Seigneur (French pronunciation:[sɛɲœʁ]ⓘ) or lord is an originally feudal 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.[1] In this sense, a seigneur could be an individual—male or female, high or low-born—or 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 In the wake of the French Revolution, seigneurialism was repealed in France on 4 August 1789 and in the Province of Canada on 18 December 1854.[2] Since then, the feudal title has only been applicable in the Channel Islands and for sovereign princes by their families.
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (October 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 6,164 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:FR:Seigneurie]]; see its history for attribution.
You should also add the template {{Translated|FR|Seigneurie}} to the talk page.
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2019)
Terms
Seigneur descends from Middle Frenchseigneur, from Old Frenchseignor (oblique form of sire), from Latinseniōrem, the accusative singular of senior ("elder"), the comparative form of senex ("old, elderly"). It is a doublet of the English words senior, sir, sire, seignior, sieur, and monsieur and shares the same provenance as the Italiansignore, Portuguesesenhor, and Spanishseñor, which—like mister—referred to feudal lords before becoming general words of respectful address towards men.
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.[3] It is also frequently calqued as "lord", the analogous term in the English feudal system.
The term grand seigneur has survived. 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.[4]Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ is the French equivalent of the English Our Lord JesusChrist.
The 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. [6]
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".
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Seigneury, and is written by contributors.
Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.