A lordship is a territory held by a lord. It was a landed estate that served as the lowest administrative and judicial unit in rural areas. It originated as a unit under the

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

system during the Middle Ages. In a lordship, the functions of economic and legal management are assigned to a lord, who, at the same time, is not endowed with indispensable rights and duties of the

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'. The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...

. Lordship in its essence is clearly different from the fief and, along with the allod, is one of the ways to exercise the right. ''

Nulle terre sans seigneur In feudal law, nulle terre sans seigneur ( French for "no land without (a) lord", ) is the principle that one provides services to the sovereign (usually serving in his army) for the right to receive land from the sovereign. Originally a maxim of ...

'' ("No land without a lord") was a

legal maxim; where no other lord can be discovered, the Crown is lord as lord paramount. The principal incidents of a seignory were a feudal oath of

homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...

and

fealty An oath of fealty, from the Latin ''fidelitas'' (faithfulness), is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another. Definition In medieval Europe, the swearing of fealty took the form of an oath made by a vassal, or subordinate, to his lord. "Fea ...

; a "quit" or "chief" rent; a "relief" of one year's quit rent, and the right of escheat. In return for these privileges the lord was liable to forfeit his rights if he neglected to protect and defend the tenant or did anything injurious to the feudal relation. Every seignory now existing must have been created before the statute '' Quia Emptores'' (1290), which forbade the future creation of estates in fee-simple by

subinfeudation In English law, subinfeudation is the practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out new and distinct tenures in their turn by sub-letting or alienating a part of their lands. The tenants were termed m ...

. The only seignories of any importance at present are the lordships of manors. They are regarded as incorporeal hereditaments, and are either appendant or in gross. A seignory appendant passes with the grant of the manor; a seignory in gross—that is, a seignory which has been severed from the

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

lands of the manor to which it was originally appendant—must be specially conveyed by deed of grant. Freehold land may be enfranchised by a

conveyance Conveyance may refer to: * Conveyance, the documentation of the transfer of ownership of land from one party to another—see conveyancing * Public conveyance, a shared passenger transportation service * A means of transport * Water conveyance, a ...

of the seignory to the freehold tenant, but it does not extinguish the tenant's right of common (''Baring v. Abingdon'', 1892, 2 Ch. 374). By s. 3 (ii.) of the Settled Land Act 1882, the tenant for life of a manor is empowered to sell the seignory of any freehold land within the manor, and by s. 21 (v.) the purchase of the seignory of any part of settled land being freehold land, is an authorized application of capital money arising under the act.

Feudal origins

The lordships came into being as a result of the feudal system, in particular the sovereign's delegated judicial prerogative. The crown, as lord paramount, granted the right to govern and to exercise judicial authority to a crown vassal, often a confidante or as a reward for military service or political support. The crown vassal—e.g. a count or duke — thus exercised all or part of the sovereign's royal authority. In turn the crown vassal granted rights to the mesne lords. Because a fief originated out of a bond between vassal and lord for military service, vassalage was personal not heritable. With the advent of professional armies, the vassalage bond fell into disuse or was replaced by scutage; however, vassalage remained personal. One of the consequences of this was that, on the death of the vassal, the fief escheated to the lord. The vassal's heir was able to retain the ''heerlijkheid'' through the commendation ceremony, the process of paying homage and swearing fealty officiated at the head manor court. The new vassal made a symbolic payment to his lord. The same ceremony was held when a manor was sold. If there was no direct descendant, other blood relatives could exercise their right of ''laudatio parentum'', which grants them a right of first refusal and explains how lordships were able to be kept in the same families for centuries.

Manorial rights

The tenancy of a lordship is not to be confused with land ownership. It was an estate in land, not land ''per se''. Although lords of the manor generally owned property within a lordship (often substantial amounts), it was possible for a lord not to own any property at all within his own lordship. Also, when agricultural land was held by a lord in the Low Countries, the amount held was smaller in comparison to other countries. Lordship conferred a set of manorial rights. Most German lordships were ''mediate'', which meant that their lords and inhabitants owed allegiance to a territorial ruler — such as a duke, a margrave, a count, a prince, a prince-elector or a prince-bishop — who exercised a number of sovereign rights over them, including high justice, taxation and military conscription. However, several lordships were immediate, having gained that coveted status usually at some time during the Middle Ages. The lords of a small number of those immediate lordships, often

imperial knights The Free Imperial knights (german: link=no, Reichsritter la, Eques imperii) were free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, whose direct overlord was the Emperor. They were the remnants of the medieval free nobility ('' edelfrei'') and the minister ...

, eventually succeeded in having themselves raised to the status of count ('' Graf'') or prince (''

Fürst ' (, female form ', plural '; from Old High German ', "the first", a translation of the Latin ') is a German word for a ruler and is also a princely title. ' were, since the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of ...

'') and recognized as imperial estates with a seat and vote at the Imperial Diet. Seventeenth-century jurists began to designate those immediate lordships, as well as the more important territories of imperial knights as ''baronia'', and after them the custom was established in Germany to call them ''Baronie'' or ''Baronat'' (French: ''baronnie'', English: ''barony'') and their owners

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

s.Rachel Renaul
"Herrschaft", ''Histoire du Saint-Empire''

References

{{reflist Property law Feudalism

Feudal origins

Manorial rights

See also

References