List of Canadian Monarchs

List Of Canadian Monarchs

This page lists those monarchs who have reigned over what is now Canada. In the history of monarchy in Canada, three different crowns have ruled over the country. The first two were the crowns of France and the crown of the United Kingdom (and previously, the united crowns of England and Scotland). The third is the independent crown of Canada, which since Confederation 1867 has been deemed to have become a kingdom in its own right.

While Canada became self-governing Dominion within the British Empire in 1867, the concept of the state being fully independent, and sharing a sovereign with the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, did not emerge until the passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931. Since that time, the Canadian Crown has been recognized as legally distinct from the crowns of the other Commonwealth realms, meaning that Canada is a kingdom in its own right with a distinct national monarch. Still, though the term King of Canada was used as early as the beginning of the reign of George VI, it was not until 1953 that the style was made official; Elizabeth II was the first monarch to be separately proclaimed as Queen of Canada, by the Royal Style and Titles Act.