Sen"es*chal (?), n. [OF. seneschal, LL. seniscalcus, of Teutonic origin; cf. Goth. sineigs old, skalks, OHG. scalch, AS. scealc. Cf. Senior, Marshal.]

An officer in the houses of princes and dignitaries, in the Middle Ages, who had the superintendence of feasts and domestic ceremonies; a steward. Sometimes the seneschal had the dispensing of justice, and was given high military commands.

Then marshaled feast Served up in hall with sewers and seneschale. Milton.

Philip Augustus, by a famous ordinance in 1190, first established royal courts of justice, held by the officers called baitiffs, or seneschals, who acted as the king's lieutenants in his demains. Hallam.

 

© Webster 1913.

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