Tsar

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For other uses, see Tsar (disambiguation).

Tsar (Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian цар, Russian Template:Audio, in scholarly transliteration respectively car and car' ), often spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English, was the Slavonic title designating 'Emperor' in the following states:

The Bulgarian rulers from 1908 to 1946 also used the traditional imperial title of tsar, although they were internationally recognized only as king (roi des bulgares), just as the modern rulers of Greece used the traditional imperial title of basileus, while internationally recognized only as king of the Hellenes. As in the Greek case, that does not impact the genuine meaning of the term "tsar".

In Russia the term tsar had been used rather loosely for the Mongol overlords of the Russian principalities, and from about 1480 by grand prince Ivan III of Moscow, following his assertion of independence from the Golden Horde and perhaps also his marriage to an heiress of the Byzantine Empire. The Muscovite ruler was recognized as an emperor by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the reign of Vasili III, although the the first Russian ruler to be formally crowned as tsar was Ivan IV the Terrible in 1547. In 1721 an edict of Peter I the Great decreed that the Latin-based title of imperator should be used instead, but its Slavonic equivalent tsar remained in common usage, and also officially as the designator of various titles signifying rule over the former Mongol chanates absorbed by the Muscovite state. Accordingly, the transliteration of this title in foreign languages such as English is commonly used also, in fact chiefly, for all Russian Emperors to 1917.

The word Tsar is a precise equivalent of Emperor, something partly obscured by Peter the Great's reform of 1721. His change of style from tsar to imperator was not an upgrade as much as a change in line with the remainder of Peter's Westernizing policies. The impression that the title of tsar is equivalent to king or otherwise an intermediate position between king and emperor is a common misconception shared even by many modern Slavic speakers, especially by non-specialists writing in foreign languages.

It should be noted that in informal usage, the term tsar is occasionally applied to monarchs of lesser status. This is in part a derivative of the original flexibility of the Greek term basileus, and in part due to the familiarity of the title to a tsar's subjects. For example, the Biblical monarchs whom we call king in English, are designated basileus in Greek and tsar in Bulgarian and Russian, not because they were emperors in any sense (the imperial title did not appear until Roman times), but because that was the title used by the rulers under whom Scripture was rendered into Greek and Slavonic. By the same token, modern Slavic-language publications speak of tsars of Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. In this context, the alien (except in Serbia) title of king is reserved for European royalty explicitly of royal, rather than imperial, status. Another informal and misleading practice is the handling of the titles of foreign emperors by modern Slavic-language writers. Medieval Bulgarian, Russian, and Serbian rendered emperor as tsar indiscriminately, as does modern Serbian. However, modern Bulgarian and Russian call foreign emperors (e.g., those of Rome, Byzantium, the Holy Roman Empire, etc.) imperator (император).

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Etymology, history and spelling

The word tsar (царь, car' ) is a contraction of the earlier tsesar (цѣсарь, cěsar' ) derived from the Roman title Caesar, but not from its devaluated Byzantine derivative Kaisar. 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 Imperator and Augustus. From the Antonine period the title Caesar by itself was also granted to junior associates in imperial power, with which its importance started to decline. This is expressed even more clearly in the 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 (цѣсарь) was derived directly from the Roman title Caesar, and not from the 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 keiser, and (through Slavonic) Hungarian császár. The contraction of tsesar (цѣсарь) into tsar (царь) occurred by the way of shorthand writing of titles in old Slavonic manuscripts (see Titlo article). One may see the examples of this are the older copies of the Slavic Primary Chronicle. The first attested examples seem date from the tenth 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, 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 Template:IPA, the Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian one Template:IPA (in IPA notation) though many if not most English-speaking people pronounce it considerably differently: Template:IPA or Template:IPA. This is because although English has Template:IPA in words like cats, it is unusual for this sound to start an English word.

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., Croatian, Czech, Polish). Both czar and tsar have been accepted in English for the last century as a correct usage. 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.

Throughout history, the terms Emperor ("Imperator") and Tsar were used as interchangeable for the Russian sovereign, and 'the' Tsar without any specification is used, absolutely, for the Russian Emperor. From 1721, however, the official term in Russian was changed to imperator (император). However, the assumption that Tsar was a lower title or the equivalent of the lower rank of King, is a common misconception. The title of king is rendered as kral (крал) in Bulgarian, korol' (король) in Russian, and kralj (краљ) in Serbian. For the usage and meaning of tsar, see also above.

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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" was 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 Byzantium 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. The diplomatic correspondence between the Bulgarian emperor Kaloyan and Pope Innocent III claims that the imperial crowns of Simeon I, his son Peter I, and of Samuel were somehow also derived from the Papacy. A papal mission to Bulgaria in or shortly after 925 may have recognized the Bulgarian imperial title as a concession in exchange for a settlement in the Bulgarian-Croatian conflict or a possible attempt to return Bulgaria to union with Rome. The grave inscription of the čărgubil (ičirgu-boila) Mostič, a contemporary of Simeon I and Peter I, from Preslav contains early occurrences of the contraction "tsar" (car' ) from "tsesar" (cěsar' ).

The title, later augmented with epithets such as autocrat to reflect current Byzantine practice, was used by all of Simeon's successors until the complete conquest of Bulgaria by theOttomans rule in 1422. Kaloyan's request for imperial the title to be reconfirmed by Pope Innocent III did not succeed, but the rulers of the Second Bulgarian Empire were recognized as emperors by Byzantium, Serbia, Hungary, Venice, and Genoa, and even the previously reticent Papacy, among others. 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".

After Bulgaria's liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs at first remained autonomous princes (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. However, as noted above, the modern monarchs of Bulgaria were recognized internationally as king (roi des bulgares), rather than emperor.

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Russia

In 1547, Ivan IV of Russia, of the Moscovian dynasty, was formally crowned "tsar of all Russia". However, the imperial titles "tsar" and "autocrat" had been in occasional and somewhat informal usage from about 1480, when Ivan III asserted Muscovy's independence from the Golden Horde. In 1721 Peter I adopted the westernizing title Imperator (Император), by which he and his heirs were recognised, and besides which the former style Tsar continued to be used informally as a correct bur unofficial synonym. In the official title of the Russian emperor (see below), the title of tsar is preserved as such in reference to the Mongol khanates annexed by the Muscovite state.

Actually, the new style was adopted precisely to underline a claim that Russia, by now a rising major power in Europe, invoking a marriage to a Byzantine princess considered heiress to the (since the Ottoman conquest fictitious) imperial crown, was the Orthodox "third Rome", succeeding in every respect to Byzantium, the orthodox "second Rome". But these concepts reflect events of the late 15th century, and the reigns of Ivan III and Vasili III.

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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 Khersones, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Białystok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria, and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhni Novgorod, Chernigov; Ruler of Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav, and all northern territories ; Ruler of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories - hereditary Ruler and Lord of the Cherkess 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 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 Херсониса 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 in chief of Kazan proclaimed the chief orthodox dynasty as successor in law to the mighty Islamic khanate of Kazan, not maintaining its 'heathen' title (as the Ottoman Great Sultans did in several cases), but christening it.
  • The Emperor's subsidiary title of Tsar in chief of Siberia is a bizarre forging, almost historical forgery, as there never was such a kingdom, only a very weak Tartar (Islamic) Khanate of Sibir, easily subdued in the early stages of the exploration and annexation of hugely larger Siberia, most of it before inhabited by nomadic tribal people without a state in the European sense.
  • 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.
  • The subsidiary title of Tsar of Poland is not in chief of another 'Russian' realm but of the 20 June 1815 - 5 November 1916 legally separate (actually subordinate) Polish Kingdom, nominally in personal union with Russia, established by the Congress of Vienna (also called "Congress Poland"), in a sense reviving the royal style of the pre-existent national kingdom of Poland, which however had used as its native royal title Król before it was carved up in three successive partitions between Russia, Prussia and Austria.
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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 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). 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.

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Notes

  1. When Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 he abdicated not just on his own behalf but also on behalf of his teenage son, who was too ill to take up the throne. He named as his heir his own brother Mikhail. Mikhail 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 proclaimed as "Tsar Mikhail II". Historians and lists of tsars differ as to whether to regard Mikhail 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. Mikhail, like his brother Nicholas, was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
  2. In 1924 Grand Duke Cyril Romanov proclaimed himself Emperor in exile.
  3. 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.
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Georgia

After Russia had established its protectorate over the (also Eastern Orthodox) kingdom of Georgia, the Russian Emperor recognised the following styles and titles as of 24th September 1783 (Old Style)

  • for its 'Hereditary Sovereign and Prince' (in fact now a vassal) until the annexation, when he himself added this realm to his full style with the same title of Tsar: The Most Serene Tsar (reign name), by the will of our Lord, Tsar of Kartli, Tsar of Kakheti, Hereditary Prince of Samtzkhé-Saatabago, Ruling Prince of Kazakh, Borchalo, Shamshadilo, Kak, Shaki, and Shirvan, Prince and Lord of Ganja and Erivan, with the style of His Majesty; however these Russian designations were largely ignored in Georgia by the Georgians themselves, who continued to use the ancient styles and titles (varying in time, but here is the latest example): The Mepe-Umaglesi 'Most High King' (reign name), by the will of our Lord, Mepe-Mepeta 'King of Kings' of the Abkhazis, Kartvelians, Ranians, Kakhetians and the Armenians, Shirvanshah and Shahanshah (two Persian titles, royal viz. imperial) and Master of all the East and West.
  • All sons of the Georgian Sovereign, including the Heir, were styled: Tsarevitch 'Prince' (given name) (father's name) Grouzinskii, i.e. Prince of Georgia, with the style of His Highness.
  • All legitimate male descendants of Kings Irakli II and Giorgi XII, in the male line, were styled: Kniaz 'Prince' (given name) (father's name) Grouzinskii, i.e. Prince of Georgia, with the style of His Serene Highness.
  • More remote princes of the blood or descendants in the natural line, also received the title of Kniaz (given name) (father's name) Bagration (the name of the royal dynasty, which has also ruled in Armenia), frequently with a territorial or other designation, e.g. Bagration-Mukhranskii 'Bagration of Mukhrani'.
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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 King (краљ, kralj) since 1217, which had been granted by the Papacy during a brief union with the Western Church. In 1345 Stefan Uroš IV Dušan began to style himself "Emperor of Serbians and Greeks" (the Greek renderings read "emperor and autocrat 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 occarion, Stefan Uroš IV Dušan had his wife Elena of Bulgaria crowned as empress and his son associated in power as king. When Stefan Uroš IV Dušan died in 1355, his son Stefan Uroš V became the next "emperor of Serbians and Greeks". It should be noted that 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 Jovan Uroš, who retired to a monastery in about 1373.

With the extinction of Nemanjid 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 1376/7). The royal title was preserved by Vukašin, 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 royal title, but he and his heirs reigned as kings of Bosnia, while Sebia proper remained under the rule of princes, occasionally granted the Byzantine title of despotēs.

When Serbia, which had emerged as an autonomous principality after a long period of Ottoman domination, became an independent kingdom, its ruler, formerly knjaz (prince), 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 Yugoslavs (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".

Several other Serbian rulers are known traditionally but incorrectly as Tsars, although they realistically can not be called so:

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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 Czar').

This use is not limited to statesmen, e.g. 'drug tsar' for the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. agency against illegal narcotics.

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See also

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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
  • David Warnes, Chronicle of the Russian Tsars, London, 1999
  • [1]
  • EtymOnline
  • WorldStatesmen- see each present country
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External links

ca:Tsar cs:Car da:Zar de:Zar el:Τσάρος et:Tsaar es:Zar eo:Caro fr:Tsar id:Tsar it:Zar he:צאר ka:ცარი la:Tzar lt:Caras nl:Tsaar ja:ツァーリ no:Tsar nn:Tsar pl:Car pt:Tsar ro:Ţar ru:Царь simple:Tsar sl:Car fi:Tsaari sr:Цар sv:Tsar tl:Tsar uk:Цар vi:Sa hoàng zh:沙皇

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