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The Italian word luogotenente (; plural luogotenenti) is an etymological parallel to lieutenant, deriving from the Latin locum tenens "holding a place", i.e. someone who fills a position instead of another, as a substitute or deputy.
A luogotenente generally is a high-ranking individual in a monarchy who either is designated to assume royal powers up to and including the Regent of the kingdom in the event of the absence of the monarch, or is designated to exercise monarchical powers in a particular territory of the kingdom under the overall authority of the monarch. Typically, the office held by a luogotenente is the lieutenenancy of the king or lieutenancy of the kingdom and the title of a person exercising the authority of a lieutenancy has included king's lieutenant, lieutenant general (not to be confused with the military rank of lieutenant general), and lieutenant general of the kingdom, but many variations many variations in the title of the office and of the officeholder have existed.
Luogotenente also has had other uses, serving as a military or administrative title in some contexts.
Over the centuries, princes not of royal blood who performed functions in Sicily on behalf of the King of Aragon were given the title of "king's lieutenant."
In 1812, Ferdinand refused to grant a constitution to the Sicilian parliament and, in 1813, he practically abdicated his throne, fleeing to Ficuzza and appointing his son Francesco (Francis, Duke of Calabria) to serve as luogotenente generale. In this role, Francis served as regent in Sicily.
After the fall of Napoleon, Ferdinand was able to return to Naples as ruler of the Kingdom of Naples in May 1815. Ferdinand kept Francis in Sicily as luogotenente. Francis retained his lieutenancy in Sicily until 1820, even after the establishment in 1816 of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which Ferdinand ruled as Ferdinand I.
Immediately after the new Kingdom of Italy issued decrees annexing pre-unification Italian states, it delegated the function of governing the territories of the former states in the name of the king to a decentralized constitutional body that served as the provisional government in each state. A "lieutenant of the king" served as the leader of each provisional government and oversaw the administration of the territory of each former state while awaiting its administrative unification with the kingdom. The title of "lieutenant of the king" fell to various figures in the annexed territories, such as that of the dictator or the royal commissioner that preceded the annexation.
A lieutenancy was established on the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano was appointed "king's lieutenant" when the Kingdom of Italy annexed the grand duchy in 22 March 1860. He held the position until February 1861.
In the former territories of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel II appointed Senator Massimo Cordero di Montezemolo as "Lieutenant General of the King in the Sicilian Provinces" in December 1860 at the end of Giuseppe Garibaldi's dictatorship in Sicily. Montezemolo led a Council of Lieutenancy in Sicily which held the powers of the central government of the Kingdom of Italy except for those of Foreign Affairs, War, and the Navy. Montezemolo was followed by Alessandro Della Rovere and then Ignazio De Genova di Pettinengo before the lieutenancy ceased in January 1862.
In the Neapolitan provinces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which included most of Southern Italy (), Victor Emmanuel II appointed Luigi Carlo Farini as lieutenant general of the king on 6 November 1860. Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano succeeded him on 3 January 1861 and remained in Naples until the end of May 1861. Thereafter, General Enrico Cialdini served as lieutenant general in Naples from 15 July to 15 October 1861.
Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano held the title of "lieutenant general of the kingdom" in 1866 when Victor Emmanuel II took part in the Third Italian War of Independence.
After the Kingdom of Italy captured Rome from the Papal States in September 1870, it established the "General Lieutenancy of the King for Rome and the Roman Provinces" with Royal Decree Number 5906 of 9 October 1870. It was headed by Alfonso La Marmora. It was abolished on 1 February 1871.
As lieutenant general, Prince Tommasso carried out only formal and protocol functions in Rome without any role in substantive governance. However, during the war years royal decrees were called "lieutenant decrees" and bore the signature of Prince Tommasso rather than that of Victor Emmanuel III. The war ended on 11 November 1918, but Prince Tommasso's lieutenancy extended well beyond that: It was not until 7 July 1919 that Prince Tommasso returned to private life and the king to the full extent of his functions in accordance with Decree Number 1082 of 6 July 1919.Decree Number 1082 of 6 July 1919, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d'Italia n. 160 ( Official Gazette of the Kingdom of Italy No. 160) of 7 July 1919 (in Italian).
Although Victor Emmanuel's signed appointment decree contained the traditional wording "Appointment of HRH His Umberto of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, as Lieutenant General of the King," Umberto assumed the title of "Lieutenant General of the Kingdom" () instead of "King's Lieutenant," as always used in the past. This choice was made to underline both Umberto's greater powers as lieutenant – unlike previous lieutenants, he was not subordinate to the king – and that the maintenance of the monarchy or the transition to a republican regime would be implemented freely, without the need to consult with or remove the king. B. Croce annotava "di chi il luogotenente sarà luogotenente? Di un Re che non è più Re? Se il luogotenente si ammala o muore o non ne può più e dà le dimissioni, chi nominerà il luogotenente del Re, che non è più Re?". B. Croce, Taccuini di Guerra 1943–1945, a cura di C. Cassani, Milan, Italy, Adelphi, 2004, p. 117 (in Italian). The title of "Lieutenant General of the Kingdom," rather than of the king, also rooted Umberto's role more with the Italian state than with the monarchy.
After his appointment, Umberto split his role between lieutenant and crown prince: As lieutenant general he ruled Italy like a provisional head of state, while as crown prince he served as pretender to a throne now removed from automatic dynastic succession, pending resolution of the question of the institutional form of the future Italian state. In 1944 he signed Lieutenant Decree-Law Number 151/1944, which established that "after the liberation of the national territory" of Italy from the Axis powers and the Italian Social Republic "the institutional forms" of government would be "chosen by the Italian people, who for this purpose" would elect "by universal, direct, and secret suffrage, a Constituent Assembly to decide on the new Constitution of the State," extending the vote to women for the first time. As lieutenant, Umberto soon earned the trust of the Allies thanks to his choice of orienting the policies of the Italian monarchy toward pro-Western positions.
Umberto's lieutenancy lasted until 9 May 1946, when the result of post-World War II elections led Vittorio Emanuele III's advisors to induce him to abdicate in advance of the referendum on the future governance of the Italian state scheduled for 2 and 3 June 1946. The advisors hoped that his abdication would further distance the House of Savoy from Victor Emmanuel, who had favored the advent of the fascist Mussolini government, and increase the chance that the referendum would result in the preservation of the monarchy. When Victor Emmanuel abdicated, Umberto took the throne as King Umberto II, but the results of the June 1946 referendum favored the abolition of the monarchy and establishment of the Italian Republic, and Umberto II reigned only until 18 June 1946 before going into exile.
In the event of the incapacitation, resignation, or death of the Grand Master, the Grand Commander of the order can serve as "Lieutenant ad interim, carrying out ordinary administrative duties pending the election of a new Grand Master or of the Lieutenant of the Grand Master if no Grand Master can be elected.
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