enfranchisement

plural enfranchisements · alternative infranchisement

1. The action of enfranchising (“admitting to a privilege; releasing from legal liability; setting free”); also, the fact or state of being enfranchised; (countable) an instance of this.
   1. uncountableRelease from imprisonment, political oppression, or slavery; emancipation, liberation; (countable) an instance of this.

      Some to the common Pulpits, and cry out / Liberty, Freedome, and Enfranchiſement.

      1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 119, column 1

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      So if a man […] restrain my person, or threaten me with battery, or with burning my house which is a safety and protection to my person, or with burning an instrument of manumission which is evidence of my enfranchisement; if upon such menace or duresse I make a deed, I shall avoid it by plea.

      c. 1596 (date written), Francis Bacon, “Maxims of the Law. Regula VI. Corporalis injuria non recipit æstimationem de futuro [Rule VI. Bodily Injury does not Admit of Estimation of the Future].”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume VII, London: Longman, Green, and Co.; […], published 1859, →OCLC, pages 346–347

      [M]y ſelfe and them / Bend their beſt ſtyudies, heartily requeſt / Th’infranchiſement of Arthur, vvhoſe reſtraint / Doth moue the murmuring lips of diſcontent / To breake into this dangerous argument.

      c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 15, column 1

      Alſo in many and diuers caſes the Lord may make manumiſſion and enfranchiſement to his villein. Manumiſſion is properly vvhen the Lord makes a deed to his villeine to enfranchiſe him by this vvord (Manumittere) vvhich is the ſame as to put him out of the hands and povver of another. […] [E]uery manner of infranchiſement made to a villein, may bee ſaid to be a Manumiſſion.

      1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Villenage”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 2, chapter 11, section 204, folios 137, recto – 137, verso

      [H]e [Jesus] dyed for al men, in that by his death he hath purchaſed an abſolute ſoueraigntie and dominion ouer all, to order, rule, and guide them at his pleaſure, and to paſſe ſentence on them all at laſt according to their vvorkes: not becauſe he hath procured an abſolute enfranchiſement from hell and death, or præpared an æternall Crovvne of glory for them all; vvhich belongs to none but thoſe vvho loue him, and long for his appearance.

      1629, William Prynne, “A Coppye of a Recantation of Certaine Errors, Raked out of the Dunghill of Poperie, and Pelagianisme, Publiquely Made by Master [William] Barret of Kayes Colledge in Cambridge the Tenth Day of May, in this Present Yeere of Our Lord, 1595. in the Vniuersitie Church, Called Saint Maries in Cambridge: […]”, in The Church of Englands Old Antithesis to New Arminianisme. […], London: [Augustine Matthews and Elizabeth Allde for Michael Sparke], →OCLC, page 95

      O Freedom! firſt Delight of Humane Kind! / Not that vvhich Bondmen from their Maſters find, / The Priviledge of Doles; nor yet t'inſcribe / Their Names in this or t'other Roman Tribe: / That falſe Enfranchiſement, vvith eaſe is found: / Slaves are made Citizens, by turning round.

      1693, Aulus Persius Flaccus, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 64

      Synonyms: affranchisement, manumission · Antonyms: disenfranchisement, disfranchisement

   2. figurativelyuncountableThe action of freeing or releasing; freeing, liberation, release; (countable) an instance of this.

      VVhence it follovvs that the amplitude and infranchiſement of humane reaſon cannot be ſaid properly to be impair'd by theſe limits and regulations.

      1653 (indicated as 1654), Walter Montagu, “The First Treatise. Whether any Inquisition into Divine Mysteries be Allowable. Sect[ion] III. How Far Our Inquisitiveness may Pass into the Reason of Gods Civil Providence.”, in Miscellanea Spiritualia: Or, Devout Essaies: The Second Part, London: […] John Crook, Gabriel Bedell, and Partners; […], →OCLC, page 19

      Antonyms: disenfranchisement, disfranchisement

   3. countableoftenuncountablegovernmentThe granting of citizenship or political rights (especially the right to vote) to a person.

      Paul vvas a Roman by enfranchiſement (though a Jevv).

      1685, Richard Baxter, A Paraphrase on the New Testament, with Notes, Doctrinal and Practical. […], London: […] B. Simmons, […], →OCLC, Acts XVI:37, note, signature M2, recto, column 2

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      While in other Nordic countries there has been a steady rise in women's representation, in Iceland chances only seem to occur when there is a major systemic challenge in politics or the economy. Icelandic political scientist Auður Styrkársdóttir (2012) has aptly compared waves of women's democratic enfranchisements throughout the twentieth century with natural upheavals, such as earthquakes or volcanoes[…].

      2021, Irma Erlingsdóttir, “Trouble in Paradise? Icelandic Gender-equality Imaginaries, National Rebranding and International Reification”, in Eirinn Larsen, Sigrun Marie Moss, Inger Skjelsbæk, editors, Gender Equality and Nation Branding in the Nordic Region (Routledge Studies in Gender and Global Politics), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 99–100

      Synonyms: effranchisement · Antonyms: disenfranchisement, disfranchisement

   4. countableoftenuncountablegovernmentThe granting of membership of a corporation, municipality, etc., to a person.

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      Enfranchiſement […] is deriued from the French word Franchiſe, that is, Liberty, and in the Common Law it hath diuers ſignifications, ſometimes the incorporating of a man to be free of a Company or body politique, as a free man of a Citie, or Burgeſſe of a burroughe, ⁊c. ſometimes to make an Alien a Denizen, […]

      1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Villenage”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 2, chapter 11, section 204, folios 137, recto – 137, verso

      Synonyms: effranchisement · Antonyms: disenfranchisement, disfranchisement

   5. countableoftenuncountablegovernmentThe granting of privileges, especially the right to be represented in a legislature, to a city or town.

      He holds an eſtate under certain cities in your government, of vvhich he is deſirous to procure the enfranchiſement: and I am perſuaded he may eaſily obtain his point, by the intervention of your good offices.

      1753, Marcus Coelius [i.e., Marcus Caelius Rufus], “Letter XXXIV. From the Same [Marcus Coelius to Cicero].”, in Cicero, translated by William Melmoth [the younger], The Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero to Several of His Friends: […], volume I, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, book III, page 317

      Synonyms: effranchisement · Antonyms: disenfranchisement, disfranchisement

   6. EnglandWaleshistoricaluncountablelawThe conversion of a copyhold or leasehold estate into a freehold estate; (countable) an instance of this.

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      Another species of compulsory alienation takes place under the Acts by which either a lord of a manor or a copyhold tenant is entitled to compel enfranchisement through the medium of the Copyhold Commissioners. Enfranchisement, as has been seen, consists in the conveyance of the freehold by the lord to his copyhold tenant. Either lord or tenant may now under the provisions of the above-mentioned Acts obtain an award of enfranchisement, compensation in money paid down or secured, or in land, being awarded to the lord.

      1875, Kenelm Edward Digby, “Titles or Modes of Acquisition of Rights over Things Real”, in An Introduction to the History of the Law of Real Property […] (Clarendon Press Series), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, part II (The Modern Law of Real Property), § 3 (Miscellaneous Titles), pages 348–349

      Antonyms: disenfranchisement, disfranchisement