Lord of the manor

English feudalism
Harold Sacramentum Fecit Willelmo Duci (Bayeux Tapestry)
Fief Ecclesiastical fief Crown land Allodial title Appanage Vassal Feoffment Seignory Subinfeudation Feoffee Fealty Homage Affinity Feudal maintenance Feudal fragmentation Bastard feudalism Livery
Manorialism
Lord of the manor Manorial court Manor house (List) Demesne Glebe Overlord Lord Peasant Serfdom Free tenant
Feudal land tenure in England
Land tenure English feudal barony Feudal baron Knight's fee Knight-service Baronage Peerage Serjeanty Copyhold Freehold Gavelkind Customary freehold Landed gentry Peerages in the United Kingdom
Feudal duties
Avera and inward Socage Scutage Feudal aid Scot and lot Tallage
Feudalism
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Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English feudal (specifically Baronial) system. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seignory, the right to grant or draw benefit from the estate (for example, as a landlord). The title is not a peerage or title of upper nobility (although the holder could also be a peer) but was a relationship to land and how it could be used and those living on the land (tenants) may be deployed, and the broad estate and its inhabitants administered. The title continues in modern England and Wales as a legally recognised form of property that can be held independently of its historical rights.^[1] It may belong entirely to one person or be a moiety shared with other people. The title is known as Breyr in Welsh.

In Scotland, the equivalent title to a Lord of the Manor is Laird, though it carries no formal status in law.

Some sources, such as the Manorial Society, mistakenly claim that Scottish baronies are equivalent to English Lords of the Manor, asserting that "Scottish Baronies are essentially what in England are called ‘manors’, but are called ‘baronies’."^[2] However, this is incorrect. Scottish barons held a noble rank and title of honour^[3] granted by the King through a crown charter, conferring pre-eminences, precedence, and privileges, including a seat in the Scottish Parliament as part of the ancient Three Estates until the Union of 1707. When attending in person, they sat among the nobility of the Second Estate. Today, these titles retain legal status as personal dignities and grant heraldic rights. In contrast, Lords of the Manor were not titles granted by the King and did not constitute a noble rank, but were rather a style applied to the owners of estates. Therefore, whilst Scottish barons held a recognised noble status with parliamentary privileges historically, and maintain certain rights today, Lords of the Manor did not possess noble rank or parliamentary rights.

In the British Crown Dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey the equivalent title is Seigneur.

A similar concept of such a lordship is known in French as Sieur or Seigneur du Manoir, Gutsherr in German, Kaleağası (Kaleagasi) in Turkish, Godsherre in Norwegian and Swedish, Ambachtsheer in Dutch, and Signore or Vassallo in Italian.