Which act enabled Queen Victoria to add Empress of India to her titles?

The Royal Titles Act 1876 enabled Queen Victoria to add “Empress of India” to her royal titles. Parliament passed the measure after Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli encouraged a new imperial style for the queen.

The act received royal assent on 27 April 1876, and Victoria adopted the title on 1 May. It formally authorized an addition to the royal style and titles of the British Crown; it did not make her ruler of India through a new conquest or create the British Raj by itself.

Direct Crown rule had already followed the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Government of India Act 1858 transferred authority from the East India Company to the British Crown. The new imperial title symbolized that relationship and reflected the political importance of India within the empire.

Victoria’s title was publicly celebrated at the Delhi Durbar on 1 January 1877, where she was proclaimed Empress of India in absentia. “India Act 1858” is therefore a tempting but different answer: it established Crown administration, while the Royal Titles Act supplied the title. The style remained in use until 1948.