Droit du seigneur (/ˈdrɑː də seɪˈnjɜr/; ) was a putative legal right allowing the lord of a medieval estate to take the virginity of his serfs' maiden daughters. Critical medieval scholarship now regards this supposed right as a myth, as one recent specialist has put it, "the simple reason why we are dealing with a myth here rests in the surprising fact that practically all writers who make any such claims have never been able or willing to cite any trustworthy source, if they have any."
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Famous quotes containing the word droit:
“Napoleon never wished to be justified. He killed his enemy according to Corsican traditions [le droit corse] and if he sometimes regretted his mistake, he never understood that it had been a crime.”
—Guillaume-Prosper, Baron De Barante (1782–1866)