The Imperial Family of San Jose/Santa Clara County

Introduction for historians

Provided by Kevin Roche, HIM Absolute Emperor 24 of San Jose

Some notes for readers unfamiliar with Imperial Court conventions, to the best of my recollection.

The Imperial Family are the permanent titleholders of the Imperial Courts of San Jose and Santa Clara County. They fall into several categories, with a bit of fuzziness. In this document, they are sorted in order of ascending precedence – the protocol order in which they would enter and be announced when being presented at a formal event; most frequently a Coronation ball.

This list goes through the year after my Reign as Emperor 34, so is complete through 2006.

Lifetime Titleholders are individuals granted a permanent title by an individual Monarch or Reign.

They will not infrequently be related to the title the individual held during that year’s Reign, with “Perpetual” or “for Life” added to the title.

Others are the winners of title competitions or pageants organized by a Reign (like the Mr/Miss Gay Southbay titles,

King Father/Queen Mother titles were granted by the Board of Directors (often suggested by the reigning Monarchs, but the board had to approve them) for continuing service and support to the San Jose Court.

Elected Ducal Titleholders: in parallel with the Imperial Courts, reigned over by an Empress/Emperor, there is also a (smaller) set of Ducal Courts, reigned over by a Grand Duchess/Duke.

Some Ducal Courts started as affiliates with an Imperial Court in a nearby city, which once firmly established were then invested as full Imperial Courts. Others were simply independent.

A few places actually support both an Imperial Court and a Ducal Court.

To make matters more confusing, the Monarchs in a city with only an Imperial Court may elect or appoint their Grand Duchess/Duke as part of their reign to interact with the Ducal courts. San Jose only elected some of its Ducal titleholders. The term “Elected” at the beginning of a Ducal title identifies such a titleholder.

(In an independent Ducal court, the Grand Duke and Duchess would also elected/selected in the same manner as an Emperor/Empress would be.)

Monarchs are the elected/selected “heads of state” of the Imperial Court. San Jose has had two incarnations of its Imperial Court, first the Casa De San Jose Empire of Santa Clara County, beginning in 1970* (I think) and then the Imperial Royal Lion Monarchy begun in 1988(ish). In 1990 IRLM incorporated as The Imperial Royal Lion Monarchy, Inc., of San Jose. *Note that I may be off by a year or so. I did not become involved until decades later. I am trying to locate more detailed history of the Casa de San Jose years.

The first 7 years of Casa de San Jose used the term Reina for their monarch, shifting to Grand Empress Reina for year 8* and then Empress for year 9. Year 9 was the first year with an Emperor as well as an Empress; as a result the Emperor titles were 9 years out of sync with the Empress for some time. *This change in title may signify the Imperial Court of San Francisco recognizing San Jose.

When the Imperial Royal Lion Monarchy succeeded Casa de San Jose, the numbering of Reigns was maintained, and the IRLM recognizes Imperial Family members from the earlier organizations as part of its history. In the 23rd Reign (1993-1994?), the Board of Directors voted to align the numbering of the Emperor’s title to align with that of the Empress, i.e. Empress 23 reigned with Emperor 23 rather than Emperor 14. (This made keeping track of the titles for protocol MUCH easier!)

The initials HIM before a Monarch’s lifetime title stands for Her/His Imperial Majesty. The term Absolute indicates that they successfully completed their year and all the goals (financial and other) for their Reign. “Elected” indicates that while elected to the title, they either stepped down during their reign or did not achieve their goals as set by the Board.

The term Regent in a Monarch’s title indicates they were appointed by the Board of Directors rather than elected. This was usually done either to assist a solo elected Monarch (running a Court is a lot of work), when an elected Monarch could not complete their term, or in some occasions, when there were no elected Monarchs.

These notes are based on my (sometimes hazy) memory of building protocol for formal appearances. Bill Funk (Miss Jean) or Jack Best (aka Jackie Best) or Philip Archer may have more details to hand.