Above is a 1440AD Deed of the private Fief of Blondel and de l'Eperon which is held directly from
the crown through court registration and conge/tresieme fees.
Seigneurs of Fiefs and Feudal Fiefs
Position |
On envelopes |
Salutation in letter |
Oral address |
Feudal Fief
Seigneur |
The Much Hon XXX of Fief de Blondel et L'Eperon
or The Much Hon. XXX,
Seigneur of Fief de Blondel et L'Eperons or
The Much Hon Seigneur of Fief de Blondel [11] |
Siror
Dear Blondel or
Dear Sieur |
Blondel or
Seigneur or Abbreviated Sieur Acronym (Sgr.) |
Female Feudal Dame of a Fief or
Feudal Seigneur's wife |
As feudal Seigneur,
substituting "Madam"
for first nameand
substituting "Dame" for "Seigneur",or
Dame Blondel et L'Eperons |
Madam or
Dear Dame or Dear Dame of Blondel et L'Eperons |
Madam or
Blondel or
Dame Blondel |
Style of Seigneur - As
per the The Feudal Dues (Guernsey) Law, 1980 Style of Seigneur of a fief etc. Section 4. The foregoing provisions
of this Law shall be without prejudice –
(a) to the right of any person to use, in the case of a male person, the style of
Seigneur and, in the case of a female person, the style of Dame, of a fief,
(b) to the feudal relationship between Her Majesty and any person holding an interest
in a private fief on or at any time after the commencement of this Law, or to the feudal relationship between any
person holding an interest in any fief and any person holding an interest in a dependency of that fief,
and
(c) to the right or obligation of any person by virtue of that person holding an
interest in any fief which is not a right to which those provisions apply or any obligation correlative
thereto.
www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=71301&p=0
From the Supplement to the Memorial of the Jersey Reform Committee to the
Commissioners apppointed by Her Most Gracious Majesty to enquire into the civil, municipal, and ecclesiastical laws
of Jersey and for other purposes, 1859, p. 39. The Jersey upper classes appropriate a Guernsey Order in Council, to
ensure they are correctly addressed by the lower orders.
³ In the 17th century in Jersey, 'At the top of the tree were the Squirearchy, the
Seigneurs.' Numbers then ranged from 100 to 130, perhaps about 600 including family members. 'They expected to be
addressed by the name of their fiefs, Monsieur des Saumarès, Monsieur de Sotel, Monsieur de St Ouen. They spoke of
themselves as the Noblesse, for in Jersey as in France, Nobility was considered to begin with the Ecuyer and not as
in England with the Baron.' From N.V.L. Rybot, 'Social Life in Jersey in the early 17th century', Bull. Annuel de
la Société Jersiaise, 1941 XIV (2), pp. 76 ff.
The same applied in Guernsey; Pierre de Beauvoir, for example, was known as
'Monsieur des Granges,' or simply, 'des Granges.' Elie Brevint, Minister of Sark, writing in his Notebook in the
first quarter of the 17th century, remarks that 'In Guernsey they give the title of Maître to the Jurats, whoever
they are, so they say for example Mre Brehaut, Mre Febvre. In Sark they say honneste homme M. and N. principally
when writing.'
See: Actes des Etats de l'Ile de Guernesey, Vol. III. Actes des Etats de l'Ile de
Jersey, 1524-1700; Société Jersiaise, 1897. Jean Dumaresq was very busy that year: see the Library's Copie d'une
proposition faite aux états par Jean Dumaresq, Ésc. Connétable de la paroisse de S. Pierre: et logée au Greffe le
12 Août 1786, touchant le rétablissement des enquêtes dans l'isle de Jersey, en matières civiles, mixtes et
criminelles.
In 1614, Thomas Le Marchant wished to be called upon to attend Chief Pleas under
the title of gentilhomme, 'au rang des gentilhommes,' referring to the preceding case, and appearing to claim right
to the title of Gentleman as Seigneur of the fief of Vaugrart.
Above is a 577 Year old Title Deed Transfer for the Fief Blondel in Guernésiais -
Grant of the fief of Thomas Blondel in the parishes of St Peter of the Wood and Torteval, Guernsey, made by Janet
Blondel to Thomas de la Court on 18 July 1440, attested by Jean Bonamy and Jacques Guille, jurats. Copy
purchased from the University of Leeds.
There are only 24 private Seigneurs of Fief doms in the old Viking Norman Islands of
Guernsey and Sark :
Seigneurial Courtesy Forms of Address: Examples * Note that because French
is still used in the courts and other formalities, these Norman version of the style is still
used.
John Doe, Seigneur of Fief Blondel et L'Eperons
Elizabeth Doe, Le Dame of Blondel
John, Seiur de Fief Blondel
John Doe, Seigneur of Blondel
Child: Anna, Le Dame de Blondel
Rt Hon John Doe, Seigneur of Blondel
John Doe, Sgr. of Blondel
John Doe de Blondel
Pierre de Fief Blondel
MonSieur John Doe of Blondel
Lord (seigneur) was not necessarily a
title. The owner of a lordship, even a commoner, was its lord. The term "lord"
meant "the possessor of a certain kind of property" in the feudal system, a mixture of actual real estate and
rights over people (rents and fees could be collected from them, certain obligations could be imposed on them,
etc). Someone who was only a seigneur was not titled. All FRENCH lordships disappeared when feudalism
was abolished in 1789, but the Norman Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey, and Sark still maintain their
Feudal historical culture, customs and styles even today under the Queen and Crown.
Viking Styles, Honors and Titles - In Denmark
and Norway
, the title of
Friherre
was of equal rank to that of Baron,
which has gradually replaced it. It was instituted on 25 May 1671 with Christian V
's
Friherre
privileges. Today only a few Danish noble families use the title of
Friherre
and most of those are based in Sweden, where that version of the title is still more commonly used; a
Danish
Friherre
generally is addressed as "Baron".
[10]
The wife of a Danish or Norwegian
Friherre
is titled
Friherreinde
, and the daughters are formally addressed as
Baronesse
.
[8]
Freiherr
(
German:
[ˈfʁaɪˌhɛɐ̯]
; male, abbreviated as
Frhr.
),
Freifrau
(
[ˈfʁaɪˌfʁaʊ]
; his wife, abbreviated as
Frfr.
, literally "free lord" or "free lady")
[1]
and
Freiin
(
[ˈfʁaɪ.ɪn]
;
In France, during the
Ancien
Régime
, French baronies were very much like Scottish ones. Feudal landholders were entitled to style
themselves
baron
if they were nobles; a
roturier
(commoner
) could only be a S
eigneur de la baronnie
(lord of the barony). These baronies could be sold freely
until 1789 when feudal law was abolished. The title of baron was assumed as a
titre de
courtoisie
by many nobles, whether members of the Nobles of the Robe
or cadets of Nobles of the Sword
who held no title in their own right.
In 1815, King Louis
XVIII
created a new peerage system
based on the British model. Baron-peer was the lowest title, but the heirs to pre-1789 barons could remain barons,
as could the elder sons of viscount
-peers and younger sons of count
-peers. This peerage system was abolished in 1848.
Seigneur
(English:
Lord
, German:
Herr
), was the name formerly given in France
to someone who had been granted a fief
by the crown, with all its associated rights over person and property. This form of lordship was
called
seigneurie
, the rights that the
seigneur
was entitled to were called
seigneuriage
, and the
seigneur
himself was the
seigneur justicier
, because he exercised greater or lesser jurisdiction
over his fief. Since the repeal of the feudal
system
on 4 August 1789 in the wake of the French
Revolution
, this office has no longer existed and the title has only been used for sovereign
princes by their families.
In pre-republican Germany all the knightly families of the Holy
Roman Empire (sometimes distinguished by the prefix von or zu)
eventually were recognised as of baronial rank, although Ritter is the literal
translation for "knight", and persons who held that title enjoyed a distinct, but lower, rank in Germany's
nobility than barons (Freiherren). The wife
of a Freiherr (Baron) is called
a Freifrau or sometimes
Baronin, his daughter Freiin or sometimes
Baroness.
Families which had always held this status were
called Uradel ('primordial/ancient/original nobility'), and were heraldically entitled to a three
pointed coronet. Families which had been ennobled at a definite point
in time (Briefadel or "nobility by patent") had seven points on
their coronet. These families held their fief in vassalage from
a suzerain.
What is a Free Lord ? The holder of
an allodial (i.e.,
suzerain-free grant direct from crown to holder) barony was thus called a Free
Lord, or Freiherr. Subsequently, sovereigns in Germany
conferred the title of Freiherr as a rank in the nobility,
without implication of allodial or feudal status.
Seigneur (English: Seigneur; Lord) was the name
formerly given in France before the Revolution, and in New France and Canada until 1854, to the individual or the
collective entity which owned a seigneurie — a form of land tenure — as a fief,
with its associated rights over person and property. A seigneur could be an individual, — male or female
(seigneuresse), noble or non noble (roturier) — or a collective entity such a religious
community, a monastery, a seminary, a college, a parish.
This form of lordship was calledseigneurie, the rights that theseigneurwas entitled to were calledseigneuriage, and theseigneurhimself was theseigneur
justicier, because he exercised greater or lesserjurisdictionover his fief. Since the repeal of thefeudal systemon 4 August 1789 in the wake of theFrench Revolution, this office has no longer existed
and the title has only been used forsovereignprinces by their families.
In common speech, the term
grandseigneur has survived.
Today this usually means an elegant, urbane gentleman. Some even use it in a stricter sense to refer to a man whose manners and way of life reflect
his noble ancestry and great wealth. In addition, Le Grand
Seigneur had long been the
name given by the French to the Ottoman sultan. Notre Seigneur
Jésus-Christ is the French
equivalent of the English Our
Lord Jesus Christ.
The word seignorage is also derived from seigneur.
The word shares the same provenance as the Italian Signore, Portuguese Senhor and Spanish Señor, which in addition to meaning "Mister"
were used to signify a feudal lord.
Use in Crown dependencies
The title is still used in the Bailiwick of Guernsey.In particular, it refers to the Seigneurs of Guernsey and
the Seigneur of Sark
The traditional native language of Guernsey is Guernesiais (pronounced
‘JEHR-nehz-y-yay’), also known as Guernsey French or 'patois'. However, in the 11th Century Old Norse
was the most widely spoken language in Europe. The region was huge and consisted of all the Nordic countries,
settlements in Scotland, Ireland, England Wales, Isle of Man, Normandy, Vinland (America) and Volga (Russia) and
some places in-between. As a note, William the Conqueror understood the Norse language, and the names
Jersey , Guernsey , and Alderney are as truly Norse names as Orkney and Shetland. Norse was actually spoken in
parts of the Contentin in North Western France in places like Bayeaux. Norse was spoken and or affected many words
and traditions in feudal guernsey.
Nobility of the Norse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy_of_Norway
Modern aristocratic titles
In the last 300 years, the titles of baron and count, title of marquis in 1709, the following
system is the current in Norway or the Norse Nation.
The class of barons and the class of counts were even internally divided. A count would be a titular count
(greve), a feudal count (lensgreve) or a national count (riksgreve). Likewise a baron would be
a titular baron (friherre), a feudal baron (lensfriherre) or a national baron (riksfriherre).
For example, a lensgreve uses the
title greve only.
|