High Chancellor

Flavia in the role of High Chancellor. (TV: The Five Doctors)

The High Chancellor of All Gallifrey, (AUDIO: Pandora) Chancellor of the Academy, (AUDIO: Fractures) or Altissimus Cancellarius, (PROSE: The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]) was one of the highest offices on Gallifrey. The holder of this office was commonly referred to as the High Chancellor, (AUDIO: Pandora), the Lord Chancellor, (TV: The Invasion of Time) or simply the Chancellor. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

For most of Gallifreyan history, this position made its holder "second only" to the President of the High Council, or Supreme Being, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey, The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]) although it was not constutitionally permitted for a Chancellor to succeed their President in the event of their death; (TV: The Deadly Assassin) by the time of the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey, an office of "Acting Vice President" had been instituted to take over if the President became incapacitated, (TV: The Invasion of Time) with later accounts documenting a perennial Vice President of the High Council position. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell, AUDIO: Lies)

Duties and powers

The Chancellor was responsible for maintaining the separation of powers and resolving issues of remit through the proper demarcation of jurisdiction. An example of this would be determining whether or not a matter should be handled by the Chancellery Guard, the CIA or the Inquisition. (AUDIO: Pandora) This power was carried over to the Prime Minister. (AUDIO: Havoc)

The Chancellor was secretly entrusted with holding the Great Key of Rassilon in order to keep the President from having absolute power through ownership of the Key, Sash and Rod. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

Among the Chancellor's regular duties was jurisdiction over the Chancellery Guard and the Castellan. (AUDIO: Pandora)

In the absence of a President, the Chancellor could automatically take the office. (AUDIO: Mindbomb)

Appointment

The Chancellor was ordinarily appointed by the President. (AUDIO: Pandora) However, in the absence of the Fourth Doctor, the High Council ratified Cardinal Borusa's appointment as Chancellor. As the High Council required the President to ratify such appointments, the legality of this was questioned. (TV: The Invasion of Time) In another occurrence, President Romana allowed the Council to appoint Valyes as Acting Chancellor following Braxiatel's flight. (AUDIO: Insurgency)

History

When Rassilon abdicated the Presidency, the Time Lord government was reorganised to be more stable, and the position of Chancellor was created as second-in-command to the President. The secrets of the Great Key to the Eye of Harmony were entrusted to the first Chancellor, Azmeal; to prevent any one Time Lord from controlling both Gallifrey's government and the Eye, it was decreed that no Chancellor could ascend to the rank of President, nor any other Chancellor after him.

Following the Morbius crisis, the Chancellor was required to belong to the same Chapter as the President. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

Having risen to the office due to the political boost his career received after his minor involvement in the War Chief incident, when he was but a "lowly" Tribune", (PROSE: War Crimes ^[+]Loading...["War Crimes (short story)"], The Cactus and the Corpse ^[+]Loading...["The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)"]) Goth served as Chancellor under the 406th President. (TV: The Deadly Assassin) Following his death, Cardinal Borusa assumed his office and had his position ratified by the High Council in the absence of a President. The Fourth Doctor questioned the legality of his appointment. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

Flavia combined the offices of Chancellor and President when she became President. (AUDIO: Lies) This was a tradition that President Romana did not wish to break by giving the chancellorship to Braxiatel, believing that it could be seen as centralising power. Braxiatel, however, thought the opposite. She eventually agreed to appoint him, however was almost immediately forced to strip him of his title and exile him due to Darkel's exposure of his interactions with his past and future selves. (AUDIO: Pandora)

Romana was subsequently forced to appoint Valyes to fill the position by the High Council, despite him opposing her liberal policies, in an attempt to appease her political opponents agitated by the scandal surrounding Braxiatel. (AUDIO: Insurgency) Valyes remained in the role during the Gallifreyan Civil War, serving the Imperiatrix Pandora, (AUDIO: Fractures, Warfare) and in the immediate aftermath of her defeat used it to briefly claim the role of Acting President due to Romana's poor health, claiming his service to Pandora had been under duress. (AUDIO: Appropriation)

Following the decision by Matthias and Darkel to strike from the record all of Romana's decisions from the moment of Pandora's initial escape from the Matrix, Braxiatel returned to Gallifrey to reclaim the title of Chancellor, as the ruling had undone his sacking, and used it to claimed to be Acting President. He resigned to hand the presidency to Matthias, (AUDIO: Mindbomb) under whom Valyes served as Chancellor again. (AUDIO: Panacea)

By the time of the run-up to the War in Heaven, there were four different Chancellors: the Chancellor of Time Past, the Chancellor of Time Present, the Chancellor of Time Future, and the Chancellor of Time Parallel. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)

Shortly after his resurrection during the Last Great Time War, Rassilon dissolved the High Chancellor title, with its then incumbent War Livia Caralis instead becoming Prime Minister. (AUDIO: Havoc) However, during the conflict two individuals were known to have held the title; one who discovered the temporal discrepancy surrounding a forgotten weapon, (AUDIO: One Life) and another who helped a later incarnation of Rassilon devise the Ultimate Sanction at the end of the war. (TV: The End of Time)

Known Chancellors

Known holders of this office included Azmeal, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey) Slann, (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade) a male chancellor, (TV: The Three Doctors) Delox, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) Goth, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) Borusa, (TV: The Invasion of Time) Thalia, (TV: Arc of Infinity) Flavia, (TV: The Five Doctors) Theora, (PROSE: Lungbarrow) Braxiatel, (AUDIO: Pandora) Valyes, (AUDIO: Insurgency, Fractures) Padrac, (AUDIO: Stop the Clock) Jerasta, Volstrom, (AUDIO: Songs of Love) the Chancellor, (TV: The End of Time) and, on an alternate Gallifrey, Narvin. (AUDIO: Forever)