Lonford Barony EagleCrossCrownHammer  Branden Irish_norse-CoinBlondelCrestMeath Normandy  LongfordSealHeader

 

Legal and Historical Disclaimer:

  1. Annaly and Longford are at the center of Ireland
  2. Under DeLacy's Lordship of Meath, he granted western meath to Lord Delvin or Baron Delvin of the Nugent/Nogent family.
  3. Baron Delvin or Lord Westmeath received various other Longford and Annaly grants of baronies and seignories from King Edward, Philip and Mary, and King James.
  4. The Nugents intermarried with the Irish clans and their families.
  5. Baron Delvin and Lord Westmeath  is a descendant of the princes and kings of Annaly, Breifne, Meath and many other local clans.
  6. The grants were held by Baron Delvin who is and was an Irish Citizen.
  7. The Republic of Ireland became independent.
  8. The rights, perquisites, dignities, designations, and hereditiments of Ireland remain legally viable to those who have either purchased or inherited the incorporeal property.
  • The Fief Thomas Blondel was SOLD in 2017 at Auction by  Manorial Auctioneers in the UK by:  Count Marcov, Seigneur de Fief Thomas Blondel 2000-2017.
  • Style of a Seigeur Law is listed in 1980 Laws.
  • It is said that there are only 23 Private Fiefs in the Guernsey Island. See Map:  http://sog.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Viewer/index.html?appid=b72b10ff812b4f58a2895a08b8d10cb1
  • This is an Ancient Fief which pre-dates most UK law and titles.
  • This Fief pre-dates the use of typical baronial titles.
  • This Fief Title and Owner's Dignity  is similar to a Scandinavian Barony or Free Lord such as a Freiherr or Free-Holder Property. 
  • This Fief and Lordship  is said to have existed by 1179.
  • The charters issued by the Kings of England allow for this Fief to exist independently of English or UK law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_charters_applying_to_the_Channel_Islands 
  • The Fief Holders rights from time immorial have included rights to things such as:  water, common areas, rain, land, soil, mineral rights, beaches, foreshores, hunting, fishing, airspace, trees, foliage, treasure from shores,  and so forth.
  • The Fief and its citizens may have immunity from the Vatican from a Papal Bull.
  • The Bailiwick of Guernsey includes the separate jurisdictions of Alderney and Sark and the islands of Herm, Jethou and Lihou. The island of Brecqhou is part of Sark. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown.
  • Guernsey has been placed on EU tax haven blacklist.
  • The Crown dependencies are the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel. They are independently administered jurisdictions, and do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories
  • The Island of Guernsey is a  self-governing Island.
  • The Channel Islands are part of the territory annexed by the Duchy of Normandy in 933 from the Duchy of Brittany. This territory was added to the grant of land given in settlement by the King of France in 911 to the Viking raiders who had sailed up the Seine almost to the walls of Paris.
  • In 1204 the title and lands of the Duchy of Normandy and his other French possessions were stripped from King John of England by the King of France. The Channel Islands remained in the possession of the King of England, who ruled them as Duke of Normandy until the Treaty of Paris in 1259.
  • King Henry III of England renounced the title of Duke of Normandy by that treaty, and none of his successors ever revived it. The Channel Islands continued to be governed by the Kings of England as French fiefs, distinct from Normandy, until the Hundred Years' War, during which they were definitively separated from France.
  • A unique constitutional position has arisen as successive monarchs have confirmed the liberties and privileges of the Bailiwicks, often referring to the so-called Constitutions of King John, a legendary document supposed to have been granted by King John in the aftermath of 1204. Governments of the Bailiwicks have generally tried to avoid testing the limits of the unwritten constitution by avoiding conflict with British governments.
  • The Proper fee or the fee payable to the Crown in respect of obtaining "congé" at the rate such as 2% on the purchase price has been paid to the Crown for the rights to this Fief.
  • The "congé" or "permission" of the Crown is still required in respect of the conveyance or ownership of a Freeholder Feudal Fief. (Congé was formerly payable in respect of the majority of Real Property transactions in Guernsey but was abolished in respect of all but transactions involving Fiefs on 1 April  2003 upon the commencement of The Feudal Dues (General Abolition of Congé) (Guernsey) Law, 2002).
  • Fief Blondel legally claims any rights to potential seastead property and buildings offshore of the fiefs foreshore and beaches.   Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government.
  • Accretion - Fief Blondel Claims any new beach or accretion of property or new islands along with any other associated land rights.
  • Other Lands Claimed - Fief Blondel claims ownership of: Marie Byrd Land which is a massive bit of land (620,000 square miles) in Antarctica
  • Fief Blondel also claims the Bir Tawil which is no man's land south of Egypt. 
  • Style of Seigneur - As per the The Feudal Dues (Guernsey) Law, 1980 Style of Seigneur of a fief etc. Section 4. The foregoing provisions of this Law shall be without prejudice –(a) to the right of any person to use, in the case of a male person, the style of Seigneur and, in the case of a female person, the style of Dame, of a fief, (b) to the feudal relationship between Her Majesty and any person holding an interest in a private fief on or at any time after the commencement of this Law, or to the feudal relationship between any person holding an interest in any fief and any person holding an interest in a dependency of that fief, and (c) to the right or obligation of any person by virtue of that person holding an interest in any fief which is not a right to which those provisions apply or any obligation correlative thereto.
    www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=71301&p=0
  • All Seigneurs are in charge of their own feudal courts and maintaining the timeless customs of the Fief.  https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Feudal_Court 

The Norman Fief de Thomas Blondel came about through the medieval fragmentation of Fief Au Canelly and consequently, of the initial half of Guernsey given by Duke Richard II in 1020 to Neel, Vicomte of the Cotentin. The Canelly family owned land near Cherbourg in Normandy in addition to the Guernsey territory (There is no existing record of the grant of the fief. It may be granted to the Canely family but there is a gap of at least 100 years before any record of that family’s connexion with the fief). In 1270, on the death of Sir Henry Le Canelly, the Guernsey fief was divided between his daughters. Guilemette, the wife of Henry de Saint Martin obtained a considerable part of the island originating later the fiefs of Janin Besnard, Jean du Gaillard, Guillot Justice and Thomas Blondel. This was confirmed by the tenants and officers of the Fief in letters patent issued by Guernsey's Royal Court under the Bailiwick Seal in 1463. A Thomas Blondel was a jurat of Guernsey’s Royal Court from 1421-45. The Blondel family has given several jurats to the island. Later the Columbines and Fiotts were the holders of the title. For a time, the rights over the Fief were divided in two. Pierre Robillard of Maison de Pleinmont, Torteval, was the Seigneur of Fief de Thomas Blondel. The title passed to his son and grand son. The rights over the Fief again joined during the XIX century as shown in documents of 11/10/1800 (Reg Tome 26, p 420) and 19/05/1798 (Date tome 25, no pages in the tome).


The Fief is spread over areas in the parishes of St. Pierre-du-Bois and Torteval. The chief pleas of the Seignorial court of Fief Thomas Blondel were held annually at the mounting block or steps (perron) of the Church of St. Pierre-du-Bois. A little over half of Fief de Thomas Blondel was exempt from chef rents by virtue of two legal documents dated 18 July 1440 and 24 May 1447.

  • A fief is an estate of land granted by the monarch in return for feudal service – the terms of service vary for different fiefs.
  • In Geurnsey the feudal-free-holder or owner of a fief is called a Seigneur –a similar position to a feudal baronnie or freiherr who owns an allodial right in lands.
  • One of the ancient feudal rigths for the Seigneur in Guernsey is to hold a feudal court which can be done on the Feifs Beach or Foreshore.
  • A duty of the Seigneur in Guernsey is maintain the rights of the fiefdom which have existed since Rollo the Viking conquered the region of Normandy.
  • The King of France lost Normandy to the Vikings, however, the fiefs have their roots in feudal allegiance to the Viking Dukes of Normandy during the 11th and 12th centuries.
  • Feudal Noble Fiefs are inherited but can be bought and sold just like Barons by Tenure where the rights are considered timeless, natural law,  honnorific and ceremonial value.
  • There are 23 private fiefs in Guernsey. The rest of the fiefs are owned by the Queen or Crown.
  • There are some  fiefs in Guernsey which do not and have not ever pledged fielty to the Crown.

 BlondelMap

 

Grant of the fief of Thomas Blondel in the parishes of St Peter of the Wood and Torteval, Guernsey, made by Janet Blondel to Thomas de la Court on 18 July 1440, attested by Jean Bonamy and Jacques Guille, jurats. GRANT of BLONDEL https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/5701/grant_of_a_fief_in_the_parishes_of_st_peter_of_the?archiveRefCode=%22MS%20699%22&resultOffset=2

  • Seigneur-Freihalter des Lehens Blondel in den Nordischen Kanalinseln (feudale Würde)
  • Lord Freeholder of the Fief Blondel in the Norman Channel Islands (Feudal Tenure Dignity)Feudalherrschaft Würde)
  • Seigneur de la fief of Th-Blondel, St Peter of the Wood and Torteval, GUERNESIAISE

Grant of a fief in the parishes of St Peter of the Wood and Torteval ...
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/5701

Copy of a grant of the fief of Thomas Blondel in the parishes of St Peter of the Wood and Torteval, Guernsey, made by Janet Blondel to Thomas de la Court on 18 July 1440, attested by Jean Bonamy and Jacques Guille, jurats, 5 May 1637. Seal, restored.

 

PROJET DE LOI
 
ENTITLED
 
The Feudal Dues (Guernsey) Law, 1980

Style of Seigneur of a fief etc.
4.
The foregoing provisions of this Law shall be without prejudice –
(a) to the right of any person to use, in the case of a male
person, the style of Seigneur and, in the case of a
female person, the style of Dame, of a fief,
(b) to the feudal relationship between Her Majesty and
any person holding an interest in a private fief on or at any time after the commencement of this Law, or to the feudal relationship between any person holding an
interest in any fief and any person holding an interest
in a dependency of that fief, and
(c) to the right or obligation of any person by virtue of
that person holding an interest in any fief which is not
a right to which those provisions apply or any
obligation correlative thereto.
www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=71301&p=0

 

 


In France, a seigneur noble of a fief could claim to be a: "seigneur de la baronnie" de Blondel"
*a roturier (commoner) could only be a seigneur de la baronnie (lord of the barony).

During the Ancien Régime, French baronies were very much like Scottish ones. Feudal landholders were entitled to style themselves baron if they were nobles; a roturier (commoner) could only be a seigneur de la baronnie (lord of the barony).   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron

The Ancien Régime (French pronunciation: ?[?~.sj?~ ?e?im]; French for "old regime") was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from the Late Middle Ages (c.?15th century) until 1792, when hereditary monarchy and the feudal system of French nobility were abolished by the French Revolution.[1]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancien_R%C3%A9gime

Allodial lands are the absolute property of their owner and not subject to any rent, service, or acknowledgment to a superior. Allodial title is therefore an alternative to feudal land tenure.   However, historian J.C. Holt states that "In Normandy the word alodium, whatever its sense in other parts of the Continent, meant not land held free of seigneurial services, but land held by hereditary right,"[5] and that "alodium and feodum should be given the same meaning in England."

The Fief has a Court of Chief Pleas  comprised the Seigneur, the Seneschal, the Priest, the Greffier and the Tenants, as owners of the tenements.  The Chief Pleas also had power to appoint 2 police officers, the Constable being the senior of the two, and the Vingtenier who would succeed him the following year.


Le Seigneur de Fief Blondel 

AD 1179 - We find Legal Reference of Lord Seigneur of Thomas Blondel, a noble fief, in  a charter of 1179AD when he is witnessing a grant to St. Michael's Mount. He is Robert Malmarchie (Thomas Blondel). 

1200's AD - The Parish of St. Andrew in which Thomas Blondel lies contained a group of four late 12 century ecclesiastical Fiefs, one held by the Bishop of Countances, the second held by the Abbot of Cormery, Tours, the third held by the Abbot of La Croix St. Lewfroy, Evreux, and the fourth held by the Abbess of Trinity, Caen.  The Fief Thomas Blondel derives its name, as we have already observed from the family of Malmarcher or Malmarchy who are recorded in the charters as existing  in Guernsey in the 12th Century.

In 1440, The Feifdom Grant of the Fief of Thomas Blondel in the parishes of St Peter of the Wood and Torteval, Guernsey, made by Janet Blondel to Thomas de la Court on 18 July 1440, attested by Jean Bonamy and Jacques Guille, jurats. See University of Leeds Library   GRANT of BLONDEL 

 

Chevetaine Chief of the Blondel Fief - Seigneur/Dame

Palatine, Palatiness
The ruler of a Palatinate.  The highest rank available to a non-royal vassal.  A palatinate is almost its own nation.  This rank is normally used as a modifier, e.g. Count Palatine

All local French lordships disappeared when feudalism was abolished in 1789 but the Channel Islands remained independent from both France and the United Kingdom.

Baronial Fief- Sir Thomas Innes of Learney in his 'Scots Heraldry' (2nd Ed., p. 88, note 1) states that 'The Act 1672, cap 47, specially qualifies the degrees thus: Nobles (i.e. peers, the term being here used in a restricted seventeenth-century English sense), Barons (i.e. Lairds of baronial fiefs and their "heirs", who, even if fiefless, are equivalent to heads of Continental baronial houses) and Gentlemen (apparently all other armigers).'

Seigneur de la Baronnie - During the Ancien Régime, Norman Frankish or French baronies were very much like Scottish ones, feudal landholders were entitled to style themselves baron if they were nobles, a roturier could only be a seigneur de la baronnie.

Palatine, Palatiness - The ruler of a Palatinate.  The highest rank available to a non-royal vassal.  A palatinate is almost its own nation.  This rank is normally used as a modifier, e.g. Count Palatine

The Seigneur of Fief Blondel is considered by law and Ancient Count Palatine of Fief Blondel.

The rights of Fief Thomas Blondel reunited in one holder (Count Marcov) after September 2000.

The Fief was Held by Count Marcov and publicized in many venues in Europe and worldwide on the internet which has created clear title and rights without any opposition from year 2000 until 2017 when it was sold to the present owner. Under international law, the Fief was held by Count Marcov for 17 years.

Legal Rights of the Fief Blondel

While any existing or new special rights are all claimed by the Fief and Seigneru, it is assumed that the Fief may hold rights to the following under international law, customary law, and ancient feudal law.

  1. Water Rights
  2. Mineral Rights
  3. Rights to Trees or Animals
  4. Hunting and Fishing Rights
  5. Beach Front Rights
  6. Ocean Front Rights
  7. Port of Call Rights
  8. Cellular Rights
  9. Airwave Rights
  10. Rights to use common Areas.
  11. The Fief Thomas Blondel has waived NO rights to any existing or future rights.
  12. Rights to treasure of found items.
  13. Rights to use the local church or places of worship
  14. Rights to Feudal Courts
  15. Rights to appoint any feudal offices locally or internationally.
  16. Rights to Pardon
  17. Rights of Neutrality from the Pope and Vatican and from the RC Church.
  18. Any other rights or charter rights illuminated from the Crown or by Treaty.
  19. Fishing
  20. Seaweed
  21. Goods washed up by Sea
  22. Hunting and Shooting
  23. Colombier Rights
  24. Rainwater
  25. Year and a day the revenue from the real estate of any tenant who dies without direct heirs of his body.
  26. Rights to build windmills or wind farms.
  27. Rights to Usefruct or Servitude for Power Lines, Fiber Cable, Underground Wires, Underground Pipes, and above ground use of airspace.

Sources:

Rights

 https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2015/06/04/ancient-property-laws-must-be-respected-despite-foreshore-gift/

http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/assemblypropositions/2003/31891-31363-992003.pdf

Sources

Lords of Manors http://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/articles/article/lords-manors 

Seigneur de la baronie "lord of the barony" 
Seigneur  "dignity of nobility"

Feudal Baron
Feudal Chief
Overlord
"last feudal barons ".
Norman feudal baron

Sark's 500 people are governed by the Seigneur, a feudal baron with privileges dating back to 1565, when Queen Elizabeth I let Jerseyman Helier de Carteret and 40 men settle here.

Bankton states ('An Institute of the Laws of Scotland', II, III, 84)
that nobility 'followed the property of the estate to which it was
annexed'. Quoting Spencer-Thomas of Buquhollie v. Newell (SLT, 1992)

Craig states ('Jus Feudale', I, xii, 23) that 'where the prince makes
a grant of lands which have rank attached to them he enobles the
grantee even though no express conferrment of noble rank be made'.
Quoting Spencer-Thomas of Buquhollie v. Newell (SLT, 1992)

 Lord of the Manor -  A title, similar to Lord of the Manor, in French would be Seigneur du Manoir, Gutsherr in German, godsherre in Norwegian and Swedish, ambachtsheer in Dutch and signore or vassallo in Italian. In Italy, particularly in the Kingdom of Sicily until 1812, the feudal title signore was used; like the English title, it came into wide use in Norman times, from the French seigneur.

Free Lord or friherre
Freeholder lord of Fief blondel  Translates to: Freiherr von Fief blondel
Freiherr Lehnsherr von Fief Blondel or Freeholder of Fief Blondel or Freiherr von Lehen Blondel
Danish friherre af Fief blondel
Dutch  vrijgezelle heer van Fief blondel
Norway  frittstående herre av Fief blondel
 
A Legal Designation and Land Rights Dignity - In France, Lord (seigneur) was not a title.  The owner of a lordship, even a commoner, was its lord.  The term "lord" only meant "the possessor of a certain kind of property" in the feudal system, a mixture of actual real estate and rights over people (rents and fees could be collected from them, certain obligations could be imposed on them, etc).  Someone who was only a seigneur was not titled.  All lordships disappeared when feudalism was abolished in 1789.
 

 

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 Coronet-Free-Lord

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