Senoria ( French Seigneurie ) is a territorial entity widely distributed in Western Europe in the Middle Ages and in the New Age , within which the functions of economic and legal management are assigned to an individual or legal entity, which at the same time is not endowed with the indispensable rights and obligations of the sovereign . Senoria is fundamentally different from a feud and, along with an allod , is one of the ways to exercise the seigneur's right.
Senoria is the totality of land within the boundaries of which land ownership, collection of duties and periodic payments are made. Senoria to some extent inherited the characteristic features of the Roman villa of the period of late antiquity and at the same time is a consequence of the fragmentation of public authority shortly before the year 1000 [1] . For the medieval nobility, senoria became a way of prioritizing, according to which medieval aristocrats were given the opportunity to ensure their economic, political and social superiority. On the other hand, the restriction of exclusive rights belonging to the lord became a means of strengthening the power of the state at the end of the Middle Ages and in the period of modern history.
According to estimates, in the XVIII century in France there were from 40,000 to 50,000 senoria.
Content
Definition
Senoria is the territory where the seigneur’s estate is located, as well as the castle and the church. The seigneur is given the right to tax, command the armed forces, administer the judiciary and collect taxes. The land, mill, furnace and castle belong to the lord. It is difficult to establish the initial time of the birth of seigniori, as the basis of the economic and legal environment. It is possible to study the system of regulation and functioning of seigniorium only starting from the period of writing written documents in Western Europe, that is, starting from the 12th century.
Traditionally, in historiography , in particular in the studies of the medieval historian Georges Duby [2] , the institute of seignioria is divided into two types - the Land seigneur ( French seigneurie foncière ), that is, formed within the framework of a large land plot, and the Banalit seigneur , where the dominant source of income seniors were a variety of banal charges with the forced use of senor's resources.
Senior
The owner of the seignorium bore the title "seigneur" ( French seigneur ); in most cases, it was an individual belonging to the nobility , but sometimes legal persons also owned senoria, most often church organizations, for example, abbeys , chapels of canons or cathedrals, as well as military orders . The seigneur exercised his powers, as a rule, through representatives, the most important of which were the balls . The sovereign could also carry the title of lord; the set of seignoria he possessed constituted the royal domain .
The title of senor was also recognized, especially during the New History period, for persons who possessed honorary lethal possessions who were not senoria. Such "lords" were sometimes titled as "lord" ( Fr. sieur ), not to be confused with the title "sire" ( Fr. sire ), which in the Middle Ages was also used to refer to the lord. A person who possessed a set of censorship bore the title of Senior Censorship ; and the lord, who had the right to administer justice, bore the title of lord-judge . The title of parish senor was applied to seniors who had influence, namely as a patron, over the parish church .
The types of possession of seignoria were different: it could be a fief , that is, transferred from one person to another in exchange for service, or an allod , that is, without any burden. The person who provided the fief to another person was called a seigneur, even if the fief was not a seigneur, which led to confusion. In such cases, to give clarity, the phrase “feudal lord” could be used.
Land Senoria
Senior - direct or honorary owner of real estate (land) of his seigneur.
The concept of absolute ownership was not applied here, since there were other main users who had property rights in the seigneur. In the land seignorium, two sets were clearly distinguished: the reserve , the set of property that the seigneur reserved for independent development, and the holding , the set of property transferred to the holder for payment of the rent, most often called qualification, and for working out on reserve, an analogue of corvée . The proportional relationship between reserve and holding varied depending on the region and historical period.
Most of the land seignoria was located in the countryside, but seignoria were also found in cities, usually in the hands of church seigneurs . Such seignoria are more difficult to investigate than rural seigniori due to their large interweaving. In Paris , for example, there was the lord of Notre Dame, the lord of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés , the lord of Temple and others.
The size of the territory of the seigniorium varied quite significantly; some seignoria consisted of a single farm, other seignoria represented a large region. For a long time, the seigneur must have had a fortified castle, which was its control center and the most significant symbol. In fact, many seigneuries, especially urban ones, never had their own castle. Conversely, on the lands of the same seignorium could be several castles. In the case when the seigneur lived on the territory of his seigneur, his home fulfilled at least a symbolic meaning, demonstrating the seigneur’s power over “his” people. In the modern era, some structures that used to serve as the seigneur’s dwelling became weathervanes or dovecote .
Banal seigneur
The banal seigneur is characterized by the exercise of exclusive rights of a public property over the subordinate vassals of the seigneur. This right of jurisdiction of the seigneur (or ban) in most cases was the power of coercion and therefore provided the seigneur with income exceeding the income from the land seigneur . Banality has spread almost throughout Western Europe since the second half of the 11th century. Banality was notable for its significant service and heavy margin, the structure and significance of which varied depending on the region and the historical era. For example, there was a military duty, according to which the vassal is obliged to participate in all the military campaigns of the seigneur, the toll collected for the transport of goods, inheritance tax or the management of agricultural facilities, including a grape press, mill or stove. The administration of justice by the seigneur was probably the most important feature of the banal seigneur, but already in the Middle Ages the royal power sought to limit this seigneur's right.
Banalist seigniorium was rarely found in cities, since the coexistence of several seigneurys nearby did not benefit their seigneurs because the subjects deftly played in the interests of the seigneur neighbors. In this regard, a community (commune) institution was formed in the cities, formed by the residents of the city, which was accompanied by the abolition of banality by redeeming the rights from the seigneur.
The banal seigneur, like the land one, could be split up by inheritance or transfer of law. As a result of such fragmentation, it was possible to concede only some of the rights and duties of the banal seigneur, which greatly complicated the structure of seignor ownership. Such joint seignoria were widespread especially in the south of France, but were also found in other regions.
Notes
- ↑ Pierre Bonnassie. Seigneurie . - Toulouse: Privat, 1981. - P. 180-184.
- ↑ Guerriers et paysans. VIIe-XIIe siècle, premier essor de l'économie européenne . - Paris: Gallimard , 1973. - P. 168-176.
See also
- Castle (building)
- Manor
- Feudalism , Feud
- Suzerain
- The manor system of New France
Literature
- Le Goff J. Civilization of the Medieval West = La civilization de l'Occident Médiéval. - M .: Progress , 1992 .-- 376 p. - ISBN 9785010036171 .
- Senior, Senior / Senior, Senior // Great Soviet Encyclopedia (30 volumes) / A. M. Prokhorov (Ch. Ed.). - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1976. - T. XXIII. - S. 270. - 640 p.