Definition
Langemanni (also spelled lannemanni) is a Latin term from old English legal usage referring to lords of manors. The term appears primarily in Domesday Book and early feudal records as a designation for those holding manorial lordship — that is, the proprietors who exercised seigniorial rights over a manor and its dependent tenants.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow archival term encountered almost exclusively in medieval English land records, Domesday studies, and feudal tenure scholarship. Researchers working with early English property law, manorial court records, or tenure classifications will encounter it as a descriptor of status rather than a legal concept with ongoing doctrinal development. It carries no modern application and does not appear in contemporary statutory or case law.
The spelling variation is a genuine research trap: Coke himself writes the word as lannemanni in Coke on Littleton, while Domesday sources and secondary glossaries render it langemanni. A researcher searching only one spelling in digitized sources may miss relevant material. Both forms should be queried when working in early English land records or feudal tenure literature.
The term belongs to the vocabulary of the feudal hierarchy that structured English real property law before and immediately after the Norman Conquest. Understanding langemanni requires familiarity with the broader system of tenure — the relationships between lord, mesne lord, and tenant — that shaped the common law's foundational property doctrines. Researchers tracing the historical roots of fee simple, seisin, or copyhold will encounter this stratum of terminology as background context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier and Burrill agree on the core definition: lords of manors. Both trace the term to Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 5a), and Burrill additionally notes its appearance in Domesday Book. Burrill's entry adds the spelling variant lannemanni, attributing it specifically to Sir Edward Coke's own usage, which is a useful philological note.
Neither dictionary develops the term beyond its definitional core, reflecting its status as a historical artifact rather than a living legal concept. Burrill's reference to Blackstone's Commentaries (2 Bl. Com. 513) suggests the term was recognized within the broader commentary tradition on English feudal tenure, though Blackstone's treatment is similarly brief. Neither source provides functional analysis of what rights or duties attached to the status — for that, researchers must turn to Domesday scholarship and specialized feudal law treatises.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is specific to early English law and has no equivalent usage in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. It is encountered only in historical sources predating or contemporaneous with the Norman period and its immediate aftermath.