Generalissimo

• 1. Introduction

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  Generalissimo is a military rank designed to sit above all others. It is the absolute superlative of the word general, derived from Italian, and in its Latin root the suffix -issimus means "utmost, to the highest grade." No rank outranks it in the states that have used it. Yet the history of who actually held it, and under what circumstances, reveals something far stranger than a simple hierarchy of stars and stripes.

  Who was the first person ever to hold this title within the Holy Roman Empire? Which American commander was called a generalissimo by a newspaper during his own lifetime, and then promoted to a higher grade nearly two centuries after he died? And why did the rank, over the course of the twentieth century, become almost inseparable from the image of the dictator? Those are the questions this documentary will answer.

• 2. Origins of a Superlative

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  The word itself is Italian in origin, the absolute superlative of generale, meaning simply "general." The suffix -issimo derives from the Latin -issimus, and languages across Europe drew on the same root. Spanish produced generalísimo, Portuguese generalíssimo, French généralissime, and the Latin form generalissimus became the basis for the Russian word генералиссимус.

  Historically, the rank was given to an officer commanding an entire army or the entire armed forces of a state. Such a person was usually subordinate only to the sovereign. Those of imperial blood could also gain the title, as could the commanders-in-chief of several allied armies acting together.

  Albrecht von Wallenstein, in 1632, became the first imperial generalissimo of the Holy Roman Empire, the first person to hold the title in that specific institutional sense. His appointment set the template for how the rank would be used across Europe for the next three centuries: a single commander elevated above all others to unify forces that would otherwise answer to different masters.

• 3. Allied Commands and the Rank

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  Ferdinand Foch received the title généralissime on the 26th of March 1918, when Allied commanders on the Western Front needed a single authority over their combined forces. He actually held the rank of général de division, along with the dignity of Marshal of France, and later earned the ranks of British field marshal and Marshal of Poland. The title was honorific in the sense that it described his command role rather than a permanent grade in the French system.

  On the Eastern Front in 1945, Joseph Stalin was described as generalissimus of the Soviet Union by Western diplomacy. Some sources assert that Stalin refused to accept the rank formally; in fact, the grade was established by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which did not require his personal approval. The rank existed whether Stalin acknowledged it or not.

  The Austrian field marshal who led the Army of Bohemia during the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 held the title of generalissimo of the Habsburg armies and served as senior field marshal of the combined Sixth Coalition forces. He also led the invasion of France in early 1814. These coalitions produced the rank's most characteristic use: a single figure standing over armies that belonged, in peace, to different states.

• 4. Dictators and the Tainted Title

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  Francisco Franco held the title generalísimo across all three branches of the Spanish armed forces, serving in the roles of capitán general, capitán general del Aire, and capitán general de la Armada simultaneously from 1936 until 1975. Because of Franco, the rank became, in the twentieth century, almost synonymous with military officers who seized dictatorial power.

  Chiang Kai-shek carried the title in the Republic of China for nearly the same period, from 1926 to 1975. He was appointed commander in chief of the Nationalist Army for the Northern Expedition and later received the designation of "general special class" in 1935.

  The association with Franco was strong enough to shape fiction. The rank appears in literature depicting imaginary Latin American dictatorial regimes, including Bruce Marshall's novel Father Hilary's Holiday. A single real figure cast a shadow long enough to color how writers imagined power elsewhere in the world.

  In the Dominican Republic, the rank was used from 1930. In Korea, it was awarded twice under the title taewonsu, once in 1992 and once in 2012, the latter posthumously. The rank traveled far from its Italian origins.

• 5. Unusual Cases and Declined Honors

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  Charles John of Sweden holds a singular distinction in this history. He was offered the role of generalissimo by four different nations. He accepted the position for Sweden, where he was named generalissimo of the Swedish Armed Forces on the 20th of October 1810 upon his arrival in the country. He declined offers from Imperial Russia, offered by Alexander during the Conference at Åbo in 1812; from a restored Bourbon France in 1814, offered by the Comte d'Artois, the brother of Louis XVIII; and a final offer from Napoleon in early 1814, as an inducement for Sweden to switch its alliance to France.

  Mao Zedong's China proposed the rank of generalissimo of the People's Republic of China in 1955, but the usage was declined.

  In Hawaii, King Kalakaua was given the titles of "supreme commander and generalissimo of the Hawaiian Army" between 1886 and 1891, showing how the rank could attach to sovereign rulers in contexts far outside Europe.

  Brazil presents one further curiosity. The Brazilian army's patroness holds the feminine equivalent title generalissima, a form that the list records for 1967. A rank historically associated with absolute masculine command produced, in at least one case, a feminine form applied to a national symbol.

• 6. George Washington and the Posthumous Promotion

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  During his own lifetime, George Washington was described by The Virginia Gazette as the generalissimo of American forces when he was chosen to be commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1776. The paper applied a word that carried the full weight of its European tradition to the leader of a force that was still being assembled.

  Washington died holding no rank above that given to him in life. Then, on the 19th of January 1976, he was promoted posthumously to General of the Armies of the United States, with a date of rank set at the 4th of July 1776. The promotion was dated to the very year The Virginia Gazette had called him a generalissimo. Whether the rank of General of the Armies exceeded what the newspaper had claimed for him in 1776, or simply confirmed it in a different form, the fact remains that a title first coined in Italian to mean "the highest-ranking of all generals" had, two centuries earlier, found its way into an American newspaper to describe the man who would become the first president.