On Emperors (and Rulers, in General)

Using emperors and such has commonly been used in various stories as a villain that needs to be destroyed if there is to be peace and justice throughout the kingdom/empire/the world/etc... However, one thing that writers tend to forget is that an emperor or king cannot rule by himself; he needs supporters both to get power and to keep that power, especially if he usurped political control or is dealing with a rebellion.

Depending on what kingdom or empire you're writing, most power transfers are peaceful. A king or emperor dies or abdicates and leaves the throne to the nearest male relative (though some have transferred power to sons-in-laws or even female relatives), and no one is upset about this. However, sometimes someone rises up to claim the throne. One lone individual cannot fight for this; he or she needs a support base because otherwise they will utterly fail. A few historical examples will suffice:

- Henry Tudor (who later became Henry VII). He had a very weak claim to the throne of England and was only supported by a few people. However, his mother and stepfather were powerful and influential, and he also received aid from France and from Brittany. Because Richard III had lost most of his support, Henry ended up winning the Battle of Bosworth and thus becoming king of England.

-Richard III. Due to a lack of clarity on the party of his brother Edward IV's will regarding his underage heir, turmoil broke out between the queen Elizabeth Woodville's family and supporters and between Richard. However, the Woodvilles were not well-liked by the rest of the nobility, who viewed them as social upstarts, so people switched sides to support Richard's claim to the throne. I will mention more about him later.

-Henry III. Son of King John, he ascended during a period of turmoil when the nobility was rebelling against his father. Because he was underage, he could have easily been tossed aside by the nobility in favor of the French prince, but he got enough support after his regents re-issued the Magna Carta, the document that had started the war in the first place.

So, before your ruler takes the throne, he or she needs support and lots of it. At least enough to get people to turn from another contender or the current ruler or to defeat the enemy army. But that does not end there. Once your ruler has been crowned and is the sole political leader, however, that does not end there. They need to maintain that support if they want to keep their own power. This can be accomplished in a few ways.

First, the ruler needs to keep their supporters happy. Usually through the system of patronage, whereby they give their supporters lands, titles, wealth, etc... in return for their loyalty. If they cannot do this, the supporters will have no desire to be on their side and may switch to another side. This is what happened during the chaos of the late Roman Empire: the military backed generals to take control but, when the generals could not pay their troops' salaries, the troops turned against them and had them killed.

Second, the ruler needs to stay away from major scandals. Rulers have lost their crowns because their support dried up following a scandal of some kind. Richard II of England lost control following scandal regarding how his favourites were managing money. Edward II of England lost control because his wife had a vendetta against him and his suspected male lovers. Edward IV of England lost the throne the first time because he married a commoner and began promoting her family, irritating especially his chief supporter the earl of Warwick. Mary, queen of Scots was forced to abdicate after she married the man who was behind the death of her abusive second husband, though she may have well been involved in that as well. One could even find a contemporary example in the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's departure from the presidency. In short, a ruler of any kind needs to be on their guard about their own activities or those of their supporters because they may lose their popularity and their power.

Third, the ruler must find a happy balance with the other minor rulers. Even an emperor cannot manage every single minor political detail, so he needs loyal men (or women, depending on the story) to handle things for him. Hence the system of patronage. Now, not everyone will agree with the emperor, but the emperor has to keep them from rebelling either through patronage or through threats. In early Medieval history, European kings were very weak, leading to a de-centralized government and a country of knights and nobles running around tormenting each other. Then there were kings like John I, who began infringing on noble power and causing the nobles to revolt. Noble rebellions are a common thread in British history throughout the Middle Ages, but by the time of Henry VIII the nobles were pretty much obedient, probably because it was illegal to speak against the king or because people knew that Henry could easily have them executed. So, if a ruler is in power, he needs to have other men managing some of his affairs, but he needs to keep those men in line through either bribery or through threat of violence. Otherwise, minor political rulers may find support with one another and rebel, or they may blatantly disobey the king (such as when some of Charles I's men did not enforce the collection of a new tax not sanctioned by Parliament, causing him to summon Parliament again).

Having an evil emperor or such is a common plot device, but a writer must also be realistic. Evil rulers also need supporters to keep control, especially if they have a rather long reign, and they need men at the lower levels of society to manage affairs. So if you are writing a story about overthrowing said ruler, you need to make sure that the emperor is not a one-man show but has other followers and supporters that must also be dealt with if you want your rebellion to succeed.