protectorship

Noun

 * 1) The office of a protector or regent; protectorate.
 * 2) * c.1754–61,, , 1823, Volume 1, page 409,
 * Henry, being so far recovered from his distemper as to carry the appearance of exercising the royal power; they moved him to resume his authority [1455], to annul the protectorship of the duke, to release Somerset from the Tower,23 and to commit the administration into the hands of that nobleman.