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A mesne lord () was a
lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...
in the
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
system who had
vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...
s who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. Owing to '' Quia Emptores'', the concept of a mesne lordship technically still exists today: the partitioning of the lord of the manor's estate among co-heirs creating the mesne lordships. In an English court of law in 1863 it was claimed that "the lord of the mesne manor pays a rent to a superior lord and that rent empowers him to receive chief rents from certain farms". A mesne lord did not hold land directly of the
king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
, that is to say he was not a
tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...
. His subinfeudated estate was called a "mesne estate" or '' Afterlehen'' in the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...
. Traditionally, he is a
lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
who holds land from a superior lord and who usually lets some of the land to a tenant. He was thus an intermediate or "middle" tenant, which status is reflected in the
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
word ''mesne'', in the modern
French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...
''moyen''. The mesne lordship of Potter Newton was probably held in 1166 by Herbert de Arches. Mesne lords continued to exist after the abolition of any further
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 ...
by the statute of Quia Emptores (1290). However, with time and the loss of records (except in the case of former
copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the ...
land), it came to be assumed that most land was held directly of the Crown. The title of a mesne lord remained a legal entity throughout the 19th century; in 1815, '' Encyclopaedia Londinensiss'' records that a "Lord mesne is the owner of a manor and by virtue thereof hath tenants holding of him in fee, and by copy of court roll; and yet holds himself of a superior lord called Lord Paramount". However, escheat in want of heirs to mesne lords was abolished by the
Administration of Estates Act 1925 The Administration of Estates Act 1925 is an Act passed in 1925 by the British Parliament that consolidated, reformed, and simplified the rules relating to the administration of estates in England and Wales. Principal reforms All authority tha ...
.Administration of Estates Act 1925 s. 45(1)(d)


See also

*'' Afterlehen'' * Land tenure * Quia Emptores * Moiety title *
Lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seign ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mesne Lord 1925 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Men's social titles Noble titles Feudalism Lords