(Redirected from
Reichsprotektor)
- For other uses of the word, see protector
Protector, sometimes spelled protecter, is a historical title with multiple meanings; this article also covers a few litteral equivalents thus rendered in English
Political & Administrative
Heads of State
in Iran
Wakil ar-Ra`aya (rendered as Protector of the People) was the (or a?) title of the Persian imperial Monarch under the Zand dynasty - those rulers refused (except the last as noted) the style Shahanshah. The founding ruler adopted the style; it appears that his successors used the same style, although documentation is obscure
- 1773 - 1 March 1779 Mohammad Karim Khan Zand (b. c.1707 - d. 1779)
- 6 March 1779 - 1779 Abu al-Fath Khan Zand (1st time) (b. 1755 - d. 1787) - jointly with 6 March 1779 - 19 June 1779 Mohammad Ali Khan Zand (b. 1760 - d. 1...)
- 19 June 1779 - 22 August 1779 Abu al-Fath Khan Zand (2nd time)
- 22 August 1779 - 14 March 1781 Mohammad Sadeq Khan Zand (d. 1782)
- 15 March 1781 - 11 February 1785 Ali Morad Khan Zand (d. 1785)
- 12 February 1785 - 17 February 1785 Baqer Khan Khorasakani
- 18 February 1785 - 23 January 1789 Jaafar Khan Zand (d. 1789)
- 23 January 1789 - 10 May 1789 Seyd Morad Khan Zand
- 10 May 1789 - 30 October 1794 Lotf Ali Khan Zand (b. c.1766 - d. 1794); he again adopted the traditional style Shahanshah March 1794 - 30 October 1794
in Europe
- in Iceland: one Sovereign was styled Beskytter af hele e Island ("Protector of Land of Iceland") 25 June - 22 August 1809 (an intermezzo between Danish Governors styled Stiftamtmadur): Jürgen Jürgensen (b. 1780 - d. 1841; nicknamed Hundadagakonungur "the Dog-Day King") .
- in Estonia: State-protector is a common rendering of Riigihoidja, a single Head of state and Head of government of that Baltic republic, 24 January 1934 - 24 April 1938 (acting to 3 September 1937), Konstantin Päts (b. 1874 - d. 1956), earlier five times State Elder, thereafter the first of two Presidents before the Soviet takeover.
- in Finland (linguistically close to Estonian): State Prtotector is a common rendering, besides Regent, of two Finnish Heads of State 18 May 1918 - 27 July 1919, the first incumbent being also the last of the previous -untitled- Acting heads of state
- in the elective kingdom called 'Commonwealth' of Poland & Lithuania, August 1655 – 23 February 1660: King Karl X Gustaf (b. 1622 - d. 1660) (as king of Sweden), in Polish Karol X Gustaw, was styled Protektor Rzeczypospolitej ('Protector of the Republic, i.e. the (Polish-Lithuanian) Commonwealth') as challenger to the duly elected king Jan II Kazimierz during the middle part of his reign (17 January 1649 - 16 September 1668)
in the Americas
- in the Dominican Republic: 4 August 1865 - 15 November 1865, his first non-consecutive presidential term: José María Cabral y de Luna (b. 1819 - d. 1899)
- in Haiti: Sylvain Salnave (b. 1826 - d. 1870), one of the three members of the previous Provisional Government, was President 4 May 1867 - 27 December 1869 and Protector of the Republic to 16 June 1867
- in Nicaragua: Granada *
- in Peru: 3 August 1821 - 20 September 1822 general José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (b. 1778 - d. 1850)
- in the Peru-Bolivian Confederation: José Andrés de Santa Cruz y Villavicencio y Calumana (b. 1792 - d. 1865; Military) Supreme Protector 28 October 1836 - 20 February 1839 (also Bolivian President 24 May 1829 - 20 Feb 1839)
- in Brazil, 12 October 1822 - 15 November 1889, the imperial style was Imperador Constitucional e Defensor Perpétuo do Império do Brasil 'Constitutional Emperor and perpetual defender of the empire of Brazil', not unlike the hollow victory titles of late Roman emperors
Foreign Hegemons
- in most of Germany east of the Rhine, except Prussia, from 25 July 1806 to 19 October 1813, the French Emperor, Napoléon I Bonaparte, bore the additional title of protecteur de la Confédération du Rhin, i.e. Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, generally known as Rheinbund ('Rhenan League'), uniting the German princes that had bowed to the conqueror. The actual presidency of its diet and council of Kings was held by a German prince, the Fürstprimas ('Prince-primate')
- The same Bonaparte had a similar position in Switzerland (then called Helvetic/Swiss Confederation) under French occupation, but there his style was Médiateur de la Confédération Helvétique (Mediator, 1809 - 31 December 1813), while the chairmanship of the Diet (legislative assembly, since 10 March 1803), the acting Head of the Confederation, with the title Landammann der Schweiz (in German)/ Landamman de la Suisse (in French)/ Landamano della Svizzera (in Italian), fell simply to the chief magistrates of the canton hosting it.
- Nazi Germany was represented by a Reichsprotektor ('imperial protector'), who had the real executive power, not the native President and Prime Minister, in the Czech puppet-state it installed on 16 March 1939 under the explicit name Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren "protectorate Bohemia and Moravia" (excluding the ethnically German regions, which it annexed as Reichsgau Sudentenland); the German incumbents, after a month under a Military Governor, were:
- 5 April 1939 - 20 August 1943 Konstantin von Neurath, Freiherr (b. 1873 - d. 1956) NSDAP
- 27 September 1941 - 4 June 1942 Reinhard Heydrich (b. 1904 - d. 1942) NSDAP (acting for Neurath)
- 27 May 1942 - 28 May 1942 Karl Hermann Frank (b. 1898 - d. 1946) NSDAP (acting for Heydrich)
- 28 May 1942 - 14 October 1943 Kurt Daluege (b. 1897 - d. 1946) NSDAP (acting [to 5 June 1942 for Heydrich])
- 14 October 1943 - 8 May 1945 Wilhelm Frick (b. 1877 - d. 1946) NSDAP
- 26 April 1945 - 8 May 1945 Ferdinand Schörner (b. 1892 - d. 1973) (military commander with unrestricted executive power)
British colonial administration
Religious & faith-related
Catholic
This article incorporates text from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia. See also Protectorate of Missions
Cardinal protector
Since the thirteenth century it has been customary at Rome to confide to some particular Cardinal a special solicitude in the Roman Curia for the interests of a given religious order or institute, confraternity, church, college, city, nation, etc. He was its representative or orator when it sought a favour or a privilege, defended it when unjustly accused, and besought the aid of the Holy See when its rights, property, or interests were violated or imperilled. Such a cardinal came to be known as a cardinal protector. In ancient Rome a similar relationship existed between the client (cliens) and his patronus (hence 'patron'); as Rome's power grew, a still closer analogy is visible between the Roman institution and the modern ecclesiastical protectorate. Nearly every provincial city had its patronus, or procurator, in imperial Rome, usually a Roman patrician or eques, and such persons were held in high esteem. Cicero, e.g., was patronus of Dyrrachium (ater Durazzo, now ) and of Capua, in which Campanian city a gilded statue was raised to him. In time the office became hereditary in certain families; Suetonius, in his life of Tiberius, says that the Claudian family (gens Claudia) was from ancient times protector of Sicily and the Peloponnesus.
The Roman Church adopted this, with many other imperial institutions, as one serviceable for external administration, not that the popes who first conferred this office and title sought to copy an ancient Roman usage, but because analogous conditions and circumstances created a similar situation. The office is conferred by the pope through the secretary of state, sometimes by spontaneous designation of the Holy Father, sometimes at the request of those who seek such protection. Such a cardinal protector had the right to place his coat-of-arms on the church, or main edifice, of the institute, or the municipal palace of the city in question. The first to hold such an office was Cardinal Ugolino Conti (Gregory IX), who sought thereby to paralyze the intrigues of his many enemies at Rome; at the request of St. Francis himself he was named protector of the Franciscans by Innocent III, and again by Honorius III. Alexander IV and Nicholas III retained for themselves the office of protector of the Franciscans. Indeed, the latter were long the only order that boasted of a cardinal protector; it was only in the fourteenth century that gradually the office was extended. As early as 1370 Gregory XI was obliged to restrain the abuses committed by the cardinal protector of the Franciscans; Martin V (1417-31) forbade the acceptance by the protector of a religious order of any payment for his protection. While Sixtus IV and Julius II defined more particularly the limits of the office, Innocent XII (1691-1700) must be credited with the final regulation of the duties and rights of a cardinal protector.
Kingdoms, empires, etc. must have had cardinal protectors until pope Urban VI (1378-89) forbade such cardinals to receive anything from the respective sovereigns of these states, lest through love of money they should be led to abet works of injustice. In 1424 Martin V forbade the cardinals to accept the protectorate of kings and princes, which prohibition was renewed in 1492 by Alexander VI. This prohibition was not renewed by Leo X in the ninth session of the Lateran Council of 1512; the cardinals, however, were urged to exercise the office in an impartial way and without human respect. At present [written early 20th century; Portugal meanwhile became a republic] the only state with a cardinal protector is the Kingdom of Portugal.
Islamic
Protector of the Holy Cities
See also
Sources and references