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The word seneschal (/ ˈ s ɛ n ə ʃ əl /) can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context.Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ducal, or noble household during the Middle Ages and early Modern period – historically a steward or majordomo of a medieval ...
The Seneschal of Anjou (siniscallus, Vulgar or old Frankish Latin, also dapifer) was an officer of an aristocratic household assigned to manage the domestic affairs of the lords of Anjou. During the course of the twelfth century, the seneschalship also became an office of military command.
The seneschal managed the household, coordinating between the receivers of various landholdings and the chamber, treasury, and the chancellory or chapel. The seneschals of Normandy, like those appointed in Gascony, Poitou, and Anjou had custody of demesne fortresses, the regional treasuries, and presidency of the highest court of regional custom.
In Anjou, Stephen of Tours was replaced as seneschal and temporarily imprisoned for fiscal mismanagement. Payn de Rochefort, an Angevin knight, became seneschal of Anjou. In Poitou the ex-provost of Benon, Peter Bertin, was made seneschal, and finally, the household official Helie de La Celle was picked for the seneschalship in Gascony.
Historians often translate discifer as seneschal, [6] but Gautier objects that the word seneschal is not recorded in England before the Norman Conquest. [2] According to the twelfth-century chronicler, John of Worcester, in 946 King Edmund I was killed trying to protect his dapifer from assault by an outlaw.
The Principality of Antioch mirrored the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in its selection of great offices: constable, marshal, seneschal, chamberlain, butler, chancellor and at certain times also bailiff. The officers of the Principality of Antioch are listed below. Dates are dates of attestation, not necessarily beginning and end dates of tenure.
Seneschal was also the term used in Ireland to denote the Steward of a Prescriptive Barony, [16] or Manor (as the official would be called in England), before whom the Court Leet or view of frankpledge was held. More recently, the term Seneschal was also, apparently used to describe Donal Buckley, as the Governor-General of the Irish Free State ...
Ministerials were found holding the four great offices necessary to run a great household: seneschal, butler, marshal and chamberlain. They were vidames ( vice dominus , or runners of estates) or castellans, having both military and administrative responsibilities.