Who were Empresses of India and why?

Answer 1

There were four women who held the title Empress of India:-

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 1819-1901) was called Empress of India (1876-1901) because the former Emperor of India (Bahadur Shah Zafar) had been deposed by the British East India Company and this company subsequently passed dominion over India to the British monarchy.

There are several possible reasons why she chose the title 'Empress' of India, one of the most significant being, perhaps, that India no longer had an Emperor, and Victoria was the next ruling monarch by right of conquest.

Another reason for Alexandrina Victoria (Queen Victoria) choosing this title could be that her daughter Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa was due to become a German Empress by virtue of her marriage to German Emperor Frederick II, and, as the titles 'Emperor/Empress' are superior to the titles 'King/Queen' it would have seemed inappropriate that Alexandrina's (Queen Victoria's) daughter would have a title that ranked higher than her own.

Another factor may have been that Britain was the major world power by 1876 and the title 'Empress' seemed to more accurately describe Queen Alexandrina Victoria's position in relationship to her 'empire.'

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The next Empress of India was Alexandra of Denmark, (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise; 1844-1925) Queen consort of England. She became Empress (Queen Empress consort) of India when her husband Edward VII became Emperor of India in 1901. Alexandra became Empress of India by right of marriage and her husband's inheritance of the emperorship from his mother, Queen Victoria.

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The third Empress of India was Mary of Teck, (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 1867-1953) who, like Alexandra, acquired the title by marriage, in Mary's case to George V, who became Emperor of India when his father Edward VII died on May 6th 1910. Mary was Empress of India from 1910 to 1936 when her husband George V died.

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The fourth and last 'Empress of India' was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon; 1900-2002) gaining this title when her husband George VI became Emperor of India in 1936.

However, India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and, in due course, her husband George VI stopped using the title 'Emperor of India' in 1948. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon ceased to hold the title 'Empress of India' from that moment as she was no longer the wife of the 'Emperor of India.'

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