Lord of the manor

Lord of the manor is an appellation or dignity that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder/owner of a rural estate called a manor.

History

Historically a lord of the manor could either be a tenant-in-chief if he held a manor in capital directly from the Crown, or a mesne lord if he was the vassal of another lord who in turn was the feudal superior. In modern England and Wales, it is recognised as a form of property, one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined, and may be held in moieties: the dignity (deriving from the Roman concept of dignitas); the manor which comprised the manor and its lands; and the seignory, rights granted to the titular holder of the manor.

Manors varied considerably in size, and their importance declined over the centuries. A lord of the manor could therefore be a medieval baron, titled landowner, an armiger, or just a wealthy landowner; today they may even be businessmen, or lawyers. A Lord-of-the-manor might hold more than one manor or, indeed, very many. Frequently, therefore, he did not reside on all the manors and left the administration of the manors to stewards.

A title similar to such a lordship is known in French as Seigneur du Manoir, Welsh as Breyr, Laird in Scotland, Gutsherr/Gutsbesitzer (also Grundherr and Schloßherr) in German, Godsherre in Norwegian and Swedish, Ambachtsheer in Dutch and Signore or Vassallo in Italian. In Italy, especially in the kingdom of Sicily before 1812, the feudal title signore was often used; like its English equivalent, it came into wide use under the Normans as in the French seigneur. In medieval times, the manor was the nucleus of European rural life as well as the foundation of German nobility in the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire.

It has been said that:

In several provinces, the dignity lord of the manor was given to town judges, either because they were occupants of the manor or because they dispensed justice at the gate or in the courtyard of the manor house. These lords of the manor were the ordinary judges of these villages and dispensed the middling justice, like the viscounts, the provosts, or the minor officials in other villages. In some large cities these lords had the power of high justice. In times of trouble, the lords of the manor of the villages, having authority over armaments and finding themselves far from their superiors, usurped the property in their charge as well as the high offices of their department. This would not have occurred in the United Kingdom, however, as the dignity only applied to the proprietor of the caput of the manor.

Sources

• Hazlitt, W. Carew, Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors, originally published in 1679, and republished in 1874 and 1909 and lastly in 1999 by A.W. & C. Barsby, Epsom, London.. ISBN: 0-9521625-4-7
• Bennett, H. S., M.A., Life on the English Manor 1150-1400, Cambridge University Press, U.K., 1948.
• Brodrick, George C., English Land and English Landlords, first published by Cassel & Co., in 1881, republished by Augustus M. Kelley, New York, 1968.
• Fourquin, Professor Guy, Lordship and Feudalism in the Middle Ages, first published by the Paris University Press in 1970, English edition by Geo. Allen & Unwin, London, 1976. ISBN: 0-04-9400487.

External links

• A History of Lordships of the Manor
• Lord of the Manor