majorat
Sign in to saveMajorat () is an arrangement giving the right of succession to a specific parcel of property associated with a title of nobility to a single heir, based on male primogeniture. A majorat (fideicommis) would be inherited by the oldest son, or if there was no son, the nearest male relative. This law existed in some European countries and was designed to prevent the distribution of wealthy estates between many members of the family, thus weakening their position. Majorats were one of the factors facilitating the evolution of aristocracy.
Described at
MAJORAT : Définition de MAJORAT
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Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- inheritance
Show 4 more facts
- different from
- Majorat, Lublin Voivodeship
- opposite of
- ultimogeniture
- described at URL
- www.cnrtl.fr/definition/majorat
Sources (3)
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Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- France
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Portugal
- Spain
- Russian Empire
- See also
- References
Majorat () is an arrangement giving the right of succession to a specific parcel of property associated with a title of nobility to a single heir, based on male primogeniture. A majorat (fideicommis) would be inherited by the oldest son, or if there was no son, the nearest male relative. This law existed in some European countries and was designed to prevent the distribution of wealthy estates between many members of the family, thus weakening their position. Majorats were one of the factors facilitating the evolution of aristocracy.
The term is not used to refer to inheritances in England, where the practice was the norm, in the form of entails (also known as fee tails).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “majorat” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.