Emperor facts for kids
An emperor is a male who rules an empire. An emperor usually comes to power when one of his parents, or relatives, dies. In some countries, people elected a new emperor from candidates. The wife of an emperor is called an empress. A woman who comes to power in an empire is also called an empress, for example Catherine the Great.
The only emperor in the world today is the Emperor of Japan (tennō), but he has very little power. The true leaders of Japan are the Diet and its Prime Minister because the country is a constitutional monarchy.
The English word comes from Latin, the language of the old Roman Empire. At first, an imperator was a powerful general (army leader) but, after Augustus, it was only used by their most powerful rulers. There have been many countries in history whose leaders are called "emperor" in English. The leaders of the Byzantine Empire (basileus, autokrator) in Greece, the Holy Roman Empire (imperator, Kaiser) in Germany, and the Ottoman Empire (sultan, padishah, khagan, kaysar) in Turkey all said they were just new parts of the old Roman Empire.
The leaders of other countries who said they ruled the whole world or called themselves "king of kings" are frequently also called emperors in English. For example, the old rulers of China (huangdi), Russia (tsar), and Ethiopia (negusa negast) are all known as emperors in English. There have also been emperors of France, Germany, and Mexico and the rulers of the United Kingdom called themselves the emperors and empresses of India for a while.
Related pages
Images for kids
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A statue of dictator Julius Caesar.
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Under Justinian I, reigning in the 6th century, parts of Italy were for a few decades (re)conquered from the Ostrogoths: thus, this famous mosaic, featuring the Byzantine emperor in the center, can be admired at Ravenna.
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One of the most famous Imperial coronation ceremonies was that of Napoleon, crowning himself Emperor in the presence of Pope Pius VII (who had blessed the regalia), at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The painting by David commemorating the event is equally famous: the gothic cathedral restyled style Empire, supervised by the mother of the Emperor on the balcony (a fictional addition, while she had not been present at the ceremony), the pope positioned near the altar, Napoleon proceeds to crown his then wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais as Empress.
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John VI, King of Portugal and the Algarves, Emperor of Brazil.
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George V, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India
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Wilhelm II, German Emperor and the King of Prussia.
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Empress of Russia Catherine the Great
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Emperor of Serbia Dušan the Mighty
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Agostino Veneziano's engraving of Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent wearing his Venetian Helmet.
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Emperor Moctezuma II of the Aztec Empire wearing a tilmàtli
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Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil in regalia at the opening of the General Assembly (oil painting by Pedro Américo)
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Portrait of Maximilian I of Mexico, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
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Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.
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Emperor Hirohito (裕仁), or the Shōwa Emperor (昭和天皇), the last Japanese Emperor having ruled with prerogative powers, combined with assumption of divinity (photographed 1926).
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Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire
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Genghis Khan was the founder and first Great Khan or Emperor of the largest land empire in history, the Mongol Empire. His reign as emperor lasted from 1206 to 1227 and he is considered by some to be the greatest conqueror of all time.
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Bảo Đại, the last Emperor of Vietnam]]Đại Việt Kingdom (40–43, 544–602, 938–1407, 1427–1945) (The first ruler of Vietnam to take the title of Emperor (Hoàng Đế) was the founder of the Early Lý dynasty, Lý Nam Đế, in the year AD 544)—see [[List of monarchs of Vietnam
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See also
In Spanish: Emperador para niños
