Le droit du Seigneur.

Le droit du Seigneur, the right of a lord, is the old medieval right of a lord to spend the first night with a newlywed girl from his serfs. Although serfdom was abolished, the right itself, though seldom used, remained in force until the late 18th century; the intrigue of the famous play La Folle Journee ou le marriage de Figaro (1784) by Beaumarchais, better known through the opera by Rossini, is based on this custom