Some information about the regent in this collection includes the following:
A - Age of sovereign
B - Basis of appointment
C - Character
D - Duration
E - End
What is a regent?
"A regent performs the sovereigns functions during minority or other incapacity; councillors of state during absence. No advance statutory provision dor such contingencies existed until 1937. Between 1689 and 1760 Kings appointed Lords Justices to act for them during absences abroad and commonly bound them in detailed instructions. A similar practice obtained in Ireland during vacancies in the Lieutenancy or Deputyship. A regent is always the closest relative, councillors or state are also relatives, but Lords Justices generally were not." (The Companion to British History: 1064)
The Dowager Queen as Regent
"In Gaul, however, unlike Lombard Italy or Visigothic Spain, filial succession remained normal. Thus the only way a queen could secure her position, both in her husband's lifetime and especially after his death, was to produce a son who survived. Because of the frequent succession of minors, regents might govern for relatively long periods (even though the age of majority was fifteen) and a queen-mother clearly had a strong claim to the regency. Hers was not the only claim: the role of nutritor, literally 'male nurse,' which in fact contained that of a regent, thereby illustrating once again the political significance of personal closeness to the king even when he was a child, was appropriated by mayors of the palace on several occasions in the sixth and seventh centuries. But a dowager queen could normally hope to act as regent for her won son. If a dowager queen were childless or had only daughters, then her husband's death would obviously mean her exclusion from power. But even if she had a young son, she might have difficulty in maintaining that physical proximity to him on which a regent's power depended. An infant prince might be reared on a country estate; he would probably be in the care of a nurse. The moment of his father's death might find his mother far away. In any event, what determined a boy-prince's success in claiming the royal succession also directed his mother's future: namely, the attitude of the aristocracy, or, immediately, of a few well-placed aristocrats. A widowed queen was thrown back on the personal ties she had formed during her husband's lifetime, and on her own political skill: for on these depended how much treasure and influence (the two were not unconnected) she might be able to salvage. Throughout Merovingian history, the fates of widowed queens in interregna highlighted the persisting power of bishops and leudes [aristocrats around the king]." (Rosenwien and Little: 225)
A Widow's Title to Estates
" . . . After 1215, a widow in England was entitled to both one-third of her husband's estates and to any jointure, land settled jointly in survivorship on a couple at the time of their marriage. These rights were not reduced by remarriage, and indeed successive widowhoods could increase landholdings substantially. . . . " (Schaus: 8)
Byzantine Empresses as Rulers in their Own Right, Co-Rulers with their Husbands or Regents
" . . . [A] number of empresses played an important part in government and even took control of the empire in appropriate circumstances. Most commonly empresses came to power as regents for young sons, implying a fixed period of caretaker government until the young emperor came of age, usually at sixteen. But not all regents were ready to step aside. . . Co-ruling regents were officially acknowledged on coins, in acclamation and in dating formulas, although generally (but not always yielding precedence to the young emperor. Empresses could also in exceptional circumstances rule in their own right, though it was considered more normal that they should take the opportunity to choose a husband and make him emperor. . . Empresses also possessed powers as consorts, but in these circumstances they were naturally bound by the wishes and temperaments of their husbands. The principle of collegiality, however, ensured that in certain cases they were seen almost as co-rulers. . . Even without official nomination as regent, the long absences of emperors on campaign could still give empresses the chance to wield power and make executive decisions. . . . " (Garland: 1)
Regents Across Generations
"Eleanor of Aquitaine's daughters and granddaughters are for the most part well-known examples of women who served as regents for sons when fathers departed or crusade or died while sons were too young to be able to rule in their own names. Such situations arose not infrequently in the Middle Ages, and any aristocratic wife and mother had to be prepared to step in to fill such a temporary vacuum. . . ." (Wheeler and Parsons: 194)
