Definition
A Latin form of the term ARRIERBAN, used in medieval European legal sources to denote the royal or sovereign summons calling the feudal host to military service — specifically the second-tier call, directed at the vassals of vassals (rear-vassals or arrière-vassals) after the initial ban had already been issued to direct tenants of the crown. The arrieribannum thus represented the full mobilization of the feudal military apparatus, reaching through every layer of the tenure hierarchy down to sub-infeudated landholders.
The term appears primarily in Latin legal and administrative records of medieval France and the Holy Roman Empire, functioning as the Latinized equivalent of the Old French arrière-ban. It carries no distinct technical meaning separate from ARRIERBAN; the two terms are interchangeable, with arrieribannum simply reflecting the preference for Latin in formal royal instruments and legal treatises.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering arrieribannum in primary sources should treat it as a direct variant of arrierban and consult sources under that heading. The term will appear almost exclusively in Latin documents — royal edicts, feudal charters, and ecclesiastical records — from roughly the tenth through the sixteenth centuries. It is effectively absent from English common law sources and will not surface in English Year Books or plea rolls; its natural habitat is Continental European feudal records and the Latin treatises that systematized feudal tenure.
The chief research trap is the term's near-total disappearance from post-medieval legal writing. If you encounter arrieribannum in a secondary source or digest, it signals either a work of medieval legal history or a compilation drawing on Civil Law or Canon Law traditions rather than English common law. Burrill's cross-reference to arrierban (rather than providing an independent entry) is itself instructive: nineteenth-century Anglo-American lexicographers treated arrieribannum as a form word, not a substantive legal concept requiring independent analysis.
Researchers working in comparative feudal law or the history of military obligation should also note that the concept underlying arrieribannum — tiered sovereign summons for military service — connects to a broader cluster of feudal obligations including the ban, the levée en masse, and scutage. Understanding the arrieribannum in context requires familiarity with the full structure of feudal tenure, not merely the vocabulary of military summons.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary dispenses with arrieribannum in a single cross-reference: "European law. Arrierban, (q. v.)" This economy of treatment reflects the term's status as a Latin form-variant rather than an independently operative legal concept. Burrill does not provide independent analysis, elemental breakdown, or historical context under this heading, directing the reader entirely to the arrierban entry for substantive content.
No significant divergence exists among historical legal dictionaries on this point, because the term is rarely treated independently in any of them. Its appearance in legal reference works is almost always in this same summary cross-referential form. What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is any account of the term's administrative function in specific Continental legal systems — the conditions under which a sovereign could issue the arrieribannum, what penalties attached to non-compliance, and how the obligation interacted with other forms of feudal service. That gap must be filled by specialist histories of feudal law and Continental administrative records rather than by English-language legal dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
Arrieribannum is a concept of Continental European feudal law with no operative role in English common law. Researchers working in English legal history will not encounter it as a functional legal category. Its relevance is confined to French, German, and broader Holy Roman Empire feudal sources, and to Latin treatises in the Civil Law tradition.