King-Emperor

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(Redirected from
King-emperor
)
British Dominions, and Emperor of India (1910–1936).
The 'R' and 'I' after his name indicate 'King' and 'Emperor' in Latin
('Rex' and 'Imperator').

A king-emperor (the female equivalent being queen-empress) is a sovereign ruler who is simultaneously a king of one territory and emperor of another. This title usually results from a merger of a royal and imperial crown, but recognises the two territories as different politically and culturally as well as in status (emperor being a higher rank than king). It also denotes a king's imperial status through the acquisition of an empire or vice versa.

The dual title signifies a sovereign's dual role, but may also be created to improve a ruler's prestige. Both cases, however, show that the merging of rule was not simply a case of annexation where one state is swallowed by another, but rather of unification and almost equal status, though in the case of the British monarchy the suggestion that an emperor is higher in rank than a king was avoided by creating the title "king-emperor" or "queen-empress" instead of "emperor-king" or "empress-queen".

In Austria-Hungary

Another use of this dual title was in 1867, when the multi-national

German-ruled and facing growing nationalism, undertook a reform that gave nominal and factual rights to Hungarian nobility. This reform revived the Austrian-annexed Kingdom of Hungary, and therefore created the dual-monarchic union state of Austria-Hungary and the dual title of "emperor-king" (in German Kaiser und König, in Hungarian
Császár és Király).

The

Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen
".

In the Italian colonial empire

Following the

Victor Emmanuel III was proclaimed Emperor of Ethiopia. Thus, he became the King-Emperor (in Italian Re Imperatore), ruling over both the Kingdom of Italy and the Ethiopian Empire
.

The King-Emperor was represented by the Viceroy, who was also appointed as Governor-General of Italian East Africa (AOI – Africa Orientale Italiana). The capital city of the Viceroy and Governor-General was Addis Ababa.

In the German Empire

In 1871, the

William I, would be crowned German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser). William wanted to be proclaimed Emperor of Germany (Kaiser von Deutschland), but this would have caused sovereignty problems with the southern German princes and also with Austria
.

After the devastating loss in the

German Revolution, Emperor William II attempted to abdicate the throne of Germany while retaining his throne as King of Prussia, believing the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire to be in a personal union. But after being informed that he could not abdicate one throne without the other, William was forced to abdicate both thrones and lived the rest of his live in exile in the Netherlands
.

In the British Empire

A plaque on the Manchester Town Hall Extension records George VI's titles before giving up being Emperor of India.
George V
coin.

The

the full title
, and in widespread popular use.

The reigning King-Emperors or Queen-Empress used the initials R I (Rex Imperator or Regina Imperatrix) or the abbreviation Ind. Imp. (Indiae Imperator/Imperatrix) after their name (while the one reigning Queen-Empress, Victoria, used the initials R I, the three consorts of the married King-Emperors simply used R).

British coins, and those of the British Empire and Commonwealth dominions, routinely included some variation of the titles Rex Ind. Imp., although in India itself the coins said "Empress", and later "King Emperor." When, in August 1947, India became independent, all dies had to be changed to remove the latter two abbreviations, in some cases taking up to a year. In the United Kingdom, coins of George VI carried the title to 1948.

Titles

See also

References

  1. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1858). Monumenta serbica spectantia historiam Serbiae, Bosnae, Ragusii ed: Fr. apud Guilelmum Braumüller. p. 154.
  2. .