Lord - Ryōshū

Japanese: 領主 - りょうしゅ

A large landowner who has political control over the people living on his or her property.

[Ichiro Tochigawa]

Western

From the 3rd century onwards, large landowners in the Roman Empire restricted the freedom of tenant farmers, turning them into colonies, while at the same time obtaining tax exemption privileges from the emperor. This was the beginning of the feudal system, which spread to the conquered Germanic kingdoms after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. When classical manors were established in the Frankish Kingdom, it is said that the lords of large manors obtained independent judicial power, or the right of non-entry (broadly defined as Immunität), from the king, completing their feudal rights. However, their power was only nominal over the peasants within their manors. For example, Article 30 of the 11th century Worms Bishopric (Grimm's Village Laws, Vol. 1) clearly states that the lord could not even exercise the authority to punish murderers, and that the settlement of cases was left to vendettas between the peasants. This is because the average peasant in a classical manor was actually a kind of wealthy peasant, a small ruler who owned slaves.

In France, the era of rented manors began after the 11th century, and the number of wealthy peasants decreased, while small peasants became the standard peasant. On the other hand, small and medium-sized lords emerged in various places, but both the old and new lords continued to own large numbers of slaves, some of whom were armed. The lords used these armed slave armies to oppress the small peasants and established serfdom. In other words, each lord exercised independent judicial power within his own manor and collected harsh feudal rents from the peasants. In response, peasant rebellions arose from the 12th century onwards, and the lords were forced to reduce rents and free the slaves, but they also tried to form a confederation of lords. As a result, powerful lords with the titles of count (comte) and duke (duc) were given the power to mobilize small and medium-sized lords and were entrusted with criminal jurisdiction. Serfdom began to waver with the great Jacqueline Peasant Revolt, but in the 16th century and thereafter, when absolutism was established in preparation for this, the judicial powers of counts and others were concentrated in the hands of the king, and the powers of feudal lords were limited to the right to collect rents and some civil judicial powers, and were finally abolished by the French Revolution.

In England, serfdom was established around the 13th century, but in principle criminal jurisdiction was directly subordinate to the king, and feudal lordship was limited. This principle was often violated because local associations of feudal lords selected their own judges, but it was largely realized with the establishment of absolutism at the end of the 15th century. The feudal lordship was abolished along with absolutism during the Puritan Revolution.

In Germany, the era of rent manors began around the 13th century, and a distinction was made between large and small lords, namely, judicial lords and manorial lords. Moreover, the authority of judicial lords was divided into hierarchical and hierarchical, with high judicial lords having the power to judge serious crimes and the final power to judge other crimes and civil cases, low judicial lords judging criminal and civil cases other than serious crimes, and manorial lords only having the right to collect rents and the power to judge civil cases related to land. In the 13th century, high judicial territories were almost the same as counties, but they were later subdivided and divided into jurisdictions (Landgericht) with a population of around 10,000. On the other hand, from around the 16th century, feudal states with large lords as sovereigns were established, and in Prussia, one of the large territories, high judicial power was concentrated in the hands of the sovereign. However, in the largest state, Austria, for example its branch state Upper Austria, in 1770 there were 57 jurisdictions belonging to intermediate lordships, 8 jurisdictions that were fully autonomous cities, and only a few jurisdictions that were directly subordinate to the monarch. The other state states, like Austria, were more like confederations of jurisdictional states.

Moreover, the high judicial power of the feudal lords was nominal, and murder cases were still settled by vendettas between peasants and citizens, as can be confirmed by dozens of historical documents, such as the 14th century Bacharach's Law of Vengeance (Southwest Germany, Grimm, ed., vol. 2) and Grotius's Inleiding (3, 34, no. 6). While this vendetta took place in a collective battle between the relatives of both the victim and the assailant, invaders of peasants' or citizens' homes were retaliated against by the victim in the form of beheading, which is considered to be a single act of vendetta, and there are over 30 historical documents dating back to around 1700.

The reason why crimes such as murder and burglary were dealt with through private revenge was because the core of German peasants and citizens were still slave owners. According to the Enns (Upper Austria) City Law of 1212 and the Vienna City Law of 1221, citizens owned male and female slaves, and in the Meppen Church Historical Documents of 1348 (Northwest Germany, Grimm, Ibid., Vol. 3), lords and peasants exchanged slaves. These slaves were called Gesinde (subordinates) in German, and according to Article 7 of the 16th century Steyr Manor's Manorial Law (Austrian Village Laws, Vol. 13), wealthy peasants had the right to punish and kill their own subordinates. Therefore, it can be said that German feudal lordship only played a mediating role with respect to peasants and citizens, and that wealthy peasants and citizens continued to have a kind of lordship as small rulers. Such lordship of peasants and citizens was officially denied in 1872, after the unification of Germany by Prussia, when the clause on the right to punish servants was deleted from the Prussian Servant Law. However, in the former Prussia, the nobles continued to unfairly control servants and agricultural laborers, and it was not until the defeat in World War II that any vestiges of such lordship were completely wiped out.

[Ichiro Tochigawa]

Japan

In pre-modern society, this refers to a person who owned land as a fief, controlled the peasants who belonged to the fief, and collected rent from them. In Japan, typical examples are medieval local lords and manor lords, and early modern feudal lords. These lords were organized into a diverse social hierarchy based on the "family" and its head, with the main owner being the family, and the family was classified according to rank, rank, occupation, etc.

The origins of Japanese feudal lords can be traced back to ancient local clans and government officials and aristocrats. Under the Ritsuryo state's rule over public land and citizens, the acquisition of private land and private citizens was severely restricted, but powerful citizens emerged as "wealthy groups" and promoted private management and development of land by investing movable property accumulated through privately managed fields and private land acquisition. As a result, medieval local lords and manor lords were born and developed. At the same time, they used the ranks of the aristocratic government and central and local government positions as support for their feudal power, and were appointed to various positions, which they turned into land and passed down. The management of a feudal lord's territory was based on encouraging agriculture in the spring, inspecting fields in the summer, collecting taxes in the fall, and carrying out regular and special public duties and collecting laborers throughout the year. In addition, feudal lordship often extended to the control of mountains, fields, rivers, and seas, such as lumbering, pastures, hunting grounds, and bays. Feudal lordship also often extended to the control of markets and ports, the performance of Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies, the trial of the domain's subjects, and the investigation of criminal offenses. Furthermore, in order to preserve, pass on, recover, or expand their territories, feudal lords were willing to engage in long-term disputes and lawsuits, seizures, and conflicts, and they performed military service and other duties in search of protection from the imperial and military authorities, and they rushed into battle in the hope of receiving rewards for their military achievements.

[Yoshimi Toda]

Ichiro Tochikawa, Comparative Historical Study of Western Feudal Society, Revised and Enlarged Edition (1984, Aoki Shoten)

[References] | Manors | Serfdom | Feudal States

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

自己の所有地内の住民に対して政治的支配権をもつ大土地所有者。

［橡川一朗］

西洋

3世紀以降ローマ帝国の大土地所有者は小作農の自由を制限してコロヌスに転落させ、他方、皇帝から免税特権を得た。これが領主制の始まりで、西ローマ滅亡後、ゲルマン人の征服王国内に広まった。フランク王国で古典荘園(しょうえん)が成立したころ、大荘園領主は国王から独立の裁判権すなわち不入権（広義のインムニテートImmunität）を得て、領主権を完成させたといわれる。ただしその権力は、荘園内の農民に対しては名目的なものにすぎなかった。たとえば11世紀の西南ドイツのウォルムス司教領『荘民団規則』（グリム編『村法類』第一巻）第30条には、領主が殺人犯人を処罰する権限さえ行使できず、事件の決着は農民間の仇討(あだうち)にゆだねられた事実が明記されている。それは古典荘園内の標準的な農民が実は一種の富農であり、奴隷を所有する小支配者であったことによる。

　フランスでは11世紀以降、地代荘園の時代に入り、富農が減少して、小農民が標準的農民となった。他方、各地に中小領主が台頭したが、新旧領主とも、依然多数の奴隷を所有して、その一部に武装させた。領主はこの武装奴隷隊をもって小農民を抑圧し、農奴制を実現した。すなわち各領主は自己の荘園内で独立の裁判権を行使し、農民から過酷な封建地代を徴収した。これに対して12世紀以後、農民の反抗が起こり、領主は地代の軽減や奴隷の解放を余儀なくされた反面、領主連合の結成に努めた。その結果、伯（コントcomte）や公（デュクduc）の称号をもつ有力領主が、中小領主を動員する権能を認められるとともに、刑事裁判権を委託された。ジャクリーの大農民反乱を機に農奴制は動揺し始めたが、16世紀以後これに備えて絶対主義が成立すると、伯などの裁判権は国王のもとに集中され、領主権は地代徴収権と若干の民事裁判権に限定され、最後にフランス革命によって否定された。

　イギリスでは13世紀ごろ農奴制が成立したが、原則として刑事裁判権は国王に直属し、領主権は制限されていた。この原則は、地方的な領主連合団体が自ら裁判官を選出したため、しばしば破られたが、15世紀末の絶対主義成立によって、ほぼ実現された。領主制が絶対主義とともに廃棄されたのは、ピューリタン革命による。

　ドイツでは13世紀ごろから地代荘園の時代となり、大小領主の間に裁判領主と荘園領主との区別が生まれた。しかも裁判領主の権限にも上下の別が生じ、高裁判領主は重罪裁判権およびその他の事犯や民事訴訟の最終裁判権をもち、低裁判領主は重罪以外の刑事および民事事件を裁き、また荘園領主は地代徴収権と土地関係の民事裁判権のみをもった。なお高裁判領は、13世紀には伯領とほぼ一致したが、その後細分化し、人口1万前後の法域（ラントゲリヒトLandgericht）に分かれた。他方、16世紀ごろから大領主を君主とする領邦国家が成立し、大領邦の一つプロイセンでは高裁判権は君主の手に集中した。しかし最大の領邦オーストリアでは、たとえばその支邦である上オーストリアで、1770年に中級領主に属する法域57、完全自治都市たる法域8、これに対して君主直属の法域は数個にすぎなかった。その他の領邦国家もオーストリアに似て、法域国家の連合体という性格が強かった。

　そのうえ法域領主の高裁判権も名目のみで、殺人事件が依然農民・市民間の仇討によって処理されたことは、14世紀の『バッハラッハBacharach仇討法』（西南ドイツ、グリム編同上第二巻）やグロティウス『オランダ法学入門』Inleiding（三の34の6）の証言など数十編の史料によって確認できる。なおこの仇討が被害者・加害者双方の親族団による集団的戦闘であったのに対して、農民・市民の住居への侵入者は、被侵害者による切り捨てという報復を受けたが、これは単独の仇討と考えられ、その史料は1700年前後のものまで30編余に達する。

　かように殺人や家宅侵入などの犯罪が私的な仇討によって処理されたのは、ドイツの農民・市民の中核が依然、奴隷所有者だったからである。すなわち1212年のエンスEnns（上オーストリア）市法および21年のウィーン市法によれば、市民は男女の奴隷を所有し、1348年のメッペンMeppen教会領史料（西北ドイツ、グリム編同上第三巻）では領主と農民とが奴隷を交換している。この奴隷はドイツ語でゲジンデGesinde（下人(げにん)）とよばれ、16世紀のシュタイルSteyr荘園『荘民法』（『オーストリア村法類』第13巻）第7条によれば、富農は自己の下人を懲戒して殺す権利をもっていた。したがってドイツの領主権は、農民・市民に対して、せいぜい調停の機能を果たしたにすぎず、逆に富農や市民が小支配者として一種の領主権をもち続けたといえる。かかる農民・市民的領主権が公式に否定されたのは、プロイセンによるドイツ統一後の1872年、プロイセン『下人法』中の下人懲罰権条項が削除されたときである。しかし旧プロイセンでは貴族による下人や農業労働者への不当な支配が続けられ、このような領主権の名残(なごり)の完全な消滅は第二次世界大戦の敗戦による。

［橡川一朗］

日本

前近代社会において、所領として土地を領有し、所領に属する農民を支配して地代を収取する者をいう。日本の場合、中世の在地領主と荘園(しょうえん)領主、近世の幕藩領主がその典型となる。それら領主は、「家」とその長を領有の主体とし、大小、貴賤(きせん)、嫡庶、聖俗、官位、職能などによって、多様な身分階層秩序に編成されていた。

　日本の領主の起源は、古代の地方豪族と官人貴族に求められる。律令(りつりょう)国家の公地公民支配のもとで、私領私民の獲得は著しく制約されていたが、勢家豪民が「富豪の輩(ともがら)」として登場し、私営田・私出挙(しすいこ)で蓄積した動産を投下して土地の私的経営と開発を推し進めた結果、中世の在地領主と荘園領主が生成し発展する。一方彼らは貴族政権の位階や中央・地方の官職を領主権力の支えとし、さまざまな所職(しょしき)に任じられ、これを所領化して伝領した。領主としての所領の経営は、春の勧農、夏の検田、秋の収納、年中の恒例・臨時の雑公事(ぞうくじ)・夫役(ぶやく)の徴集を基本とし、そのほか杣(そま)、牧、狩場、浦など山野河海の支配に及ぶことが多かった。また領主権は、しばしば市(いち)や津の統制、神事・仏事の興行、領民の裁判、犯科の検断などについても行使される。さらに領主は所領の保全と伝領、回復や拡充のために、長期にわたる相論・訴訟や、押領(おうりょう)・闘乱を辞せず、公武権門の庇護(ひご)を求めて軍役その他の諸役を勤仕し、軍功の恩賞を期待して合戦に馳(は)せ参じた。

［戸田芳実］

『橡川一朗著『西欧封建社会の比較史的研究』増補改訂版（1984・青木書店）』

[参照項目] | 荘園 | 農奴制 | 領邦国家

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