Castellania

A castellania was the smallest administrative subdivision of land in medieval Malta, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands, signifying the territory over which the master of a castle exercised his ordinary rights. At its centre was the castle, the most important place in the castellania, administered by a castellan (castellanus in Latin). In south-eastern France from the 11th century onwards such a subdivision was called a castellania, a châtellenie or a mandement (from the Latin mandamentum) and...