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Francisco de Almeida, first viceroy of Portuguese India

A viceroy (pronounced /ˈvaɪsrɔɪ/) is a royal official who runs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. His province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty. The adjective form is viceregal. A vicereine is a woman in a viceregal position, or a viceroy's wife.[citation needed]

Spanish Empire

The title was originally used in the Aragonese Crown, where since the 14th century it referred to the governors of Sardinia and Corsica. The absolutist Kings of Spain employed numerous viceroys to rule over various parts of their vast empire, both European and overseas.

In Europe, until the 18th century the Spanish crown appointed viceroys of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples and Portugal (1580 – 1640). With the ascension of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne, the historic Aragonese viceroyalties were replaced by new Captaincies General. At the end of War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Monarchy was shorn of its Italian possessions.

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With the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the institution of viceroys was adapted to govern the highly populated and wealthy regions of New Spain (Mexico) and Peru. The viceroys of these two areas had oversight over the other provinces, with most of the North American, Central American, Caribbean and Philippine areas supervised by the viceroy in Mexico City and the South American ones by the viceroy in Lima, (with the exception of most of today's Venezuela, which was overseen by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo for most of the colonial period). These large administrative territories became known as Viceroyalties (Spanish term: virreinato). There were only two New World viceroyalties until 1717, when the new Bourbon Dynasty established two additional viceroyalties to promote economic growth and new settlements. New viceroyalties were created for New Granada in 1717 (capital, Bogotá) and the Río de la Plata in 1776 (capital, Buenos Aires).

The viceroyalties of Spanish America and the Philippines were subdivided into smaller, automous units, the Audiencias and the Captaincies General, which in most cases became the bases for the independent countries of modern Spanish America. These units gathered the local provinces which could be governed by a either a corregidor (sometimes alcalde mayor) or by a cabildo. Audiencias primarily functioned as superior judicial tribunals, but unlike their European counterparts, the New World audiencias were granted by law both administrative and legislative powers. Captaincies General were primarily military districts set up in areas with a risk of foreign or Indian attack, but the captains general were usually given political powers over the provinces under their command. Because the long distances to the viceregal capital would hamper effective communication, both audiencias and captains general were authorized to communicate directly with the crown through the Council of the Indies. The Bourbon Reforms introduced the new office of the intendant, which was appointed directly by the crown and had broad fiscal and administrative powers in political and military issues.

See also

Portuguese Empire

From 1505 to 1896 Portuguese India - the name "India" including all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to Southeast Asia, until 1752- was governed either by a Viceroy (Portuguese Vice-Rei) or Governor from its headquarters, in Goa since 1510. The government started six years after the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, in 1505, under first Viceroy Francisco de Almeida (b.1450–d.1510). Initially, King Manuel I of Portugal tried a power distribution with three governors in different areas of jurisdiction, however the post was centered by governor Afonso de Albuquerque (1509-1515), who became plenipotentiary, and remained so. The duration in office was of only three years, possibly given the power represented: in the sixteenth century of the thirty-four governors of India, only six had longer mandates.[1]

The title of Viceroy being awarded to members of the nobility, Viceroys, Governors and Governing Commissions were many times interleaved until the last Viceroy Afonso, Prince Royal of Portugal, in 1896. After the Iberian Union, in 1640, the governors of colonial Brazil of the high nobility started to use the title of Viceroy.[2] Brazil became a Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the Estado do Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.[3] In 1775 Brazilian Estados (Brasil, Maranhão and Grão-Pará) were unified into the Viceroyalty of Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro as capital. In 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese king, the office of Viceroy was extinguished never to be re-established, as Brazil was elevated to the rank of a kingdom in 1815, as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.

Russian Empire

Namestnik (Russian: наме́стник, Russian pronunciation: [nɐˈmʲɛsnʲɪk]) was an office position in the history of Russia. Its literal translation would be "viceroy", "deputy", "lieutenant" (the broader sense of that word) or literarly in place appointee. The term has two periods of usage, with different meanings.[4][5][6][7]

Other colonial viceroyalties

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Other domestic viceroys, including personal unions

Non-Western counterparts

As many princely and administrative titles, viceroy is often used, generally unofficially, to render somewhat equivalent titles and offices in non-western cultures.

Ottoman empire

The khedive of Egypt, especially in the dynasty initiated by Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1848). This officer established an almost autonomous regime in Egypt, which officially still was under Ottoman rule. Although Mehemet Ali/Muhammad Ali used different symbols to mark his independence from the Sublime Porte, he never openly declared himself independent. Adopting the title of viceroy was yet another way to walk the thin line between challenging the Sultan's power explicitly and respecting his jurisdiction. Muhammad Ali Pasha's son, Ismail Pasha, subsequently received the title of Khedive which was almost an equivalent to viceroy.[15]

Vietnam

The post of Tổng Trấn (governor of all military provinces) was a political post in the early of Vietnamese Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1830). From 1802, under the reign of emperor Gia Long, there were always two Tổng Trấn who directly ruled Vietnam's northern part named Bắc Thành (Hanoi and surrounding territories) and the southern part named Gia Định (Saigon and surrounding territories) while Nguyen emperors ruled only the middle part named Vùng Kinh Kỳ (Hue and surrounding territories). Tổng Trấn is sometimes translated to English as viceroy.[16] In 1930, emperor Minh Mang abolished the post in order to increase the imperial direct ruling power in all over Vietnam. The best-known Vietnamese viceroy in the west is Le Van Duyet, who ruled the southern part of Vietnam twice (1812–1815 and 1820–1832) and had many contact with Europeans.[17]

   
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