triumvirate

noun

1. (Ancient-Rome, historical)A council of three magistrates ruling jointly; specifically, the First Triumvirate (60 or 59 – 53 B.C.E.) or the Second Triumvirate (43 – 33 or 27 B.C.E.); the office of a triumvir (“one of such magistrates”), or of the three triumviri.

   “[…] I muſt not forget to ſet dovvne a pretie jeſt, vvhich hath been reported by many as touching Lepidus: It happened during the time of his Triumvirat, […]”

   “[H]e frets / That Lepidus of the Triumpherate, ſhould be depos'd, / And being that, vve detaine all his Reuenue.”

2. (broadly)Any group of three joint rulers.

   “Then vvas contriued a petition, as from the generalitie, vnto the triumuirat Gouernors; vvherein they ſupplicated, that by no meanes they ſhould reſigne the gouernment to any ſhould come from England, vpon vvhat tearmes ſoeuer, vntill ſix moneths after the returne of their ſhip ſent to the VVeſt-Indies: […]”

3. (broadly, figuratively)Any group of three people regarded as significant in some way; also (rare), a group of three things; a trio.

   “I have therefore alvvayes endevoured to compoſe thoſe fevvds and angry diſſentions betvveene affection, faith, and reaſon. For there is in our ſoule a kind of Triumvirate, or triple government of three competitors, vvhich diſtract the peace of this our Common-vvealth, not leſſe than did that other the State of Rome.”

   “VVhen Johnson [Ben Jonson], [William] Shakespeare, and thy ſelfe [John Fletcher] did ſit, / And ſvvay'd in the Triumvirate of vvit— […]”

   “[T]hat violent and lavvleſs Triumvirate vvithin him, under the falſifi'd names of his Reaſon, Honour, and Conſcience, the old circulating dance of his ſhifts and evaſions.”

   “In the mean time, my Lord of Bath [William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath] and Lord Hervey [John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey], who seem deserted by every body else, are grown the greatest friends in the world at Bath; and to make a complete triumvirate, my Lord Gower [John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower] is always of their party: how they must love each other, the late, the present, and the would-be Privy Seal!”

   “O hovv I curſed the cenſoriouſneſs of this plaguy triumvirate! A parſon, a milliner, and a mantua-maker! The tvvo latter, not more by buſineſs led to adorn the perſon, than generally by ſcandal to deſtroy the reputations of thoſe they have a mind to exerciſe their talents upon!”