Luogotenente The Italian word luogotenente ( English : lieutenant ) , plural " luogotenenti " , is an etymological parallel to lieutenant , deriving from the Latin " locum tenens " " holding a place " , i . e . someone who fills a position instead of another , as a substitute , deputy , et cetera . It has a few specific historical uses : Military post . The knightly officer who is in daily command of the Grand Master ' s own regimental company , to which the " famigliari " ( closest personal staff ) belonged . Civilian administrator . It was also the governor ( elsewhere other titles , such as provveditore , were used ) for the Venetian Republic on the island of Cyprus , which it bought from its last crusader king from the house of Lusignan , usually for a two - year term , until the Turks overran it in 1570 . Besides him the military command was entrusted to a " capitano " ( ' captain ' , de facto military governor ) , from 1480 to 1571 ( when Famagusta , the last fortress , fell ) . Thereafter the island became a Sandjak ( military province ) of the Ottoman Empire ( " Kibris " in Turkish ) , part of the Eyalet of the Islands ( ruled from Rhodes island ) , governed by an Ottoman Muhassil ( Lieutenant - governor ; already appointed on paper , for the conquest , since 1690 ) , since 1745 by a ( higher rank , equally military ) vali . Compound and derived titles . In the Neapolitan Two Sicilies Kingdom there was a Luogotenente generale dei reali domini al di là del Faro meaning " Lieutenant - general of the royal domains beyond the Lighthouse " , i . e . the Governor appointed by the King for Sicily ( Statute of 11 December 1816 ) . Kingdom of Sardinia and Kingdom of Italy . In the Savoy dynasty ' s Kingdom of Piedmont - Sardinia and later united Kingdom of Italy , when the King was away from his office for some reason ( e . g . to follow the war on the battlefield ) he could appoint a Luogotenente Generale del Regno ( " Lieutenant - general of the realm " ) ( chosen from members of royal family ) to carry out some of the King ' s duties as a Viceroy . It happened on 1848 , when the king Carlo Alberto reached the battlefield in Lombardia , Eugenio Savoia - Carignano was ' Luogotenente Generale del Regno ' and was up to him to announce next year that the defeated king abdicated and succession passed to the son Vittorio Emanuele II . Eugenio Savoia - Carignano covered again the same role in 1859 and in 1866 when Vittorio Emanuele II was involved in the second and third War of Independence . Finally in 1860 / 1861 he was appointed Luogotenential duties but limited to Toscana and to southern Italy , when those regions passed under Kingdom of Sardinia . Again on 25 May 1915 during World War I when King Vittorio Emanuele III , leaving Rome in order to reach the War Head Quarters in North Italy and to assume Supreme War Command , he appointed his uncle , Tomaso di Savoia Duca di Genova , ' Luogotenente Generale del Regno ' with delegate powers for ordinary and urgent administration ( excluding grave importance affairs ) until 1919 . At the end of World War II , the same King appointed his son , Umberto , as ' Luogotenente Generale del Regno ' under Allied and Italian pressure in an attempt to save the monarchy , which had been compromised by its earlier association with the fascist regime .