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:''Czar, csar, and tzar redirect here. For other uses, see Tsar (disambiguation)''
'Tsar' (Bulgarian, Serbian: цар, Russian , in scientific transliteration respectively ''car'' and ''car' ''), occasionally spelled 'Czar' or 'Tzar' and sometimes 'Csar' or 'Zar' in English, is a Slavonic term designating certain monarchs.
Originally, and indeed during most of its history, the title ''tsar'' (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, i.e., a ruler who has the same rank as a Roman or Byzantine emperor (or, according to Byzantine ideology, the most elevated position ''next to'' the one held by the Byzantine monarch) due to recognition by another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or the Ecumenical Patriarch). Occasionally, the word could be used to designate other, non-Christian supreme rulers. In Russia and Bulgaria, the imperial connotations of the term were blurred with time and by the 19th century it had come to be viewed as an equivalent of king, The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia entry on Tsar .^[1] The modern languages of these countries use it as a general term for a monarch.^[2][3] For example, the title of the Bulgarian monarchs in the 20th century was not generally interpreted as imperial.
"Tsar" was the official title of the supreme ruler in the following states:

★ Bulgaria in 913–1018, in 1185-1422 and in 1908–1946

★ Serbia in 1346–1371

★ Russia from about 1547 until 1721 (after 1721 and until 1917, the title was used officially only in reference to the Russian emperor's sovereignty over certain formerly independent states such as Poland and Georgia)

Contents

Etymology and spelling

Meaning in the Slavic languages

Bulgaria

Serbia

Russia

Full style of Russian Sovereigns

Titles in the Russian Royal/Imperial family

Notes

Metaphorical uses

See also

Notes

Sources and references

External links

Etymology and spelling

The word ''tsar'' (царь, ''car' '') is a contraction of the earlier ''tsesar'' (цсарь, ''cěsar' ''), derived from the Roman title ''Caesar'', but not from its devalued Byzantine derivative ''Kaisar'' (Καίσαρ). Originally the name of the deified dictator Caesar and then of his adopted son, the first emperor Augustus, the word Caesar came to designate the Roman emperor, together with the additional titles of Imperator and Augustus, and the Republican dignity of Princeps (designating the foremost senator). From the Antonine period the title ''Caesar'' by itself was also granted to junior associates in imperial power or heirs-designate, with which its importance started to decline. This is expressed even more clearly in Diocletian's Tetrarchy 293–306, in which power was shared between two senior emperors (''Augusti'') and two junior emperors (''Caesares''). In the Byzantine period the title ''Caesar'' (in Greek ''Kaisar'') ceased to imply imperial association or the promise of succession to the throne, and after the Komnenian reforms, it was outranked by new titles such as ''despotēs'' and ''sebastokratōr''.
Like German Kaiser, Old Church Slavonic ''tsesar'' (цсарь) was derived directly from the Roman title ''Caesar'', and not from the lower-ranking Byzantine ''Kaisar'', as can be seen from etymological development and the coexistence of the distinct terms tsesar (цѣсарь) and kesar (кесарь) with different meanings (corresponding to, respectively the Byzantine Emperor (''Basileus'') and Byzantine ''Kaisar'') in early Cyrillic texts. The word is thus cognate with German ''Kaiser'', Gothic ''káisar'', Dutch ''keizer'', Danish ''kejser'', Swedish ''kejsare'', Norwegian ''keisar''/''keiser'', and (through Slavonic) Hungarian ''császár''. The contraction of ''tsesar'' (цѣсарь) into ''tsar'' (царь) occurred by the way of shorthand writing of titles in Slavonic manuscripts (see Titlo article). One may see examples of this in the East Slavic Primary Chronicle. The first attested examples seem to date from the 10th-century grave inscription of Mostič from Preslav (see under ''Bulgaria'' below).
Modern usage seems to have standardized on the use of ''tsar'' to describe former rulers of Russia (and often Bulgaria and Serbia), while ''czar'' is used to informally describe an expert in charge of implementing policy (especially in the US): ''economics czar'', ''drug czar'', etc.
The Russian pronunciation of ''tsar'' is , the Bulgarian and Serbian one (in IPA notation) though many if not most English-speaking people pronounce it considerably differently: or .
The spelling ''tsar'' is the closest possible transliteration of the original using standard English spelling, while the scholarly transliteration is ''car'', with the letter 'c' standing for 'ц' ('ts') in Slavic languages employing the Latin alphabet (e.g., Serbian, Czech, Polish). ''Tsar'' has been accepted in Standard English for the last century as a correct usage. The use of "czar" is typically found in American English and has also been accepted into general use for more than a century there. The French adopted the form ''tsar'' during the 19th century, and it became more frequent in English towards the end of that century, following its adoption by ''The Times'' (see the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd edition). The spelling ''tzar'' with 'z' is also very common, and represents an alternative transliteration of the first letter 'ц', derived from German.
The early spelling ''czar'' originated with the Austrian diplomat Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, whose ''Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii'' (1549), 'Notes on Muscovite Affairs', was the main source of knowledge of Russia in early modern western Europe, while not found in any of the Slavic languages.

Meaning in the Slavic languages

In contrast to the Latin word "imperator", the Byzantine Greek term ''basileus'' had both political and Biblical connotations. In the history of the Greek language, the word originally meant something like "potentate", had gradually approached the meaning of "king" in the Hellenistic Period, and designated "emperor" after the inception in the Roman Empire. As a consequence, Byzantine sources continued to call the Biblical, and ancient kings "basileus", even when that word had come to mean "emperor" when referring to contemporary monarchs (while it was never applied to Western European kings, whose title was transliterated from Latin "rex" as , or to other monarchs, for whom designations such as "leader", "chieftain" were used.)
As the Greek "basileus" was consistently rendered as "tsar" in Slavonic translations of Greek texts, the dual meaning was transferred into Church Slavonic. Thus, "tsar" was not only used as an equivalent of Latin "imperator" (in reference to the rulers of the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and to native rulers) but was also used to refer to Biblical rulers and ancient kings. In contrast, the title of Western European kings was derived from the name of Charlemagne (Russian '' korol' '', Bulgarian ''kral'') or was transliterated from the Greek as "риксъ".^[4]
From this ambiguity, the development has moved in different directions in the different Slavic languages. Thus, the Bulgarian and Russian languages no longer use ''tsar'' as an equivalent of the term ''emperor''/''imperator'' as it exists in the West European (Latin) tradition. Currently, the term ''tsar'' refers to native sovereigns, ancient and Biblical rulers, as well as monarchs in fairy tales and the like. The title of ''king'' (Russian '' korol' '', Bulgarian ''kral'') is perceived as alien and is reserved for (West) European royalty (and, by extension, for those modern monarchs outside of Europe whose titles are translated as ''king'' in English, ''roi'' in French etc.). Foreign monarchs of imperial status, both inside and outside of Europe, ancient as well as modern, are generally called ''imperator'' (император), rather than ''tsar''.
In contrast, the Serbian language (along with the closely related Croatian, Bosnian, and Slovene languages) translates "''emperor''" (Latin ''imperator'') as ''tsar'' (''car'', цар) and not as ''imperator'', whereas the equivalent of ''king'' (''kralj'', краљ) is used to designate monarchs of non-imperial status, Serbian as well as foreign, including Biblical and other ancient rulers - just like Latin "''rex''".
In the West Slavic languages, the use of the terms is identical to the one in English and German: a king is designated with one term (Czech ''král'', Slovak ''král' '', Polish ''król''), an emperor is designated with another, derived from ''Caesar'' as in German (Czech ''císař'', Slovak ''cisár'', Polish ''cesarz''), while the exotic term "tsar" (Czech and Polish ''car'', Slovak ''cár'') is reserved for the Russian emperor.

Bulgaria

The sainted Boris I is sometimes retrospectively referred to as tsar, because at his time Bulgaria was converted to Christianity. However, the title "tsar" (and its Byzantine Greek equivalent "basileus") were actually adopted and used for the first time by his son Simeon I, following a makeshift imperial coronation performed by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 913. After an attempt by the Byzantine Empire to revoke this major diplomatic concession and a decade of intensive warfare, the imperial title of the Bulgarian ruler was recognized by the Byzantine government in 924 and again at the formal conclusion of peace in 927. Since in Byzantine political theory there was place for only two emperors, Eastern and Western (as in the Late Roman Empire), the Bulgarian ruler was crowned basileus as "a spiritual son" of the Byzantian basileus.^[5]
Some of the earliest attested occurrences of the contraction "tsar" (''car' '') from "tsesar" (''cěsar' '') are found in the grave inscription of the ''chărgubilja'' (ichirgu boila) Mostich, a contemporary of Simeon I and Peter I, from Preslav.
It has been hypothesized that Simeon's title was also recognized by a papal mission to Bulgaria in or shortly after 925, as a concession in exchange for a settlement in the Bulgarian-Croatian conflict or a possible attempt to return Bulgaria to union with Rome. Thus, in the later diplomatic correspondence conducted in 1199-1204 between the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan and Pope Innocent III, Kaloyan — whose self-assumed Latin title was "imperator Bulgarorum et Blachorum" — claims that the imperial crowns of Simeon I, his son Peter I, and of Samuel were somehow derived from the Papacy. The Pope, however, only speaks of ''reges'', kings of Bulgaria in his replies, and eventually grants only that lesser title to Kaloyan, who nevertheless procedes to thank the Pope for the "imperial title" conferred upon him.^[6]
The title, later augmented with epithets and titles such as ''autocrat'' to reflect current Byzantine practice, was used by all of Simeon's successors until the complete conquest of Bulgaria by the Ottoman Empire in 1422. In Latin sources the Emperor of Bulgaria is sometimes designated "Emperor of Zagora" (with variant spellings). Various additional epithets and descriptions apart, the official style read "Emperor and autocrat of all Bulgarians and Greeks".

During the five-century period of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the sultan was fequently referred to as "tsar". This may be related to the fact that he had claimed the legacy of the Byzantine Empire or to the fact that the sultan was called "Basileus" in medieval Greek.
After Bulgaria's liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs were at first ''autonomous prince'' (knjaz). With the declaration of full independence, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria adopted the traditional title "tsar" in 1908 and it was used until the abolition of the monarchy in 1946. (In the same way as the modern rulers of Greece used the traditional title of ''basileus'' in Greek and the title of "king" or "roi" in English and French). However, these titles weren't generally perceived as equivalents of "Emperor" any longer. In the Bulgarian as in the Greek vernacular, the meaning of the title had shifted^[7] (although Paisius' ''Slavonic-Bulgarian History'' (1760-1762) had still distinguished between the two concepts) and the rulers of these countries were recognized only as kings by international diplomacy.

Serbia

The title Tsar was also used in Serbia, but only by two monarchs — Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and Stefan Uroš V between 1345 and 1371. Earlier Serbian monarchs had used the royal title ''Kralj'' / Краљ (King) since 1077, which had been granted by the Papacy during an early union with the Western Church. In 1345 Stefan Uroš IV Dušan began to style himself "Emperor of Serbians and Greeks" (the Greek renderings read "imperator and autocrator of Serbians and Romans"), and was crowned as such in Skopje on Easter (April 16) 1346 by the newly created Serbian patriarch, alongside with the Bulgarian patriarch and the autocephalous archibishop of Ohrid. On the same occasion, he had his wife Helena of Bulgaria crowned as empress and his son associated in power as king. When Dušan died in 1355, his son Stefan Uroš V became the next "emperor of Serbians and Greeks". The new emperor's uncle Simeon Uroš (Siniša) contested the succession and claimed the same titles as a dynast in Thessaly. After his death around 1370, he was succeeded in his claims by his son John Uroš, who retired to a monastery in about 1373.
With the extinction of Nemanjić dynasty in Serbia in 1371, the imperial title became obsolete (though it was retained by Stefan Uroš IV's widow Elena of Bulgaria until her death in 1376/1377). The royal title was preserved by Vukašin Mrnjavčević, a Serbian ruler in Macedonia, who had been associated by Stefan Uroš V as king, but lapsed on the death of his son Marko in 1395. The Bosnian ban Tvrtko I also assumed the Serbian royal title, but he and his heirs reigned as kings of Serbs and Bosnia, while Sebian part in fact remained under the rule of princes, occasionally granted the Byzantine title of ''despotēs''.
Several other Serbian rulers are known traditionally as tsars, although they realistically cannot be called so. They include Tsar Lazar, Tsar Jovan Nenad and Tsar Stephen the Little.
When Serbia, which had emerged as an autonomous principality after a long period of Ottoman domination, became an independent kingdom, its prince, ''knjaz'', adopted the traditional title of king, ''kralj''. The King's full style was, between 6 March 1882 and 1 December 1918 (New Style): ''Po milosti Božjoj i volji narodnoj kralj Srbije'' "By the grace of God and the will of the nation, King of Serbia".
Again, when the Serbian dynasty came to rule an enlarged kingdom, including Croatia and Slovenia, three peoples on the Balkan peninsula, after a decade generally collectively referred to as ''Yugo''slavs (literally "''Southern'' Slavonic"), its full style remained accordingly:

★ 1 December 1918 (New Style) - 3 October 1929: ''Po milosti Božjoj i volji narodnoj kralj Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca'' "By the Grace of God and will of the people, King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes";

★ 3 October 1929 - 29 November 1945: ''Po milosti Božjoj i volji narodnoj kralj Jugoslavije'' "By the Grace of God and will of the people, King of Yugoslavia".

Russia

The term "tsar" was used once by Church officials of Kievan Rus in the naming of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev. This may be connected to Yaroslav's war against Byzantium and to his efforts to distance himself from Constantinople. However, other princes of Kievan Rus never called themselves as "tsars"^[8] After the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders and the Mongol invasion of Rus, the term "tsar" was applied by some people of Kievan Rus to the Mongol (Tatar) overlords of the Rus' principalities. Yet the first Russian ruler to openly break with the khan, Mikhail of Tver, assumed the title of "Basileus of Rus" and "tsar".^[9]
Following his assertion of independence from the Golden Horde and perhaps also his marriage to an heiress of the Byzantine Empire, "Veliki Kniaz" Ivan III of Muscovy started to use the title of tsar regularly in diplomatic relations with the West. From about 1480, he is designated as "imperator" in his Latin correspondence, as "keyser" in his correspondence with the Swedish regent, as "kejser" in his correspondence with the Danish king, Teutonic Knights, and the Hanseatic League. Ivan's son Vasily III continued using these titles, as his Latin letters to Clement VII testify: "Magnus Dux Basilius, Dei gratia Imperator et Dominator totius Russiae, nec non Magnus Dux Woldomeriae", etc. (In the Russian version of the letter, "imperator" corresponds to "tsar"). Herberstein correctly observed that the titles of "kaiser" and "imperator" were attempts to render the Russian term "tsar" into German and Latin, respectively.^[10]
This was related to Russia's growing ambitions to become an Orthodox "Third Rome", after Constantinople had fallen. The Muscovite ruler was recognized as an emperor by Maximilian I, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1514.^[11] However, the first Russian ruler to be formally crowned as "tsar of all Russia" was Ivan IV, until then known as Grand Prince of all Russia (1547). Some foreign ambassadors — namely, Herberstein (in 1516 and 1525), Daniel Printz a Buchau (in 1576 and 1578) and Just Juel (in 1709) — indicated that the word "tsar" should not be translated as "emperor", because it is applied by Russians to David, Solomon and other Biblical kings, which are simple "reges".^[12] On the other hand, Jacques Margeret, a bodyguard of False Demetrius I, argues that the title of "tsar" is more honorable for Muscovites than "kaiser" or "king" exactly because it was God and not some earthly potentate who ordained to apply it to David, Solomon, and other kings of Israel.^[13] Samuel Collins, a court physician to Tsar Alexis in 1659-66, styled the latter "Great Emperour", commenting that "as for the word ''Czar'', it has so near relation to ''Cesar''... that it may well be granted to signifie Emperour. The Russians would have it to be an higher Title than King, and yet they call David ''Czar'', and our kings, ''Kirrols'', probably from Carolus Quintus, whose history they have among them".^[14]
In short, the Westerners were at a loss as to how the term "tsar" should be translated properly. In 1670, Pope Clement X expressed doubts that it would be appropriate for him to address Alexis as "tsar", because the word is "barbarian" and because it stands for an "emperor", whereas there is only one emperor in the Christian world and he does not reside in Moscow. Reviewing the matter, abbot Scarlati opined that the term is not translatable and therefore may be used by the Pope without any harm. Paul Menesius, the Russian envoy in Vatican, seconded Scarlati's opinion by saying that there is no adequate Latin translation for "tsar", as there is no translation for "shah" or "sultan". In order to avoid such difficulties of translation and to assert his imperial ambitions more clearly, an edict of Peter I the Great decreed that the Latin-based title ''imperator'' should be used instead of "tsar" (1721).^[15]
The title ''tsar'' remained in common usage, and also officially as the designator of various titles signifying rule over various states absorbed by the Muscovite monarchy (such as the former Tatar khanates and the Georgian Orthodox kingdom). In the 18th century, it was increasingly viewed as inferior to "emperor" or highlighting the oriental side of the term.^[16] Upon annexing Crimea in 1783, Catherine the Great adopted the hellenicized title of "Tsaritsa of Tauric Chersonesos", rather than "Tsaritsa of the Crimea", as should have been expected. By 1815, when a large part of Poland was annexed, the title had clearly come to be interpreted in Russia as the equivalent of Polish Król "king", and the Russian emperor assumed the title "tsar of Poland", The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia entry on Tsar (and the puppet Kingdom of Poland was officially called ''Królewstwo Polskie'' in Polish and ''Царство Польское'' - ''Tsardom of Poland'' - in Russian The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia entry on The Kingdom of Poland ) (see also Full style of Russian Sovereigns below).
Since the word "tsar" remained the popular designation of the Russian ruler despite the official change of style, its transliteration of this title in foreign languages such as English is commonly used also, in fact chiefly, for the Russian Emperors up to 1917.

Full style of Russian Sovereigns

The full title of Russian emperors started with 'By the Grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias' (Божию Милостию, Император и Самодержец Всероссийский [''Bozhiyu Milostiyu, Imperator i Samodyerzhets Vserossiysky'']) and went further to list all ruled territories. For example, according to the article 59 of the Russian Constitution of April 23, 1906, "the full title of His Imperial Majesty is as follows: We, ------ by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Belostok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria, and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhni Novgorod, Sovereign of Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, and all northern territories; Sovereign of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories - hereditary Lord and Ruler of the Circassians and Mountain Princes and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth."
For example, Nicholas II of Russia (1 November 1894 - 15 March 1917) was titled as follows (notice the archaic Cyrillic spelling):
:Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію МЫ, НИКОЛАЙ ВТОРЫЙ ИМПЕРАТОРЪ и САМОДЕРЖЕЦЪ ВСЕРОССІЙСКІЙ
:Московский, Кіевскій, Владимірскій, Новгородскій,
:Царь Казанскій, Царь Астраханскій, Царь Польскій, Царь Сибирскій, Царь Херсонеса Таврическаго, Царь Грузинскій,
:Государь Псковскій, и
:Великій Князь Смоленскій, Литовскій, Волынскій, Подольскій и Финляндскій;
:Князь Эстляндскій, Лифляндскій, Курляндскій и Семигальскій, Самогитскій, Бѣлостокский, Корельскій,
:Тверскій, Югорскій, Пермскій, Вятскій, Болгарскій и иныхъ;
:Государь и Великій Князь Новагорода низовскія земли, Черниговскій, Рязанскій, Полотскій,
:Ростовскій, Ярославскій, Бѣлозерскій, Удорскій, Обдорскій, Кондійскій, Витебскій, Мстиславскій и
:всея Сѣверныя страны Повелитель; и
:Государь Иверскія, Карталинскія и Кабардинскія земли и области Арменскія;
:Черкасскихъ и Горскихъ Князей и иныхъ Наслѣдный Государь и Обладатель;
:Государь Туркестанскій;
:Наслѣдникъ Норвежскій,
:Герцогъ Шлезвигъ-Голстинскій, Стормарнскій, Дитмарсенскій и Ольденбургскій, и прочая, и прочая, и прочая.

★ The Emperor's subsidiary title of Tsar of ''Kazan'' proclaimed the chief Orthodox dynasty as successor in law to the mighty Islamic khanate of Kazan, not maintaining its 'heathen' (khan) title (as the Ottoman Great Sultans did in several cases), but christening it. It should also be noted that Khans of Kazan were mentioned in Russian chronicles such as Kazan Chronicle as ''Tsars of Kazan''.

★ The Emperor's subsidiary title of Tsar of ''Siberia'' refers to the Tatar Khanate of Sibiria, easily subdued in the early stages of the exploration and annexation of the larger eponymous region, most of it before inhabited by nomadic tribal people without a state in the European sense.^[17]

★ The subsidiary title of Tsar in chief of Transcausasian ''Georgia'' is the continuation of a royal style of a native dynasty, that had as such been recognized by Russia; it was a new, Slavonic style, imposed after the former regional superpower, which had used native and even Persian styles reflecting imperial pretences, had been reduced to a vassal unable to ward off its mighty neighbours.^[18]

★ The subsidiary title of Tsar of Poland demonstrates the Russian Emperors' rule over the legally separate (but actually subordinate) Polish Kingdom, nominally in personal union with Russia, established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 (hence also called "Congress Poland"), in a sense reviving the royal style of the pre-existent national kingdom of Poland. Internationally and in Poland, the tsars were referred to as Kings (''królowie'') of Poland.^[19]
In some cases, defined by the Code of Laws, the 'Abbreviated Imperial Title' was used:
:"We, ------ by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth."
In other cases, also defined by the Code of Laws, the 'Short Imperial Title' was used:
:"We, ------ by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, Tsar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth."

Titles in the Russian Royal/Imperial family

'Tsaritsa' (царица) is the term used for an Empress, though in English contexts this seems invariably to be altered to 'tsarina' (since 1717, from Italian ''czarina'', from German ''Zarin''). In Imperial Russia, the official title was Empress (Императрица). Tsaritsa (Empress) could be either the ruler herself or the wife (Empress consort) of the tsar. The title of tsaritsa is used in the same way in Bulgaria and Serbia.
'Tsesarevich' (Цесаревич) (literally, "son of the tsar") is the term for a male heir apparent, the full title was 'Heir Tsesarevich' ("Naslednik Tsesarevich", Наследник Цесаревич), informally abbreviated in Russia to 'The Heir' ("Naslednik") (from the capital letter).
'Tsarevich' (царевич) was the term for a son. In older times the term was used in place of "Tsesarevich" (Цесаревич). A son who was not a heir was formally called 'Velikii Kniaz' (Великий Князь) (Grand Duke or Grand Prince). The latter title was also used for grandsons (through male lines).
'Tsarevna' (царевна) was the term for a daughter and a granddaughter of a Tsar or Tsaritsa. The official title was 'Velikaya Kniaginya' (Великая Княгиня), translated as ''Grand Duchess'' or ''Grand Princess''.
See also Grand Duchess for more details on the ''Velikaya Kniaginya'' title.
'Tsesarevna' (Цесаревна) was the wife of the Tsesarevich.

Notes

#When Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 he abdicated not just on his own behalf but also on behalf of his teenage son, Alexis, who was too ill to take up the throne. He named as his heir his own brother Michael. Michael initially considered accepting the throne, conditional upon the people accepting him as their ruler. But a day or two later he decided against this course. He saw no need to formally abdicate a throne he had never formally accepted. He was never properly proclaimed as "Emperor Michael II" (although he was proclaimed in cities like Pskov and even Petrograd before the members of the provisional Government changed their minds about accepting Michael as a substitute for Tsarevich Alexis). Historians and lists of tsars differ as to whether to regard Michael or Nicholas II as the last tsar. Nicholas II was undoubtedly the last tsar to ''rule'' Russia and so was the last ''effective'' tsar. Mikhail, if he can be said to have been Tsar at all, exercised no governmental functions and merely ''reigned'' nominally for a very short time. However, he was regarded as the legal Head of State by the Duma representatives who went to see him to persuade him not to accept the Throne. They needed him to hand over power to them which automatically shows he WAS Tsar to be able to do this. Mikhail, like his brother Nicholas, was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
#In 1924 Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich proclaimed himself Emperor in exile.
#Moscow and Saint-Petersburg are known as the two 'tsar's capitals', though the latter was precisely founded as the new capital, symbolizing the new empire after Peter had shed the formal style of Tsar.

★ The decisions taken by Tsar Michael II are detailed in a biography - Michael and Natasha, The Life and love of the Last Tsar of Russia, Rosemary & Donald Crawford, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1997. ISBN 0 297 81836 8

Metaphorical uses

Like many lofty titles, e.g. Mogul, Tsar or Czar has been used as a metaphor for positions of high authority, in English since 1866 (referring to U.S. President Andrew Johnson), with a connotation of dictatorial powers and style, fitting since "Autocrat" was an official title of the Russian Emperor (informally referred to as 'the Tsar').
This use is not limited to statesmen, e.g. 'drug czar' for the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. agency against illegal narcotics, or "terrorism czar" for a Presidential advisor on terrorism policy.

See also

★ List of Bulgarian monarchs

★ List of Russian rulers

★ List of Serbian monarchs

★ Tsesarevich

★ Tsaritsa

Notes

1. The entry on ''tsar'' in the Eleventh Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1911)
2. Български тълковен речник. 3. изд. (the entry on цар in ''A Bulgarian explanatory dictionary'').
3. Словарь современного русского литературного языка. Издательство Академии наук СССР. 1948-1965 (the entry on царь in ''The dictionary of the modern Russian literary language'')
4. The word is used to refer to the kings of Hungary in the Halychian Chronicle.
5. Срђан Пириватрић. ''Самуилова држава''. Београд, 1997.
6. ''Innocentii pp. III epistolae ad Bulgariae historiam spectantes''. Recensuit et explicavit Iv. Dujcev. Sofia, 1942.
7. Найден Геров. 1895-1904. Речник на блъгарский язик. (the entry on цар in Naiden Gerov's ''Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language'')
8. Wladimir Vodoff. ''Remarques sur la valeur du terme "tsar" appliqué aux princes russes avant le milieu du 15e siècle'', in "Oxford Slavonic Series", new series, vol. XI. Oxford University Press, 1978.
9. A.V. Soloviev. ''"Reges" et "Regnum Russiae" au moyen âge'', in "Byzantion", t. XXXVI. Bruxelles, 1966.
10. "Den Titel aines Khaisers, wiewol Er alle seine Brief nur Reissisch schreibt, darinn Er sich Czar nent, so schickht Er gemaincklich Lateinische Copeyen darmit oder darinn, und an stat des Czar setzen sy Imperator, den wir Teutsch Khaiser nennen".
11. "Kayser vnnd Herscher aller Rewssen und Groszfürste zu Wolodimer" in the German text of Maximilian's letter; "Imperator et Dominator universorum Rhutenorum et Magnus Princeps Valadomerorum" in the Latin copy. Vasily III responded by referring to Maximilian as "Maximiliano Dei gratia Electo Romanorum Caesare", i.e., "Roman Caesar". Maximilian's letter was of great importance to Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, when they wished to back up their titles of "tsar" and "emperor", respectively. Both monarchs demonstrated the letter to foreign ambassadors; Peter even referred to it when he proclaimed himself Emperor.
12. This objection may be used against translating "Basileus" as "emperor", too. Based on these accounts, the Popes repeatedly suggested to confer on the Russian monarchs the title of ''rex'' ("king"), if they only ally themselves with Vatican. Such a proposal was made for the last time in 1550, i.e., three years after Ivan IV had crowned himself tsar. As early as 1489, Ivan III declined the papal offer, declaring that his regal authority does not require anyone's confirmation.
13. "Et ainsi retiennent le nom de Zar comme plus autentique, duquel nom il pleut iadis à Dieu d'honorer David, Salomon et autres regnans sur la maison de Iuda et Israel, disent-ils, et que ces mots ''Tsisar'' et ''Krol'' n'est que invention humaine, lequel nom quelqu'un s'est acquis par beaux faits d'armes".
14. ''The Present State of Russia, in a Letter to a Friend at London. Written by an Eminent Person residing at Great Tzars Court at Mosco for the space of nine years''. 2nd ed. London, 1671. Pages 54-55.
15. The first Russian monarch to update his title to "imperator" was False Demetrius I, following his coronation on 7 July, 1605. Peter started to use the title informally in 1696. He prepared the official adoption of the new title by renaming the Boyar Duma to Senate (as False Demetrius did before), with its ancient Roman associations, and by introducing the posts of State Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, which were modeled on similar magistratures of the Holy Roman Empire. For Russian traditionalists, these moves signified Peter's conversion to pagan and Roman Catholic traditions, an opinion reinforced by his adoption of the heathen Roman titles of "Pater Patriae" (Отец Отечества) and "Magnus" (Великий) the same year.
16. Boris Uspensky. ''Царь и император: помазание на трон и семантика монарших титулов''. Moscow: Языки русской культуры, 2000. ISBN 5-7859-0145-5. Pages 48-52.
17. The title was adopted by Boris Godunov to prop up his waning authority and to highlight similarity between his capture of Kuchum and Ivan IV's conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan half a century earlier.
18. As early as 1592, Fyodor I of Russia styled himself "Государь Иверския земли Грузинских Царей, и Кабардинския земли Черкасских и Горских Князей", i.e., "Sovereign of Iberian lands of Georgian Tsars".
19. The title of Król, with its strong Catholic associations, was deemed not acceptable for an Orthodox ruler. When Fyodor I posited himself as a candidate to the vacant Polish throne in 1587, he envisaged his future title as "Tsar and Grand Duke of Moscow, Vladimir, and all Russia, King (король) of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania".

Sources and references

★ George Ostrogorsky, "Avtokrator i samodržac", ''Glas Srpske kraljevske akadamije'' CLXIV, Drugi razdred 84 (1935), 95-187

★ John V.A. Fine, Jr., ''The Early Medieval Balkans'', Ann Arbor, 1983

★ John V.A. Fine, Jr., ''The Late Medieval Balkans'', Ann Arbor, 1987

★ Robert O. Crummey, ''The Formation of Muscovy 1304-1613'', New York, 1987

★ David Warnes, ''Chronicle of the Russian Tsars'', London, 1999

★ The entry on ''tsar'' in the Eleventh Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (1911)

★ EtymOnline

★ WorldStatesmen- see each present country

External links

★ Detailed List of Roman and Byzantine Rulers

★ Detailed List of Bulgarian Rulers

★ Detailed List of Russian Rulers

★ Detailed List of Serbian Rulers

★ Detailed List of Georgian Rulers