''Majorat'' () is a French term for an arrangement giving the right of succession to a specific parcel of

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

associated with a title of nobility to a single heir, based on male

primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

. A majorat (

fideicommis A ''fideicommissum'' is a type of bequest in which the beneficiary is encumbered to convey parts of the decedent's estate to someone else. For example, if a father leaves the family house to his firstborn, on condition that they will bequeath it to ...

) would be inherited by the oldest son, or if there was no son, the nearest relative. This law existed in some European countries and was designed to prevent the distribution of wealthy estates between many members of the family, thus weakening their position. Majorats were one of the factors easing the evolution of

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

. The term is not used of English inheritances, where the concept was actually the norm, in the form of entails or

fee tail In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...

s. Majorats were specifically regulated by

French law The Law of France refers to the legal system in the French Republic, which is a civil law legal system primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with case law also playing an important role. The most influential of the French legal codes is t ...

. In France, it was a title of property, landed or funded, attached to a title instituted by

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

and abolished 1848. Often the title could not be inherited if the property did not pass to the same person. Like English entails, the implications of majorats were often used in fiction to furnish complexity in plots;

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

was especially interested in them.Butler, Ronnie, ''Balzac and the French Revolution'', pp. 113-120, 1983, Taylor & Francis, , 9780389204060
google books
/ref> In the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

, majorat was known as '' ordynacja'' and was introduced in late 16th century by king Stephen Báthory. A couple of Polish magnates' fortunes were based on ''ordynacja'', namely those of the Radziwiłłs, Zamoyskis, Wielopolskis. was abolished by the

agricultural reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultura ...

in the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

. In Portugal a similar construct was called a , the holder of which was denominated the ''morgado'' ou ''morgada'' if female''.'' Each ''morgadio'' was established by specific deed on the basis of an indivisible estate and included rules of succession. In many cases, one of the requirements for inheritance was to pass down the family name of the founder of the ''morgadio'' and, occasionally, his or her coat of arms. Both men and women could institute and inherit, although in most cases succession was preferentially by male primogeniture. In some families many ''morgadios'' were accumulated as a result of marriage alliances, leading to a tradition of very long family names among the Portuguese nobility. ''Morgadios'' were abolished in 1863. In Spain it was known as , and become a part of the Castilian law from 1505 () until 1820. Basque majorats could be inherited by the oldest male or female child.

References

{{reflist Property law

See also

References