An officer in the houses of princes and dignitaries, in the Middle Ages, who had the superintendence of feasts and domestic ceremonies; a steward. Sometimes the seneschal had the dispensing of justice, and was given high military commands.
“Then marshaled feast
Served up in hall with sewers and
seneschale.”
— Milton.
“Philip Augustus, by a famous ordinance in 1190, first established royal courts of justice, held by the officers called baitiffs, or
seneschals, who acted as the king's lieutenants in his demains.”
— Hallam.