sb. (a.) (Also -eign.) [ad. F. suzerain, older s(o)userain, app. f. sus above, up (:—L. sūsum, sursum, f. sub from below, up + vorsum, versum, pa. pple. of vertĕre to turn), after souverain SOVEREIGN.] A feudal overlord. In recent use, with reference to international relations, a sovereign or a state having supremacy over another state which possesses its own ruler or government but cannot act as an independent power.
1807. C. Butler, Revol. Germany, III. (1812), 53. The king was called the Sovereign lord; his immediate vassal was called the Suzereign; and the tenants holding of him were called the arrière vassals.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., IV. ii. A chief in armour is their Suzerain.
1825. Scott, Talism., xi. He answers me ever with cold respects of their relations together as suzerain and vassal.
1853. Hallam, Mid. Ages (ed. 10), I. 125. He was constituted … a sort of suzerain, without whose consent the younger brothers could do nothing important.
1855. Milman, Lat. Christ., IX. v. IV. 96. That vague … sovereignty which gave the right of interfering in all the affairs of the realm, as Suzerain as well as Spiritual Father.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. cxxvi. 81. Two semi-barbarous tribes,… to the great discomfort of the power which professes to be their suzerain, quarrel.
1870. Liddon, Elem. Relig., ii. (1881), 56. Egypt was governed by a practically independent Viceroy; the Suzerain’s name was mentioned rarely, or only in a formal way.
fig. 1857. Lawrence, Guy Liv., ii. The fact of his father … having always been suzerain among his women at home.
b. attrib. or adj., as suzerain lord, power, state.
1853. M. Kelly, trans. Gosselin’s Power Pope Mid. Ages, II. 99. They may hold it in peace, and maintain therein the pure Catholic faith, saving the rights of the suzerain lord.
1868. Kirk, Chas. Bold, III. IV. vii. 120. Sharing the possessions of the house of Burgundy between the two suzerain crowns from which they had been originally derived.
1898. Daily News, 14 May, 6/4. Mr. Kotze had frequently said that there was no Suzerain Power, but the first thing he did after issuing his manifesto was to appeal to England.
Hence Suzerainship, suzerainty.
1827. G. S. Faber, Sacr. Calend. Prophecy (1844), II. 48. The imperial superiority of suzerainship of Charlemagne.
