[Fr. drwa dy se-nyœr] 
| the supposed right claimable by a feudal lord to have sexual relations with the bride of a vassal on her first night of marriage. |
| droit du seign·eur (drwä dü sěn-yɶr') n. The supposed right of a feudal lord to have sexual relations with a vassal's bride on her wedding night. [French : droit, right + du, of the + seigneur, lord of a manor.] |
droit du seigneur
(French: "right of the lord"), a feudal right said to have existed in medieval Europe giving the lord to whom it belonged the right to sleep the first night with the bride of any one of his vassals. The custom is paralleled in various primitive societies, but the evidence of its existence in Europe is all indirect, involving records of redemption dues paid by the vassal to avoid enforcement of some lordly rights. Many intellectual investigations have been devoted to the problem. A considerable number of feudal rights were related to the vassal's marriage, particularly the lord's right to select a bride for his vassal, but these were almost invariably redeemed by a money payment, or "avail"; and it seems likely that the droit du seigneur amounted, in effect, only to another tax of this sort.
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