Empress Matilda ( 1102 – 1167 ) is the only British monarch commonly referred to as " emperor " or " empress ", but acquired her title through her marriage to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and had little legitimacy as Queen of England.

* 1102 – Empress Matilda, Princess of England and wife of Henry V of the Holy Roman Empire ( d. 1169 )

His conflicts with his cousin The Empress Matilda ( also known as Empress Maud ), led to a civil war from 1139-1153 known as the Anarchy.

His will stipulated that he was to be succeeded by his daughter, the Empress Matilda, but his stern rule was followed by a period of civil war known as the Anarchy.

Eight years later, after William's death in 1120, a much more momentous union was made between Henry's daughter, ( the former Empress ) Matilda and Fulk's son Geoffrey Plantagenet, which eventually resulted in the union of the two realms under the Plantagenet Kings.

Left without male heirs, Henry took the unprecedented step of making his barons swear to accept his daughter Empress Matilda, widow of Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, as his heir.

Mary was — excluding the brief, disputed reigns of Jane Grey and Empress Matilda — England's first queen regnant.

" He states that the matter was discussed at a Royal Council at Winchester, but that Henry's mother, the Empress Matilda, had protested.

In accordance with this last policy, the marriage of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany with Guelph of Bavaria was promoted ; Prince Conrad of Italy was assisted in his rebellion against his father and crowned King of the Romans at Milan in 1093 ; and Henry IV's wife, the Empress ( Adelaide ), was encouraged in her charges of sexual coercion against her husband.

King Stephen had died in October 1154, bringing to an end the long dispute with the Empress Matilda which had helped Anarawd, Cadell and Maredudd to extend their rule in Deheubarth.

Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda.

When Henry I died in 1135, Stephen quickly crossed the English Channel and with the help of his brother Henry of Blois, a powerful ecclesiastic, took the throne, arguing that the preservation of order across the kingdom took priority over his earlier oaths to support the claim of Henry I's daughter, the Empress Matilda.

Matilda had been married to Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, which gave her the title of Empress, but her husband died in 1125 and she was remarried in 1128 to Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, whose lands bordered the Duchy of Normandy.

There was the slight problem of the religious oath that Stephen had taken to support the Empress Matilda, but Henry convincingly argued that the late king had been wrong to insist that his court take the oath.

An illegitimate son of Henry I and the half-brother of the Empress Matilda, Robert was one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman barons, controlling estates in Normandy as well as the Earldom of Gloucester.

David of Scotland also invaded the north of England once again, announcing that he was supporting the claim of his niece the Empress Matilda to the throne, pushing south into Yorkshire.

The rebels appear to have expected Robert to intervene with support that year, but he remained in Normandy throughout, trying to persuade the Empress Matilda to invade England herself.

These bishops were powerful landowners as well as ecclesiastical rulers, and they had begun to build new castles and increase the size of their military forces, leading Stephen to suspect that they were about to defect to the Empress Matilda.

Stephen sent Aubrey de Vere as his spokesman to the council, who argued that Roger of Salisbury had been arrested not as a bishop, but rather in his role as a baron who had been preparing to change his support to the Empress Matilda.

Contemporary depiction of the Empress Matilda

Robert took Stephen back to Gloucester, where the king met with the Empress Matilda, and was then moved to Bristol Castle, traditionally used for holding high-status prisoners.

He had made a private deal with the Empress Matilda that he would deliver the support of the church, if she agreed to give him control over church business in England.

St George's Tower at Oxford Castle, where Stephen almost captured the Empress Matilda

Queen Matilda gathered Stephen's remaining lieutenants around her and the royal family in the south-east, advancing into London when the population rejected the Empress.

February 1215: Yolanda de Courtenay ( c. 1200 – 1233 ), daughter of Peter I, Emperor of the Latin Empire and his second wife, Yolanda I, Empress of the Latin Empire

The opening was performed by Khedive Ismail of Egypt and Sudan, and at Ismail's invitation French Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht Aigle, piloted by Napolean Coste who was bestowed by the Khedive the Order of the Medjidie ( Blue Flame of Service c 1955 ).

Empress Ariadne ( empress ) | Ariadne ( c. 450 – 515 )

* June 27 – Mentewab, dowager Empress of Ethiopia ( b. c. 1706 )

* Empress Xiao of China ( b. c. 566 )

** Eudokia Palaiologina, Empress of Trebizond ( b. c. 1265 )

* August 16 or August 17 – Irene of Brunswick, Empress of Constantinople ( b. c. 1293 )

Empress Matilda ( c. 7 February 1102 – 10 September 1167 ), also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England.

Both contemporary sources and later historians seem to either believe that the young Emperor had exhausted his health with the excesses of his sexual life and his heavy drinking, or suspect Empress Theophano ( c. 941 – after 976 ), his wife, of poisoning him.

Wu Zetian ( ( c. 625 – 705 ), also known as Wu Zhao or Wu Chao and as Wu-hou or Wu Hou (), and during the Tang Dynasty as Tian Hou ( 天后 ), Dynasty ), and in English translation as Empress Consort Wu, or the deprecated term " Empress Wu " was a Chinese sovereign, who ruled officially under the name of her self-proclaimed " Zhou Dynasty ", from 690 to 705 ; however, she had previous imperial positions, under both Taizong and his son Gaozong, of the Tang Dynasty, in China.

Zoe ( in Greek: Ζωή, Zōē, meaning " Life ") ( c. 978 – June 1050 ) reigned as Byzantine Empress alongside her sister Theodora from April 19 to June 11, 1042.

Theodora, Empress of Byzantium (( c ) 1972 by Frederick Ungar Publishing, Inc., transl.

** Sima Wei ( 司馬瑋 ) ( b. 271 ), initially created the Prince of, later Prince Yin of Chu ( created c. 289, executed by Empress Jia Nanfeng 291 )

Count Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov () ( c. 1726 – 1765 ) was a Russian officer ( chamberlain ) who became the first lover of Empress Catherine the Great after her arrival to Russia.

Domitia Longina ( c. AD 53 – c. AD 130 ) was an Empress of Rome and wife to the Roman Emperor Domitian.

Theodora (, c. 815 – after 867 ) was a Byzantine Empress as the spouse of the Byzantine emperor Theophilos, and regent of her son, Michael III, from Theophilos ' death in 842 to 855.

Taytu Betul ( c. 1851 – February 11, 1918 ) ( baptismal name Wälättä Mikael ) was an Empress Consort of the Ethiopian Empire ( 1889 – 1913 ) and the wife of Emperor Menelek II of Ethiopia.

* Go directly to descendents of Empress Maria Theresa ( c. 1725-c. 1875 )

* Empress Aelia Eudoxia ( c. 380 – 404 ), daughter of Flavius Bauto and wife of Roman Emperor Arcadius.

They had a son, Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus and a daughter, Valeria Messalina ( c. 17 / 20-48 ), who became Empress and third wife to the Emperor Claudius.

The Royal Titles Act of 1876 ( 39 & 40 Vict., c. 10 ) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which officially recognized Queen Victoria as " Empress of India ".