serjeant did not have the power of 'pit and gallows', i.e., the power to impose the death penalty. schoutsambt — a reeveland, the territory under the charge of a reeve (schout), thus equivalent to the jurisdiction of a heerlijkheid Lord of the manor (heer) The central figure was the lord of the heerlijkheid and effectively its owner—the manorial lord or lady. In Dutch, the lord was called heer and the lady vrouw(e). The lord was also referred to by the Latin word dominus. A rarer English alternative is seigneur. There were different kinds of lord and lady: vrijheer and vrijvrouwe (literally, 'free lord' and 'free lady') — allodial lord or allodiary, tenant of an allodial lordship. erfheer and erfvrouwe (literally, 'hereditary lord' and 'hereditary lady') — feudal baron or mesne lord, tenant of a fiefdom. baanderheer (literally, ‘knight banneret’) — tenant by knight-service; some lords used this title when their noble line was ancient and therefore superior to other nobles ambachtsheer — tenant by serjeanty (ambacht or ambachtsheerlijkheid). Under the feudal system, a manorial lord typically was himself the vassal of a higher-ranking tenant-in-chief, usually a highborn noble, who was in turn the crown vassal of the king or emperor. However, sometimes there was no mesne tenancy (tussenliggende heerschappij), as was the case with knight's fees held in capite (rijksonmiddellijke heerlijkheid). The heerlijkheid was ruled directly by a count (graaf), a viscount (burggraaf) or a baron (baron). Also, it was not uncommon for the lord to be ecclesiastical, e.g. a prince-bishop (prins-bisschop) or prince-abbot (vorst-abt). Originally, heerlijkheden were held exclusively by the nobility. However, starting around the 16th century, lordship over a heerlijkheid was not synonymous with nobility. A heerlijkheid could be bought and sold. Many ended up in the hands of wealthy merchants and a political class known as the regents. In addition, many were bought by boroughs (burghs). In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, it was not unusual for a borough to purchase the heerlijkheden around it in order to gain control and ownership of the surrounding land and the resulting economic advantages. Boroughs were themselves not part of the manorial system: the countryside and villages were governed by lords, whereas boroughs were self-governing. Feudal origins The heerlijkheden came into being as a result of the feudal system, in particular the sovereign's delegated judicial prerogative. The crown, as lord paramount, granted the right to govern and to