February 6, 1952: Death of King George VI of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India.

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Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of York, Emperor of India, King George V of the United Kingdom, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Prince Albert of York. King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Princess Mary of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; December 14, 1895 – February 6, 1952) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from December 11, 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.

King George VI of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India

The future George VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and only surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, Princess of Denmark).

His mother, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck.

Queen Victoria with her great-grandchildren. In front is Prince Albert.

Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge was a daughter of Prince Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge the tenth child and seventh son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Queen Charlotte (born a Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz).

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom (right) together with his son Prince George, the Prince of Wales, later George V (left), and his grandsons, Prince Edward of Wales, later Edward VIII, and Prince Albert of Wales, later George VI.

Prince Adolphus Frederick was married to Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, third daughter of Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel, and his wife, Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen. Through her father, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, was a great-granddaughter of King George II of Great Britain, her grandmother being George II’s daughter Mary.

Prince Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge

This made Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge a first cousin to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, Duchess of Cambridge

Prince Albert’s birthday, December 14, 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Prince George, Duke of York (George V)

Victoria Mary of Teck, Duchess of York (Queen Mary)

Uncertain of how the Prince Consort’s widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been “rather distressed”. Two days later, he wrote again: “I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her.”

Albert and Elizabeth, Duke and Duchess of York

The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: “I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good.”

Consequently, he was baptised “Albert Frederick Arthur George” at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on February 17, 1896. Formally he was His Highness Prince Albert of York; within the royal family he was known informally as “Bertie”. On May 28, 1898 Queen Victoria issued Letters Patent elevating the styles of the children of the Duke of York (including Prince Albert) from His/Highness to His/Her Royal Highness.

Albert and Elizabeth, Duke and Duchess of York

The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name “may supplant the less favoured one”. Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward.

His father ascended the throne as King George V in 1910. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the time of thier Coronation

Prince Albert spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent. Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York.

He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. Lady Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland, and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Her mother was descended from British Prime Minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Governor-General of India Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who was the elder brother of another prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.

They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stammer, which he learned to manage to some degree.

King George VI and his daughters The Princess Margaret and The Princess Elizabeth

His elder brother ascended the throne as King Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. As heir presumptive to Edward VIII, Albert thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name George VI to show continuity within the Monarchy.

In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries—but not Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany. War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively. King George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared.

King George VI and his daughters The Princess Elizabeth and The Princess Margaret

Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother the Prince George the Duke of Kent was killed on active service. King George VI became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war. Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined.

Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistan in 1948. King George VI relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth.

King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

King George VI was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died of a coronary thrombosis in 1952. He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

King Charles III of the United Kingdom is his grandson.

January 20, 1936: Death of King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India.

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Emperor of India, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Lord Dawson of Penn, Prince Edward, Princess Elizabeth of York, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Mary, Sandringham, the prince of Wales

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; June 3, 1865 – January 20, 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 6, 1910 until his death in 1936.

King George V’s relationship with his eldest son and heir, Edward, deteriorated in the later years. George was disappointed in Edward’s failure to settle down in life and appalled by his many affairs with married women. In contrast, he was fond of his second son, Prince Albert (later George VI), and doted on his eldest granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth; he nicknamed her “Lilibet”, and she affectionately called him “Grandpa England”.

In 1935, George said of his son Edward: “After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12 months”, and of Albert and Elizabeth: “I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne.”

The First World War took a toll on George’s health: he was seriously injured on October 28, 1915 when thrown by his horse at a troop review in France, and his heavy smoking exacerbated recurring breathing problems.

He suffered from chronic bronchitis. In 1925, on the instruction of his doctors, he was reluctantly sent on a recuperative private cruise in the Mediterranean; it was his third trip abroad since the war, and his last. In November 1928, he fell seriously ill with septicaemia, and for the next two years his son Edward took over many of his duties.

King George V and Queen Mary with Princess Elizabeth

In 1929, the suggestion of a further rest abroad was rejected by the King “in rather strong language”. Instead, he retired for three months to Craigweil House, Aldwick, in the seaside resort of Bognor, Sussex. As a result of his stay, the town acquired the suffix Regis – Latin for “of the King”.

A myth later grew that his last words, upon being told that he would soon be well enough to revisit the town, were “Bugger Bognor!”

George never fully recovered. In his final year, he was occasionally administered oxygen. The death of his favourite sister, Victoria, in December 1935 depressed him deeply.

On the evening of January 15, 1936, the King took to his bedroom at Sandringham House complaining of a cold; he remained in the room until his death. He became gradually weaker, drifting in and out of consciousness. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin later said:

… each time he became conscious it was some kind inquiry or kind observation of someone, some words of gratitude for kindness shown. But he did say to his secretary when he sent for him: “How is the Empire?” An unusual phrase in that form, and the secretary said: “All is well, sir, with the Empire”, and the King gave him a smile and relapsed once more into unconsciousness.

By January 20, he was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.” Dawson’s private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that the King’s last words, a mumbled “God damn you!”, were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night. Dawson, who supported the “gentle growth of euthanasia”, admitted in the diary that he ended the King’s life:

At about 11 o’clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the Patient but little comporting with that dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene.

Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers & keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end and injected (myself) morphia gr.3/4 [grains] and shortly afterwards cocaine gr.1 [grains] into the distended jugular vein … In about 1/4 an hour – breathing quieter – appearance more placid – physical struggle gone.

Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King’s dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King’s death at 11:55 pm could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than “less appropriate … evening journals”.

Neither Queen Mary, who was intensely religious and might not have sanctioned euthanasia, nor the Prince of Wales was consulted. The royal family did not want the King to endure pain and suffering and did not want his life prolonged artificially but neither did they approve Dawson’s actions. British Pathé announced the King’s death the following day, in which he was described as “for each one of us, more than a King, a father of a great family”.

On his death in January 1936, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII. Edward abdicated in December of that year and was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who took the regnal name George VI.

December 14, 1895: Birth of George VI, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Emperor of India

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Emperor of India, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George V of the United Kingdom, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Mary, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, The Duke of Windsor, The Princess Elizabeth

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was concurrently the last Emperor of India until August 1947, when the British Raj was dissolved.

King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Emperor of India

The future George VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and only surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra).

His mother, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck.

His Maternal grandmother, Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, was the daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel.
Prince Adolphus was the seventh son of King George III and Queen Charlotte.

His birthday, December 14, 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. Uncertain of how the Prince Consort’s widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been “rather distressed”. Two days later, he wrote again: “I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her.”

The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: “I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good.”

Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York, Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother

Consequently, he was baptised “Albert Frederick Arthur George” at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on February 17, 1896. Formally he was His Highness Prince Albert of York; within the family he was known informally as “Bertie”. The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name “may supplant the less favoured one”. Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward.

Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, and the Prince of Wales succeeded her as King Edward VII. Prince Albert moved up to third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother.

King Edward VII reigned for 9 years and died on May 6, 1910. Prince Albert’s father ascended the throne as George V. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne. He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent.

Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stammer, which he learned to manage to some degree.

The Duke and Duchess of York

His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. As heir presumptive to Edward VIII, Albert thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name George VI.

In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries—but not Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany. War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively.

George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared. Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother, Prince George, the Duke of Kent was killed on active service.

King George VI with his eldest daughter and heiress presumptive, The Princess Elizabeth

King George VI became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war. Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined. Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. George relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth.

He was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died of a coronary thrombosis in 1952. He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

June 22, 1948: King George VI formally gives up the title “Emperor of India” Part I.

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East India Company, Emperor of India, Empress of India, George VI of the United Kingdom, India, Indian Empire, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

On June 22, 1948 King George VI formally gives up the title “Emperor of India”, half a year after Britain actually gave up its rule of India.

In this two part series I will discuss the history of the title of “Emperor/Empress of India” from it’s origin (Part I) to the abolishing of the title (Part II).

In 1858 after the nominal Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was deposed at the conclusion of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the government of the United Kingdom decided to transfer control of British India and its princely states from the mercantile East India Company (EIC) to the Crown, thus marking the beginning of the British Raj.

The EIC was officially dissolved on June 1, 1874, and the British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, decided to offer Queen Victoria the title “Empress of India” shortly afterwards. Victoria accepted this style on May 1, 1876. The first Delhi Durbar (which served as an imperial coronation) was held in her honour eight months later on January 1, 1877.

Constitutionally speaking, the emperor or empress was the source of all legislative, executive, and judicial authority in the British Indian Empire as the sovereign. However, the emperor or empress took little direct part in the affairs of government. The exercise of sovereign powers was instead delegated from the emperor or empress, either by statute or by convention, to a “viceroy and governor-general”, who in turn was appointed by the emperor or empress on the advice of the secretary of state for India, a British minister of the Crown.

The idea of having Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India was not particularly new, as Lord Ellenborough had already suggested it in 1843 upon becoming the governor-general of India. By 1874, Major-General Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen’s private secretary, had ordered English charters to be scrutinised for imperial titles, with Edgar and Stephen mentioned as sound precedents.

The Queen, possibly irritated by the sallies of the republicans, the tendency to democracy, and the realisation that her influence was manifestly on the decline, was urging the move. Another factor may have been that the Queen’s first child, Victoria, the Princess Royal was married to Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia, the heir apparent to the German Empire. Upon becoming empress, she would outrank her mother.

By January 1876, the Queen’s insistence was so great that Benjamin Disraeli felt that he could procrastinate no longer. Initially, Victoria had considered the style “Empress of Great Britain, Ireland, and India”, but Disraeli had persuaded the Queen to limit the title to India in order to avoid controversy. Hence, the title Kaisar-i-Hind was coined in 1876 by the orientalist G.W. Leitner as the official imperial title for the British monarch in India.

The term Kaisar-i-Hind means emperor of India in the vernacular of the Hindi and Urdu languages. The word kaisar, meaning ’emperor’, is a derivative of the Roman imperial title caesar (via Persian, Turkish – see Kaiser-i-Rum), and is cognate with the German title Kaiser, which was borrowed from the Latin at an earlier date.

Many in the United Kingdom, however, regarded the assumption of the title as an obvious development from the Government of India Act 1858, which resulted in the founding of British India, ruled directly by the Crown. The public were of the opinion that the title of “queen” was no longer adequate for the ceremonial ruler of what was often referred to informally as the Indian Empire. The new styling underlined the fact that the native states were no longer a mere agglomeration but a collective entity.

May 6, 1910: Death of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom

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Alice Kappel, Emperor of India, German Emperor Wilhelm II, King Christian IX of Denmark, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Prince Albert Edward, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince of Wales, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Edward VII (Albert Edward; November 9, 1841 – May 6, 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from January 22, 1901 until his death in 1910.

Edward was born at 10:48 in the morning on 9 November 9, 1841 in Buckingham Palace. He was the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was christened Albert Edward at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on January 25, 1842. He was named Albert after his father and Edward after his maternal grandfather, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He was known as Bertie to the royal family throughout his life.

As the eldest son of the British sovereign, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth. As a son of Prince Albert, he also held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony. He had the style of Royal Highness as the son of the sovereign.

He was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on December 8, 1841, Earl of Dublin on January 17, 1850, a Knight of the Garter on November 8, 1858, and a Knight of the Thistle on May 24, 1867. In 1863, he renounced his succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in favour of his younger brother Prince Alfred.

During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes, but despite public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

Once widowed, Queen Victoria effectively withdrew from public life. Shortly after Prince Albert’s death, she arranged for Edward to embark on an extensive tour of the Middle East, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut and Istanbul. The British Government wanted Edward to secure the friendship of Egypt’s ruler, Said Pasha, to prevent French control of the Suez Canal if the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Edward and Alexandra on their wedding day, 1863

It was the first royal tour on which an official photographer, Francis Bedford, was in attendance. As soon as Edward returned to Britain, preparations were made for his engagement, which was sealed at Laeken in Belgium on September 9, 1862. Edward married Alexandra of Denmark at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 10 March 1863. He was 21; she was 18.

Alexandra was the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel.

The couple established Marlborough House as their London residence and Sandringham House in Norfolk as their country retreat. They entertained on a lavish scale.Their marriage met with disapproval in certain social circles because most of Queen Victoria’s relations were German, and Denmark was at loggerheads with Germany over the territories of Schleswig and Holstein.

When Alexandra’s father inherited the throne of Denmark in November 1863, the German Confederation took the opportunity to invade and annex Schleswig-Holstein. The Queen was of two minds as to whether it was a suitable match, given the political climate. After the marriage, she expressed anxiety about their socialite lifestyle and attempted to dictate to them on various matters, including the names of their children.

Edward was related to nearly every other European monarch, and came to be known as the “uncle of Europe”. German Emperor Wilhelm II and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia were his nephews; Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Crown Princess Marie of Romania, Crown Princess Sophia of Greece, and Empress Alexandra of Russia were his nieces; King Haakon VII of Norway was both his nephew and his son-in-law; kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of the Hellenes were his brothers-in-law; kings Albert I of Belgium, Ferdinand of Bulgaria, and Carlos I and Manuel II of Portugal were his second cousins.

Edward doted on his grandchildren, and indulged them, to the consternation of their governesses. However, there was one relation whom Edward did not like: Wilhelm II. His difficult relationship with his nephew exacerbated the tensions between Germany and Britain.

Edward had mistresses throughout his married life. He socialised with actress Lillie Langtry; Lady Randolph Churchill; Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; actress Sarah Bernhardt; noblewoman Lady Susan Vane-Tempest; singer Hortense Schneider; prostitute Giulia Beneni (known as “La Barucci”); wealthy humanitarian Agnes Keyser; and Alice Keppel. At least fifty-five liaisons are conjectured. How far these relationships went is not always clear. Edward always strove to be discreet, but this did not prevent society gossip or press speculation. Edward never acknowledged any illegitimate children. Alexandra was aware of his affairs, and seems to have accepted them.

When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, Edward became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominions. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use—declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone”.

As king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised.Edward VII fostered good relations on Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called “Peacemaker”, but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, remained poor.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward’s reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism.

Edward habitually smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day. In 1907, a rodent ulcer, a type of cancer affecting the skin next to his nose, was cured with radium. Towards the end of his life he increasingly suffered from bronchitis. He suffered a momentary loss of consciousness during a state visit to Berlin in February 1909.

In March 1910, he was staying at Biarritz when he collapsed. He remained there to convalesce, while in London Asquith tried to get the Finance Bill passed. The king’s continued ill health was unreported, and he attracted criticism for staying in France while political tensions were so high. On April 27, he returned to Buckingham Palace, still suffering from severe bronchitis. Alexandra returned from visiting her brother, George I of the Hellenes, in Corfu a week later on May 5th.

On May 6, Edward VII suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying, “No, I shall not give in; I shall go on; I shall work to the end.” Between moments of faintness, his son the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Park that afternoon. The king replied, “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad”: his final words.At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed. He died 15 minutes later.

Alexandra refused to allow Edward’s body to be moved for eight days afterwards, though she allowed small groups of visitors to enter his room. On May 11, the late king was dressed in his uniform and placed in a massive oak coffin, which was moved on May 14, to the throne room, where it was sealed and lay in state, with a guardsman standing at each corner of the bier.Despite the time that had elapsed since his death, Alexandra noted the King’s body remained “wonderfully preserved”. On the morning of May 17, the coffin was placed on a gun carriage and drawn by black horses to Westminster Hall, with the new king, his family and Edward’s favourite dog, Caesar, walking behind.

Following a brief service, the royal family left, and the hall was opened to the public; over 400,000 people filed past the coffin over the next two days. As Barbara Tuchman noted in The Guns of August, his funeral, held on May 20, 1910, marked “the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last.” A royal train conveyed the king’s coffin from London to Windsor Castle, where Edward was buried at St George’s Chapel.

When Edward VII died the British Government was in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords.

November 20, 1925: Death of Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of the United Kingdom

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Albert Edward, Alexandra of Denmark, Alexandra of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Christian IX of Denmark, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor of India, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Sir Frederick Ponsonby

Alexandra of Denmark (December 1, 1844 – November 20, 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King-Emperor Edward VII.

Princess Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia, or “Alix”, as her immediate family knew her, was born at the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, immediately adjacent to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel.

Louise of Hesse-Cassel the daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Charlotte of Denmark (herself a daughter of Frederik, Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Norway, and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Charlotte of Denmark’s father was a younger son of King Frederik V of Denmark and Norway, while her mother was a daughter of Duke Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin).

Louise of Hesse-Cassel siblings included Princess Marie Luise of Hesse-Cassel, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Auguste Sophie of Hesse-Cassel. Louise of Hesse-Hesse-Cassel lived in Denmark from the age of three.

As a niece of King Christian VIII, who ruled Denmark between 1839 and 1848, Louise was very close to the succession after several individuals of the royal house of Denmark who were elderly and childless.

Alexandra had five siblings: Frederik, George (Wilhelm), Dagmar, Thyra and Valdemar.

Her father’s family was a distant cadet branch of the Danish royal House of Oldenburg, which was descended from King Christian III. Although they were of royal blood, the family lived a comparatively modest life. They did not possess great wealth; her father’s income from an army commission was about £800 per year and their house was a rent-free grace and favour property. Occasionally, Hans Christian Andersen was invited to call and tell the children stories before bedtime.

In 1852, her father, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was chosen with the consent of the major European powers to succeed his second cousin Frederik VII as king of Denmark. Shortly, I will be doing on this blog an in depth examination of the Danish succession crisis and the London Protocol that appointed her father to the Danish throne.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband, Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, were already concerned with finding a bride for their son and heir, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales. They enlisted the aid of their daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, in seeking a suitable candidate. Alexandra was not their first choice because the Danes were at loggerheads with the Prussians over the Schleswig-Holstein Question, and most of the British royal family’s relations were German. Eventually, after rejecting other possibilities, they settled on her as “the only one to be chosen”.

On September 24, 1861, Crown Princess Victoria introduced her brother Albert Edward to Alexandra at Speyer. Almost a year later on September 9, 1862 (after his affair with Nellie Clifden and the death of his father) Albert Edward proposed to Alexandra at the Royal Castle of Laeken, the home of his great-uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium.

A few months later, Alexandra travelled from Denmark to Britain aboard the royal yacht Victoria and Albert and arrived in Gravesend, Kent, on March 7, 1863. Sir Arthur Sullivan composed music for her arrival and Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote an ode in Alexandra’s honour:

Sea King’s daughter from over the sea,
Alexandra!
Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra!

— A Welcome to Alexandra, Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Thomas Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, married the couple on 10 March 10, 1863 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The choice of venue was criticised widely. As the ceremony took place outside London, the press complained that large public crowds would not be able to view the spectacle.

The year in which couple married, was the year in which her father became King of Denmark as Christian IX and her brother was appointed King of the Hellenes as George I, a few months prior to his father’s accession to the throne.

Alexandra was Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1901, the longest anyone has ever held that title, and became generally popular; her style of dress and bearing were copied by fashion-conscious women. Largely excluded from wielding any political power, she unsuccessfully attempted to sway the opinion of British ministers and her husband’s family to favour Greek and Danish interests. Her public duties were restricted to uncontroversial involvement in charitable work.

On the death of Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901, Albert Edward became King-Emperor as Edward VII, with Alexandra as Queen-Empress. She held the status until Edward’s death in 1910.

Despite being queen, Alexandra’s duties changed little, and she kept many of the same retainers. Alexandra’s Woman of the Bedchamber, Charlotte Knollys, the daughter of Sir William Knollys, served Alexandra loyally for many years.

On December 10,1903, Knollys woke to find her bedroom full of smoke. She roused Alexandra and shepherded her to safety. In the words of Grand Duchess Augusta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, “We must give credit to old Charlotte for really saving [Alexandra’s] life.”

Alexandra again looked after her grandchildren when George and Mary, the Prince and Princess of Wales, went on a second tour, this time to British India, over the winter of 1905–06. Her father, Christian IX of Denmark, died that January. Eager to retain their family links, both to each other and to Denmark, in 1907 Alexandra and her sister, the Dowager Empress of Russia, purchased a villa north of Copenhagen, Hvidøre, as a private getaway.

Alexandra greatly despised and distrusted her nephew, German Emperor Wilhelm II, calling him in 1900 “inwardly our enemy”.

In 1910, Alexandra became the first Queen Consort to visit the British House of Commons during a debate. In a remarkable departure from precedent, for two hours she sat in the Ladies’ Gallery overlooking the chamber while the Parliament Bill, to remove the right of the House of Lords to veto legislation, was debated. Privately, Alexandra disagreed with the bill.

Shortly afterwards, she left the United Kingdom to visit her brother, George I of the Hellenes, in Corfu. While there, she received news that King Edward VII was seriously ill. Alexandra returned at once and arrived only the day before her husband died.

On May 6, 1910, Edward suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying, “No, I shall not give in; I shall go on; I shall work to the end.” Between moments of faintness, his son the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Park that afternoon. The king replied, “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad”: his final words. In his last hours, Queen Alexandra personally administered oxygen from a gas cylinder to help him breathe.

At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed. He died 15 minutes later.

After King Edward VII died She told Frederick Ponsonby, “I feel as if I had been turned into stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all.” Later that year she moved out of Buckingham Palace to Marlborough House, but she retained possession of Sandringham.

From Edward’s death, Alexandra was queen mother, being a dowager queen and the mother of the reigning monarch. She did not attend her son’s coronation in 1911 since it was not customary for a crowned queen to attend the coronation of another king or queen, but otherwise continued the public side of her life, devoting time to her charitable causes.

One such cause included Alexandra Rose Day, where artificial roses made by people with disabilities were sold in aid of hospitals by women volunteers. During the First World War, the custom of hanging the banners of foreign princes invested with Britain’s highest order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, came under criticism, as the German members of the Order were fighting against Britain.

Alexandra joined calls to “have down those hateful German banners”. Driven by public opinion, but against his own wishes, the king had the banners removed; but to Alexandra’s dismay, he had taken down not only “those vile Prussian banners” but also those of her Hessian relations who were, in her opinion, “simply soldiers or vassals under that brutal German Emperor’s orders”.

On September 17, 1916, she was at Sandringham during a Zeppelin air raid, but far worse was to befall other members of her family. In Russia, her nephew Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and he, his wife and their children were killed by revolutionaries. Her sister, the Dowager Empress, was rescued from Russia in 1919 by HMS Marlborough and brought to England, where she lived for some time with Alexandra.

Alexandra retained a youthful appearance into her senior years, but during the war her age caught up with her. She took to wearing elaborate veils and heavy makeup, which was described by gossips as having her face “enamelled”. She made no more trips abroad, and suffered increasing ill health. In 1920, a blood vessel in her eye burst, leaving her with temporary partial blindness. Towards the end of her life, her memory and speech became impaired. She died on November 20, 1925 aged 80 at Sandringham after suffering a heart attack, and was buried in an elaborate tomb next to her husband in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle

The Life of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. Conclusion

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Albert-Edward Prince of Wales, Balfour, Ceasar, Emperor of India, France, George I of Greece, German Emperor Wilhelm II, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Queen Alexandra

When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, Edward became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominions. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use—declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone”.

The numeral VII was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had “been excluded from Scotland by battle”. J. B. Priestley recalled, “I was only a child when he succeeded Victoria in 1901, but I can testify to his extraordinary popularity. He was in fact the most popular king England had known since the earlier 1660s.”

As king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised.

He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called “Peacemaker”, but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward’s reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam.

Death

Edward habitually smoked twenty cigarettes and twelve cigars a day. In 1907, a rodent ulcer, a type of cancer affecting the skin next to his nose, was cured with radium. Towards the end of his life he increasingly suffered from bronchitis.

He suffered a momentary loss of consciousness during a state visit to Berlin in February 1909. In March 1910, he was staying at Biarritz when he collapsed. He remained there to convalesce, while in London Asquith tried to get the Finance Bill passed.

The king’s continued ill health was unreported, and he attracted criticism for staying in France while political tensions were so high. On April 27, he returned to Buckingham Palace, still suffering from severe bronchitis. Alexandra returned from visiting her brother, King George I of Greece, in Corfu a week later on May 5.

On May 6, Edward suffered several heart attacks, but refused to go to bed, saying, “No, I shall not give in; I shall go on; I shall work to the end.” Between moments of faintness, his son the Prince of Wales (shortly to be King George V) told him that his horse, Witch of the Air, had won at Kempton Park that afternoon.

The king replied, “Yes, I have heard of it. I am very glad”: his final words. At 11:30 p.m. he lost consciousness for the last time and was put to bed. He died 15 minutes later. The Prince of Wales succeeded to the throne as King George V.

Alexandra refused to allow Edward’s body to be moved for eight days afterwards, though she allowed small groups of visitors to enter his room. On May 11, the late king was dressed in his uniform and placed in a massive oak coffin, which was moved on May 14 to the throne room, where it was sealed and lay in state, with a guardsman standing at each corner of the bier.

Despite the time that had elapsed since his death, Alexandra noted the King’s body remained “wonderfully preserved”. On the morning of May 17, the coffin was placed on a gun carriage and drawn by black horses to Westminster Hall, with the new king, his family and Edward’s favourite dog, Caesar, walking behind.

Following a brief service, the royal family left, and the hall was opened to the public; over 400,000 people filed past the coffin over the next two days. As Barbara Tuchman noted in The Guns of August, his funeral, held on May 20, 1910, marked “the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last.” A royal train conveyed the king’s coffin from London to Windsor Castle, where Edward VII was buried at St George’s Chapel.

June 22, 1948. The title Emperor of India is dropped by King George VI of the United Kingdom.

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Benjamin Disraeli, British India, British Raj, Delhi Durbar, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Emperor of India, Empress of India, Imperial Crown of India, Sir Henry Ponsonby

Emperor or Empress of India, shortened to King-Emperor or Queen-Empress, was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1, 1876 (with the Royal Titles Act 1876) to June 22, 1948. The image of the Emperor or Empress was used to signify British authority—his or her profile, for instance, appearing on currency, in government buildings, railway stations, courts, on statues etc. “God Save the King” (or, alternatively, “God Save the Queen”) was the former national anthem of British India.

Imperial Crown of India

Oaths of allegiance were made to the Emperor or Empress and the lawful successors by the governors-general, princes, governors, commissioners in India in events such as imperial durbars.

The title was officially dropped on June 22, 1948, when, under the Indian Independence Act 1947, George VI became King of the new dominions of India and Pakistan. The monarchies of both nations were abolished upon the establishment of the Republic of India in 1950 and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.

The Emperor or Empress took little direct part in government. The exercise of sovereign powers was delegated from the Emperor or Empress, either by statute or by convention, to the Viceroy and Governor-General of India who were appointed by the Emperor or Empress, or to offices such as the secretary of state for India.

Victoria, Empress of India

The appointed Viceroy and Governor-General was also the ex-officio head of the Imperial Legislative Council, and its two houses, the Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of State as the delegation on behalf of the Emperor or Empress, along with the governors of provinces. They performed these duties with the advice and consent of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Government of India.

Executive power was exercised by His/Her Imperial Majesty’s Government in the presidencies and provinces (via the viceroy and governor-general) and the princely states via suzerainty. They had the support of the Armed Forces in India, such as the British Indian Army and Royal Indian Navy, the Indian Civil Service and other Crown Servants Secret Services (as the emperor or empress received certain foreign intelligence reports before the Viceroy did).

Edward VII, Emperor of India

Judicial power was vested in the various Crown Courts in India, which by statute had judicial independence from the Government.

History

After the nominal Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was deposed at the conclusion of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (10 May 10, 1857 – November 1, 1858), the government of the United Kingdom decided to transfer control of British India and its princely states from the mercantile East India Company (EIC) to the Crown, thus marking the beginning of the British Raj.

The EIC was officially dissolved on June 1, 1874, and the British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, decided to offer Queen Victoria the title “Empress of India” shortly afterwards. Victoria accepted this style on May 1, 1876.

The first Delhi Durbar (which served as an imperial coronation) was held in her honour eight months later on January 1, 1877.

George V, Emperor of India

The idea of having Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India was not particularly new, as Lord Ellenborough had already suggested it in 1843 upon becoming the governor-general of India. By 1874, Major-General Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen’s private secretary, had ordered English charters to be scrutinised for imperial titles, with Edgar and Stephen mentioned as sound precedents.

The Queen, possibly irritated by the sallies of the republicans, the tendency to democracy, and the realisation that her influence was manifestly on the decline, was urging the move. Another factor may have been that the Queen’s first child, Victoria, was married to Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia, the heir apparent to the German Empire. Upon becoming empress, she would outrank her mother.

By January 1876, the Queen’s insistence was so great that Benjamin Disraeli felt that he could procrastinate no longer. Initially, Victoria had actually considered the style “Empress of Great Britain, Ireland, and India”, but Disraeli had persuaded the Queen to limit the title to India in order to avoid controversy. Hence, the title Kaisar-i-Hind was coined in 1876 by the orientalist G.W. Leitner as the official imperial title for the British monarch in India.

Edward VIII, Emperor of India

The term Kaisar-i-Hind means Emperor of India in the vernacular of the Hindi and Urdu languages. The word kaisar, meaning ’emperor’, is a derivative of the Roman imperial title caesar (via Persian, Turkish – see Kaiser-i-Rum – and the Greek Καίσαρ), and is cognate with the German title Kaiser, which was borrowed from the Latin at an earlier date.

Many in the United Kingdom, however, regarded the assumption of the title as an obvious development from the 1858 Government of India Act, which resulted in the founding of the British Raj. The public were of the opinion that the title of “queen” was no longer adequate for the ceremonial ruler of what was often referred to informally as the Indian Empire. The new styling underlined the fact that the native states were no longer a mere agglomeration but a collective entity.

When King Edward VII ascended to the throne on January 22, 1901, he continued the imperial tradition laid down by his mother, Queen Victoria, by adopting the title Emperor of India. Three subsequent British monarchs followed in his footsteps, and it continued to be used even after India had become independent on August 15, 1947. It was not until June 22, 1948 that the style was officially abolished during the reign of George VI.

The first Emperor to visit India was George V. For his imperial coronation ceremony at the Delhi Durbar, the Imperial Crown of India was created.

George VI, Emperor of India

When signing off Indian business, the British King-Emperor or Queen-Empress used the initials R I (Rex/Regina Imperator/Imperatrix) or the abbreviation Ind. Imp. (Indiae Imperator/Imperatrix) after their name (while Victoria used the initials R I, the wives of king-emperors simply used R). When a male monarch held the title, his wife used the style Queen-Empress, despite the fact that she was not a reigning monarch in her own right.

Abdication: Two Days that shook the British Monarchy. Addendum December 12, 1936.

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Abdication, Emperor of India, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Letters Patent 1936, Prince Albert, Prince Edward, The Duke of Windsor

On December 12, 1936, at the accession meeting of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, the new king, George VI, announced he was to create his brother the “Duke of Windsor” with the style of Royal Highness. He wanted this to be the first act of his reign, although the formal documents were not signed until March 8, 1937 that following year. During the interim, Edward was universally known as the Duke of Windsor. George VI’s decision to create Edward a royal duke ensured that he could neither stand for election to the House of Commons nor speak on political subjects in the House of Lords.

King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Emperor of India.

Letters Patent dated May 27, 1937 re-conferred the “title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness” upon the Duke of Windsor, but specifically stated that “his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute”. Some British ministers advised that the reconfirmation was unnecessary since Edward had retained the style automatically, and further that Simpson would automatically obtain the rank of wife of a prince with the style Her Royal Highness; others maintained that he had lost all royal rank and should no longer carry any royal title or style as an abdicated king, and be referred to simply as “Mr Edward Windsor”. Personally, I am not aware of the precedent for lowering Edward VIII’s titles to either a Royal Highness or simply as “Mr Edward Windsor”.

HRH The Duke of Windsor

On April 14, 1937, Attorney General Sir Donald Somervell submitted to Home Secretary Sir John Simona memorandum summarising the views of Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel Sir Granville Ram, and himself:

1. We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.

Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor

2. The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.

3. We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstance.

History of Styles and Titles Part IV: Emperor of Britain.

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British Empire, Emperor of India, Empress of India, King George III of Great Britain, King George VI of the United Kingdom, King Henry VIII of England, Queen Mary I of England, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, William the Conqueror

British Emperor

Although in the past the style of British Emperor has been (retroactively) applied to a few mythical and historical rulers of Great Britain, Ireland or the United Kingdom, it is sometimes used as a colloquialism to designate either Plantagenet and Tudor caesaropapism or, more frequently, the British sovereign of the Empire of India.

Mythical British kings

The mythical British ruler King Arthur is referred to in medieval Welsh texts as ameraudur (meaning “emperor”). The Welsh poem Geraint, son of Erbin, written in the 10th or 11th century, describes a battle at a port-settlement and mentions Arthur in passing. The work is a praise-poem and elegy for the 6th-century king Geraint, provides the earliest known reference to Arthur as “emperor”.

Britannic Empire

The Britannic Empire was a short-lived breakaway state of the Roman empire in the late Roman Period. It was formed as a result of the revolt by the naval commander Carausius. It ended when Carausius’s usurper, Allectus, was defeated by the Emperor Constantius I in 296.

Imperial ambitions (930–1066)

Several Kings of England displayed imperial ambition in the period from 930 to 1066, using a variety of what would be considered imperial titles. The most common title was basileus, but imperator, princeps, augustus, and caesar were all used sporadically.
* Athelstan (c. 895–939), a collector of imperial relics, had himself proclaimed “imperator” in 930, six years after the death of the last Carolingian emperor. Variants that he used throughout his reign include such formulations as “king of the Anglo-Saxons and emperor of the Northumbrians” (Rex Angulsexna and Norþhymbra imperator). He was also one of many to use the Anglo-Saxon title of Bretwalda (“wielder of the strength of Britain,” sometimes rendered Brutenwealde).
* Edgar the Peaceful (c. 943–975) legendarily took homage from eight lesser kings during an excursion on the River Dee. During his lifetime, he issued royal charters proclaiming himself as Anglorum Basileus and totius Albionis Basileus, among other variants.
* Ethelred the Unready (c. 966–1016) was noted for being especially fond of high titles during his reign.
* Canute the Great (994/995–1035) ruled England, Norway, and Denmark through personal union and lacked formal imperial title during his lifetime, though he followed Anglo-Saxon tradition. The lands which he ruled are commonly referred to as the North Sea Empire.
* Edward the Confessor (c. 1003–1066) continued the occasional use of imperial titles after the restoration of the House of Wessex, but the kings of England largely ceased referring to themselves as emperors following the Norman conquest.

Norman Era: Empress Maud (Matilda)
In this case the epithet “Empress” was rather used to distinguish this person from other princesses called Matilda or Maud. Matilda was not Empress of Britain; she took her title from her previous marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich V.

The “Imperium Maius” issue

Although several English monarchs flirted with the idea of “imperial” power, this never led to an official change of the title of “King/Queen” to that of “Emperor/Empress”.

Imperium maius

In Christian Europe the use of the title emperor was more than an affectation. A king recognises that the church is an equal or superior in the religious sphere; emperors do not. This was illustrated by Henry VIII of England who started to use the word imperium in his dispute with Pope Clement VII over the annulment of his first marriage. The distinction began to blur when kings began to claim divine rights.

English kings and the imperium maius

William II, Duke of Normandy (who became William I “the Conqueror”) thought it important enough to request and get a papal blessing for his conquest of England. Richard I refused to show deference to Heinrich VI, Holy Roman Emperor when held prisoner by him, declaring “I am born of a rank which recognizes no superior but God.

William I, King of England and Duke of Normandy

After Henry I agreed to the Concordat of London in 1107, the English kings recognised the supremacy of the Pope in matters spiritual. For example, when Thomas Becket was murdered, Henry II was forced to recognise that, although he ruled temporal matters, spiritual matters came under the authority of the Church in Rome.

This changed with the dispute between Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII over Henry’s wish to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. The Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533) explicitly stated that:

Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same.

The next year the First Act of Supremacy (1534) explicitly tied the head of church to the imperial crown:

The only supreme head in earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia, and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm.

The Crown of Ireland Act, passed by the Irish Parliament in 1541 (effective 1542), changed the traditional title used by the Monarchs of England for the reign over Ireland, from Lord of Ireland to King of Ireland and naming Henry head of the Church of Ireland, for similar reasons.

During the reign of Mary I, the First Act of Supremacy was annulled, but during the reign of Elizabeth I the Second Act of Supremacy, with similar wording to the First Act, was passed in 1559. During the English Interregnum the laws were annulled, but the acts which caused the laws to be in abeyance were themselves deemed to be null and void by the Parliaments of the English Restoration, so by act of Parliament the Crown of England (and later the British and UK crowns) are imperial crowns.

George III as Emperor

In 1801 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created after the merging of the British and Irish parliaments. It was suggested that George III be declared Emperor of the British Isles. The King declined and became king of “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.”

Parliament used the terms “empire” and “imperial”. Blackstone commented in 1765 “The meaning … of the legislature, when it uses these terms of empire and imperial, and applies them to the realm and crown of England, is only to assert that our king is equally sovereign and independent within these his dominions, as any emperor is in his empire.”

British monarchs with the title Emperor/Empress of India (1876–1948)

The British government led by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title Empress of India on Queen Victoria by an Act of Parliament, reputedly to assuage the monarch’s irritation at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her daughter, the future German Empress; the Indian Imperial designation was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding the former Mughal as paramount ruler of the subcontinent, using indirect rule through hundreds of princely states formally under protection, not colonies, but accepting the British Sovereign as their “feudal” suzerain.

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and 1st Empress of India

George VI, King of the United Kingdom and last Emperor of India

The title of Emperor of India was not immediately relinquished by George VI when India and Pakistan gained independence on 15 August 1947, as he continued to be king of each of the two new dominions, but he abandoned the title with effect from June 22, 1948.