Coregency

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A Coregency is the situation where a monarchical position (such as King, Queen, Emperor or Empress), normally held by only a single person, is held by two.

Historical examples of this include the co-regency of Frederick I of Austria and Louis the Bavarian over the Holy Roman Empire, and the co-regency of William and Mary over England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was also found in the ancient Roman Empire.

The city of Maastricht was under the joint jurisdiction (parage) of the duke of Brabant and the prince-bishop of Liège. In 1648 it became a real condominium of two independent states, the Principality of Liège and the republic of the United Provinces. The co-regency or co-principality of the last was no longer held by a person but by the Estates-General of the Netherlands (until 1794).

A similar situation still exists today in Andorra, which has two Princes (the Bishop of Urgel and the President of France), but since they only hold the rank of Prince, not King, it is referred to as a co-principality rather than a co-regency.

In Ancient Egypt, mainly in the Middle Kingdom, the Pharaoh occasionally appointed his successor (often one of his sons) as co-regent, or joint king, to ensure a smooth succession. The Pharaoh also did this when he was elderly or unable to rule his country on his own (such as the case of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II or Amenemhat II and Senusret II). The existence of the practice makes establishing firm dates in Egyptian chronology more of a challenge, as the lengths of co-regencies are often uncertain and complicate the use of accepted regnal lengths to establish dates.

In the book The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, Edwin R. Thiele proposed co-regency as a possible explanation for discrepancies in the dates given in the Hebrew Bible for the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah. At least one co-regency is explicitly documented in the Bible: the coronation of King Solomon occurred before the death of his father David.