Droit de seigneur

From Freepedia

The jus primae noctis meaning 'law (or right) of the first night,' and droit du seigneur meaning 'the lord's right', is the purported right of the lord of an estate to deflower its virgins.

droit du seigneur is often interpreted as applying only to the jus primae noctis meaning today, although it also referred to a number of rights, including hunting, taxation and farming. Popular culture, as discussed below, has led to the folding of the two together inappropriately.

Possible explanation

Although referred to in 16th century literature, examinations of records by historians have found very little evidence of its existence in mediæval times. In some feudal systems the culagium was imposed by the local lord: a requirement that a peasant get permission to marry from his lord, which often involved a fee. Ecclesiastical authorities in some regions also demanded a fee before a new husband was allowed to consummate his marriage with his wife. The right of the first night, however, is unlikely to have existed and is probably a distortion based on these.

In the 16th century Boece referred to the decree of the invented Scottish king Evenus III that "the lord of the ground sal have the maidenhead of all virginis dwelling on the same." Legend has it that Saint Margaret procured the replacement of jus primae noctis with a bridal tax. King Evenus III did not exist, and Boece included a lot of other material in his account that was clearly mythical.

Boece was not alone in his mention of the law: Voltaire referred to it in 1762, it was used in Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro, as a plot device in the movie The War Lord starring Charlton Heston, in Braveheart by Mel Gibson, is mentioned in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian, particularly The Yellow Admiral and is used as propaganda by Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four in Chapter 7 of the first part. It is also mentioned in the tale of the ancient Irish hero Cúchulainn.

The Encyclopedia Britannica concludes that although this custom existed in some primitive societies, it was never widespread in mediaeval Europe, at most it existed for a short time in a few areas of France and Italy in the Early Middle Ages.

Reference

Boureau, Alain, The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane, University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN 0226067424