Captain-general of Marines (Themiclesia)

The Captain-general of Marines (冗人叞, nunk-ning-′uts) is the senior-most professional officer of the Themiclesian Marine Corps and enjoys the courtesy style of Principal of the Audience, rank of 2,000 bushels in the Civil Service, and the colonelcy of one of the Marines' constituent regiments. As part of the chain of command, the Captain-general reports to the Barons of the Navy, and as chairperson of the Marines Management Commission, she reports to the Secretary of State for Defence. The incumbent is Margaret Skur.

Rank

Under the Marines Service Re-organization Act of 1947, the Captain-general must hold the office of colonel in (any) one of the constituent regiments of the marine corps. Technically, ranks such as colonel and captain are regimental offices, which in turn take their seniority after pay grades in the imperial civil service. Thus, while most colonels enjoy the courtesy-rank of 1,000 bushels at the royal court, the captain-general is esteemed 2,000 bushels, because it was viewed as the successor to the former office Lieutenant-General of Marines, abolished in 1803 with the Admiralty Army. There is no surviving record suggesting that a "General of Marines" was ever appointed, probably because the admirals, being of baronial rank, exercised the functions of a general over marines.

History

The medieval predecessors of the marine corps were officers responsible for enlisting, training, arming, and paying men found at friendly cities to supplement the Themiclesian fleet, which often sailed understrengthed to economize on victuals. Admirals of the fleet, in turn, fielded them in battle in conjunction with Themiclesians. In the 10th century, the Exchequer sent its agents to superintend the payment of moneys to the men. Their armaments were the responsibility of the Department of Passengers, which was charged with manufacturing tools and supplies necessary on voyage. In 1318, the Exchequer was given full financial control over the mobilization of marines from foreign shores, a reform the Marines have come to consider their founding. At the end of the 14th century, this process was done in Themiclesia due to the loss of Meridia to Yi forces.

During the Themiclesian Republic, the Excheuqer's Chief Clerk superintending the mobilization of marines was accorded the 800-bushel rank at the imperial court, being on par with the Principal Secretary of the Exchequer. In 1524, the position of Captain-general appeared in the historical record, again as an agent of the Exchequer, though the part of the manufacturing responsibilities of the Sacramental Treasury appears to have been merged into it. It is not clear what the relationship between the Chief Clerk and the Captain-general was. This latter office was not consistently appointed until the following century. The confusion over jurisdictions may reflect the reality that the navy relied upon multiple bodies of soldiers raised across the Themiclesian empire, and there was no unified logistics policy applied to all of them.

In 1701, Emperor Gwīts-men raised a new army of cavalry and infantry and assigned it permanently to his admirals. This army was commanded by one of the admirals, who in 1754 had the position renamed as Lieutenant-General of Marines (右冗人將). Though this army is conventionally seen as the direct ancestor of the modern marine corps, it was a self-contained force that did not include all of the Admiralty's land units. The Captain-general was still consistently appointed, with the assumption that the Lieutenant-General was responsible for operations in the field, while the Captain-general managed pay, rations, and armaments. The Chief Clerk started to function in this period as the Captain-general's deputy. While the Lieutenant-General was compulsorily a naval officer, both the Captain-general and Chief Clerk could be, and often were, civilians, though they were not appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In 1803, the office of Lieutenant-General of Marines fell into abeyance with the dissolution of the Admiralty Army, leaving a few regiments and companies to fall under the Captain-general's administration. In the absence of a general, operational activities reverted to the Admiralty. In 1805, the Captain-general was commanded to authorize expenditures with the War Secretary, rather than the Finance Secretary as formerly was. In 1806, the Captain-general obtained the courtesy-rank of 2,000-bushels at the imperial court and was commanded to stand below baronets in the order of precedence. This promotion in seniority is attended by a diminution of its practical importance: the number of regiments under its control dropped from a maximum of 16 regiments in 1788 to the equivalent of 4 full regiments by 1806, though under a national policy of demobilization.

Throughout the 19th century, the Captaincy-general was used intermittently as a temporary office for junior ministers "waiting in the wings" and was typically not occupied by naval or regimental officers. However, Lord M'reng's appointment in 1868 somewhat altered the trend, he being colonel of a regiment at that time.

See also

• Themiclesia