Majorat

This article is about the legal concept. For the Polish village, see Majorat, Lublin Voivodeship.

Majorat is the right of succession to property according to age (primogeniture). A majorat (fideicommis) would be inherited by the oldest son, or if there was no son, the nearest relative. This law existed in some of the European countries and was designed to prevent the distribution of wealthy estates between many members of the family, thus weakening their position. Majorats were one of the factors easing the evolution of aristocracy.

Majorat was specifically regulated by French law. In France, it was a title of property, landed or funded, attached to a title of honor (in England, colloquially, peerage), instituted by Napoleon I and abolished 1848.

In Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, majorat was known as ordynacja and was introduced in late 16th century by king Stefan Batory. A couple of Polish magnates' fortunes were based on ordynacja, namely those of the Radziwiłłs, Zamoyskis, Wielopolskis. Ordynacja was abolished by the agricultural reform in the People's Republic of Poland.

In Portugal it was called Morgado or Morgadio and one of the requirements to inherit a Morgado was to pass down the family name related to the Morgado. Women with no brothers could inherit a Morgado: in that case their children would inherit the mother's name. If the husband was also a Morgado, the children would inherit both names. This led to a tradition of very long family names in the Portuguese nobility.

In Spain was known as mayorazgo, and become a part of the Castilian law since 1505 (Leyes de Toro) till 1820.

See also

• Minorat - same as majorat, only inheritance passed to the youngest child