History Main / DroitDuSeigneur

[[caption-width-right:350: [- "Le Droit du Seigneur" (Vasily Polenov, 1874) -] ]]

''Droit du seigneur'', literally "the lord's right", also known as ''ius primae noctis'' ("law of the first night") and other names, is an alleged legal right that the lord of medieval estates or fiefdoms has to take the virginity of his serfs' maiden daughters (or at least gets first refusal). It is a popular trope in {{fantasy}} or medieval European settings, especially of the CrapsackWorld flavor. Usually invoked by a FeudalOverlord of the evil variety as one of his many KickTheDog moments.

The historical basis for the "right" is murky, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_du_seigneur as discussed on the Other Wiki.]] Though historians have found no evidence that this practice was codified in the law of any country, other historians argue that it was practiced informally and extra-legally as early as in the times of the Roman Empire and as lately as the turn of 'the' century (which century is never really specified). The last reliable records regarding ''droit du seigneur'' are from 19th century Imperial Russia, where well-documented criminal cases existed that accused various noblemen of (illegally) practicing this (not trying, but actively practicing for years until someone reported it to the authorities).

It is thought that belief in the existence of ''droit du seigneur'' in the West may have come from the customary practice of lords demanding a cash payment upon the marriage of a fief's (or an unfree tenant farmer'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 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 of established nation-states, this could simply be 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 dozens to hundreds of manors (basically 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 practiced ''droit de seigneur''? For that matter, since when have wealthy men with exclusive hold on power actually ''needed'' a law to get away with sexual assault?

The trope appears as early as the 19th century BCE, when ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' uses it to illustrate Gilgamesh's arrogance, wantonness, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and immaturity]] in [[TheCaligula his early reign]]. The trope was popularized and treated as a reality in works written during the Enlightenment (notably in Beaumarchais's [[AdaptationDisplacement and Mozart's]] ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro''), as the ''droit du seigneur'' was seen as embodying [[AristocratsAreEvil the abuses of the aristocracy]] and/or [[TheDungAges the supposed barbarism of the Middle Ages]]. To this day there are more examples of backlash against the supposed law than there are chronicled occurrences of it.

** In the series in general, it's mentioned that this practice is popular in Orlais amongst the Nobles and Chevaliers. Liselle, an Orlesian merchant encountered in Denerim, explains that the reason she came to Ferelden was to flee retribution after her brother knocked out a Chevalier who attempted to invoke this. It's implied that it is far less common in Ferelden as, for the most part, the nobility tends to hold themselves to the same laws and standards as the ones they impose on the common folk ("The nobles are not so high, and the commoners are not so low" as Liselle herself says). It's a sign of how monstrous Bann Vaughan Kendalls of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is that he is the only Fereldan noble shown to routinely practice this.
** The City Elf Origin shows Vaughan at his utter worst, disrupting a wedding at the Denerim Alienage to make off with the bride (if you're playing a female City Elf, the bride is ''you'') and several of her bridesmaids, who he and his cronies want to have their way with. The result is a RoaringRampageOfRescue and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Revenge]] (the latter part more pronounced if you're playing a female City Elf) that more often than not ends with Vaughan and his cronies seven different kinds of dead. [[spoiler:Sadly, you're too late to save your cousin Shianni from being raped by Vaughan and possibly his men.]] Also, if you're playing a female City Elf, your betrothed ''tries'' to storm in and save you but is killed doing so.

It is thought that belief in the existence of ''droit du seigneur'' in the West may have come from the customary practice of lords demanding a cash payment upon the marriage of a fief's (or an unfree tenant farmer'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 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 of established nation-states, this could simply be the ancestor of any fees required at modern civil weddings, such as marriage certificate fees.[[/note]] Keep in mind, though, that most lords owned dozens to hundreds of manors (basically 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 practiced ''droit de seigneur''? For that matter, since when have wealthy men with exclusive hold on power actually ''needed'' a law to get away with sexual assault?

It is thought that belief in the existence of ''droit du seigneur'' in the West may have come from the customary practice of lords demanding a cash payment upon the marriage of a fief's (or an unfree tenant farmer'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 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).[[/note]] Keep in mind, though, that most lords owned dozens to hundreds of manors (basically 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 practiced ''droit de seigneur''? For that matter, since when have wealthy men with exclusive hold on power actually ''needed'' a law to get away with sexual assault?

Subtrope of IHaveYouNowMyPretty and a way to establish that AristocratsAreEvil. If it's TheDungAges, expect the lord to say "BatheHerAndBringHerToMe." The ScarpiaUltimatum is a related concept, done with less legal backing.

It is thought that belief in the existence of ''droit du seigneur'' in the West may have come from the customary practice of lords demanding a cash payment upon the marriage of a fief's (or an unfree tenant farmer'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 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).[[/note]] Keep in mind, though, that most lords owned dozens to hundreds of manors (basically 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 practiced ''droit de seigneur''? For that matter, since when have wealthy men with exclusive hold on power actually ''needed'' a law to get away with sexual assault?

The trope appears as early as the 19th century BCE, when ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' uses it to illustrate Gilgamesh's arrogance, wantonness, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and immaturity]] in his early reign. The trope was popularized and treated as a reality in works written during the Enlightenment (notably in Beaumarchais's [[AdaptationDisplacement and Mozart's]] ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro''), as the ''droit du seigneur'' was seen as embodying [[AristocratsAreEvil the abuses of the aristocracy]] and/or [[TheDungAges the supposed barbarism of the Middle Ages]]. To this day there are more examples of backlash against the supposed law than there are chronicled occurrences of it.

* Mentioned by [[HateSink Diodora Astaroth]] in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'' as he gleefully tells Issei [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what he plans to do to Asia]]. Issei quickly makes him [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown eat those words]].

* ''Film/{{Caligula}}'': The titular character exercises his ''ius prima noctis'' by raping both Proculus and his new wife, widely considered his most sickening act of the movie.

* ''Film/AndNowTheScreamingStarts'' has a family of British nobles suffering from a curse brought about as punishment for an ancestor's presumptuous invocation of ''prima noctis''.

* 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.

* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' says that this custom was "always practiced by the other lord down the street"; usually as an excuse to go kill them and take all their stuff [[AbominationAccusationAttack by painting them as a monster.]] [[WrittenByTheWinners Since the winners write the history books]]...

It is thought that belief in the existence of ''droit du seigneur'' in the West may have come from the customary practice of lords demanding a cash payment upon the marriage of a fief's (or an unfree tenant farmer'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 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).[[/note]] Keep in mind, though, that most lords owned dozens to hundreds of manors (basically 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 practiced ''droit de seigneur''?

Subtrope of IHaveYouNowMyPretty and a way to establish that AristocratsAreEvil. If it's the DungAges, expect the lord to say "BatheHerAndBringHerToMe." The ScarpiaUltimatum is a related concept, done with less legal backing.

--->'''Morrison:''' Do ye remember me?
--->'''Lord Bottoms:''' I never did her any harm. It was my right!\\
'''Morrison:''' Your ''right''? Well, I am here to claim the right of a '''HUSBAND!''' *cue EpicFlail, followed by SpitefulSpit*

'''Morrison:''' Your ''right''? Well, I am here to claim the right of a husband!

* Debunked on ''[[http://www.straightdope.com The Straight Dope]]'', citing the dubiousness of historical accounts, the absence of proof, and the grim but all-too-plausible argument that no medieval upper-class thug with a sword would ''need'' such a legal entitlement to get away with raping peasant women.

-->-- '''Nolan''', ''Fanfic/TheVictorsProject''

-->'''[[DistressedDamsel Evey]]:''' Please, mister, it was my first time. [[PleaseIWillDoAnything I'll do anything you want]]. Please don't kill me.\\

* 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 [[CriticalResearchFailure 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 rabbit version in ''Literature/WatershipDown''. When Bigwig becomes an officer in the Owsla of Efrafa, he's told that all the does in his Mark are under his orders so he can have anyone he wants, [[BrosBeforeHoes provided another officer doesn't want her]]. Bigwig uses this to have Hyzenthlay, a doe he already knows has expressed a desire to leave the warren, brought to him so he can recruit her. Hyzenthlay tells Bigwig that she's not in season for mating, so he needs to tell the other officers afterwards that he made a mistake to explain why he sent for her.

* "Literature/TomorrowTown" by Kim Newman, which is set in a supposed twenty-first century society as imagined by a group of 1970s futurists, features a (pseudo-)futuristic version. They claim that their MasterComputer Big Thinks is so advanced that it can pair individuals up with their most suitable life-partner. In what [[SarcasmMode must surely be nothing more than a coincidence]], it has also enabled the community's founder to basically claim another man's wife away from him.

-->-- '''Nolan''', ''FanFic/TheVictorsProject''

* In ''LightNovel/RakuinNoMonshou'' Prince Gil, blitzed out of his mind and jealous of a happy newly-wed couple, demands this with the bride. When the father of the bride tries to talk him down, Gil ends up stabbed in the ensuing struggle.

* In Creator/LeoFrankowski's Conrad Stargard series, the time-traveling protagonist is shocked by this practice, but quickly overcomes his objections. The local lord is a nice chap who ensures all the peasant girls are married off when they become pregnant, and Conrad is such a blatantly perfect man that [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization every girl in the area is all too eager to bed him]].

* In the Otto Prohaska series by John Biggins, Otto visits the aristocratic family of his fiancée and is subject to a FanDisservice version where an unwilling and unattractive girl is forced into his bedroom by a manservant, only for both of them to be thrown out by an outraged Otto.

* In ''WebAnimation/TheGrosseryGang'' webseries episode "Rockyland", one of Rocky's king decrees (flipped and mirrored, but still legible on the scroll) is "Reinstate the Primanocta". [[{{What do you mean its for kids}} This is a kids' webseries, too.]]

* In the world of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', certain offences (like prostitution) are designated a "class-H offence". That means the punishment is entirely at the discretion of the arresting officer. This serves as a KickTheDog for the Fingermen (and by extension, the government they serve) at the start of the story and ensures we don't feel bad when V shows up to kill them as they're about to rape Evey.

* Mentioned by [[HateSink Diodora Astaroth]] in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'' as he gleefully tells Issei [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what he plans to do to Asia]]. Issei quickly makes him [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown eat those words]]. With ''[[SuperMode Juggernaut Drive]]''.

* Mentioned by [[HateSink Diodora Astaroth]] in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'' as he gleefully tells Issei [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what he plans to do to Asia]]. Issei quickly makes him [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown eat those words]].

* It is said of Axumite[[note]]classical-era Ethiopian[[/note]] general/official Abraha the Scar-faced, Governor of Yemen, that his [[RedBaron appellation]] derived from a time when he was engaged in a [[KlingonPromotion fight with a man who wanted his job]]. After Abraha received a chop to the center of his face, his servant jumped in and killed his challenger. In gratitude, the servant was granted anything he wanted; the servant asked for the right to sleep with every bride on her wedding night, which Abraham [[HonorBeforeReason disliked but felt honor-bound to allow]]. So the servant went on sleeping with newlywed women for a while until an aggrieved groom killed him. When the case went before him, Abraham ''apologized'' and let the man go free.

* ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'': Edward "Longshanks" grants ''ius prima noctis'' to English lords, granting them the sexual right to take any Scottish girl for himself on her wedding night. He figures with this in place, some of his lords will both be more eager to rule in Scotland, and more thoroughly keep the Scots under their thumb. His explicit reasoning, though, is to "breed [the barbarism] out of" the Scots.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The right of first night used to be practiced widely across Westeros. While it was banned by one of the first Targaryen monarchs, Jaehaerys I "the Wise" (mostly thanks to dedicated lobbying by his wife, the "Good Queen" Alysanne), some lords still practice it.

* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'': Harchongese nobles are allowed to have sex with any peasant/serf female they want, whenever they want.

* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series, it's mentioned that this practice is popular in Orlais amongst the Nobles and Chevaliers. Liselle, an Orlesian merchant encountered in Denerim, explains that the reason she came to Ferelden was to flee retribution after her brother knocked out a Chevalier who attempted to invoke this. It's implied that it is far less common in Ferelden as, for the most part, the nobility tends to hold themselves to the same laws and standards as the ones they impose on the common folk ("The nobles are not so high, and the commoners are not so low" as Liselle herself says). It's a sign of how monstrous Bann Vaughan Kendalls of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is that he is the only Fereldan noble shown to routinely practice this.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The right of first knight used to be practiced widely across Westeros. While it was banned by one of the first Targaryen monarchs, Jaehaerys I "the Wise" (mostly thanks to dedicated lobbying by his wife, the "Good Queen" Alysanne), some lords still practice it.

** 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.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': The right of first knight used to be practiced widely across Westeros. While it was banned by one of the first Targaryen monarchs, Jaehaerys I "the Wise", some lords still practice it.