Also 7 consull. [a. L. consul (in sense 1), f. con- together + -sal- root of salīre to leap, jump, = Skr. sar- to go: cf. consilium COUNSEL, and consultāre to CONSULT.]
I. In the Roman and French Republics.
1. The title of the two annually elected magistrates who exercised conjointly supreme authority in the Roman Republic; the title without the function was retained under the Empire.
The Roman reckoning of time was by the names of the two consuls for the year.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Macc. xv. 15. Lucius, consul [1388 cheef gouernour] of Romayns, to Kyng Ptholome, helthe.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 179. Gaius Fabricius, Which whilom was consul of Rome.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, IV. (1822), 323. L. Quincius Capitolinus, quhilk wes five times afore consul.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 277. ’Tis thought that Martius shall be Consull.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xvii. 449. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of ambition.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, II. viii. ‘Long live the Consul Rienzi’ cried several voices.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 481. The last consul after whom the year was denominated was Basilius, junior, in the year 1294 A.U.C. or 541 A.D. in the reign of the Emperor Justinian.
2. Hence given as a title to the three chief magistrates of the French Republic, from 1799 to 1804. The First Consul (who was Napoleon Bonaparte) had all the real power, the Second and Third Consuls having only a consultative voice.
1802. G. Rose, Diaries (1860), I. 460. The late discussion with the First Consul.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 127. The consuls, or rather the first or chief consul (for the other two were appointed by him, and acted only as his advisers and assistants) proposed the laws.
II. Senses chiefly founded upon etymological connection with L. consulĕre to counsel, consult.
† 3. Used by mediæval Latin writers in England and elsewhere as = comes, count, earl. Obs.
[10[?]. Laws of Edw. Conf., ii. (Du Cange).
c. 1250. Bracton, I. viii. § 2 (Du Cange). Comites … qui etiam dici possunt consules a consulendo; reges enim tales sibi associant ad consulendum.]
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxxiii. 249. In theyr apparell they were lyke vnto consules and nat vnto monkes.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 168 a. The Sherife was deputy of the Consull or Earle, and therefore the Romanes called him Viceconsul, as we at this day call him vicecomes.
1677. F. Sandford, Geneal. Hist. Eng., 75. Isabell, one of the Daughters and Heirs of William Consul of Gloucester.
1864. Freeman, in Sat. Rev., XVIII. 461/2. One is amused to find the great opponent of King Stephen described as ‘Robert, surnamed “the Consul,” natural son of King Hen. I.’… Robert was ‘surnamed “the Consul,”’ only in the sense in which every other contemporary Earl was equally surnamed the Consul … Henry of Huntingdon, and others who used the same affected style, thought it fine to say ‘Consul’ instead of ‘Comes.’
† 4. A member of a council: spec. of the early English Merchant or Trading Companies. Obs.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 800. A noble gentilman, a consul in office.
1553. S. Cabot, Ordinances, 261. To be presented to the Gouernour, Consuls, and Assistants in London.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. iv. § 12. Making them dictators, that their words should stand, and not consuls to give advice.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. Ded. 3. To the … Governor, the Consuls and court of Assistants of the Russia Company.
† 5. Used as the English appellation of various foreign officials. By Shakespeare applied app. to the savii of Venice. Obs.
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. ii. 43. Many of the Consuls, rais’d and met, Are at the Dukes already.
1618. Barnevelt’s Apology, C b. The true hearted Hollander, Consul and Captaine Peter Boom. Ibid., D iij. The Consulls, and Gouernours of Rotterdam.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XIV. (1843), 818/2. The government [of Cologne] is under the senate and consuls.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 27. Venice … The third council … consists of the doge, his six counsellors, the capi della quarantia criminale, the savii grandi, the savii di terra ferma, and the savii de gl’ordini … The savii are a kind of public inspectors, or consuls.
III. A municipal or commercial officer.
ǁ 6. Formerly the name of certain municipal magistrates in Southern France and Catalonia, corresponding to the échevins of Northern France.
(Du Cange refers to Consules municipales at Barcelona at an early date [cf. 7], and in Provence in 1209.)
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1612), 86. These Constables … bee like to them who are called Consuls in many Townes and Villages in France.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. IX. 421. A Consul of Agen, who had been created so at his recommendation.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3913/3. There are Letters from Marseilles … which say, the Inhabitants of that Place had … killed their Consul.
1787. Charlotte Smith, Rom. Real Life, I. 56. The consuls of the district waited on her to offer her a guard.
† 7. The appointed or elected head of the body of merchants of any nation resident in a foreign seaport or town, to settle disputes among them, and be their channel of communication with the local government or authority. Obs.
This appears to have arisen in the Mediterranean and to have been an extension of sense 4 or 6; Du Cange quotes a charter of King Jayme of Arragon of 1268, giving to the merchants of Barcelona, sojourning in parts beyond seas, power to appoint consuls over themselves.
[c. 1320. Symon Simeonis, Itin. (1778), 21. Communiter quaelibet Christianorum civitas maritima habet fundum in civitate ipsa et consulem.]
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 187. They that doe traffike uppon the land, assemble many together, and elect a governour amongst them, whome they terme, Consul.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 586. A Consul of the Florentine merchants at Alexandria.
8. Hence, by gradual development: An agent appointed and commissioned by a sovereign state to reside in a foreign town or port, to protect the interests of its traders and other subjects there, and to assist in all matters pertaining to the commercial relations between the two countries. So Consul-general, Vice-consul. (The ordinary current sense.)
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 176 (R.). The Venetians have a consul themselues. But all other nations goe to the French nations consul.
1601. W. Parry, Trav. Sir A. Sherley, 10. The English Consulls.
1694. trans. Milton’s Lett. State (Cromwell to K. of Portugal, Oct. 1656). We deem’d it necessary to send to your Majesty Thomas Maynard … to reside in your Dominions, under the Character and Employment of a Consul, and to take care of the Estates and Interests of our Merchants.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. V. lxxiii. 333. These proceedings … of which the consul general Wolff, was acquainted in 1745.
1826. Kent, Comm., I. 41. Consuls are commercial agents appointed to reside in the sea-ports of foreign countries with a commission to watch over the commercial rights and privileges of the nation deputing them.
9. transf. The local representative officer of the Cyclists’ Touring Club.
1882. Prospectus Bicycle Touring Club. The appointment of Consuls, or representatives, in various towns, to point out the ‘lions’ of the place … and to inform members … as to the state of roads and other matters in their local districts.
10. attrib. and Comb.
1560. P. Whitehorne, trans. Macchiavelli’s Arte of Warre (1573), 44 a. An ordinarye Romane armie, which they call a Consull armie.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 248. At Rome in the Consul-feasts celebrated for the honour of Neptune.
