Jura regalia

Jura regalia is a medieval legal term that denoted rights that belonged exclusively to the king, either as essential to his sovereignty (jura majora, jura essentialia), such as royal authority, or as accidental (jura minora, jura accidentalia), such as hunting, fishing and mining rights. Many sovereigns in the Middle Ages and in later times claimed the right to seize the revenues of vacant episcopal sees or abbeys as a regalian right. In some countries, especially in France. where it was known as droit de régale (French: [dʁwa də ʁeɡal]), jura regalia came to be applied almost exclusively to that assumed right. A liberty was an area in which the regalian right did not apply.