Chancellor Valorum – ‘Star Wars’ Character Spotlight

Chancellor Valorum is the subject of this week’s Star Wars Character Spotlight, the leader of the Galactic Republic before and during The Phantom Menace, portrayed by the late Terence Stamp in the film. Valorum was a good man but ultimately became the victim of Palpatine’s political machinations. George Lucas’ inspiration for the character was then-US President Bill Clinton.

 

Early life

 

Finis Valorum was born on Coruscant to House Valorum, one of the wealthy elite families in the Republic’s capital. The Valorums had a long and storied history in the Republic, as Finis’ direct ancestor Tarsus Valorum had been the first ever chancellor of the Republic roughly 800 years earlier (confusingly, the Republic had already existed for 200 years by that point). 

 

The Valorums had their own very successful shipping company and had remained part of the Coruscant elite throughout the centuries. Finis had big shoes to fill, but he was determined to emulate his ancestor Tarsus by becoming Chancellor of the Republic one day. 

 

He began to climb the political ladder to the point that he served Chancellor Skol Kapana as their administrator, according to the Tarkin novel. He worked alongside one Sheev Palpatine in service of Kapana. 

 

Becoming Chancellor

 

 

Finis Valorum was officially elected chancellor in 40 BBY, eight years before The Phantom Menace, according to the Tarkin novel and the Star Wars Timelines reference book. It seems that he wasn’t a particularly effective chancellor, as his administration became weighed down by bureaucracy and struggled to pass through laws. He also faced multiple allegations of corruption, though was never officially challenged on them. 

 

Mon Mothma later recalled an incident called the “Selonian worker scandal” as an instance of Valorum’s failure to solve disputes.

 

Chancellor Valorum’s earliest appearance in a Star Wars story comes in the Age of Republic one-shot comic, in a short story called “The Weapon”. In it, he tasked Mace Windu with rescuing several captured Jedi padawans from a pirate named Guattako the Grim, which was a success. 

 

The Tarkin novel gives us the most information on Chancellor Valorum’s time in power. In 36 BBY (four years before The Phantom Menace), he was unexpectedly reelected for a second term. Immediately after his reelection, Coruscant citizens began placing bets on whether or not he would last the full term and Palpatine was being touted as a potential successor even then. 

 

Palpatine theorized that Valorum had been allowed to win by certain anonymous groups who needed a chancellor likely to become too bogged down in bureacracy to prevent them from exploiting legal loopholes in free trade laws.

 

In Tarkin, Valorum’s political impotency was demonstrated once again when he attempted to investigate a trade summit on Eriadu that had gone poorly, but was denied access by Wilhuff Tarkin, who was secretly allying himself with Palpatine politically. Tarkin had recently been elected governor of Eriadu despite House Valorum’s vocal opposition, and the whole business made Chancellor Valorum look weak. 

 

However, Valorum’s popularity surged after he survived an assassination attempt during a conference on Eriadu. This gave him the strength he needed to push through tax legislation that placed taxes on free trade routes throughout the galaxy, a decision that greatly angered the Trade Federation (one suspects Palpatine might have engineered the assasination attempt to set all this in motion). 

 

Chancellor Valorum also appeared in The Living Force novel, holding meetings with Senator Palpatine, Adi Gallia and Yoda about how to best use Jedi resources across the galaxy.

 

It seems Valorum spent his final months agonizing over celebrations for the Republic’s 1,000th anniversary, concerned about his public image during the event. While this was happening, the Trade Federation was expressing its great dissatisfaction with the taxation of trade routes imposed by Valorum and began threatening blockades in response. It was the latest crisis suffered during Valorum’s chancellorship. 

 

Simultaneously, another crisis emerged when the Hope of Glee Anselm, the national jewel of the Anselmi people on the planet Glee Anselm, was apparently stolen by Nautolan extremists (the Anselmi and Nautolans shared the planet). Glee Anselm held great political significance to the Republic and the theft caused Chancellor Valorum great embarrassment. He offered no comment on the situation but was eager to secure peace between the Anselmi and Nautolans to prove he could resolve planetary disputes. 

 

Eventually, Jango Fett was hired by a Republic aide secretly serving Palpatine and Count Dooku to recover the jewel, and he exposed a conspiracy proving that the Nautolan ambassador had organized the theft (he’d been set up by Palpatine and Dooku). The conflict between the Anselmi and the Nautolans only grew, which reflected badly on Valorum. 

 

Valorum’s downfall

 

 

In the final year of Chancellor Valorum’s term, the Trade Federation submitted a new bill (secretly written by Palpatine) in retaliation to Valorum’s trade route taxation policies. The bill was repeatedly voted down, which angered the Trade Federation to the point that they decided to blockade the planet Naboo in protest (once again encouraged by Sidious). 

 

The senate was unable to resolve the dispute, piling further pressure on Valorum. Simultaneously to this, turmoil in the Pyke Syndicate threatened to create a gang war on Coruscant’s lower levels, so Valorum secretly sent his personal aide Silman with Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas to Oba Diah, the Pyke homeworld. He told no one about this amid fears that negotiating with the Pykes could legitimize their activities and ruin his administration. 

 

He never saw Silman again. After the Jedi instructed Sifo-Dyas to leave the planet and attend to another matter, the Pykes shot down his ship. The Jedi died and Silman was captured, where he would be imprisoned for the next 13 years. 

 

If you’ve seen The Phantom Menace, you know what’s coming next. Chancellor Valorum instructed the Jedi to send delegates to negotiate with the Trade Federation to bring an end to the blockade of Naboo. While Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were unsuccessful in that regard, they did manage to rescue Queen Amidala and bring her to Coruscant. 

 

Valorum called a special session of the senate to allow Amidala to plead her case, and the outcome could not have been worse for him. The queen accused the Trade Federation of invading Naboo, a claim that the Trade Federation senator Lott Dod denied. Dod suggested that a commission be formed to study Amidala’s claims, a process that would legally allow them to extend their blockade of Naboo for a significant time. 

 

Chancellor Valorum agreed to this after consulting with Vice Chair Mas Amedda (who may have already been in league with Palpatine at this point), and asked the queen if she accepted it. Amidala was furious and demanded a vote of no confidence in the chancellor (at Palpatine’s urging). 

 

The vote happened quickly and Chancellor Valorum was voted out of office, shortly before his term was due to expire. He was replaced by Palpatine. 

 

Legacy

 

 

The ignominious end to Valorum’s chancellorship had grave consequences for House Valorum. Their shipping company suffered an extreme loss of prestige at the expense of Eriadu Mining and Shipping according to Tarkin, even as the Trade Federation’s hold on Outer Rim shipping lanes was broken. 

 

He appeared once more in The Clone Wars animated series (voiced by Ian Ruskin, as Terence Stamp did not reprise his role having been disappointed with his time on The Phantom Menace), when the Jedi began investigating the earlier disappearance of Sifo-Dyas near the end of the war. Yoda met with Finis at the Valorum estate as they were old friends, and his advice ultimately helped the Jedi discover that Count Dooku and Darth Sidious had orchestrated the Clone Wars. 

 

Despite that final good deed, Valorum was not particularly well remembered in galactic history. His legacy was that of an ineffectual chancellor, enforced by Imperial propaganda in the Emperor’s Museum. Despite that, Coruscanti citizens remembered him fondly as a good man if nothing else, particularly compared to Emperor Palpatine. 

 

What next?

 

Chancellor Valorum could always pop up again in stories predating The Phantom Menace, and it might be interesting to know what became of him after the creation of the Empire. Otherwise, it’s difficult to know when we might see him again.