Why was the King of England (the British Isles) given the title of Emperor? The attached coin has the answer. Had it not been for India, would the King have had the title of Emperor?
Right, it was Queen Victoria who first used that title. For many years, even the coins made for domestic (UK) use would say IND IMP (for Indiae Imperator/Imperatrix) ... Christian
And it was the British Empire/ hence Emperor/ Empress. Same for Kaiser Wilhelm II (German Empire) Louis Napoleon III/ Franz Josef I/ Nicholas II
There was only one other country who declared its monarch as Emperor of another country and that was Mussolini's Italy:
Right, but showing the coin from/for Albania is a little misleading. Vittorio Emanuele III had the titles of a king of Italy, king of Albania and emperor of Ethiopia (Abyssinia). No Ethiopian coins from those years though ... Christian
If memory serves, France (under Napoleon), Mexico (under Maximillian), AustroHungary, the Holy Roman Empire, and Imperial Rome also may have assigned the title...
Yes on the title, but no on the country. Specifically, the coin I uploaded reads George V King and Emperor of India.
In that same line of thought, I believe Franz Joseph I was both King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. Same guy, same size coins, but two different titles and crowns.
I know that he was Emperor of Austria, but he was Austrian. He wasn't titled Emperor of Hungary. George V was King of England, but also Emperor of India. He was English, not Indian.
Ah, I was trying to speak more generally about monarchs who held both the title of king and emperor. Sorry if I wasn't clearer. Here's an odd example of a sort of-king who later became an emperor: "Carlos" III claimed to be King of Spain as a pretender and ruled out of Catalonia from 1705-1711. He then left for Vienna to become Holy Roman Emperor after the death of his brother, Joseph I. This lost him the support of major powers such as Great Britain who would have been content to see him rule Spain, but not both Spain and Austria. As Holy Roman Emperor he was Charles VI, Maria Theresa's dad.
