Seigneur

Sophie Masson, seigneuresse of Terrebonne, Canada

A 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. 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 In the wake of the French Revolution, seigneurialism was repealed in France on 4 August 1789 and in the Province of Canada on 18 December 1854. Since then, the feudal title has only been applicable in the Channel Islands and for sovereign princes by their families.

Terms

The English seigneur is borrowed from the French seigneur, which descends from Middle French seigneur, from Old French seignor (oblique form of sire), from Latin seniōrem, 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 Italian signore, Portuguese senhor, and Spanish señor, 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. It is also frequently calqued as "lord", the analogous term in the English feudal system.

The term grand seigneur 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.

Current use in the Channel Islands

Main article: Feudalism in the Channel Islands

The title is still used in the Channel Islands, self-governing territories in the English Channel which swear fealty to the British Crown as the successor to the Duke of Normandy. In particular, it refers to the Seigneur of Sark, the hereditary ruler of Sark, a jurisdiction of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The Seigneur of Saint Ouen and the Seigneur of Samarès are titles in the Bailiwick of Jersey. According to the Feudal Dues Law of 1980 of Guernsey, the style of Dame or Seigneur is legally authorized for use by Seigneurs and Dames of Fiefs of the Crown Dependency of Guernsey.

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.

The Peasant Conquests of the Twelfth Century

According to Georges Duby, the twelfth century saw the progression of the situation of the peasant in regard to the lord. To do this, he distinguishes three phenomena: the persistence of the peasant allod, in particular the "clandestine" allod, created thanks to land clearings, the division of tenures between several heirs, cause of the weakening of seigniorial taxes and the conquest of collective privileges by peasant communities (development of parish assemblies). At this time he observed a reduction in land rent, in particular through the weakening of royalties for tenures, and a difficulty for lords to effectively levy the new forms of taxation due to banal lordship. In the context of difficult communications in the Middle Ages, the lord was forced to resort to intermediaries, who reduced the amount of the levies accordingly. All this explains, according to Duby, the rebalancing of seigniorial profits on the reserve, exploited in direct ownership. The reserve often brings together the best lands of the seigneury, when it does not bring together the majority of seigneurial lands, as in England. It is exploited by groups of agricultural workers (mainly serfs), who only have a micro-tenure and therefore depend on the work granted by the lord in his reserve.

See also

• Seigneurial system of New France