page_title: Droit du seigneur
hierarchical_section_title: Droit du seigneur
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Право господинаFrançais&#160;: Le droit du Seigneur
context_page_description: Droit du seigneur, also known as jus primae noctis, and prima nocta, was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women, in particular, on their wedding nights.
  Historians David A. Walker and Hector McKechnie wrote that the "right" might have existed in medieval Europe, but other historians have concluded that it is a myth, and that all references to it are from later periods. Over centuries, it became commonly portrayed in European literature as a practice that had occurred in earlier times or other places.
context_section_description: Droit du seigneur ('lord's right'), also known as jus primae noctis ('right of the first night'), and prima nocta, was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women, in particular, on their wedding nights.
  Historians David A. Walker and Hector McKechnie wrote that the "right" might have existed in medieval Europe, but other historians have concluded that it is a myth, and that all references to it are from later periods. Over centuries, it became commonly portrayed in European literature as a practice that had occurred in earlier times or other places.
caption: Vasily Polenov: Le droit du Seigneur (1874); a nineteenth-century artist's painting of an old man bringing his young daughters to their feudal lord
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