Page "Emperor" Paragraph 62

In 1801, George III rejected the title of Emperor when offered.

The only period when British monarchs held the title of Emperor in a dynastic succession started when the title Empress of India was created for Queen Victoria.

The government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title upon her by an Act of Parliament, reputedly to assuage the monarch's irritation at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her own daughter ( Princess Victoria was the wife of the reigning German Emperor ); the Indian Imperial designation was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding as paramount ruler of the subcontinent the former Mughal ' Padishah of Hind ', using indirect rule through hundreds of princely states formally under protection, not colonies, but accepting the British Sovereign as their suzerain.

That title was relinquished by the last Kaisar-i-Hind George VI when India was granted independence on 15 August 1947.