Gourt Home::Gourt :: Captain General
Captain General (and its literal equivalent in several languages) is or was a high military rank and a gubernatorial title.
Army
The rank, formerly relatively common within various European forces, usually ranking above a Lieutenant General, at the current level of a full General. Nowadays its usage has largely died out, although it still applies to certain ceremonial positions, such as the Captain General of the Royal Marines, almost exclusively held by members of the Royal Family.
The rank of Captain General was first created when the term "general" was added to certain leading officers on the battlefields of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to denote the most senior soldier of a certain rank in any given formation. The first such general rank was that of Sergeant-Major General (since shortened to Major General), followed by Lieutenant General and Captain General. An even higher rank, Colonel General also existed but has not survived into modern times, except, arguably, as Colonel-in-Chief (again a ceremonial rank held by a royal, or at least "noble" patron) or its hierarchical equivalent Field Marshal, a rank now technically archaic - in the British Army at least - since no new Field Marshals are appointed in "peacetime".
The rank of Captain is located between Lieutenant and Major. As such, it follows that the rank of Captain General was considered senior to Lieutenant General - the word "captain" was simply dropped over time, as with (Sergeant-) Major General, hence the apparent disparity between the structure of the general ranks and field grade ranks.
Navy
A much older usage of the term Captain General arose in the navies of the 16th century. A Captain General was appointed as the leader of an entire vessel, where the Pilot would in fact captain the ship. The Captain General was, in such cases, usually an Army officer with little or no navigation and seamanship skill, but still by senority considered the senior officer of a vessel. In situations where the Captain General was killed or removed from post, the Pilot would become the Pilot Major or Captain Pilot. The navies of the Netherlands and Belgium were most common in using this practice of the rank Captain General.
A Captain General can also be:
- Commander of all military forces in a Vice-Regal Domain
- The next grade of general above brigadier general or colonel commandant
- The next grade of general above major general
- The next grade of general below full general
- The equivalent to a General of the Army (this is the current situation in Spain with the rank of Capitán general)
Currently in the United Kingdom the ceremonial head of the Royal Marines is the Captain-General, currently HRH Prince Philip.
Administrative positions
- Capitan General - See Captaincy General, a division of a Spanish colonial viceroyalty
In fiction
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Boromir is considered to be a captain general of Gondor.
In the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, "Captain-General" is the highest rank of the Ever Victorious Army of Seanchan, excepting only the rank of Marshal-General, which may be temporarily assigned to a Captain-General given the command of a war. In addition, Captain-General is also the title of both the leader of the Queen's Guard of Andor and the head of the Green Ajah of the Aes Sedai.
See also
- General, a description of the various general officer ranks, including the full general which is the successor to captain general.
- List of senior officers of the British Army
- Queen Elizabeth II's honorary military positions
"Captain General"