Supreme Chancellor

The Supreme Chancellor, also known as the Galactic Chancellor, the High Chancellor, the Republic Chancellor, and rarely referred to as the chief of state, was the head of state of the Galactic Republic. When more than one individual held the title at one time, those who held it together were known as Co-Chancellors. The Office of the Chancellor was ceremonial with powers limited, with the Galactic Senate exercising much of the executive and legislative process instead, which lasted for approximately one thousand years prior to the Imperial Era.

Tarsus Valorum served as the first chancellor following the fall of the Old Republic, and the Galactic Republic's restructuring during the Ruusan Reformations. The galaxy left a dark age in which the Sith were defeated by the Jedi Order and the populations of the Core Worlds became eager to expand their reach into the Outer Rim Territories.

During the High Republic Era Orlen Mollo and Kyong Greylark served as co-chancellors of the Republic on the promise they could deliver greater results than a single chancellor. Eager to unite the galaxy, the chancellors oversaw an effort to expand the Republic. Digrenara was the chancellor sometime prior to the election of Lina Soh, who chancellery sought to unite the galaxy, reinforced by her ideologies of unity and peaceful coexistence.

In the time before the Invasion of Naboo, the chancellery had become virtually powerless and hampered by bureaucratic procedure, corporate interests, and rampant corruption in the Senate. Chasen Piian and Kirames Kaj were Supreme Chancellor several years before Finis Valorum's election. Disillusioned with the state of the government, Queen Padmé Amidala successfully called on the Senate to remove Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum from office. Relying on a sympathy vote due to Naboo's predicament, one of the Queen's advisors, Senator Sheev Palpatine, was elected to succeed Valorum as Supreme Chancellor. The position's power increased for the first time in a thousand years when the Senate granted emergency powers to Palpatine to remain Supreme Chancellor long after the expiration of his elected term due to the threat of open war, allowing the passing of the Military Creation Act and making him the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic Military.

During the Clone Wars fought against the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Republic saw its constitution amended, giving Palpatine near-total power over the Republic Military and to bypass the Galactic Senate in such matters. The chancellor became even more powerful when the InterGalactic Banking Clan ceded control of its assets to the chancellery. In effect, Palpatine became the most powerful chancellor since before the Ruusan Reformations. Near the end of the war, Palpatine revealed his true identity as Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who masterminded the conflict, to the Jedi Order. After the Jedi High Council attempted to arrest the chancellor, Palpatine decreed that all Jedi were enemies of the state and subject to summary execution.

With the Jedi Order removed as an obstacle and having gained unprecedented control over the Senate as well as the Supreme Court after the end of the Clone Wars, Palpatine proclaimed himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY. However, the title of chancellor was assumed by Mon Mothma as leader of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and officially restored by the New Republic during the Galactic Civil War.

Text and facts from the “Supreme Chancellor” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.