Definition of appanage Appanage

ap•pa•nage

We found 10 definitions of appanage from 6 different sources.

What does appanage mean?

Noun Plural: appanages
appanage - a grant (by a sovereign or a legislative body) of resources to maintain a dependent member of a ruling family; "bishoprics were received as appanages for the younger sons of great families"
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appanage - any customary and rightful perquisite appropriate to your station in life; "for thousands of years the chair was an appanage of state and dignity rather than an article of ordinary use"
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appanage (Noun)
A grant especially by a sovereign of land or other source of revenue as a birthright.
appanage (Noun)
A perquisite that is appropriate to one's position.

appanage (n.)
The portion of land assigned by a sovereign prince for the subsistence of his younger sons.
appanage (n.)
A dependency; a dependent territory.
appanage (n.)
That which belongs to one by custom or right; a natural adjunct or accompaniment.

appanage
Apanage, ap′pan-āj, n. the assignation or conveyance by the crown of lands and feudal rights to the princes of the royal family, a provision for younger sons, a dependency: any perquisite: an adjunct or attribute.—p.adj. Ap′panaged, endowed with an appanage. [Fr. apanage—L. ad, and pan-is, bread.]

Appanage is important to the history of France during the Middle Ages. The law said that when a king dies, his oldest son becomes the next king. Kings who wanted to give a younger son some land too sometimes created an appanage. Appanage was one way to keep a civil war from happening, if two or more sons wanted to fight each other to be the next king.

The younger son controlled the appanage as a duke and ruled almost like a king, except he could not sell the land. The ruler of an appanage could give it to his sons and grandsons, but eventually that part of the family would run out of sons and the land would go back to the king.