Mr (title)
Herr ( mhd . Frô , Latin dominus , French seigneur , English Lord ; female counterpart woman , see mhd. Frouwe ) was a name for the owner of a lordship in the Middle Ages . He was distinguished from counts , dukes and other nobles, as well as knights .
status
A lord could decide independently in his territory, exercised jurisdiction and feudal law , and thus differed from a knight or man who was more subordinate to his liege lord. But he did not have a higher noble title. The gentlemen were represented in the estates or state parliaments of the individual rulers in the first and second curia, the chamber of lords or princes , together with the princes. They differed from the members of the knighthood. Well-known gentlemen were z. B. east of the Elbe the Lords of Plotho ,from Werle or from Cottbus .
In the modern era, the meaning also expanded to other groups of people who exercised executive power in a property or a territory. The new term “ civil lord ” emerged, with an almost identical meaning.
See also
literature
- Hanns Hubert Hofmann (ed.): Sources on the constitutional organism of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. 1495–1815 (= selected sources on German history in modern times. Vol. 13). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1976, ISBN 3-534-01959-8 .
- Rudolf Lehmann : The gentlemen in Lower Lusatia. Studies of origin and history. (= Central German research. Volume 40). Böhlau, Cologne and Graz 1966