mesne lord

• lord mesne

Distinguishing the nature of the lord as intermediate (Old French mesne, "middle"), particularly as opposed to lords paramount and tenants-in-chief.

mesne lord (plural mesne lords)

1. (law, historical) A lord entitled to rent or feudal obligations from tenants but who himself owes rent or feudal obligations to another.
   • 1767, William Blackstone, “The Rights of Things”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume II, page 60:

     Thus all the land in the kingdom is supposed to be holden, mediately or immediately, of the sovereign, who is styled the lord paramount, or above all. Such tenants as held under the crown immediately, when they granted out portions of their lands to inferior persons, became also lords with respect to those inferior persons, as they were still tenants with respect to the king; and, thus partaking of a middle nature, were called mesne, or middle, lords. So that if the king granted a manor to A., and he granted a portion of the land to B., now B. was said to hold of A., and A. of the king... A. was both tenant and lord, or was a mesne lord: and B. was called tenant paravail, or the lowest tenant; being he who was supposed to make avail or profit of the land.

Although Blackstone and others considered any intermediate lord to be a mesne lord, others distinguish the mesne lords as the product of subinfeudation and exclude from the term the tenants-in-chief who held their estates directly from the king.

• knight banneret, banneret

• lord paramount, tenant-in-chief
• mesnalty