Product Code Database
A seigneur () or lord is an originally feudal system title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of title or land tenure—as a fief, with its associated obligations and rights over person and property. In this sense, a seigneur could be an individualmale or female, high or low-bornor a collective entity, typically a religious community such as a monastery, seminary, college, or parish. In the wake of the French Revolution, seigneurialism was repealed in France on 4 August 1789 and in the Province of Canada on 18 December 1854. Since then, the feudal title has only been applicable in the Channel Islands and for sovereign princes by their families.
The noble title and land title of a seigneur is a seigneurie or lordship, the rights that the seigneur was entitled to is called seigneuriage, and the jurisdiction exercised over the fief was seigneur justicier. The bearers of these titles, rights, and jurisdiction were generally but not exclusively male. A female seigneur was generally known as a seigneuresse or lady. The seigneur could be a noble or a roturier (commoner) as well as a corporation such as religious order, a monastery, a parish.
In English, seigneur is used in historical scholarship to discuss the French seigneurial system. See e.g. O. Hufton (1979), "The Seigneur and the Rural Community in Eighteenth-Century France. The Seigneurial Reaction"; R. Blaufarb (2010), "Communauté and Seigneurie in Early Modern Provence"; H. Root (1985), "Challenging the Seigneurie: Community and Contention on the Eve of the French Revolution". It is also frequently as "lord", the analogous term in the English feudal system.
The term has survived in English and French. Today this usually means an elegant, urbane gentleman. Some even use it in a stricter sense to refer to a man whose manners and way of life reflect his noble ancestry and great wealth. In addition, Le Grand Seigneur had long been the name given by the French to the Ottoman sultan. Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ is the French equivalent of the English Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The English word seignorage is also derived from seigneur.
Guernsey or the Bailiwick of Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands that is a Crown Dependency. Guernsey still has feudal law and legal fiefs in existence today. Each fief has a Seigneur and/or Dame that owns the fief. The Guernsey fiefs and seigneurs have long existed before baronies and are part of Normandy. While nobility has been outlawed in France and Germany, noble fiefs still exist by law in Guernsey. The owners of the fiefs actually convene each year at the Court of Chief Pleas under the supervision of His Majesty's Government. There are approximately 24 private fiefs in Guernsey that are registered directly with the Crown. Some Fief Seigneurs own more than one Fief or have several Fiefs within their Fief territory.
|
|
