Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Lensmann

Historically holder of a royal fief and now rural police chief From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Lensmann in modern Norwegian or lensmand in Danish and older Norwegian spelling (lit.'fief man'; Old Norse: lénsmaðr) is a term with several distinct meanings in Nordic history. The Icelandic equivalent was a hreppstjóri.

Remove ads

Fief-holder

The term lensmann traditionally referred to a holder of a royal fief in Denmark and Norway. As the fiefs were renamed amt in 1662, the term lensmand was replaced with amtmand. In Norway these offices evolved into the modern fylkesmann office. Modern Norwegian historians often use the term lensherre (English: 'fief lord') instead of lensmann, although from the legal point of view, the king was the fief lord, and the title used by contemporaries was lensmand, not lensherre.[1]

While the lensmann was a fief-holder from the nobility, the amtmann was a civil servant who might be ennobled as a reward.

More information Office, Amtmann ...
Thumb
Rank badge of a modern Norwegian police lensmann.
Remove ads

Modern police officer

The title lensmann is also used in an entirely different meaning in modern Norway, denoting the leader of a rural police district known as a lensmannsdistrikt.[3]

See also

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads