In the feudal system, demesne (also spelled desmesne; pronounced /dəmajn/ [dih-MANE] or /dəmiːn/ [dih-MEEN]) land was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the castle, that was retained by a lord for his own use - as distinguished from land "alienated" or granted to others (alienii) as tenants either in freehold or leasehold. Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ... Freehold is a term used in real estate or real property law, land held in fee simple, as opposed to leasehold, which is land which is leased. ... Leasehold is a form of property tenure where one party buys the right to occupy land or a building for a given length of time. ...

Initially the demesne lands were worked on the lord's behalf by villeins or by serfs, in fulfillment of their feudal obligations. As a money economy returned, region by region, in the later Middle Ages, the serfs' corvée came to be commuted to money payments. When demesne lands come to be cultivated by paid laborers, we have arrived at Early modern Europe. Eventually many of the demesne lands were leased out either on a perpetual, and therefore hereditary, or a temporary, and therefore renewable, basis so that many peasants functioned virtually as free proprietors after having paid their fixed rents. In times of inflation or debasement of coinage, the rent might come to represent a pittance, reducing the feudal aristocrat to poverty among a prosperous gentry. A villein is, in the feudal system, a member of the class of serfs tied to the land, distinguished from those in actual slavery, but restricted by law from exercising the rights of a free man. ... Costumes of Slaves or Serfs, from the Sixth to the Twelfth Centuries, collected by H. de Vielcastel, from original Documents in the great Libraries of Europe. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Corvée, or corvée labor, is a term used in feudal societies. ... The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western Europe and its first colonies which spans the time between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution that has created modern society. ...

This system of manorial land tenure was conceived in Western Europe, initially in France but exported to areas affected by Norman expansion during the Middle Ages, for example the Kingdoms of Sicily, Scotland, Jerusalem, and England. Generic plan of a mediaeval manor; open-field strip farming, some enclosures, triennial crop rotation, demesne and manse, common woodland, pasturage and meadow Manorialism or Seigneurialism is the organization of rural economy and society in medieval western and parts of central Europe, characterised by the vesting of legal and economic... Norman conquests in red. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The following is a list of monarchs of Naples and Sicily: See also: List of Counts of Apulia and Calabria Hauteville Counts of Sicily, 1071-1130 Roger I 1071-1101 Simon 1101-1105 Roger II 1105-1130 Hauteville Kings of Sicily, 1130-1198 Roger II 1130-1154 William I 1154... Motto Latin: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Capital Edinburgh¹ Language(s) Gaelic, Scots Government Monarchy King/Queen  - 843-860 Kenneth I  - 1587–1625 James VI  - 1702-1714 Anne Legislature Parliament of Scotland History  - United 843  - Union of the Crowns March 24, 1603  - Act of... Official language Latin, French, Italian, and other western languages; Greek and Arabic also widely spoken Capital Jerusalem, later Acre Constitution Various laws, so-called Assizes of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 by the First Crusade. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right)1 Capital Winchester, then London from 11th century. ...

Demesne land

In English Common Law 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. 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. This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... A line drawing entitled Domesday Book from Andrew Williamss Historic Byways and Highways of Old England. ... Under the system of feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud or fee, consisted of heritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord in return for a vassal knights service (usually fealty, military service, and security). ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738–29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... 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 leases. At its origin in mediaeval England, Copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the title deeds being a copy of the record of the manor court. ...

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." The "s" is not pronounced; if the word had survived into modern French it would have become "demêne." However, the word mesnil, which occurred both in Middle French and Middle English and has the same derivation, survives in France where many small places have this in their name such as Le Mesnil, Mesnil-Mauger, Mesnil-Raoul, Bosc-Mesnil, etc. The less affected broad modern equivalent of "demesne" is "domain". There are communes that have the name Mesnil and Le Mesnil in France Les Mesnil, in the Manche département There is a commune that has the name Le Mesnil in Belgium in the Namur province Related Le Mesnil Auzouf, in the Calvados département Le Mesnil Bacley, in the...