[MR] What do you call . . . .

[JBRMM266 at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/14/2007 2:39:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
mariannamolindisalerno at yahoo.com writes:

Major  Domo, 


The "Major" in "Major Domo" is not the same as the military rank. It's  
closer in meaning to "Mayor," and is generally translated as "Mayor of the  Palace."
 
Such officials were the chief servants, but sometimes became very powerful,  
as did the Mayors of the Palace under the largely ineffectual Merovingian 
Kings  of the Franks.  Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne, was the last  
Mayor of the Palace before he overthrew the King (bloodlessly, banishing him to 
 a monestary) and assumed the crown himself.
 
A literary example is that of the Stewards of Gondor, who ruled in the name  
of the absent Kings for several generations, awaiting the Return of the  King. 
 When Tolkien finally wrote it, the Stewards eventually returned to  their 
original position in the kingdom.
 
Donal Mac Ruiseart



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