A
steward (from Old English
stíweard, stiȝweard, from
stiȝ "hall, household" +
weard "wikt:warden, keeper"; corresponding to
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
:
stadhouder,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
Statthalter "place holder", a Germanic parallel to French
lieutenantLieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service, emergency medical services or police officer rank....
), means an official who is appointed by the legal ruling
monarchA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
to represent him or her in a country, and may have a mandate to govern it in his or her name; in the latter case, it roughly corresponds with the position of
governorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
or deputy (the Roman
rectorA Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
,
praefectusPrefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
or
vicariusVicarius is a Latin word, meaning substitute or deputy. It is the root and origin of the English word "vicar" and cognate to the Persian word most familiar in the variant vizier....
).
The Old English term
stiȝweard is attested from the 11th century.
A
steward (from Old English
stíweard, stiȝweard, from
stiȝ "hall, household" +
weard "wikt:warden, keeper"; corresponding to
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
:
stadhouder,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
Statthalter "place holder", a Germanic parallel to French
lieutenantLieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service, emergency medical services or police officer rank....
), means an official who is appointed by the legal ruling
monarchA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
to represent him or her in a country, and may have a mandate to govern it in his or her name; in the latter case, it roughly corresponds with the position of
governorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
or deputy (the Roman
rectorA Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
,
praefectusPrefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
or
vicariusVicarius is a Latin word, meaning substitute or deputy. It is the root and origin of the English word "vicar" and cognate to the Persian word most familiar in the variant vizier....
).
Etymology
The Old English term
stiȝweard is attested from the 11th century. Its first element is most probably
stiȝ- "house, hall" (attested only in composition; its cognate
stiȝu is the ancestor of Modern English
styA sty or pigsty is a small-scale outdoor enclosure for raising pigs. It is sometimes referred to as a pigpen, pig parlor, or pig-cote. Pigsties are generally fenced areas of bare dirt and/or mud. Both "sty" and "pigpen" are used as derogatory descriptions of dirty, messy areas...
).
Old Frensh
estuard and Old Norse
stívarðr are adopted from the Old English.
The German and Dutch term (
MHGMiddle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
stat-halter) is a parallel but independent formation (a
calqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation....
of
lieutenantLieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service, emergency medical services or police officer rank....
) corresponding to obsolete English
stead holder (
stede haldare 1456; also
stedys beryng (1460),
sted-haldande (1375)
steadward,
steadsman).
In medieval times, the steward was initially a servant who supervised both the lord's estates and his household. However over the course of the next century, other household posts expanded and involved more responsibilities. This meant that in the 13th century, there were commonly
two stewards in each house- one who managed the estates and the other to manage domestic routine. Stewards commonly earned up to 3 to 4 pounds per year. Stewards took care of their Lord's Castles when they were away. Also, stewards checked on the taxes of the serfs on his Lord's manor.
Britain
The
Lord High StewardThe position of Lord High Steward of England is the first of the Great Officers of State. The office has generally remained vacant since 1421, except at coronations and during the trials of peers in the House of Lords, when the Lord High Steward presides. In general, the Lord Chancellor was...
of England held a position of power in the 12th to 14th centuries, and the
Lord StewardThe Lord Steward or Lord Steward of the Household, in England, is an important official of the Royal Household. He is always a peer. Until 1924, he was always a member of the Government...
is the first dignitary of the court. The
Stewart-Places:*Portstewart, Northern Ireland*Stewart, British Columbia, Canada*Stewartby, Bedfordshire, England*Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand*Newton Stewart, Scotland*United States of America:**Stewart, Indiana**Stewart, Minnesota**Stewart County, Georgia...
family traces its appellation to the office of the
High Steward of ScotlandThe title of High Steward or Great Steward was given in the 12th century to Walter Fitzalan, whose descendants became the House of Stewart. In 1371, the last High Steward inherited the throne, and thereafter the title of High Steward of Scotland has been held as a subsidiary title to that of Duke...
.
Lord High Steward of IrelandThe Lord High Steward of Ireland is a hereditary Great Officer of State in Ireland, sometimes known as the Hereditary Great Seneschal. The Earls of Shrewsbury have held the office since the 15th century....
is a hereditary office held since the 15th century.
Low Countries
In the Netherlands, it developed into a rare type of
de facto hereditary
head of stateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
of the thus crowned
Dutch RepublicThe Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands,...
.
Stadtholders were appointed by feudal lords to govern parts of their territory. Stadtholders could be appointed for the whole or parts of their territory by the local rulers of the independent
provinceThe Seventeen Provinces were a personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 15th century and 16th century, roughly covering the current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North of France , and a small part of the West of Germany.The Seventeen Provinces were originally held...
s in the
Low CountriesThe Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers...
, e.g. the Duke of Gelre appointed a stadtholder to represent him in
GroningenGroningen is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...
.
In the
Low CountriesThe Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers...
(which included present-day
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
,
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
and
LuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany...
) from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, this was originally an essentially honorary title awarded by the Spanish Habsburg kings to major noblemen in each province. But its nature changed drastically.
Danish Statholder
- In Denmark, a ministerial high office of royal governor in the capital, at Copenhagen castle
- During the personal union of Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
(the dominant partner) and NorwayHistory of human settlement in what is present day Norway goes back at least 11,000 years, to the late Paleolithic. Archaeological finds in the county of Møre og Romsdal have been dated to 9,200 BCE and are probably the remains of settlers from Doggerland, an area now submerged in the North Sea,...
, the Danish King appointed a Governor-general in Norway styled Statholder: 1536- 4 November 1814
Swedish Stattholder
During the personal union of
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
(the dominant partner) and
NorwayHistory of human settlement in what is present day Norway goes back at least 11,000 years, to the late Paleolithic. Archaeological finds in the county of Møre og Romsdal have been dated to 9,200 BCE and are probably the remains of settlers from Doggerland, an area now submerged in the North Sea,...
, the Swedish king appointed a Governor-general in Norway styled
Stattholder (or in full
Rigsstatholder in Norwegian or Riksståthållare in Swedish, i.e. Lieutenant of the Realm): 4 November 1814 - 21 July 1873; several were noblemen, five even Swedish Crown Princes, who were then styled Visekonge, i.e. Viceroy.
Eastern Europe
The Russian equivalent of "stadtholder" is
posadnikPosadnik was the mayor in some East Slavic cities or towns. Most notably, the posadnik was the mayor of Novgorod and Pskov...
; the term sometimes occurs as "stadtholder" in English-language literature. Although there were such legendary posadniks as
GostomyslGostomysl is a legendary 9th-century posadnik of Novgorod who was introduced into the historiography by Vasily Tatishchev, an 18th-century historian. Gostomysl's rule is associated with the confederation of Northern tribes, which was formed to counter the Varangian threat in the mid-9th century...
(9th century), the term first appeared in the
Primary ChronicleThe Primary Chronicle , or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :The original compilation was long considered to be the...
under the year of 997 to denote the most senior official of an Eastern Slavic town. The earliest posadniks of the city of Novgorod (
Holmgard) include a dynasty composed of
DobrynyaDobrynya was Vladimir the Great's maternal uncle and tutor who was later transformed into the invincible bogatyr Dobrynya Nikitich in the East-Slavic folklore....
, his son
Konstantin DobrynichKonstantin Dobrynich was an 11th-century posadnik of Novgorod. According to the Novgorod chronicles, he was the son of Dobrynya and wielded great influence at the court of his own cousin, Yaroslav the Wise....
and
OstromirOstromir was a statesman, voivod and posadnik of Novgorod in 1054-1057 and probably for some decades previous....
.
See also
- Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
- Majordomo
- Castellan
A castellan was the governor or caretaker of a castle or keep. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle".-Duties:...
- Chamberlain
A chamberlain is an officer in charge of managing a household. In many countries there are ceremonial posts associated with the household of the sovereign....
- Butler
A butler is a servant in a large household. In the great houses of the past, the household was sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house...
- Bailli
Bailli was the rank and title of the head of each of the bailiwicks of the Knights Hospitaller and also of the head, at Rhodes and Malta, of one of the seven, later eight, Langues into which the members of the Knights Hospitaller were grouped once the Order was established on Rhodes and...
- Mayor of the Palace
Mayor of the Palace was an early medieval title and office, also called majordomo, from the Latin title maior domus , used most notably in the Frankish kingdoms in the 7th and 8th centuries....