Prima Nocta

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Expanding on what Rollins says: "Droit du seigneur" (right of the lord) and "jus primae noctis" (right of the first night), often called "prima nocta" for short, was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe that allowed feudal lords, kings and princes the right to have sex with any female subject in their kingdom, especially on her wedding night; although there is debate among historians and scholars as to whether any such law actually existed. However there is evidence it was at least a practiced custom in some kingdoms, it was one of the ways to compensate a lord for a female subject leaving his land if the woman was marrying a man from another kingdom. There also used to be a medieval tax, "merchet" or "wedding fine", that was often paid to the lord of a kingdom before a female subject could be married, some scholars believe that merchet was an alternative form of compensation to prima noctra so that the bride to be did not have to submit to sexual relations with the lord. There is also historical evidence that similar customs existed in ancient China, Greece and Babylon where the lords of a conquering nation were allowed to rape married women and girls of the conquered people in order to appease them and prevent further killing and plundering.