the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Seneschal
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or (the O. Fr. form, mod. sdndchal, of the Low Lat. senescalcus, a word of Teutonic origin, meaning "old or senior servant," Goth. sini- old; cf. Lat. senex and stalks, servant; Du Cange's derivation from seneste, flock, herd, must be rejected), the title of an official equivalent to "steward." The seneschal began presumably by being the major-domo of the German barbarian princes who settled in the empire, and was therefore the predecessor of the mayors of the palace of the Merovingian kings. But the name seneschal became prominent in France under the third or Capetian dynasty. The seneschal, called in medieval Latin the dapifer (from daps, a feast, and ferre, to carry), was the chief of the five great officers of state of the French court between the 11th and the 13th centuries, the others being the butler, the chamberlain, the constable and the chancellor. His functions were described by the term major regiae domes, and regni Franciae procurator - major-domo of the royal household, and agent of the kingdom of France. The English equivalent was the lord high steward, but the office never attained the same importance in England as in France. Under the earlier Capetian sovereigns the seneschal was the second person in the kingdom. He inherited the power and position of the mayor of the palace - had a general right of supervision over the king's service, was commander-in-chief of the military forces (princeps militiae regis, or Francorum), was steward of the household and presided in the king's court in the absence of the king. Under weak rulers the seneschal would no doubt have played the same part as the mayors of the palace of the Carolingian line. It was the vast possibilities of the office which must be presumed to have tempted the counts of Anjou of the Plantagenet line to claim the hereditary dapifership of France, and to support their claim by forgeries. A count of Anjou who was also in effective possession of the office would soon have reduced his feudal lord to absolute insignificance. French historical scholars have shown that the pretension of the Anjevins was unfounded, and that the treatise concocted to support it - the De majoratu et senescalia Franciae, attributed to Hugues de Cleres - is a medieval forgery. At the close of the 11th century the seneschalship was in the hands of the family of Rochefort, and in the early part of the following century it passed from them to the family of Garlande. The power of the office was a perpetual temptation to the vassal, and a cause of jealousy to the king. The Garlandes came to open conflict with the king, and were forcibly suppressed by Louis VI. in 1127. After their fall the seneschalship was conferred only on great feudatories who were the king's kinsmen - on Raoul of Vermandois till 1152, and on Thibaut of Blois till 1191. From that time forward no seneschal was appointed except to act as steward at the coronation of the king. The name of the seneschal was added with those of the other great officers to the kings in charters, and when the office was not filled the words dapifero vacante were written instead. The great vassals had seneschals of their own, and when the great fiefs, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Poitou, Saintonge, Guienne, were regained by the crown, the office was allowed to survive by the king. In the south of France, Perigord, Quercy, Toulouse, Agenais, Rouergue, Beaucaire and Carcassonne were royal senechaussees. In Languedoc the landlords' agent and judicial officer, known in the north of France as a bailli, was called senechal. The office and title existed till the Revolution.
See Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis (Paris, 1840-1850); A. Luchaire, Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capetiens (Paris, 1883-1885); Manuel des institutions francaises (Paris, 1892); Paul Viollet, Droit publiqueHist. des institutions politiques et administratives de la France (Paris, 1890-1898).
or Sinigaglia (anc. Sena Gallica), a city and episcopal see of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Ancona, on the coast of the Adriatic, 15 m. by rail N. of Ancona. Pop. (1901) 5556 (town), 23,195 (commune). It is situated at 14 ft. above sea-level, and, despite its ancient origin, presents a modern appearance, with wide streets. The Palazzo Comunale dates from the 17th century. The cathedral was erected after 1787. The castle, of Gothic origin, was restored by Baccio Pontelli, a famous military architect, in 1492. The church of S Maria delle Grazie outside the town is one of the only two churches which he is known to have executed (the other is at Orciano near Mondavio, about 15 m. to the west by road). The small port is formed by the lower reaches of the Misa, a stream which flows through the town between embankments constructed of Istrian marble. The inhabitants are chiefly occupied in fishing, and in the summer the town is greatly frequented by visitors for the good sea-bathing. Senigallia used to hold one of the largest fairs in Italy, which dated originally from 1200, when Sergius, count of Senigallia, received from the count of Marseilles, to whose daughter he was affianced, certain relics of Mary Magdalene; this fair used to be visited by merchants from France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and especially the Levant. Senigallia is the residence of the Mastai-Ferretti family; the house in which Pope Pius IX. was born is preserved, and contains a few memorials of him.
The ancient Sena Gallica was a city of Umbria. A colony was founded there by the Romans after their victory over the Senones, rather before 280 B.C. The place is also mentioned in connexion with Hasdrubal's defeat at the Metaurus in 207 B.C. It was destroyed by Pompey in 82 B.C., and is not often mentioned afterwards. No ancient remains and very few inscriptions exist. The name Gallica distinguishes it from Saena (Siena) in Etruria. Ravaged by Alaric, fortified by the exarch Longinus, and again laid waste by the Lombards in the 8th century and by the Saracens in the 9th, Senigallia was at length brought so low by the Guelph and Ghibelline wars, and especially by the severities of Guido de Montefeltro, that it was chosen by Dante as the typical instance of a ruined city. In the 15th century it was captured and recaptured again and again by the Malatesta and their opponents. Sigismondo Malatesta of Rimini erected strong fortifications round the town in 1450-1455. The lordship of Senigallia was bestowed by Pius II. on his nephew Antonio Piccolomini, but the people of the town in 1464 placed themselves anew under Paul II., and Giacomo Piccolomini in 1472 failed in his attempt to seize the place. Sixtus IV. assigned the lordship to the Della Rovere family, from whom it was transferred to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1516. After 1624 it formed part of the legation of Urbino.
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Seneschal'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/s/seneschal.html. 1910.
