History Main / DroitDuSeigneur

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw5G6fF-wqQ "First Kill"]] by Music/AmonAmarth has the protagonist flee into exile and eventually join the Jomsvikings after killing an earl's NumberTwo when he came to take the protagonist's childhood girlfriend away (apparently to his boss). The music video makes the implication more explicit.

* In the ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' AU fic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9182801/1/Truth-Uncertainty-and-Tomorrow Truth, Uncertainty and Tomorrow]], it's indicated that Katyusha's father, a Russian [[AristocratsAreEvil aristocrat]], uses this right. While he [[EvenEvilHasStandards would not do this to his]] [[ParentalIncest own daughter]], he does take Nonna in as a servant [[DisproportionateRetribution when her father miscounts his taxes]], and [[MoralEventHorizon rapes her for overhearing a private conversation]]. This, of course [[ArtisticLicenseHistory ignores the fact that]] [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions there have been no more Russian nobles since 1917]] because [[TheDogBitesBack the people got sick of their shit and had them all shot,]] [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized down to the last man, woman, and child.]]

* In the ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' AU fic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9182801/1/Truth-Uncertainty-and-Tomorrow Truth, Uncertainty and Tomorrow]], it's indicated that Katyusha's father, a Russian [[AristocratsAreEvil aristocrat]], uses this right. While he [[EvenEvilHasStandards would not do this to his]] [[ParentalIncest own daughter]], he does take Nonna in as a servant [[DisproportionateRetribution when her father miscounts his taxes]], and [[MoralEventHorizon rapes her for overhearing a private conversation]]. This, of course [[ArtisticLicenseHistory ignores the fact that]] [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions there are no more Russian nobles since 1917]] because [[TheDogBitesBack the people got sick of their shit and had them all shot,]] [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized down to the last man, woman, and child.]]

A popular UrbanLegend ties it to the origin of the word "fuck," claiming that the word is a [[AcronymsAreEasyAsAybeecee long-forgotten meveval abbreviation]] that stands for "Fornication Under Consent of the King." As the story goes, this was written on signs that a lord exercising ''droit du seigneur'' would post outside of a female victim's home. Needless to say, this is just a [[FunWithAcronyms backronym]] with no historical or etymological basis.

It is thought that belief in the existence of ''droit du seigneur'' may have come from the practice of lords demanding a cash payment upon the marriage of a subject's daughter.[[note]]Indeed, monarchs sometimes claimed a right to cash payment when their vassals' daughters married. [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland King John]]'s attempts to do this is one of several resentments about feudal dues that led to the Magna Carta and the First Barons' War; a reflection of this is the clauses forbidding the King from forcing noble widows to remarry (while preserving the royal veto on marriages by barons). Of course, in today's world, this could simply be seen as the ancestor of any fees required by governments at modern civil weddings, such as marriage certificate fees.[[/note]] Keep in mind, though, that most lords owned multiple estates scattered throughout their monarch's lands, each of which was the home to dozens, sometimes hundreds, of tenant families; most lords would never have so much as set eyes upon the majority of their lands, so how could they have kept track of all the marriages? For that matter, since when have wealthy, powerful men actually ''needed'' a law to get away with rape?

The final nail in the coffin of ''droit de seigneur'' (in Western Europe at least) has been genetic genealogy, which has found no evidence for the supposed practice. The most common 'non-parental event' in medieval England seems to have been unofficial adoption, often of siblings' children.

* ''Film/TheScarletPimpernel1982'': Mentioned jokingly by the Prince of Wales at Percy and Margeurite's wedding
* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': When Tony Stark jokes about ruling Asgard, he mentions reinstating "prima nocta". This one ruffled a lot of feathers due both to the joke being in very poor taste, and the fact that the trailer didn't contain it at all, with the original joke being much more in character for Stark anyways.

* ''Film/{{Tiefland}}'': Justified. Don Sebastian, marquis de Roccabruna and landowner in Northern Spain, is set to marry a rich woman but does not want to let go of his mistress, the dancer Martha. He contrives to arrange a marriage between Martha and Pedro, one of his shepherds, and set Pedro up as a miller in a mill close to the castle, calculating that Pedro will not dare to resist him having Martha as his mistress because Pedro is dependent on Don Sebastian. On Pedro's and Martha's wedding night, Don Sebastian turns up at the mill in order to force himself on Martha, who however has come to loathe Don Sebastian. Pedro, who now understands Don Sebastian's true intentions, comes to her aid and in the ensuing struggle eventually strangles Don Sebastian.

** An InUniverse example of DeliberateValuesDissonance occurs with the maester [[ATrueStoryInMyUniverse writing/narrating]] ''The Princess and the Queen'' (which takes place not long after that law's abolition) snarking at the irrationally-jealous smallfolk who frequently failed to recognize the "great honor" of letting the local noblemen get their wives and daughters with child.
** The right was more accepted among the smallfolk of the Crownlands prior to the Dance of the Drgons, because having a child of Targaryen or Velaryon blood meant that kid was a "dragonseed" and could potentially become a DragonRider- something that naturally meant good things for the dragonseed's family.

** ''Literature/WyrdSisters'': Played for laughs. Duke Felmet would like to exercise his Droit du Seigneur, but nobody cares to explain to him what it ''is''. As a result, he imagines it to be some kind of large hairy dog. It is also a plot point that the previous king, King Verence I (murdered by Felmet) was very fond of practicing it (apparently without complaints, and it's mentioned that he would send a bag of silver to the couple the day after), and that while he was out, the Queen took up with the court jester- [[HeroicBastard the product of this match]] is believed to be Verence's son but abdicates in favor of his half-brother, who is really the legitimate son of the Fool. They are crowned as Verence II and turns out to be a good ruler.

** In ''Through Fiery Trials'', [[SlaveLiberation "The Rebellion"]] is set off by a Harchongese sergeant who returned home (against an Imperial edict) to rescue his only surviving daughter from the noble who'd made her a SexSlave, and decided why stop there?
* In Edward P. Hughes' science fiction story ''The Name of the Father,'' and novel ''Masters of the Fist,'' a lord uses this right. It turns out this is the only thing keeping his village going, because it is set post-apocalypse and he's the only male not irradiated to the point of infertility.

* In ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' episode "Ben Franklin," Michael decides to put "prima nocta" into effect, having watched ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''. Jim has to explain to him what that means.

* ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' makes this OlderThanDirt. Gilgamesh declares it his right as the GodEmperor of Uruk to have first crack at any new bride (or groom) in his realm. When Enkidu hears about this later, he's so angry about it he travels straight to Uruk to beat some sense into Gilgamesh. The fight ends in a truce of mutual exhaustion and the two become fast friends (with no further word on ''droit du seigneur'').
* ''Droit du seigneur'' is brought up in ''[[Myth/CelticMythology The Wooing of Emer]]'' when Bricriu of the Venomous Tongue declares that Conchobar doesn't have the ''right'' to sleep with Emer before Cu Chulainn (the guy who killed ''hundreds'' of men for the privilege of marrying her) so much as he has a ''legal obligation'' to. Being rightfully scared shitless of what Cu Chulainn would do to him if he did, but also reluctant to lose his authority if he didn't, Conchobar [[TakeAThirdOption gets around it]] by "sleeping with" Emer [[ExactWords in only the most literal sense]].

%% No real-life examples on rape tropes. Seriously.

* ''Film/TheWarLord1965'': The feudal lord protagonist falls in love with a peasant woman and uses "droit de seigneur" to claim her on her wedding night. It was based on the Leslie Stevens play ''The Lovers''.

** An InUniverse example of DeliberateValuesDissonance occurs with the maester [[ATrueStoryInMyUniverse writing/narrating]] ''The Princess and the Queen'' (which takes place not long after that law's abolition) snarking at the irrationally-jealous smallfolk who frequently failed to recognize the "great honor" of letting the local noblemen get their wives and daughters with child. The practice was more acceptable to the smallfolk of the Crownlands under the direct rule of the Targaryen monarchs and even more in the isles of Blackwater Bay, due to the presence of Houses Targaryen and Velaryon. In these areas it led to the existence of the "dragonseeds", commoners who could bond with dragons due to possessing Targaryen ancestry, who were recruited by Queen Rhaenyra's side during the Dance of the Dragons when they needed more [[DragonRider dragon riders]].