1.
Emperor
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An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the equivalent, may indicate an emperors wife, mother. Emperors are generally recognized to be of an honour and rank than kings. The Emperor of Japan is the currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as Emperor. Both kings and emperors are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. In as much as there is a definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler. Thus a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German speaking states. In Eastern Europe the rulers of the Russian Empire also used translatio imperii to wield authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their title of Emperor was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, in practice the Russian Emperors are often known by their Russian-language title Tsar, which may also used to refer to rulers equivalent to a king. Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia, however such empires did not need to be headed by an emperor. Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century, outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era, also the name of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, rules for indicating successors also varied, there was a tendency towards male inheritance of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known. Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors, probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Romes third century rule. When Republican Rome turned into a de facto monarchy in the half of the 1st century BC
2.
King
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King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, in the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate Latin rex or either Greek archon or basileus. In classical European feudalism, the title of king as the ruler of a kingdom is understood as the highest rank in the order, potentially subject. In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies. The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs, in the West prince, emperor, archduke, duke or grand duke, in the Middle East sultan or emir, etc. Kings, like other royalty, tend to wear purple because purple was a color to wear in the past. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz, the Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas. The English term king translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx, the Germanic term is notably different from the word for king in other Indo-European languages. It is a derivation from the term *kunjom kin by the -inga- suffix, the literal meaning is that of a scion of the kin, or perhaps son or descendant of one of noble birth. English queen translates Latin regina, it is from Old English cwen queen, noble woman, the Germanic term for wife appears to have been specialized to wife of a king, in Old Norse, the cognate kvan still mostly refers to a wife generally. Scandinavian drottning, dronning is a derivation from *druhtinaz lord. The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, the Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, in southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217, in eastern-central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD1000 following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia were established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, in Eastern Europe, the Kievan Rus consolidated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia. In northern Europe, the kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, England
3.
Queen regnant
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An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire. A queen regnant possesses and exercises sovereign powers, a queen consort shares her husbands rank and titles, but does not share the sovereignty of her husband. The husband of a queen regnant traditionally does not share his wifes rank, however, the concept of a king consort is not unheard of in contemporary or classical periods. A queen dowager is the widow of a king, a queen mother is a queen dowager who is also the mother of a reigning sovereign. The Byzantine Empress Irene sometimes called herself basileus, emperor, rather than basilissa, empress and Jadwiga of Poland was crowned as Rex Poloniae, King of Poland. Among the Davidic Monarchs of the Kingdom of Judah, there is mentioned a queen regnant, Athaliah. The much later Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra was highly popular, accession of a regnant occurs as a nations order of succession permits. The scope of succession may be matrilineal, patrilineal, or both, or, rarely, open to general election when necessary, the right of succession may be open to men and women, or limited to men only or women only. Historically, many realms forbade succession by women or through a line in obedience to the Salic law. No queen regnant ever ruled France, for example, only one woman, Maria Theresa, ruled Austria. As noted in the list below of widely known ruling queens, in the waning days of the 20th century and early days of the 21st, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg and the UK amended their acts of succession to absolute primogeniture. In some cases the change does not take effect during the lifetimes of people already in the line of succession at the time the law was passed, in 2011, the 16 Realms of the Commonwealth agreed to remove the rule of male-preference primogeniture. Once the necessary legislation was passed, this means that had Prince William had a daughter first, in China, Wu Zetian became the Chinese empress regnant and established the Zhou Dynasty after dismissing her sons. It should be noted, however, that Empress Wu used the title huangdi and in many European sources, although the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan is currently barred to women, this has not always been the case, throughout Japanese history there have been eight empresses regnant. Again, the Japanese language uses the term josei tennō for the position which would be empress regnant in English, monarch Order of succession Queen consort Rani Regent Salic law Sultana Monter, William. The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800, studies 30 women who exercised full sovereign authority in Europe
4.
Archduke
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Archduke was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty. It denotes a rank within the former Holy Roman Empire, which was below that of Emperor and King and above that of a Grand Duke, Duke, the territory ruled by an Archduke or Archduchess was called an Archduchy. All remaining Archduchies ceased to exist in 1918, in the Carolingian Empire, the title Archduke was awarded not as rank of nobility, but as a unique honorary title to the Duke of Lotharingia. Lotharingia was eventually absorbed by East Francia, becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire rather than a fully independent Kingdom, the later extended fragmentation of both territories created two succeeding Duchies in the Low Countries, Brabant and Geldre. Both claimed archducal status but were never recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor. Archduke of Austria, the archducal title to re-emerge, was invented in the Privilegium Maius in the 14th century by Duke Rudolf IV of Austria. Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV refused to recognise the title, as did all the ruling dynasties of the member countries of the Empire. But Duke Ernest the Iron and his descendants assumed the title of Archduke. Emperor Frederick III himself simply used the title Duke of Austria, never Archduke, the title was first granted to Fredericks younger brother, Albert VI of Austria, who used it at least from 1458. In 1477, Frederick III also granted the title of Archduke to his first cousin, Sigismund of Austria, the title appears first in documents issued under the joint rule of Maximilian and his son Philip in the Low Countries. Archduke was initially borne by those dynasts who ruled a Habsburg territory—i. e, only by males and their consorts, appanages being commonly distributed to cadets. But these junior archdukes did not thereby become sovereign hereditary rulers, occasionally a territory might be combined with a separate gubernatorial mandate ruled by an archducal cadet. From the 16th century onward, Archduke and its form, Archduchess. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire this usage was retained in the Austrian Empire, thus those members of the Habsburg family who are residents of the Republic of Austria are simply known by their first name and their surname Habsburg-Lothringen. However, members of the family who reside in other countries may or may not use the title, in accordance with laws, for example, Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, the eldest son of the last Habsburg Emperor, was an Austrian, Hungarian and German citizen. Hence, no member of the family other than the King bears the title of Archduke. The insignia of the Archduke of Lower and Upper Austria was the archducal hat, List of rulers of Austria List of Austrian consorts
5.
Grand Prince
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The title grand prince or great prince ranked in honour below king and emperor and above a sovereign prince. German, Dutch, Slavic and Scandinavian languages do use separate words to express this concept, the title of grand prince was once used for the sovereign of a grand principality. The last titular grand principalities vanished in 1917 and 1918, the territories being united into other monarchies or becoming republics. The last sovereign to reign whose highest title was grand prince was Ivan IV of Moscow in the 16th century, when Ivan IVs pre-tsarist title is referred to in English, however, it is usually as grand duke. Velikiy knjaz is also a Russian courtesy title for members of the family of the Russian tsar, Grand Prince, used in the Slavic and Baltic languages, was the title of a medieval monarch who headed a more-or-less loose confederation whose constituent parts were ruled by lesser princes. Those grand princes title and position was at the time usually translated as king, in fact, the Slavic knjaz and the Baltic kunigaikštis are cognates of king. However, a prince was usually only primus inter pares within a dynasty. All princes of the family were eligible to inherit a crown. Often other members of the dynasty ruled some constituent parts of the monarchy/country, an established use of the title was in the Kievan Rus and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Thus, Veliki Knjaz has been more like high king than grand duke, at least, as these countries expanded territorially and moved towards primogeniture and centralization, their rulers acquired more elevated titles. Grand Prince was the used by contemporary sources to name the leader of the federation of the Hungarian tribes in the 10th century. It was used by Géza and his son and heir Stephen of Hungary, in the Middle Ages, the Serbian veliki župan was the supreme chieftain in the multi-tribal society. The title signifies overlordship, as the leader of lesser chieftains titled župan and it was used by the Serb rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries. In Greek, it was known as archizoupanos, megazoupanos and megalos zoupanos, in the 1090s, Vukan became the veliki župan in Raška. Stefan Nemanja expelled his brother Tihomir in 1168 and assumed the title of veliki župan, a Latin document used mega iupanus for King Stefan the First-Crowned. Afterwards, it was a noble rank with notable holders such as Altoman Vojinović. Later, several princes of nationally important cities, which comprised vassal appanage principalities, from 1328 the Grand Prince of Moscow appeared as the titular head of eastern Rus and slowly centralized power until Ivan IV was crowned tsar in 1547. Since then, the grand prince ceased to be a hereditary office
6.
Grand duke
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He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux, leading ultimately to Portuguese independence from the Spanish Kingdom of Castille-León. Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century and they tried -ultimately without success- to create from these territories under their control a new unified country between the Kingdom of France in the west and the Holy Roman Empire in the east. His son and successor Charles the Bold continued to use the style and title. The title magnus dux or grand duke has been used by the rulers of Lithuania, the first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the Medici sovereigns of Tuscany, starting from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by Pope Pius V in 1569, thus the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled Grand Duke in central Europe, especially in present-day Germany. A list of these is available in the grand duchy. In the same century, the ceremonial version of the title grand duke in Russia expanded massively because of the large number of progeny of the ruling House of Romanov during those decades. After the Russian conquests, the continued to be used by the Russian Emperors in their role as rulers of both Lithuania and the autonomous Finland. The Holy Roman Empire under the House of Habsburg instituted a similar non-sovereign Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen in 1765, Grand princes were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal overlords of other princes. At the time, the title was translated as king. However, Grand Princes did not have the same precedence as later Western European kings. Grand Princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs, the title Grand Prince translates to Velikiy Knjaz in Russian. The Slavic word knjaz and the Lithuanian kunigas are cognates of the word King in its meaning of Ruler. Thus, the meaning of Veliki Knjaz and Didysis Kunigas was more like Great Ruler than Grand Duke. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, the rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania used the title of Grand Prince, this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish Kings of the Swedish House of Vasa also used the title for their non-Polish territories. The Latin title dux, which was phonetically rendered doux in Greek, was a title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires. Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine theme system, the commander of a theme was often styled a doux instead of the earlier strategos from the 10th century on
7.
Prince
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A prince is a male ruler, monarch, or member of a monarchs or former monarchs family. Prince is also a title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess, the English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun princeps, from primus + capio, meaning the chief, most distinguished, ruler, prince. The Latin word prīnceps, became the title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire. Emperor Augustus established the position of monarch on the basis of principate. The term may be used of persons in various cultures. These titles were borne by courtesy and preserved by tradition, not law, in medieval and Early Modern Europe, there were as many as two hundred such territories, especially in Italy, Germany, and Gaelic Ireland. In this sense, prince is used of any and all rulers and this is the Renaissance use of the term found in Niccolò Machiavellis famous work, Il Principe. Most small territories designated as principalities during feudal eras were allodial and this is attested in some surviving styles for e. g. British earls, marquesses, and dukes are still addressed by the Crown on ceremonial occasions as high, in parts of the Holy Roman Empire in which primogeniture did not prevail, all legitimate agnates had an equal right to the familys hereditary titles. Gradual substitution of the title of Prinz for the title of Fürst occurred. Both Prinz and Fürst are translated into English as prince, but they not only different. This distinction had evolved before the 18th century for dynasties headed by a Fürst in Germany, note that the princely title was used as a prefix to his Christian name, which also became customary. Cadets of Frances other princes étrangers affected similar usage under the Bourbon kings, the post-medieval rank of gefürsteter Graf embraced but elevated the German equivalent of the intermediate French, English and Spanish nobles. By the 19th century, cadets of a Fürst would become known as Prinzen, the husband of a queen regnant is usually titled prince consort or simply prince, whereas the wives of male monarchs take the female equivalent of their husbands title. In Brazil, Portugal and Spain, however, the husband of a monarch was accorded the masculine equivalent of her title. To complicate matters, the style His/Her Highness, a prefix often accompanying the title of a dynastic prince, although the arrangement set out above is the one that is most commonly understood, there are also different systems. Depending on country, epoch, and translation, other usages of prince are possible, foreign-language titles such as Italian principe, French prince, German Fürst and Prinz, Russian knyaz, etc. are usually translated as prince in English
8.
Princess
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Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince. Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince or for the daughters of a king or sovereign prince, some princesses are reigning monarchs of principalities. There have been instances of reigning princesses than reigning princes. Examples of princesses regnant have included Constance of Antioch, princess regnant of Antioch in the 12th century, as the President of France, an office for which women are eligible, is ex-officio co-Prince of Andorra, Andorra could theoretically be ruled by a co-Princess. For many centuries, the princess was not regularly used for a monarchs daughter. Old English had no equivalent of prince, earl, or any royal or noble title aside from queen. Royal women were addressed or referred to as The Lady. For example, Elizabeth and Mary, daughters of Henry VIII of England were often referred to as the Ladies Elizabeth. This practice, however, was not consistent, in the marriage contract between Prince George of Denmark and Anne, daughter of James I of Great Britain, Anne is referred to as The Princess Anne. Practice in Britain began to change in the 18th century, queen Victoria confirmed this practice in Letters Patent dated 30 January 1864. In European countries, a woman who marries a prince will almost always become a princess, from 1301 onward, the eldest sons of the Kings of England have generally been created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and their wives have been titled Princess of Wales. This has so far applied to Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of York
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