Droit de seigneur

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.

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 and is used as propaganda by Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four in Chapter 7 of the first part.

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.

Also, in Terry Pratchett's novel Wyrd Sisters, the droit de seigneur is referred to when Duke Felmet (then monarch of the Ramtop kingdom of Lancre) failed to find anyone who is prepared to explain the concept to him, and thus assumes that a droit de seigneur is a kind of large, hairy dog that needs exercise every so often.

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

External links

• The Straight Dope: Did medieval lords have "right of the first night" with the local brides?
• Urban Legends website investigates the issue

See also: Droit de seigneur, 16th century, 1762, Beaumarchais, Braveheart, Charlton Heston, Dog, Early Middle Ages, Ecclesiastical court, Encyclopedia Britannica