Emperor - Distinction From Other Monarchs

Distinction From Other Monarchs

Both kings and emperors are monarchs. Within the European context, emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. However, monarchs heading empires have not always used the title—the British sovereign did not assume the title until the incorporation of India into the British Empire, and even then used it only in a limited context. Emperors were once given precedence over kings in international diplomatic relations; currently, precedence is decided by the length a head of state is continuously in office.

Outside the European context, emperor is a translation given to holders of titles who are accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers may 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.

Some empires, such as the Holy Roman Empire and the Russian Empire, derived their office from the authority of the Roman Emperors (translatio imperii). The title was a conscious attempt by monarchs to link themselves to the institutions and traditions of the Romans as part of state ideology. Similarly, many republics have named a legislative chamber after the Roman Senate.

Historians have liberally used emperor and, especially so, empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to describe any large state and its ruler in the past and present; sometimes even to refer to non-monarchically ruled states and their spheres of influence: such examples include the "Athenian Empire" of the late 5th century BC, the "Angevin Empire" of the Plantagenets, or the Soviet and American "empires" of the Cold War era. Empire became identified with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century.