REGENT, one who rules or governs, especially one who acts temporarily as an administrator of the realm during the minority or incapacity of the king. This latter function, however, is one unknown to the English common law. "In judgment of law the king, as king, cannot be said to be a minor, for when the royal body politic of the king doth meet with the natural capacity in one person the whole body shall have the quality of the royal politic, which is the greater and more worthy and wherein is no minority." But for reasons of necessity a regency, however anom alous it may be in strict law, has frequently been constituted both in England and Scotland. The earliest instance in English history is the appointment of the earl of Pembroke with the assent of the loyal barons on the accession of Henry III.
Lord Coke recommends that the office should depend on the will of parliament (Inst., vol. iv. p. 58), and in modern times pro vision for a regency has always been made by Act of parliament. As late as 1704 provision was made for a regency after the death of Anne. The earliest regency in England resting upon an express statute was that created by 28 Hen. VIII. c. 7, under which the king appointed his executors to exercise the authority of the crown till the successor to the crown should attain the age of 18 if a male or 16 if a female.
The Act of 5 Geo. III. c. 27 vested in the king power to appoint a regent under the sign manual, such regent to be one of certain named members of the royal family. Owing to the king's insanity in 1810 the Act of 51 Geo. III. c. I was passed, appointing the prince of Wales regent during the king's incapacity. The royal assent was given by commission authorized by both Houses of Parliament. By this Act no council of regency was appointed. There was no re . striction on the regent's authority over treaties, peace and war, or over giving assent to bills varying the Act of Settlement or the Act of Uniformity, as in the previous Regency Acts, but his power of granting peerages, offices and pensions was limited. By 10 Geo. IV. c. 7 the office of regent of the United Kingdom cannot be held by a Roman Catholic. A similar disability is im posed in the great majority, of Regency acts, if not indeed in all of them.
In the State of New York, a Regent is a member of the corpo rate body known as the University of the State of New York.