From time immemorial it has been the custom: we have kings, they have kings. But why were Russian rulers called tsars? Who was the first and last king-father? And is it true that the Russians were still ruled by kings?
Nice to meet you! King
In the etymological dictionary of Max Fasmer, it is indicated that the "king" goes back to the ancient Russian "tsarsar" (from the Latin saesar). It is easy to guess that the word is analogous to the name of the first Roman monarch - Gaius Julius Caesar.
But the semantics of the title "king" is associated with the name of another ruler - King of the Franks Charlemagne. This version of the origin is given by both G. Krylov and N. Shansky in their etymological dictionaries. Max Vasmer does not exclude, but considers less probable, other versions of the origin of the "king" - from the Slavic "karati" (to punish) or the Germanic "karlja, karlaz" (free man).
Although the "king" has Western roots, the word is used exclusively as a title for the Slavic monarchs. It is interesting that the etymologically close to the Latin "saesar" is both "Kaiser" (the title of German rulers) and the Russian "prince" (from the German-speaking konungr - leader, which, in turn, goes back to the "king").
It turns out that the Russian princes should have been called kings. But how did it happen that the rulers of Russia began to call themselves tsars?
Promotional video:
From Grozny to Peter
Those who listened attentively at school history lessons know that Ivan the Terrible became the first Russian tsar. Such authoritative historians as N. Kostomarov, R. Skrynnikov and V. Kobrin believe that the initiative to be called a tsar could not come from 16-year-old Ivan. Most likely, the idea was suggested to him by the powerful Metropolitan Macarius. V. Klyuchevsky disagrees: Ivan Vasilyevich could well have independently "thought of the kingdom", which was a complete surprise for the boyars.
But why did Grozny choose the title of Tsar, and not King or Kaiser, which in semantics were closer to the princely title of the Russian ruler? The fact is that for the Orthodox, Byzantium has always been a model with its "ruling rulers-kings". Grozny only wanted to reinforce Moscow's authority as the heir to the Tsar City of Constantinople, the cradle of Orthodoxy. As the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire, Grozny took the traditional Byzantine title "king", and the very wedding to the kingdom was as close as possible to the Byzantine tradition.
For the sake of fairness, let's say that the rite of wedding to the kingdom appeared in 1498, when Ivan III married his grandson and heir Dmitry Ivanovich. But right up to Ivan the Terrible, the title “sovereign and grand duke of all Russia” was used, not the tsar.
The last Russian tsar was Peter the Great. In order to further strengthen his authority in Europe, he decided in 1721 to be called the Emperor of All Russia. The chiefs of the Roman legions originally called themselves emperors, and only since the reign of Augustus (27-14 BC), the title of emperor, historically associated with Rome, began to be used in monarchical meaning. But Peter's change of the monarchical title did not prevent the people from continuing to call all rulers tsars, especially since until 1917 both "tsar" and "prince" were included in the great title of All-Russian emperors.
The first of the tsars is not Russian
The first Slavic king was not a Russian ruler, but a Bulgarian one. Simeon the Great awarded himself such a title. His reign was called the Golden Age of the Bulgarian state. It was Simeon who turned Bulgaria into the most powerful state in the Balkans and throughout Eastern Europe. In August 913, Simeon changed the title of "prince" to "tsar", and then forced Byzantium to recognize the "newly made" royal title.
The only Russian king
According to the tradition of European kings, starting with Charlemagne, the Pope was crowned, but in the entire centuries-old history of Russia, only one ruler received the title of king from the hands of the supreme ruler of the Catholic Church.
In 1253, Pope Innocent IV, in exchange for Catholicization, endowed the ruler of the Galicia-Volyn principality Daniil Romanovich Galitsky with the title "King of Rus". Daniil Romanovich's grandson Yuri Lvovich also left the “king” in his title, which is confirmed by his seal with an imprint on the obverse “Rex Russiae” (Proto-Indo-European - the king of Russia).
