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A seneschal () was an administrative officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages and Early modern period. In a medieval noble household a seneschal was in charge of domestic arrangements and the administration of servants.〔''The Free Dictionary''〕 In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French ''bailli''. It is equivalent to the Slavonic title stolnik or the English steward.〔''Encyclopaedia Perthensis; or Universal Dictionary of the Arts'' Volume 20 (1816), p. 437〕 ==Etymology and origin== The term, first attested in 1350–1400, was borrowed from Anglo-Norman ''seneschal'' "steward", from Old Dutch *''siniscalc'' "senior retainer" (attested in Latin ''siniscalcus'' (692 AD), Old High German ''senescalh''), a compound of *''sini''- (cf. Gothic ''sineigs'' "old", ''sinista'' "oldest") and ''scalc'' "servant", ultimately a calque of Late Latin ''senior scholaris'' "senior guard". The ''scholae'' in the late Roman Empire referred to the imperial guard, divided into senior (''seniores'') and junior (''juniores'') units. The captain of the guard was known as ''comes scholarum''.〔Leo Wiener, ''Commentary to the Germanic Laws and Mediaeval Documents'' (Harvard UP, 1915; reprint Union, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, 1999), 33-4.〕 When Germanic tribes took over the Empire, the ''scholae'' were merged or replaced with the Germanic king's warband (cf. Vulgar Latin '' *dructis'', OHG ''truht'', Old English ''dryht'') whose members also had duties in their lord's household like a royal retinue.〔D. H. Green, ''Language and History in the Early Germanic World'' (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998), 110-2.〕 The king's chief warbandman and retainer (cf. Old Saxon ''druhting'', OHG ''truhting'', ''truhtigomo'' OE ''dryhtguma'', ''dryhtealdor''), from the 5th century on, personally attended on the king, as specifically stated in the Theodosian Code of 413 (''Cod. Theod.'' VI. 13. 1; known as ''comes scholae'').〔Wiener, 34.〕 The warband, once sedentary, became first the king's royal household, and then his great officers of state, and in both cases the seneschal is synonymous with steward. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「seneschal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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