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Tsar (; also spelled czar, tzar, or csar; ; ; car) is a title historically used by Slavs . The term is derived from the Latin word caesar, which was intended to mean emperor in the European medieval sense of the term—a ruler with the same rank as a Roman emperor, holding it by the approval of another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official—but was usually considered by Western Europeans to be equivalent to "king".
Tsar and its variants were the official titles in the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018), Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396), the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1908–1946), the Serbian Empire (1346–1371), and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). The first ruler to adopt the title tsar was Simeon I of Bulgaria."Simeon I." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 12 July 2009, EB.com. Simeon II, the last tsar of Bulgaria, is the last person to have held this title.
It has been hypothesized that Simeon's title was also recognized by a papal mission to Bulgaria in or shortly after 925, as a concession in exchange for a settlement in the Bulgarian- conflict or a possible attempt to return Bulgaria to union with Rome. Thus, in the later diplomatic correspondence conducted in 1199–1204 between the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan and Pope Innocent III, Kaloyan—whose self-assumed Latin title was "Imperator Bulgarorum et Blachorum"—claims that the imperial crowns of Simeon I, his son Peter I, and Samuel were somehow derived from the papacy. The pope, however, only speaks of reges (kings) of Bulgaria in his replies, and eventually grants only that lesser title to Kaloyan, who nevertheless proceeds to thank the pope for the "imperial title" conferred upon him. Innocentii pp. III epistolae ad Bulgariae historiam spectantes. Recensuit et explicavit Iv. Dujcev. Sofia, 1942.
After Bulgaria's liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs were at first autonomous prince (knyaz). With the declaration of full independence, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria adopted the traditional title "tsar" in 1908 and it was used until the abolition of the monarchy in 1946. However, these titles were not generally perceived as equivalents of "emperor" any longer. In the Bulgarian as in the Greek vernacular, the meaning of the title had shiftedНайден Геров. 1895–1904. Речник на блъгарский язик. (the entry on цар in Naiden Gerov's Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language) (although Paisius' Slavonic-Bulgarian History (1760–1762) had still distinguished between the two concepts).
Following his assertion of independence from the khan in 1476, Ivan III, the grand prince of Moscow (), adopted the title of sovereign of all Russia, and he later also started to use the title of tsar regularly in diplomatic relations with the West. From about 1480, he is designated as imperator in his Latin correspondence, as keyser in his correspondence with the Swedish regent, and as kejser in his correspondence with the Danish king, Teutonic Knights, and the Hanseatic League. Ivan's son Vasily III continued using these titles. Sigismund von Herberstein (1486–1566) observed that the titles of kaiser and imperator were attempts to render the Russian term tsar into German and Latin, respectively."Den Titel aines Khaisers, wiewol Er alle seine Brief nur Reissisch schreibt, darinn Er sich Czar nent, so schickht Er gemaincklich Lateinische Copeyen darmit oder darinn, und an stat des Czar setzen sy Imperator, den wir Teutsch Khaiser nennen". The title-inflation related to Russia's growing ambitions to become an Orthodox "third Rome", after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The monarch in Moscow was recognized as an emperor by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1514.Ostrowski, D. (2002). Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304–1589. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 178.Lehtovirta, J. "The Use of Titles in Herberstein's "Commentarii". Was the Muscovite Tsar a King or an Emperor?" in Kӓmpfer, F. and Frӧtschner, R. (eds.) (2002) 450 Jahre Sigismund von Herbersteins Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii 1549–1999, Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 196–198.
However, the first Russian ruler to be formally crowned as tsar of all Russia was Ivan IV ("the Terrible"), in 1547. Some foreign ambassadors—namely, Herberstein (in 1516 and 1525), Daniel Printz a Buchau (in 1576 and 1578) and Just Juel (in 1709)—indicated that the word "tsar" should not be translated as "emperor", because it is applied by Russians to David, Solomon and other Biblical kings, who are simple reges. On the other hand, Jacques Margeret, a bodyguard of False Demetrius I (), argues that the title of "tsar" is more honorable for Muscovites than "kaiser" or "king" exactly because it was God and not some earthly potentate who ordained to apply it to David, Solomon, and other kings of Israel."Et ainsi retiennent le nom de Zar comme plus autentique, duquel nom il pleut iadis à Dieu d'honorer David, Salomon et autres regnans sur la maison de Iuda et Israel, disent-ils, et que ces mots Tsisar et Krol n'est que invention humaine, lequel nom quelqu'un s'est acquis par beaux faits d'armes". Samuel Collins, a court physician to Tsar Alexis in 1659–66, styled the latter "Great Emperor", commenting that "as for the word Czar, it has so near relation to Cesar... that it may well be granted to signifie Emperor. The Russians would have it to be a higher title than King, and yet they call David Czar, and our kings, Kirrols, probably from Carolus Quintus, whose history they have among them". The Present State of Russia, in a Letter to a Friend at London. Written by an Eminent Person residing at Great Tzars Court at Mosco for the space of nine years. 2nd ed. London, 1671. pp. 54–55.
The title tsar remained in common usage, and also officially as part of various titles signifying rule over various states absorbed by the Russian monarchy (such as the former Tatar and the Georgian Orthodox kingdom). In the 18th century, tsar was increasingly viewed as inferior to "emperor" or as highlighting the oriental side of the rank.Boris Uspensky. Царь и император: помазание на трон и семантика монарших титулов. Moscow: Языки русской культуры, 2000. . pp. 48–52. Upon annexing Crimea in 1783, Catherine the Great adopted the hellenicized title "tsaritsa of Tauric Chersonesos", rather than "tsaritsa of the Crimea". By 1815, when Russia annexed a large part of Poland, the title had clearly come to be interpreted in Russia as the equivalent of Polish król ("king"), and the Russian emperor assumed the title "tsar of Poland".
Among the indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Muslims of the Volga region, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the autocracy of the Russian Empire often became identified with the image of the "White Tsar" ().
By 1894, when Nicholas II ascended the throne, the full title of the Russian rulers was
"By the grace of God Almighty, the Emperor and Supreme Autocrat of all the Russias, Tsar of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod, Carantania, Astrakhan, Congress Poland, Siberia, Tauric Chersonese, and Georgia, Lord of Pskov, Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigallia, Samogitia, Białystok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka Land, Volga Bulgaria, and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhny Novgorod, Chernihiv; Ruler of Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov-on-Don, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udorsky District, Salekhard, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav, and all northern territories; Ruler of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardia and Armenia; hereditary Ruler and Lord of the Circassia and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg".Harcave, Sidney First Blood The Russian Revolution of 1905 Macmillan: London, 1964 p. 12
In the United States and in the United Kingdom, the title "czar" is a colloquial term for certain high-level civil servants, such as the "drug czar" for the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (not to be confused with a drug baron), "terrorism czar" for a presidential advisor on terrorism policy, "cybersecurity czar" for the highest-ranking Department of Homeland Security official on computer security and information security policy, and "war czar" to oversee the wars in Iraq War and Afghanistan. More specifically, a czar in the US government typically refers to a sub-cabinet-level advisor within the executive branch. One of the earliest known usages of the term was for Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was named commissioner of baseball, with broad powers to clean up the sport after it had been sullied by the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
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