Lensmann
Historically holder of a royal fief and now rural police chief
Lensmann in modern Norwegian or lensmand in Danish and older Norwegian spelling (lit. 'fief man'; Old Norse: lénsmaðr) is a term with several distinct meanings in Nordic history. The Icelandic equivalent was a hreppstjóri, Swedish länsman and Finnish nimismies.
01Fief-holder
The term lensmann traditionally referred to a holder of a royal fief in Denmark and Norway. As the fiefs were renamed amt in 1662, the term lensmand was replaced with amtmand. In Norway these offices evolved into the modern fylkesmann office. Modern Norwegian historians often use the term lensherre (English: 'fief lord') instead of lensmann, although from the legal point of view, the king was the fief lord, and the title used by contemporaries was lensmand, not lensherre.
While the lensmann was a fief-holder from the nobility, the amtmann was a civil servant who might be ennobled as a reward.
| Office | Lensmann | Amtmann |
|---|---|---|
| General governing power | Yes | No |
| Military commander | Yes | No |
| Tax collector | Yes | No |
| Fiscal accountability | No | Yes |
02Modern police officer
The title lensmann is also used in an entirely different meaning in modern Norway, denoting the leader of a rural police district known as a lensmannsdistrikt.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Lensmann”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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