KAISER, ki'zer (OFIG. keisur, AS. cnsere, OS. kr.sur, Goth. kaiser, Gk. Kaio-ap, kaiser, em peror, from Lat. Orsar, referring especially to Gains Julius Caesar). The German equivalent for Emperor. Under the early Roman Empire the acknowledged heirs to the throne added the name Ca•sar to their own in honor of the 'divine Julius.' Diocletian (q.v.) made it distinctively a title and bestowed it on the two associates and successors of the senior Emperors or Augusti. On the division of the Roman Empire (395 A.D.) the title wits borne by the Emperors of the West and of the East, It passed away in the West with the dethronement of the last Emperor (A.D. 476), but was revived in SOO.. when Charles the Great was crowned Roman Emperor in Sala Peter's, at Rome. From this time dates the asso ciation of the Roman Imperial title with the king ship of a 'barbarian* nation, first the Franks and then after 90.2 the Germans. (See ItomAN
Extrum.) From Otho the Great to Francis II. the Eing chosen by the German nation as King of the Romans became Emperor of the Holy Ro man Empire, at tirst by consecration at Rome. but later through the very act of election. It was customary, however, for the German King of the Romans to be chosen during the lifetime of the Emperor, on whose death he succeeded to the higher title. Charles V. was the last German King crowned in Italy. namely at Bologna, in 1530. in IsOft the lloly Roman Empire Was dis solved. but the title was retained by the House of Hapsburg, the head of which since 1801 has borne the title of Emperor (Kaiser) of Austria. On January IS, 1871, of Prussia assumed the title of German Kaiser as head of the newly created Empire. See CESAR