Good day Worthy Knights, in this part 91: the Viceroy Wikipedia
Viceroy
An official who runs a territory in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning “in the place of” and the French word “Roy”, meaning “king”. Viceroy is a form of royal appointment rather than noble rank, although individual viceroy often also held a noble title.
Spanish Empire
The title was originally used by the Crown of Aragon, where, beginning in the 14th century, it referred to the Spanish governors of Sardinia and Corsica. After the unification, at the end of the 15th century, later kings of Spain came to appoint numerous viceroys to rule over various parts of the increasingly vast Spanish Empire in Europe and the Americas.
The Americas were incorporated into the Crown of Castile. 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 Philippines) and Peru .
Portuguese Empire
India
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.
From 1505 to 1896 Portuguese India – the name “India” and the official name “Estado da India” including all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to Southeast Asia and Australasia, until 1752 was governed either by a Viceroy 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).
Brazil
After the end of the Iberian Union in 1640, the governors of Brazil that were members of the Portuguese high nobility started to use the title of Viceroy. Brazil became a permanent Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the State of Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.
Francisco de Almeida, Viceroy de Portuguese India
British Empire
Following adoption of the Government of India Act 1858, which transferred control of India from the East India Company to the British Crown, the Governor-General as representing the Crown became known as the Viceroy. The designation “Viceroy,” although it was most frequently used in ordinary parlance, had no statutory authority, and was never employed by Parliament. The Proclamation of 1858 announced the assumption of the government of India by the Crown by Lord Canning as “first Viceroy and Governor-General.”
Alongside the Commander-in-Chief, India, the viceroy was the public face of the British presence in India, attending to many ceremonial functions as well as political affairs.
The viceroy served as the grand master of the two principal orders of chivalry of British India: the Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire.
During the office’s history, the Governors-General of India were based in two cities: Kolkata during the 19th century and New Delhi during the 20th century. Additionally, whilst Kolkata was the capital of British India, the viceroys spent the summer months at Shimla.
The two historic residences of the viceroys still stand: the Viceroy’s House in New Delhi and Government House in Kolkata. They are used today as the official residences of the President of India and the Governor of West Bengal, respectively.
Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of Inida
French colonies
New France, in present Canada, after a single Governor (1534–1541), had Lieutenants-general and Viceroys and from 1598, a lieutenant-general; then a series of Viceroys, resident in France. Finally, from 1611–1672, Governors and Governors-general.
The office of the President of France retains the title of Co-Prince in the neighbouring microstate of Andorra and continues to send a personal representative, a de facto viceroy to rule on their behalf with the co-ruler, the Bishop of Urgell.
Ancient antecedents
An equivalent office, called the Exarch, was created in the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire towards the end of the sixth century for governors of important areas too far from the imperial capital of Constantinople to receive regular instruction or reinforcement.
The chosen governors of these provinces were empowered to act in place of the monarch (hence ex-arch) with more discretion and autonomy than was granted other categories of governor.
This was an extraordinary break from the centralized traditions of the Roman Empire and was an early example of the principle of Viceroyalty.