Demesne

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Demesne

In the feudal system, demesne (also spelled desmesne; di-MANE or dih-MEEN; via Old French demeine from Latin dominium) was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house

Manor house

A manor house or fortified manor-house is a country house, which has historically formed the administrative centre of a manor , the lowest unit of territorial organization in the feudal system....
, that was retained by a lord for his own use - as distinguished from land "alienated" or granted to others (alieni) as freehold tenants.

Initially the demesne lands were worked on the lord's behalf by villeins or by serf

SERF

A spin-exchange relaxation-free magnetometer achieves very high magnetic field sensitivity by monitoring a high density vapor of alkali metal atoms precessing in a near-zero magnetic field....
s, in fulfillment of their feudal obligations.

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In the feudal system, demesne (also spelled desmesne; di-MANE or dih-MEEN; via Old French demeine from Latin dominium) was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house

Manor house

SERF

Money

Money is anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts. The main uses of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value....
returned, region by region, in the later Middle Ages, the serfs' corvée
Corvée

Corv?e is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way, such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option....
came to be commuted to money payments. With the advent of the Early modern

Early modern Europe

Early modern is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Western Europe and its first colony which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century....
period, demesne lands came to be cultivated by paid laborers. Eventually many of the demesne lands were leased out either on a perpetual (i.e., hereditary) or a temporary renewable basis so that many peasants functioned virtually as free proprietors after having paid their fixed rents. In times of inflation

Inflation

In economics, inflation is a rise in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. The term "inflation" once referred to increases in the money supply ; however, economic debates about the relationship between money supply and price levels have led to its primary use today in describing price inflatio...
or debasement of coinage, the rent might come to represent a pittance, reducing the feudal aristocrat to poverty among a prosperous gentry. Demesne lands that were leased out for a term of years remained demesne lands, though no longer in the occupation of the lord of the manor (see, for example, Musgrave v Inclosure Commissioners (1874) LR 9 QB 162, a case in which the three judges of the Queen's Bench Divisional Court and everyone else concerned assumed without argument that farms which were let by the lord of the manor were part of the lord’s demesne land).

This system of manorial land tenure

Manorialism

Manorialism or Seigneurialism was the organizing principle of rural economy and society widely practiced in Middle Ages western and parts of central Europe....
was conceived in Western Europe, initially in France but exported to areas affected by Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock....
expansion during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, for example the Kingdoms of Sicily

Kingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. The Kingdom of Sicily covered not only the island of Sicily itself, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of southern Italy and, until 1530, the islands of Malta and Gozo....
, Scotland

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in North-West Europe which existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a Anglo-Scottish border to the south with the Kingdom of England, with which it was united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, in 170...
, Jerusalem

Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christianity kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, Israel, was destroyed by the Mamluks....
, and England

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a state in North-West Europe. The Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and a number of smaller outlying islands?what is today the legal unit of England and Wales....
.

Demesne land

In English Common Law

Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
the term ancient demesne, sometimes shortened to demesne, referred to those lands that were held by the Crown at the time of the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror....
. The term demesne also referred to the demesne of the Crown, or royal demesne, which consisted of those lands reserved for the Crown at the time of the original distribution of landed property. The royal demesne could be increased, for example, as a result of forfeiture. Demesne lands were managed by stewards of the Crown and were not given out in fief. During the reign of George III, Parliament appropriated the royal demesne, in exchange for a fixed annual sum, called the Civil List

Civil list

A civil list is a list of individuals to whom money is paid by the government....
.

As common-law practice protected the rights of the villein, tenancy at the pleasure of the lord gradually developed into the added security of copyhold

Copyhold

At its origin in medieval England, copyhold Land tenure was tenure of real property according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manor court....
leases.

Since the demesne surrounded the principal seat of the lord, it came to be loosely used of any proprietary territory: "the works of Shakespeare are this scholar's demesne."

Demesne

Demesne land

Footnotes

See also