17-473: The Terra Sancti Benedicti ("Land of Saint Benedict") was the secular territory, or seignory , of the powerful Abbey of Montecassino , the chief monastery of the Mezzogiorno and one of the first Western monasteries: founded by Benedict of Nursia himself, hence the name of its possessions. It lasted from the 8th to the 19th century. The "Terra Sancti Benedicti" was part of larger states, according to
34-457: A lord") was a feudal legal maxim ; where no other lord can be discovered, the Crown is lord as lord paramount . The principal incidents of a seignory were a feudal oath of homage and fealty ; a "quit" or "chief" rent ; a "relief" of one year's quit rent, and the right of escheat . In return for these privileges, the lord was liable to forfeit his rights if he neglected to protect and defend
51-483: A person who holds allodial title , owing no socage or feudal obligations such as military service . This was distinguished from a mesne lord who held his own fief from a superior. The term paramount derives from the Anglo-Norman paramont ("up above") or par a mont ("atop the mountain ") and was used to indicate the lord who was the highest authority for a given location. Similar terminology
68-538: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Seignory In English law , seignory or seigniory , spelled signiory in Early Modern English ( / ˈ s eɪ nj ə r i / ; French : seigneur , lit. 'lord'; Latin : senior , lit. 'elder'), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple . Nulle terre sans seigneur ("No land without
85-723: Is therefore an integral part of the Terra di Lavoro and has always followed its political vicissitudes. The foundation of the Terra Sancti Benedicti can be traced back to the large donation of land made in 744 to the monastery by the Gisulf II of Benevento . The donation was probably of both a religious and political nature: thus an alliance between the Church and the Duchy of Benevento was guaranteed to defend each other. In
102-541: The Duchy of Lancaster but is purely notional, the duchy being held in permanent personal union with the Crown. Nonetheless, the term does appear in some other contexts. The marquess of Exeter holds the title of hereditary Lord Paramount of Peterborough . The peculiar way in which the baron holding the Lordship of Bowland oversaw himself—some of his estates notionally owing service to others—has also been described in terms of paramouncy and obligation. (The situation
119-457: The Kingdom of Naples sanctioned by the so-called "laws of subversion of feudality". With the loss of temporal power, the jurisdiction of the abbey over the surrounding territory remained only ecclesiastical, as a territorial abbey: the abbots were equated in their functions with diocesan bishops, even if in most cases they were not awarded the episcopal character. This Lazio location article
136-480: The 1066 Norman Conquest , only the sovereign —the king or queen —was truly lord paramount in its larger sense. All other legal title to land was held through them, particularly after the abolition of most unusual feudal titles and obligations under the 1660 Statute of Tenures . The only major exception—continuing to the present day—is the protection of the privileges of the duke of Cornwall as lord paramount over Cornish lands. A similar situation exists regarding
153-530: The Abbey in 1349 and, although it soon returned to its function, the event can be considered an important watershed. In the 14th century, the Papal States tried to limit the abbey ecclesiastical jurisdiction placing a bishop at San Germano , but the abbots managed to maintain many prerogatives thanks to Pope Urban V . The official end of the feudal lordship came in 1806 with the abolition of feudal rights in
170-534: The Settled Land Act 1882, the tenant for life of a manor is empowered to sell the seignory of any freehold land within the manor, and by s. 21 (v.) the purchase of the seignory of any part of settled land being freehold land, is an authorized application of capital money arising under the act. Lord paramount A lord paramount is a term of art in feudal law describing an overlord who holds his own fief from no superior lord. It thus describes
187-480: The following centuries, monasteries, churches and castles with annexed possessions were gradually offered to the monastery, even overseas, through concessions and donations made by nobles, emperors and popes, reaching eighty thousand hectares. The history of the territories linked to the Benedictine Abbey can be divided into three main phases which correspond to three different approaches to the control of
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#1732773049117204-417: The grant of the manor; a seignory in gross—that is, a seignory which has been severed from the demesne lands of the manor to which it was originally appendant—must be specially conveyed by deed of grant. Freehold land may be enfranchised by a conveyance of the seignory to the freehold tenant, but it does not extinguish the tenant's right of common ( Baring v. Abingdon , 1892, 2 Ch. 374). By s. 3 (ii.) of
221-552: The historical succession, from the Duchy of Benevento to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . Despite the wide autonomy it enjoyed in some periods, it was never, neither de jure nor de facto, an independent state, as were the Italian city-states of Northern and Central Italy . The nature of the dominion of the Abbey of Montecassino has sometimes been improperly assimilated to these Italian states. The "Terra Sancti Benedicti"
238-440: The tenant or did anything injurious to the feudal relation. Every seignory now existing must have been created before the statute Quia Emptores (1290), which forbade the future creation of estates in fee-simple by subinfeudation . The only seignories of any importance at present are the lordships of manors . They are regarded as incorporeal hereditaments , and are either appendant or in gross. A seignory appendant passes with
255-478: The territory: first the age of the Manorialism , then that of the " castrum " and finally that of the development of the " universitas civium" . Subsequently, the Abbey progressively loses its historical temporal power. After these phases of development, the loss of power by Montecassino and the fading of the territory it had controlled into larger organisms began with alternating events. An earthquake destroyed
272-505: Was rendered still more academic when it was subsumed first into the Earldom of Lancaster in 1311 and then into the Duchy of Lancaster as an estate held by the Crown in 1351, which gave rise to the title of "Lord King of Bowland".) The title is also sometimes broadly applied to any overlord . The concept continued to be invoked in other common law jurisdictions, including New York in
289-448: Was used for the vassals of mesne lords, who were considered "paravail" from par a val ("in the valley "). This latter term, however, was confused by later lawyers with "avail" in its senses of help, assistance, and profit and was eventually applied only to the actual occupiers or tenants who worked the land themselves. The vassal of a lord paramount, meanwhile, was a tenant-in-chief . Generally speaking, under English law after
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