Demesne Estates

The demesne estates are at the heart of Albion’s land magic. Time to talk a little more about what they are and how they work. 

What’s a demesne estate?

And key, how do you pronounce that? Demesne is roughty ‘deh-mane’ (as in a lion’s or horse’s mane). ‘Domain’ is pretty close (and the words have the same root). It comes out of Anglo-French property law. 

The demesne estate is the estate associated with the land magic of that area. Over time, following the Pact in 1484, Albion became divided up into a series of demesnes. These are areas of the country with Lords (or Ladies). They’re responsible for maintaining the land magic of that area, dealing with issues in the magical communities, but also responding to other kinds of needs. 

Common needs and tasks

For example, these are kinds of things the Lord or Lady would generally handle: 

• Seasonal planting, harvest, and other rites and rituals to ensure the flow of the land magic
• Tending to particular magical issues – blight, unexpected upswellings of magic, magic not flowing as it ought to.
• Magical creatures causing problems. 
• Making sure that people in the area with strong magical power get sufficient training. That’s for their wellbeing and the safety of people around them.
• Assisting with issues like flooding, bridge damage, bogs, trees down across roads, and so on (magically and non-magically)
• Ensuring that the keep-away charms and glamours on magical villages or magically dangerous spaces are maintained. 

And there’s some overlap here with the Church of English parishes, but the Lord or Lady also provides functional support for people in need in their area. That could include alms or charity in various forms, figuring out a reasonable option for employment, fixing housing, etc. 

Some are a lot more attentive than others. In some places, someone needs to bring a formal petition to ask for help. (Which, as we all know, can deter people from doing it. They may not be able to show up at the relevant place at the right time). Other Lords and Ladies are extremely proactive, making sure they hear about small problems and tending to them.

Rufus is a good example here: Temple was not aware Rufus was having the degree of problem he was. Geoffrey has arrangements to hear about that sort of thing – someone down to their last resources – much earlier in the process. (All right, a number of those arrangements are just named “Benton” here, but.)

Two key notes

First, it’s no longer a feudal system (though it definitely has roots there). The Lord or Lady does not have any particular authority over the people in their area except in the ways that are directly related to the land magic. However, they are obliged to provide certain kinds of support if asked. That includes facilitating access to the Guard or magistrates for legal issues, and so on. They may also assist the Ministry or Guard if someone breaks Albion’s laws or protective customs. They are always particularly well tied into communication and transportation methods.

Second, the Lord or Lady does not have to do any of this themselves, other than the local land rites. Everything else can be delegated to someone with relevant skills. Some Lords and Ladies are exceedingly competent. Others hire competent staff. Most of the estates do have a fairly substantial core staff.

Demographics and the demesenes

The previous times I’ve talked about this, I gestured at numbers, because I did not have them fully mapped out. Now I’ve done that! Here’s how the demesnes break down. (The numbers by country include the relevant special cases.) 

Special cases

Trellech is its own demesne, encompassing the city and immediate area, headed by the Lord of Trellech’s Justice. This is someone who has come up through Trellech’s courts, and is one of the few lordships that is not hereditary. The Heir is chosen from among senior staff in Albion’s courts. It’s someone with extensive ritual magic experience along with other skills. (Facets of the Bench explores this in much more detail if you’re curious.) 

London is also its own demesne, held by the Keeper of London. We haven’t seen much about this yet. There’ll be a little in the upcoming Harmonic Pleasure, but I want to come back and explore more at some point! This one is not hereditary in the usual bloodline sense, but bounces between a handful of families normally. 

The Five Schools (encompassing the school and immediate area: at Schola, that includes the entire island) have their Head of School as Lord or Lady. Those are Schola, Alethorpe, Dunwich, Forvie, and Snap. The schools generally pick their own Heads, almost always from an existing staff member. 

England

There are 87 demesnes in England, roughly two for each of the historic counties (Wikipedia has a handy map), which date back to the Normans. Some areas have more: Hampshire, for example, has Northern Hampshire, Southern Hampshire, the Northern New Forest, and the Southern New Forest. Other areas are much larger geographically. Manchester has its own as a city (though with the same hereditary family model of inheritance as most demesnes.)  

While I eye historical division patterns for this, there are also places where the demesne doesn’t quite follow what you’d expect. Kent, for example, is more often divided based on whether you’re east or west of the River Medway. Albion divides it into northern and southern. Northern includes Canterbury and the northern and most of the eastern coastline. The Southern part, where the Edgartons are, includes a little coastline but not nearly so much. 

Wales

Wales has 16 demesnes (again, including Trellech and Schola), roughly based on one of the many possible maps of the historic Welsh kingdoms. Historically – and up to the 20th century – the lines have tended to pass through families. Often members of a particular family would hold two or sometimes more demesnes between brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. in ways that move back and forth depending on marriages, available family members, etc. Mostly, they work it out amongst themselves and no one outside of Wales wants to argue about it. 

Scotland

Scotland has 38 demesnes, mostly based on the historical shires, with Glasgow and Edinburgh both having their own demesnes. Because of the distances involved (and the generally lower ratio of portals in Scotland compared to England and Wales), they’re a little more spread out in terms of size. 

Demesne estates

We’ve seen a range of demesne estates so far in the books (and Grown Wise spends a lot more time at Arundel and environs). 

The immediate demesne estate

When we’re talking about the demesne estate, we’re talking about a building (generally a substantial manor house or country home) and the immediate land around it. The family may well own additional land in the area that’s not a part of the formal demesne. The Fortiers, for example, have the immediate demesne estates around Arundel (the manor house). They own, farm, and lease out additional property throughout western Sussex.

The home on the estate is often in the same place, century to century. Or it might be rebuilt for various reasons, expanded, or altered as needed by the family. Generally, they’re big enough for two or three generations (plus staff) to live comfortably in separate sets of rooms. There will also be public rooms for larger gatherings. Veritas is on the larger side as a house (with a much older footprint than most). Arundel is on the smaller side.

Most of the landed families also own other properties – townhouses in Trellech, other estates, etc. Hawk’s Breath (the Carillon estate in Cumbria) is larger and younger than Ytene. It’s better suited for larger scale entertaining, but in an entirely different demesne. These secondary properties might be sold off, be passed down a cadet line, etc. but the demesne estate needs to stay in the landed family. (As noted in Ancient Trust, the death taxes work a little differently for the demesne estates or in Trellech proper.)

Magic and the demesne

One key distinction is that the demesne estate always has a significant degree of magical protection and warding. This prevents people from wandering onto it if they’re not magical, creates a container to help build, maintain, and nurture the land magic. However, that core is in the land, not the buildings – if there’s damage from fire, war, etc. that obviously affects the land magic but doesn’t shatter it.

The Lords and Ladies do have a sense of what’s going on throughout their larger area. Orion mentions being aware of bombing in Illusion of a Boar. Even though they’re not even in Sussex at that point! Gabe has a particularly finely tuned sense, to the point of a certain advance notice of bombs dropping in Upon A Summer’s Day. Garin is unsettled by it, but needs to go check with people to find out what was bombed.

The land rituals would be a whole other topic, and I’ll save those notes for later. 

Portals

Most – but not – all demesne estate portals in Albion were created after the Pact (so after about 1490 or so). Priority has consistently been given to the demesne estates in building and maintaining them. That way, the estate can serve as a contact point. Albion’s government can then have a way to get emergency help out quickly from Trellech. However, access to that portal outside an emergency might be limited. The precise location of the portal depends on a number of factors – the local bedrock, geological features, ley lines, imbued magic, and so on. So it’s not always possible to pick an ideal location on all levels.

The Ytene portal is in a courtyard right next to the main house. People coming and going would affect the household significantly. It’s emergency use only for people outside the demesne estate.

Veritas’s portal is within the demesne estate warding. It’s designed so that people can come through during hops-picking season and so the magical villages nearby can access it. The Arundel portal is actually technically right outside the estate warding. It has some precautions that mean the estate (and especially the Lord and Lady) are aware if it’s in use.

Specific demesne estates

Veritas

One of the oldest demesne estates, Veritas was built on the previous footprint of a Roman villa. Tucked into a quiet corner of Kent, it has a portal a little way from the house. The main house was built up over a number of years. It has multiple wings, four ritual and magical workrooms, individual office spaces, a large lawn, a duelling salle, a separate building with the alchemy lab. Along with sufficient sets of rooms to comfortably house multiple generations along with guests. There’s a home farm nearby that provides the household with a fair amount of their food. 

Schola

Schola is unusual in several ways. First, the actual demesne building is a castle. These days, that’s a curtain wall remaining around three sides and the fourth open, as well as the keep. That means that about four hundred people live in or right next to the key building, far more than most of the other demesne estates. Second, the demesne encompasses the entire island. And third, while the professors and staff are fairly stable as a population (as is the village), hundreds of students cycle through the school every five years. It gives an entirely different energy. 

As those who’ve read Chasing Legends know, Schola has some particular mysteries when it comes to the land.) The core keep itself dates from about 1100, with a number of improvements since then. The heart of the demesne has been there since about 600 CE. 

Ytene

The manor at Ytene has been around since about the 11th century in some form. Though it’s a rather quirky building with odd additions due to the way it’s nestled into the New Forest. The portal, as mentioned, is right off the main courtyard between the house and the stables. There are formal gardens behind the house and less formal ones in the surrounding area. A particular challenge during the Second World War was the bombing test range right to the west. 

Trellech

Since the Lordship in Trellech passes through the courts, the Courts are actually the anchor of the demesne estate. The Lord (or Lady) can live wherever they like, so long as their primary residence is in Trellech. That usually means a townhouse, perhaps with a bit of deliberately tended garden. The actual rites take place at various public points in Trellech, as seen in Facets of the Bench and Mari Lwyd 1927 (an extra set in Trellech). 

Arundel

Arundel is actually one of the younger estates – it broke off after the Pact, when the magical and non-magical lines split. Arundel-the-castle stayed in the non-magical aristocratic line, the magical folks built an estate a dozen miles north. And also called it Arundel, because that’s a perfectly reasonable name. The manor is not particularly large – enough for Garin and Livia to have separate sets of rooms, with room for short-term guests, but not a lot more than that. However, there are extensive gardens, orchards, and greenhouses. 

We’ll come back to some of the demesne estate rites and rituals in time!