the.com/regency
When someone else holds the crown's power because the actual king is busy being a baby, mad, or dead-ish.
means A period when a stand-in ruler (a regent) governs on behalf of a monarch who can't — because they're too young, too incapacitated, or temporarily absent.
from From Latin 'regens,' the present participle of 'regere' — 'to rule, to guide, to keep straight.' That's the same root that gives us 'regulate' and 'direct.' A regent, then, is literally 'the one ruling' — borrowed into English through French in the medieval period, when kingdoms needed a word for 'rules in the king's stead, keeps things straight until he can again.'
- origin
- latin regere, to rule, same root as regent
- britain's famous one
- george iv ruled for mad king george iii, 1811-1820
- style legacy
- gave us empire waistlines and jane austen's entire universe
- modern echo
- any vacant-throne scramble now gets called a regency