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{{Short description|Ordinal numbers used to distinguish among persons with the same name who held the same office}}
{{Monarchism}}

'''Regnal numbers''' are [[Ordinal number (linguistics)|ordinal number]]s—often written as [[Roman numerals]]—used to distinguish among persons with the same [[regnal name]] who held the same office, notably [[king]]s, [[queens regnant]], [[pope]]s, and rarely [[prince]]s and [[princess]]es.

It is common to start counting either since the beginning of the monarchy, or since the beginning of a particular line of state succession. For example, [[Boris III of Bulgaria]] and his son [[Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha|Simeon II]] were given their regnal numbers because the medieval rulers of the [[First Bulgarian Empire|First]] and [[Second Bulgarian Empire]] were counted as well, although the recent dynasty [[History of Bulgaria (1878–1946)|dates only back to 1878]] and is only distantly related to the monarchs of previous Bulgarian states.<ref>Ian Mladjov, "Reconsidering Agatha, wife of Eadward the Exile," ''The Plantagenet Connection'' Summer/Winter 2003: 1-85, with sample pedigree at 78-85. [https://www.academia.edu/5629765/I_Mladjov_Reconsidering_Agatha_Wife_of_Eadward_the_Exile_The_Plantagenet_Connection_11_2003_1_85 available online.]</ref> On the other hand, the [[kings of England]] and [[kings of Great Britain]] and the United Kingdom are counted starting with the [[Norman Conquest]]. That is why the son of [[Henry III of England]] is called [[Edward I]], even though there were three English monarchs named Edward before the Conquest (they were distinguished by [[epithet]]s instead).

Sometimes legendary or fictional persons are included. For example, the [[Swedish kings]] [[Eric XIV]] (reigned 1560–68) and [[Charles IX of Sweden|Charles IX]] (1604–11) took ordinals based on a fanciful 1544 history by [[Johannes Magnus]], which invented six kings of each name before those accepted by later historians.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Nordisk familjebok |url=https://runeberg.org/nfbm/0036.html |page=40 |article=Johannes Magnus |volume=13 (Johan – Kikare) |year=1910 |language=sv |first=F. F. V. |last=Söderberg |access-date=24 October 2012}}</ref> A list of Swedish monarchs, represented on the map of the Estates of the Swedish Crown,<ref>{{cite web|title=Estats de la Couronne de Suede. 1719|url=http://www.themaphouse.com/Zoom.aspx?id=110003&ref=SCAN2299|publisher=Jacques Chiquet |website=The Map House of London}}</ref> produced by French engraver {{ill|Jacques Chiquet|fr}} (1673–1721) and published in [[Paris]] in 1719, starts with [[Canute I of Sweden|Canute I]] and shows Eric XIV and Charles IX as Eric IV and Charles II respectively; the only Charles holding his traditional ordinal in the list is [[Charles XII of Sweden|Charles XII]]. Also, in the case of Emperor [[Menelik II]] of Ethiopia, he chose his regnal number with reference to a mythical ancestor and [[Menelik I| first sovereign]] of his country (a supposed son of biblical King [[Solomon]]) to underline his legitimacy into the so-called [[Solomonic dynasty]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Menilek-II |website=Britannica| title=Menilek II |access-date=5 November 2020}}</ref>

==Examples of monarchical ordinals==

Monarchs with the same given name are distinguished by their ordinals:
* Kings [[Umberto I]] and [[Umberto II]] of [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]
* Empresses [[Catherine I]] and [[Catherine II]] of [[Russian Empire|Russia]]
* Princes [[Rainier II, Lord of Monaco|Rainier II]] and [[Rainier III]] of [[Monaco]]
* [[Pope]]s [[Benedict XV]] and [[Benedict XVI]]

Ordinals may also apply where a ruler of one realm and a ruler of that realm's [[successor state]] share the same name:
* Queens [[Elizabeth I]] of England and [[Elizabeth II]] of the United Kingdom
* Kings [[Alfonso XI]] of Castile and [[Alfonso XII]] of Spain
* Kings [[Victor Emmanuel I]] of Sardinia and [[Victor Emmanuel II]] of Italy
* Kings [[Peter I of Serbia|Peter I]] of Serbia and [[Peter II of Yugoslavia|Peter II]] of Yugoslavia

=== Double names ===
Practice varies where monarchs go by two or more [[given name]]s. For [[Swedish monarchs]], the ordinal qualifies only the first name; for example, [[Gustav&nbsp;VI&nbsp;Adolf]], known as "Gustav Adolf", was the sixth Gustav/Gustaf, but the third Gustav Adolf.  By contrast, the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] was ruled in turn by [[Frederick I of Prussia|Friedrich&nbsp;I]], [[Frederick William I of Prussia|Friedrich&nbsp;Wilhelm&nbsp;I]], [[Frederick II of Prussia|Friedrich&nbsp;II]], and [[Frederick William II of Prussia|Friedrich&nbsp;Wilhelm&nbsp;II]]; and later by [[Wilhelm I of Prussia|Wilhelm&nbsp;I]].  Likewise [[Pope John Paul I]], who chose his double name to honour predecessors [[John XXIII]] and [[Paul VI]], and was succeeded by [[John Paul II]].

=== Ordinals for non-reigning royalty ===
In any case, it is usual to count only the monarchs or heads of the family, and to number them sequentially up to the end of the dynasty.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} A notable exception to this rule is the [[Germany|German]] [[House of Reuss]]. This family has the particularity that every male member during the last eight centuries was named Heinrich, and all of them, not only the head of the family, were numbered. While the members of the elder branch were numbered in order of birth until the extinction of the branch in 1927,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bradshaw |first=George|page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vGUDAAAAQAAJ&dq=reuss+numbering&pg=PA114 |title=Bradshaw's illustrated hand-book to Germany|edition=Issue 1 |date=1867 |language=en}}</ref> the members of the younger line were (and still are) numbered in sequences that began and ended roughly as centuries began and ended.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meaney |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj3kEAAAQBAJ&dq=reuss+heinrich+regnal+number&pg=PT285 |title=Granta 165: Deutschland |date=2023-11-23 |publisher=Granta |isbn=978-1-909889-60-6 |language=en}}</ref> This explains why the current (since 2012) head of the Reuss family is called Heinrich XIV, his late father Heinrich IV and his sons Heinrich XXIX and Heinrich V.

It is rare, but some German princely families number all males whether head of the family or not; for example, [[Hans Heinrich XV von Hochberg]] was preceded as [[Prince of Pless]] by Hans Heinrich XI and succeeded by Hans Heinrich XVII; the ordinals XII, XIII, XIV, and XVI were borne by von Hochbergs who were not Prince of Pless. Similarly for the [[House of Reuss]], where all men were numbered Heinrichs and some were reigning Princes of [[Principality of Reuss-Gera|Reuss-Gera]] or [[Principality of Reuss-Greiz|Reuss-Greiz]].

[[Pretender]]s and rulers of formerly deposed dynasties are often given regnal numbers ''as if non-reigning pretenders had actually ruled''. For example [[Louis XVIII]] of France took a regnal number that implicitly asserts that [[Louis XVII]] had been king, though he never reigned; his pretendership was during the [[First French Republic]]. A similar case is that of [[Napoleon III]] whose regnal number implicitly asserts a ruling [[Napoleon II]]. Louis XVIII numbered his [[regnal year]] from the death of Louis XVII, something Napoleon III never did.

==History==
Almost all West European monarchs and popes after [[Middle Ages|medieval]] times have used ordinals. Ordinals are also retrospectively applied to earlier monarchs in most works of reference, at least as far as they are not easy to distinguish from each other by any other systematical means. In several cases, various sorts of "semi-regnal" members of dynasties are also numeraled, to facilitate their individuality in works of reference – in cases such as co-regents, crown princes, succession-conveying [[wikt:consort|consorts]], prime ministers and deputy monarchs. In the first centuries after the Middle Ages, the use was sometimes sporadic, but became established by the 18th century. In the past couple of centuries, European monarchs without an official ordinal have been rarities.

As a rule of thumb, medieval European monarchs did not use ordinals at their own time, and those who used were rarities and even their use was sporadic. Ordinals for monarchs before the 13th century are [[anachronism]]s, as are also ordinals for almost all later medieval monarchs. Still, they are often used, because they are a practical way of distinguishing between different historical monarchs who had the same name.

Popes were apparently the first to assume official ordinals for their reigns, although this occurred only in the last centuries of the Middle Ages. It is clear, from renumberings of Popes John XV–XIX and Popes Stephen II–IX, that as of the 11th century the popes did not yet use established ordinals. The official, self-confirmed numbering of John XXI means that at latest from the 13th century the popes did take official ordinals in their accession.

[[Emperor Frederick II]], King [[Charles II of Naples]] and King [[Premislas II of Poland]] evidently used ordinals sometimes during their reign, whereas most of their contemporary monarchs did not. In the 14th century, [[Emperor Charles IV]] sometimes used that ordinal. Presumably, use of the ordinal of king [[Frederick III of Sicily]] also is contemporaneous. The royal chroniclers of the [[Abbey of Saint-Denis]] were using ordinals to refer to the [[House of Capet|French kings]] as early as the thirteenth century with the practise entering common usage among royalty and the nobility by the late fourteenth century. The [[United Kingdom|British]] tradition of consistently and prevalently numbering monarchs dates back to [[Henry VIII]] and [[Mary I]]; however, sporadic use occurred at least as early as the reign of [[Edward III]].

The long history of the papacy has led to difficulties in some cases.  For example, [[Pope-elect Stephen|Stephen]] was only pope for three days before dying of [[apoplexy]], and was never consecrated. Because not all list-makers count him as having been pope (as ''Stephen II''), there has been some confusion in regard to later popes who chose the name Stephen. Later Stephens are sometimes numbered with parentheses, e.g., his immediate successor (in name) is denoted either Stephen (II) III or Stephen III (II).  The church did consider Stephen II a pope until 1960, when he was removed from the list of popes in 1961. The history of the [[Pope John numbering|numbering of popes taking the regnal name "John"]] is even more convoluted, owing to the long history of popes taking the name (a common name, chosen frequently to honour the [[John the Apostle|Apostle]]), bad record-keeping, and political confusion; among other results, the regnal name "John XX" is completely skipped under all reckonings.

==Personal unions==
In the case of [[personal union]]s, some monarchs have had more than one ordinal, because they had different ordinals in their different realms. For instance, [[Charles XV of Sweden]] was also king of Norway, but in Norway he went under the name Charles IV. The Swedish-Norwegian union was in force 1814–1905 and both realms had had kings called Charles before the union, but Sweden had had more kings by that name.

In the event of one kingdom achieving independence from another but retaining the same monarch, the monarch often retains the same number as was already used in the older realm. King [[Christian X of Denmark]] thus became King Christian X of Iceland when Iceland became an independent kingdom in personal union with Denmark in 1918. The same is true for [[Commonwealth realms]], where the monarch retains the regnal number from the British line of monarchs (see below).

===Ordinals and the British Acts of Union 1707===
{{main article|Style of the British sovereign}}
{{Cite-section|date=December 2022}}
Beginning in 1603, when [[Kingdom of England|England]] and [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]] began to [[personal union|share a monarch]] but were still legally separate realms, their monarchs were numbered separately.  The king who began the personal union was James VI of Scotland who was also James I of England, and his name is often written (especially in Scotland) as [[James VI and I]].  Similarly, his grandson is [[James VII and II]].  [[Mary II]]'s ordinal coincidentally relates to both her predecessors [[Mary I of England]] and [[Mary I of Scotland]]; her co-sovereign husband is [[William III of England|William III and II]] (here the English number is first). [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] and [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] had a name not used in either country before 1603.

====Acts of Union====

After the realms were united with the [[Acts of Union 1707]], separate numbers were not needed for the next five monarchs: [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]] and the four Georges. However, when [[William IV]] acceded in 1830, he was not called William III in Scotland.{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} ([[George Croly]] pointed out in 1830 the new king was William I, II, III, and IV: of [[Kingdom of Hanover|Hanover]], Ireland, Scotland, and England respectively.<ref name="Croly1830">{{cite book|last=Croly|first=George|title=The life and times of his late majesty, George the fourth|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandtimesgeo00crolgoog|year=1830|publisher=James Duncan|location=London|page=xlix}}</ref>)  Nor were [[Edward VII]] and [[Edward VIII]] known as Edward I and Edward II (or possibly II and III, if one counts the disputed reign of [[Edward Balliol]]) of Scotland.  These kings all followed the numbering consistent with the English sequence of sovereigns (which, incidentally, was also the higher of the two numbers in all occurring cases).  This was not without controversy in Scotland, however; for example, Edward VII's regnal number was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the established [[Church of Scotland]], in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had "been excluded from Scotland by battle".<ref name="dnb">{{Cite ODNB|first=H. C. G.|last=Matthew|author-link=Colin Matthew|title=Edward VII (1841–1910)|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32975|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32975|date=September 2004|access-date=24 June 2009}} (Subscription required)</ref>
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+ class="nowrap" | Last British monarchs of their names (disputed monarchs in italics)
|-
|
!Last Monarch
!End of Reign
|-
!Charles
|[[Charles III]]
|'''Current'''
|-
!Elizabeth
|[[Elizabeth II]] (Elizabeth I [[MacCormick v Lord Advocate|in Scotland]])
|2022
|-
!George
|[[George VI]]
|1952
|-
! scope="row" | Edward
|[[Edward VIII]] (Edward II [[Edward Balliol|''or III'']] in Scotland)
|1936
|-
!Victoria
|[[Queen Victoria|Victoria (I)]]
|1901
|-
!William
|[[William IV]] (William III in Scotland)
|1837
|-
! colspan="3" |United Kingdom (1801)
|-
!Anne
|[[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne (I)]]
|1714
|-
! colspan="3" |Union of Crowns (1707)
|-
!Mary
|[[Mary II of England|Mary II of England and Scotland]]
|1694
|-
!James
|[[James II of England|James VII of Scotland and II of England]]
|1688
|-
! colspan="3" |Personal Union (1603)
|-
!Philip
|[[Philip II of Spain|''Philip (I) of England'']]
|''1558''
|-
!Jane
|[[Lady Jane Grey|''Jane (I) of England'']]
|''1553''
|-
!Henry
|[[Henry VIII|Henry VIII of England]]
|1547
|-
!Richard
|[[Richard III of England]]
|1485
|-
!Robert
|[[Robert III of Scotland]]
|1406
|-
!David
|[[David II of Scotland]]
|1371
|-
!John (Scotland)
|[[John Balliol|''John (I) of Scotland'']]
|''1296''
|-
!Margaret
|[[Margaret, Maid of Norway|''Margaret (I) of Scotland'']]
|''1290''
|-
!Alexander
|[[Alexander III of Scotland]]
|1286
|-
!John (England)
|[[John, King of England|John (I) of England]]
|1216
|-
!Malcolm
|[[Malcolm IV of Scotland]]
|1165
|-
!Stephen
|[[Stephen, King of England|Stephen (I) of England]]
|1154
|-
!Matilda
|[[Empress Matilda|''Matilda (I) of England'']]
|''1148''
|-
!Edgar
|[[Edgar, King of Scotland|Edgar (I) of Scotland]]
|1107
|-
!Donald
|[[Donald III of Scotland]]
|1097
|-
!Duncan
|[[Duncan II of Scotland]]
|1094
|-
! colspan="3" |The Conquest (1066); numbering in England resets
|-
!Lulach
|[[Lulach|Lulach (I) of Scotland]]
|1058
|-
!Macbeth
|[[Macbeth, King of Scotland|Macbeth (I) of Scotland]]
|1057
|-
!Kenneth
|[[Kenneth III of Scotland]]
|1005
|-
!Constantine
|[[Constantine III of Scotland]]
|997
|-
!Amlaíb
|[[Amlaíb, King of Scotland|Amlaíb]] [[Dub, King of Scotland|(I) of Scotland]]
|977
|-
!Cuilén
|[[Cuilén]] ([[Dub, King of Scotland|I) of Scotland]]
|971
|-
!Dub
|[[Dub, King of Scotland|Dub]] ([[Indulf|I) of Scotland]]
|967
|-
!Indulf
|[[Indulf|Indulf (I) of Scotland]]
|962
|-
!Eochaid
|[[Eochaid (son of Rhun)|''Eochaid (I) of Scotland'']]
|''889''
|-
!Giric
|[[Giric|Giric (I) of Scotland]]
|889
|-
!Áed
|[[Áed mac Cináeda|Áed (I) of Scotland]]
|878
|-
! colspan="3" |Foundation of Scotland (843)
|}

====Current state====
{{see also|Pillar Box War}}
The issue arose again with the accession of [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]], as Scotland had never before had a regnant Queen Elizabeth, the [[Elizabeth I of England|previous queen of that name]] having been queen of England only. Objections were raised, and sustained, to the use of the [[royal cypher]] E<small>II</small>R anywhere in Scotland, resulting in several violent incidents, including [[Pillar Box War|the destruction]] of one of the first new E<small>II</small>R [[pillar box]]es in Scotland, at [[Leith]] in late 1952. Since that time, the cipher used in Scotland on all government and Crown property and street furniture has carried no lettering, but simply the [[Crown of Scotland]] from the [[Honours of Scotland]]. A court case, ''[[MacCormick v Lord Advocate]],'' contesting the style "Elizabeth II" within Scotland, was decided in 1953 on the grounds that the numbering of monarchs was part of the [[royal prerogative]], and that the plaintiffs had no title to sue [[the Crown]].

To rationalise this usage, it was suggested by [[Winston Churchill]], the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] of the day, that in future, the higher of the two numerals from the English and Scottish sequences would always be used.<ref name="hansard">{{cite hansard |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1953/apr/15/royal-style-and-title|title=Royal Style and Title |date=15 April 1953 |column_start=199 | column_end=201 |house=House of Commons }}</ref> This had been the case ''de facto'' since the [[Acts of Union 1707]]; nine of the thirteen monarchs since the Act had names either never previously used in England or Scotland (Anne, six Georges, and Victoria) or used in both only after the [[Union of the Crowns|1603 Union of Crowns]] (three Charleses), which sidestepped the issue, while the English numbers for the remaining four monarchs' names have consistently been both higher and the ones used (William, two Edwards, and Elizabeth). Under the Churchill rule, if a future British monarch were to use the regnal name ''Alexander'', even though there has never been a King of England of that regnal name, they would be Alexander IV, there having been three Kings Alexander of Scotland (reigning 1107–1124, 1214–1249, and 1249–1286).

====Ireland====
As the [[Lordship of Ireland]] (1171–1542) and [[Kingdom of Ireland]] (1542–1800) were subordinate to the [[Kingdom of England]], the English ordinals were used in Ireland even before the [[Acts of Union 1800]]. [[William III of England]] and [[William IV of the United Kingdom]] were still called "William III" and "William IV" in Ireland, even though neither [[William I of England|William I]] or [[William II of England|William II]] ruled any part of Ireland. Similarly, the various Kings Henry are numbered II–VIII as they are in England even though [[Henry I of England]] never ruled any part of Ireland. [[Elizabeth I of England]] is referred to in [[Regnal years of English monarchs|Irish regnal year]] legal citations as "Elizabeth" rather than "Elizabeth I" because [[Republic of Ireland Act|Ireland became a republic]] before [[Elizabeth II]] became queen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1962/act/29/schedule/1/enacted/en/html#sched1|title=Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act, 1962, Schedule 1|work=[[Irish Statute Book]]|access-date=10 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529182634/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1962/act/29/schedule/1/enacted/en/html#sched1|archive-date=29 May 2016}}</ref>

=="The first" {{anchor|The first}} ==
{{or section|date=January 2023}}
In some monarchies it is customary not to use an ordinal when there has been only one holder of that name. For example, [[Queen Victoria]] will not be called ''Victoria I'' unless there is a Victoria II. This tradition is applied in the [[United Kingdom]], [[Belgium]], [[Luxembourg]], [[Norway]] and the [[Netherlands]]. It was also applied in most of the former [[List of German monarchs|German monarchies]] and in [[List of rulers of Hungary|Hungary]].

Other monarchies assign ordinals to monarchs even if they are the only ones of their name. This is a more recent invention and ''appears'' to have been done for the first time when [[Francis I of France]] issued testoons (silver coins) bearing the legend FRANCISCVS I DE. GR. FRANCORV. REX. This currently is the regular practice in [[Spain]] and [[Monaco]] (at least for Prince Albert I, as Princess Louise Hippolyte, who reigned 150 years earlier, does not appear to have used an ordinal). It was also applied in [[Brazil]], [[Greece]], [[Italy]], [[Mexico]], and [[Montenegro]]. The ordinal for King [[Juan Carlos I of Spain]] is used in both [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and English, but he is sometimes simply called King Juan Carlos of Spain in English. In [[Russia]], use of "The First" ordinal started with [[Paul I of Russia]]. Before him, neither [[Anna of Russia]] nor [[Elizabeth of Russia]] had the "I" ordinal. In [[Ethiopia]], Emperor [[Haile Selassie]] used the "I" ordinal ({{langx |gez|ቀዳማዊ}}, ''qädamawi'') although previous Ethiopian monarchs had not used it, and they are not referred as "the first" unless there were successors of the same name.

In Portugal and Sweden, the practice is not consistent. In Portugal, Kings [[Joseph I of Portugal|Joseph]], [[Luís I of Portugal|Louis]] and [[Carlos I of Portugal|Charles]] are usually referred to as "Joseph I", "Louis I" and "Charles I" although there has not yet been any Joseph II, Louis II or Charles II, but Kings [[Denis of Portugal|Denis]], [[Edward, King of Portugal|Edward]], [[Sebastian of Portugal|Sebastian]] and [[Henry, King of Portugal|Henry]] are usually referred without the ordinal In Sweden, [[Sigismund of Sweden|Sigismund]] and [[Adolf Frederick of Sweden|Adolf Frederick]] never have ordinals, whereas [[Frederick I of Sweden|Frederick I]] often does.

The Catholic [[papacy]] used the ordinal I under [[Pope John Paul I]], but early popes who are the only ones to have reigned under a certain name are not referred to as "the first" (for instance, Peter the Apostle; his immediate successor, [[Pope Linus]], as well as [[Pope Anacletus]], are referred to without an ordinal). The most recent, [[Pope Francis]] (2013–2025), declined the use of an ordinal, but his Orthodox counterpart, [[Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople]], uses one, as does [[Aram I]], the [[catholicos]] of the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]].

In [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], Emperors [[Francis I of Austria|Francis]], [[Ferdinand I of Austria|Ferdinand]], [[Francis Joseph I of Austria|Francis Joseph]] and [[Charles I of Austria|Charles]] all styled themselves as "the first" although all were the only Emperors of Austria with those names. Three of those names were previously the names of Austrian Archdukes (the Archduchy of Austria was a state within the Holy Roman and the Austrian Empires), which makes three of these emperors Francis II, Ferdinand V, and Charles IV in their capacity as Archdukes. Francis Joseph was the first Austrian Archduke of that name.

The use of "The First" ordinal is also common to self-proclaimed ephemeral kings or emperors, such as [[Napoleon|Napoleon I]] in [[France]]; [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines|Jacques I]], [[Henri Christophe|Henri I]] and [[Faustin I of Haiti|Faustin I]] in [[Haiti]]; [[Agustín de Iturbide|Agustín I]] in [[Mexico]]; [[Zog of Albania|Zog I]] in [[Albania]]; [[Jean-Bédel Bokassa|Bokassa I]] in the [[Central African Empire]]; [[Boris Skossyreff|Boris I]] in [[Andorra]]; [[Theodore of Corsica|Theodore I]] in [[Corsica]]; and [[Emperor Norton|"Emperor" Norton I]] in [[San Francisco]]. In those cases, they wanted to emphasize the change of regime they introduced or attempted to introduce.

==Pretenders==
It is traditional amongst French monarchists to continue to number their [[pretender]]s even though they have never reigned. Hence, a supporter of the late [[Henri, Count of Paris (1933–2019)|Comte de Paris]] would have referred to him as Henri VII even though only four men named "Henri" have been [[List of French monarchs|King of France]].

Non-consecutive ordinals may indicate dynastic claims for non-regnant monarchs. For example, after [[Louis XVI of France]] was executed during the [[French Revolution]], [[legitimists]] consider him to have been succeeded by his young son, whom they called [[Louis XVII of France|Louis XVII]]. Although the child died in prison a few years later and never reigned, his uncle, who came to the French throne in the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]], took the name [[Louis XVIII of France|Louis XVIII]] in acknowledgement of his dynasty's rights. Similarly, after Emperor [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon I]]'s regime collapsed, he abdicated in favour of his four-year-old son, who was proclaimed [[Napoleon II of France|Napoleon II]]. The young emperor was deposed only weeks later by Napoleon's European rivals and was never recognized internationally; but when his first cousin Louis Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor in 1852, he declared himself [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]] in recognition of his predecessor.

=== Jacobite usage ===
Following the [[Glorious Revolution]], a [[Jacobite succession|line of pretenders]] descended from the dethroned [[James II of England|James VII and II]] claimed the throne and declared themselves to be [[James Francis Edward Stuart|James VIII and III]], [[Charles Edward Stuart|Charles III]] and [[Henry Benedict Stuart|Henry IX and I]]. They numbered themselves separately for Scotland and England because they did not recognize the [[Acts of Union 1707|Acts of Union]], which joined the two kingdoms into one in 1707, as valid.

James VII's last legitimate descendant died in 1807, and the claim passed to descendants of his sister [[Henrietta of England|Henrietta]], Duchess of Orléans. Although none of them has actively claimed the throne, their supporters have assigned them the regnal numbers that they "should have had"; for example, from 1919 to 1955, the claim was held by [[Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria|"Robert I & IV"]], which was numbered for England and Scotland respectively.

This custom is currently not followed by any other ethnic groups other than the French and British (Jacobites), being unique to them, monarchists from other nations do not usually use royal numbers for the pretenders they support.

==Queens consort==

While reigning monarchs use ordinals, ordinals are not used for royal female consorts. Thus, while [[George V|King George V]] used an ordinal to distinguish him from other kings in the United Kingdoms called George, his wife, [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]], had no ordinal.

The lack of an ordinal in the case of royal consorts complicates the recording of history, as there may be a number of consorts over time with the same name with no way to distinguish between them. For that reason, royal consorts are sometimes after their deaths recorded in history books and encyclopaedias by the use of their premarital name or, if they were from royalty or sovereign nobility, the name of the dynasty or the country. For example, [[Henry VIII of England]]'s fifth wife, [[Katherine Howard]] (of noble but not sovereign ancestry), is known by her maiden surname, and [[George V]]'s wife (a descendant of the sovereign ducal house of Württemburg) is commonly known as [[Mary of Teck]] (after her father's title) and [[Edward VII]]'s wife (a daughter of the King of Denmark) is known as [[Alexandra of Denmark]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Monarchy]]
[[Category:Titles]]
[[Category:Numbers]]