Talk:List of regents

Untitled
Removal of Queen Consort Caroline from the list of Regents of the UK. Caroline was never Regent.

In the UK, the office of Regent was constituted once, during the ilness of King George III, who was suspended from the personal exercise of his functions due to his madness.

Cases of absence or minority of the Sovereign before 1811 were dealt with by the appointment of officers who held the title "Lords Justices of the Realm", and sometimes "Guardian of the Realm".

Also, in the UK, the absence of the sovereign from the Realm does not prevent him from giving orders, by sending instructions to the realm, thus exercising his authority. Therefore, there is a fundamental difference between situations of minority/madness/disabling ilness, where the Sovereign is suspended from his functions, and other situations such as travel/surgery/not serious ilness, etc., where people are appointed to perform the royal functions without the Sovereign being suspended from his authority, so that he can always issue instructions and even overrule the decisions of his deputies.

Furthermore, prior to 1811 cases of incapacity of the Sovereign were due to the minority of the monarch. George III´s case was the first, and so far the only one, were the Sovereign had to be actually suspended from the personal discharge of the royal functions on account of ilness.

In Queen Caroline´s case, she was appointed as Guardian of the Kingdom during the absence of George II and His Majesty luetenant in the realm. But George II was not suspended from his functions. Simply, because communication with him would be difficult, but not impossible during his trip, it was decided to appoint Queen Caroline guardian so that she could oversee the daily dispacth of Government business.

In present British legislation, the two situations are treated in a clearly different fashion. There is statutory provision for a Regency (in which case the Sovereign is suspended from the personal exercise of his functions), should the minority or disability of the Sovereign arise (and there is legal provision for the procedure to be followed to declare the beginning and the end of the disability)and there is another provision, dealing with the (optional) appointment by the Sovereign himself of Concillors of State to act on his behalf, and under his instructions that can be sent even by telegram, for cases of travel or of non-disabling ilness, surgery, etc. In the cases were Councillors of State can be appointed the Sovereign is not suspended from his functions.

Queen´s Caroline guardianship would fall in this second category, and is very similar to it, whereas the appointment of George, Prince of Wales as prince regent corresponds to the first category.

Universities
To my knowledge, board members of state universities are called regents, while at private universities they are called trustees, at least in America. Pls. advise. Crix 14:43, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Sneaky, eh, Mats Halldin?
rajofcanada 14:10, 1 August 2007 (UTC)rajofcanada I followed a link to "justicar" and I got here. It is strange! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.18.203 (talk) 11:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Humphrey of Gloucester, Richard of Gloucester and Edward VI's uncles were not Regents but Lords Protector of the Realm, a post with quite different responsibilities. The National Archive documents in the first two cases are detailed in Carson's "Richard Duke of Gloucester as Lord Protector and High Constable of England" (pp.52-60). Smlark (talk) 21:21, 1 January 2017 (UTC)