Seneschal

The word seneschal (/ˈsɛnəʃəl/) can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ducal, or noble household during the Middle Ages and early Modern period – historically a steward or majordomo of a medieval great house.^[1][2] In a medieval royal household, a seneschal was in charge of domestic arrangements and the administration of servants,^[3] which, in the medieval period particularly, meant the seneschal might oversee hundreds of laborers, servants and their associated responsibilities, and have a great deal of power in the community, at a time when much of the local economy was often based on the wealth and responsibilities of such a household.

A second meaning is more specific, and concerns the late medieval and early modern nation of France, wherein the seneschal (French: sénéchal) was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration of certain southern provinces called seneschalties, holding a role equivalent to a northern French bailiff (bailli).

In the United Kingdom the modern meaning of seneschal is primarily as an ecclesiastical term, referring to a cathedral official.^[4]