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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. Seigneurialism was repealed in Acadia in 1733, France in 1789 and the Province of Canada in 1854.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.
The modern legal status of this office is upheld by two statutes. The Feudal Dues (Guernsey) Law, 1980 preserves, under Section 4, the right of fief-holders to bear the legal style of Seigneur or Dame. The Court of Chief Pleas (Guernsey) Law, 2004 codifies the statutory obligation of certain Seigneurs — including those of the Fiefs of Anneville, Blanchelande and Mauxmarquis — to perform Suit of Court ( Secta Curiae), reflecting the principle of the Grand Coutumier de Normandie that the Sovereign's court is not fully constituted without the attendance of the chief tenants, who form a vital part of the island's constitutional framework.
Seigneurs thus perform a public constitutional function, serving as the living link between the Sovereign — in the capacity of Duke of Normandy — and the island's autonomous land system. Their attendance at the Court of Chief Pleas is a prerequisite for the formal opening of the judicial year, anchoring the island's legal processes in its distinct Norman constitutional identity. It is this dual role — as legal officers and as custodians of the Bailiwick's identity heritage — that explains the deliberate retention of the seigneurial system within Guernsey's modern constitutional framework.
Several private fiefs are registered directly with the Crown and maintained in the official State Cadastre. Some Seigneurs hold more than one fief within their primary territory, each defined by official tenure under the Sovereign.
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