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A viceroy (/ˈvsrɔɪ/) is an official who runs a country, colony, city, province, or sub-national state, 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".[1] A viceroy's territory may be called a viceroyalty, though this term is not always applied. The adjective form is viceregal,[2] less often viceroyal.[3] The term vicereine is sometimes used to indicate a female viceroy suo jure, although viceroy can serve as a gender-neutral term.[4] Vicereine is more commonly used to indicate a viceroy's wife.[4]

Viceroy is a form of royal appointment rather than noble rank. An individual viceroy often also held a noble title, however, such as Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma who was also Viceroy of India.

Spanish Empire[edit]

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, the Americas, and overseas elsewhere.

In Spanish ruled Europe[edit]


See also:

In the Americas[edit]



See also:

Portuguese Empire[edit]






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.[7] Brazil became a permanent Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the State of Brazil (Estado do Brasil) was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.[8]

British Empire[edit]

British India[edit]



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. As the representative of the Emperors and Empresses of India, who were also the kings and queens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the viceroy served as the grand master of the two principal chivalric orders of British India: the Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire.

Louis Mountbatten, last viceroy of India

During the office's history, the Governors-General of India were based in two cities: Calcutta during the 19th century and New Delhi during the 20th century. Additionally, whilst Calcutta was the capital of British India, the viceroys spent the summer months at Simla. The two historic residences of the viceroys still stand: the Viceroy's House in New Delhi and Government House in Calcutta. They are used today as the official residences of the President of India and the Governor of West Bengal, respectively. The portraits of the Governors-General still hang in a room on the ground floor of the Presidential Palace, one of the last vestiges of both the viceroys and the British Raj.[10]




Commonwealth realms[edit]

The term has occasionally been applied to the governors-general of the Commonwealth Realms, for example Gough Whitlam in 1973 told the Australian House of Representatives: 'The Governor-General is the viceroy of the Queen of Australia'.[11]


Russian Empire[edit]

Namestnik (Russian: наме́стник, Russian pronunciation: [nɐˈmʲesʲnʲɪk]) was an office position in the history of the Russian Empire. It can be translated as "viceroy", "deputy", "lieutenant" (the broader sense of that word) or literally in place appointee. The term has two periods of usage, with different meanings.[12][13][14][15] Namestnik replaced the obsolete position of voyevoda (ruler of krai or uyezd) by Peter I.

  • In the 12th–16th centuries, namestniks (more correctly knyaz namestniks, or "knyaz deputies") were in charge of local administration. In particular, they ruled uyezds.[16]
  • In the 18th–20th centuries, a namestnik was a person in charge of namestnichestvo, with plenipotentiary powers. The latter has traditionally been translated as viceroyalty and "namestnik" as viceroy or vicegerent (or, as a common blunder, "viceregent"). For example, Mikhail Vorontsov was namestnik of Bessarabia (1823–44) and of the Caucasus (1844–1854). Sometimes the term is confused with Governor General (генерал-губернатор). For example, during Vorontsov's term of office in Bessarabia, seven governor-generals were in, and at the same time he held the office of Governor General of New Russia. The following namestnik existed under the Romanov Emperors of Russia:[13][17]


Other viceroyalties[edit]

French colonies[edit]


Italian colonies[edit]

In Italian Viceré: The highest colonial representatives in the "federation" of Italian East Africa (six provinces, each under a governor; together Ethiopia, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland) were no longer styled "High Commissioner", but "Viceroy and Governor-general" from 5 May 1936, when Italian forces occupied Ethiopia, until 27 November 1941, when the last Italian administrator surrendered to the Allies. The Italian King Victor Emmanuel claimed the title of "Emperor of Ethiopia" (Nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings") and declared himself to be a successor to the Nəgusä nägäst,[citation needed] even though Emperor Haile Selassie I continued to hold this title while in exile, and resumed his actual, physical throne on 5 May 1941.


Ban of Bosnia[edit]

Ban Borić was the first ruler and Viceroy of Bosnia, appointed by Géza II of Hungary by 1154. His war affairs are documented as he fought several notable battles.[20] He also maintained ties with knights Templar and donated lands in Bosnia and Slavonia to their Order.[21] His own biological brother Dominic was on record as a knight Templar.[22][better source needed]

Ban of Croatia[edit]


Ancient antecedents[edit]


Non-Western counterparts[edit]




Maratha Empire, India[edit]

Marathas from the time of Shivaji sent various empire insiders to run foreign parts such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madya Pradesh and Andra Paradesh, where the Maratha empire extended.

Ottoman Empire[edit]


Vietnamese Empire[edit]


Chinese Empires[edit]




See also[edit]


  2. ^ "viceregal". Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  4. ^ a b "vicereine". Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  9. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, Clarendon Press, Oxford, New Edition 1909, vol 4, p. 16.
  10. ^ Nath, Aman, "Dome Over India", India Book House Ltd. ISBN 81-7508-352-2.
  11. ^ Gough Whitlam, The Truth of the Matter, (1979)
  13. ^ a b Kli͡uchevskiĭ, V. O. (Vasiliĭ Osipovich); Duddington, Natalie. (1994). A course in Russian history—the seventeenth century. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1-56324-317-2.
  14. ^ Larin, A. K. (2004). Gosudarev namestnik : istoricheskai͡a povestʹ o M.N. Krechetnikov. Kaluga: Zolotai͡a allei͡a. ISBN 5-7111-0347-4.
  15. ^ " namestnik". Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  17. ^ Ledonne, John P. (January–March 2002). "Administrative Regionalization in the Russian Empire 1802–1826". Cahiers du Monde russe. pp. 5–33. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  18. ^ Thomas Mitchell, Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland, 1888, p. 460. Google Print [1]
  19. ^ "КАВКАЗ". Archived from the original on 23 November 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  20. ^ The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century
  22. ^ Magyar Országos Levéltár
  23. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica: Ismail Pasha, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt and New Spain


  • Aznar, Daniel/Hanotin, Guillaume/May, Niels F. (dir.), À la place du roi. Vice-rois, gouverneurs et ambassadeurs dans les monarchies française et espagnole (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles). Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2014.
  • Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain, 1469–1716. London: Edward Arnold, 1963.
  • Fisher, Lillian Estelle. Viceregal Administration in the Spanish American Colonies. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1926.
  • Harding, C. H., The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1947.

Further reading[edit]

  • Andrada (undated). The Life of Dom John de Castro: The Fourth Vice Roy of India. Jacinto Freire de Andrada. Translated into English by Peter Wyche. (1664) Henry Herrington, New Exchange, London. Facsimile edition (1994) AES Reprint, New Delhi. ISBN 81-206-0900-X.
  • (in Russian) namestnik