Claudius is proclaimed Roman emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.

AD 41 (XLI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of C. Caesar Augustus Germanicus and Cn. Sentius Saturninus. The denomination AD 41 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.

The Roman emperor was the ruler and monarchical head of state of the Roman Empire, starting with the granting of the title augustus to Octavian in 27 BC. The term emperor is a modern convention, and did not exist as such during the Empire. When a given Roman is described as becoming emperor in English, it generally reflects his accession as augustus, and later as basileus. Another title used was imperator, originally a military honorific, and caesar, originally a cognomen. Early emperors also used the title princeps alongside other Republican titles, notably consul and pontifex maximus.

The Praetorian Guard was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and gathering military intelligence.