Californian Reacts | Why Wasn't the British Empire Ruled by A British Emperor?

Why has Britain never had an Emperor to rule over the biggest empire in history?

"The title Empress of India was Victoria's Secret." - Reinier van der Hulst (original video commenter)

Video Chapters:
0:00 | Introduction
1:20 | Full Reaction
4:55 | Comments & Thoughts

#BritishEmpire #BritishEmperor #Royals

[californianreacts]

More British History coming right up! Why didn't Britain ever have an Emperor while being the biggest empire in history?

Enjoy! :)

[archiebald]

It was for a while. From 1877 until 1948 the Monarchs were titled RI (for Queens Regina Imperatrix, for Kings Rex Imperator). Except that British Monarchs Reign, they do not rule.

[martingregory]

Interesting fact, dueing the late 1970s the Shah of Iran held a massive party / gathering . I cannot remember if it was for the world Royalty of all the worlds leaders but it was said it was advised that Queen Elizabeth did not attend because one of the shahs title was king of kings and if Queen Elizabeth attended it would be seen as the Queen admitting that the Shah was more important and higher up . I think Princess Anne attended instead .

[phildurling]

To understand the British Empire some more research is needed. Some countries were dominions and others were protectorate. Some were ruled directly from London others had a degree of independence. Today this commonwealth family has just elected Prince Charles as its next leader after QE2. So the result of this is that a lot of smaller countries have a market for their exports in places like Canada, Australia and the UK, even in the modern world. The British Empire was always about trade rather than conquest and may be this is maybe why an Emporer wasn't considered suitable. The residue of the Empire may be found in places like the Falkland Islands that are to small to survive on their own and prefer the security of being under the wing of a larger economy.

[gillcawthorn]

Sorry if this sounds amazingly big-headed, but as a nation we have been going for a long time and are quietly confident in ourselves, so we don`t need to trumpet our importance

[micheleedwin]

It was. Victoria and her successeurs were styled Queen/Empress or King/Emperor until the end of the Empire. Disraeli’s idea.

[MrnicEsmurfsmurf]

love your vids, wishing you fae S.W.Scotland to you and yours, have a great Christmas, a fantastic HOGMANAY & a fan dabbie dozzie 2022

[XRos]

Japan has an Emperor. To the UK: India has a lot of kings and princes to this day, so Victoria became Emperor over all their kings.

[sifisodlamini]

I don't know if this is true but I once heard that one of the reasons Queen Victoria wanted to be an Empress was the fact that her own daughter Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia was the future Empress of the German Empire thus, she was going outrank her own mother, and apparently Queen Victoria was not amused by that notion🤣

[mikehull]

Because its not a republic nor has a senate, its parliament and head of state, King or Queen.

[joealyjim]

It seemed to skip over it a bit but most empires claim descent from The Roman Empire as evidenced by their titles (Holy Roman Emperor, Kaiser and Tsar to name a few) with the last 2 being translations of Caesar. British monarchs never claimed descent from Rome so to start after almost 1000 years because Victoria wanted it felt a bit silly.

[sirderam]

It was. King George VI was the King/Emperor. When India became independent the title Emperor, was dropped.

[gillianrimmer]

The British Empire wasn't exactly that big until the end of the 19th century.
When Queen Victoria became Queen, the British Empire was basically a few colonies in Canada, Australia, and some islands in the West Indies and the Pacific.
India wasn't actually governed by the British government until 1857 - it had been the East India company that had created trading colonies and 'ruled' the Indian citizens through the use of their own private army.
Hong Kong was added at the end of the Opium Wars with China in 1842.
New Zealand became 'British' around the 1850s.
The African colonies were created at the time of the 'Scramble for Africa' in the 1880s, when the European powers carved up the continent between themselves.
So, no monarch actually had an 'Empire' to speak of until the later 19th century - which was when Queen Victoria took the title Empress of India.

[phillvgs]

Years ago, we had Empires lead by Emperors, then we had Kingdoms lead by Kings.... now, we have countries....

[charlestaylor]

It was a King of Suadi Arabia who said "eventually there will only be 5 kings, spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs and England".

[Mugtree]

We kinda had an Empress Matilda in the 1100s

[andrewrobinson]

Boris will become Emperor of Britain.
He will declare a Republic after the Queen's death, have a referendum Charles v Boris, then will be President for 2 years, then declare himself Emperor - a bit like Napoleon III.