The office of county governor is a government agency of the Kingdom of Norway; the title was Amtmann (before 1919) and then Fylkesmann (after 1919).
In 1576, the king of Norway established Vardøhus len as a new administrative unit for the northern part of the kingdom.
In 1661, it became Vardøhus amt that was subordinate to the Trondhjem stiftamt and the king began appointing a county governor.
In 1866, the island of Senja and the Troms area were separated from Vardøhus to form the new Tromsø amt.
This is done first by the county governor performing administrative tasks on behalf of the ministries.