Resident Ministers
This full style was common as a diplomatic rank for the head of a mission ranking just below envoy, usually reflecting the relatively low status of the states of origin and/or residency, or else difficult relations.
On occasion, the Resident Minister's role could become extremely important, as when in 1806 the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV fled his kingdom of Naples, and Lord William Bentinck, the British Resident, was the author of a new and relatively liberal constitution.
Residents could also be posted with shadowy governments. For instance, the British sent Residents to the Mameluk Beys who ruled Baghdad province as an autonomous state in the north of what is now Iraq, until the Ottoman sultans regained control over it and its Wali (governor).
Even after the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was restored by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the British posted a "mere" Resident to Florence.
As international relations developed, it became customary to give the highest title of diplomatic rank, ambassador, to the head of all permanent missions in any country, except as a temporary expression of downturned relations or where representation was merely an interim arrangement.
Read more about this topic: Resident (title)
Famous quotes containing the word ministers:
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)