General Notes

Seneschal,  French SNCHAL, in medieval and early modern France, asteward or principal administrator in a royal or noblehousehold. As time went on, the office declined in importanceand was often
equivalent to that of  a bailiff (q.v.); theoffice and title persisted until the French Revolution.In  Merovingian times the seneschal was subordinate to the majordomus, or mayor of the palace, and
had charge of the personnelof the royal household. Under the  Carolingians he becameresponsible for organizing the journeys of king or emperor and,by 1071, was the chief officer--steward of the
household, headof the army, and administrator of the royal demesne. With thetitle dapifer he headed the names of those witnessing royaldiplomas. By the mid-12th century, however, the office
hadweakened and become largely honorary.Most of the great French feudatories--the dukes of Normandy andAquitaine, the counts of Anjou, Poitiers, and Toulouse--hadtheir seneschals. In Anjou and
Poitou the title was given tosubordinate officials on those counts' demesne. When theseprovinces became united to the crown after 1203, these officialswere retained to perform the same duties as the
bailiffs of theroyal demesne elsewhere. This was the basis of the later classicadministrative division of France into bailliages andsnchausses, although in Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Auvergnethe
seneschals were replaced by bailiffs.Related Propaedia TopicsThe Carolingian Empire and its later dissolution (c. 750-887),France in the 10th centuryCopyright (c) 1996 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
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DATE 1 APR 1999