, ご存知ですか 3月2日は飛鳥池遺跡で「天皇」木簡が出土したと発表された日です, 2 March 2018. 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.
In the Japanese language, the word tennō is restricted to Japan's own monarch; kōtei (皇帝) is usually 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.Henry Kissinger on China. 2011, p. 79. 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.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. By 1979, after the short-lived Central African Empire (1976–1979), Hirohito was the only monarch in the world with the title emperor.
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.
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 Shinto 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.
The rulers of Balhae (698–926) internally called themselves Seongwang (; lit. "Holy King").New Book of Tang, vol. 209
The rulers of Goryeo (918–1392) used the titles of emperor and Son of Heaven of the East of the Ocean (). Goryeo's imperial system ended in 1270 with capitulation to the Mongol Empire.
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" (), meaning "Bright and Martial". The Korean Empire lasted until 1910, when it was annexed by the Empire of Japan.
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" (labels = no ). Only the Khagans from Genghis Khan to the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 are normally referred to as emperors in English.
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 Anarchy of the 12 Warlords 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 was not the first to claim the title of Hoàng Đế (皇帝, Emperor). Before him, Lý Bí and Mai Thúc Loan also claimed this title. However, their rules were short-lived.
The Vietnamese emperors also gave this title to their ancestors who were lords or influential figures in the previous dynasty, as did the Chinese emperors. This practice was one of the many indications that Vietnam considered itself an equal to China which remained intact up to the twentieth century.
In 1802 the newly established Nguyễn dynasty requested canonization from the Chinese Jiaqing Emperor and received the title Quốc Vương (國王, King of a State) and the name of the country as Việt Nam (越南) instead Đại Việt (大越). To avoid unnecessary armed conflicts, the Vietnamese rulers accepted this in diplomatic relation and used 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 powers-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 to 1955.
In East Asia, China, Japan, and South Korea, the title Pope is translated as , literally "emperor of the religion".
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