mesne lord

Persons holding directly from the king and granting to others were the king’s tenants in capite, and were the mesne lords of their tenants.

To successive priors, as mesne lords, it also owed its earliest municipal privileges.

In feudal times charters of privileges were granted, not only by the crown, but by mesne lords both lay and ecclesiastical, as well to communities, such as boroughs, gilds and religious foundations, as to individuals.

On frequent occasions the petty adjoining "Chinesified" states, of which Lu was practically the mesne lord, are stated to have been "tainted with Eastern barbarian rites."

The middle thane was feudal, but not honorary; he was also called a vavasor, and his lands a vavasory, which held of some mesne lord, and not immediately of the King.