mesnalty Law.
(ˈmiːnəltɪ)
Also 6 menalte, -tie, 6–7 -ty, 7 menealtie.
[a. Law F. menalte, mesnalte, f. OF. mene, mesne mesne a., after AF. comunalte commonalty.]
The estate of a mesne lord; the condition of being a mesne lord.
| 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 5 §15 If any person..shall..make by fraude..any estates, condicions, menalties, tenures, or conueiaunces. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. (1807–8) III. 27 A subsidie..of everie knights fee twentie shillings, whether the same were holden of him by menaltie, or otherwise. 1628 Coke On Litt. 152 b, If the lord confirm the tenant to hold of him..the mesnalty is extinct. 1642 tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. v. §322. 142 If there be Lord, Mesne and Tenant..and the Mesne taketh a wife..and dyeth the wife shall be endowed of the menealtie. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 234 If he [the mesne lord] makes default therein,..he shall be forejudged of his mesnalty, and the tenant shall hold immediately of the lord paramount himself. |