Jura regalia  Jura regalia is a medieval legal term which denoted rights that belonged exclusively to the king, either as essential to his sovereignty ("jura majora", "jura essentialia"), such as royal authority; or accidental ("jura minora", "jura accidentalia"), such as hunting, fishing and mining rights. Many sovereigns in the Middle Ages and in later times claimed the right to seize the revenues of vacant episcopal sees or abbeys, claiming a Regalian right. In some countries, especially in France where it was known as "droit de régale" (), "jura regalia" came to be applied almost exclusively to that assumed right. A liberty was an area where the regalian right did not apply. It is a matter of dispute on what ground the temporal rulers claimed the revenues of vacant dioceses and abbeys. Some hold that it is an inherent right of sovereignty; others, that it is a necessary consequence of the right of investiture; others make it part of the feudal system; still others derive it from the advowson, or right which patrons or protectors had over their benefices. Ultimately, it had its origin in the assumption that bishoprics and imperial abbeys, with all their temporalities and privileges, were royal estates given as fiefs to the bishops or abbots, and subject to the feudal laws of the times. At first the right was exercised only during the actual vacancy of a see or abbey, but later it was extended over the whole year following the death of the bishop or abbot. Often the temporal rulers also claimed the right to collate all the benefices that became vacant during the vacancy of a diocese, with the exception of those to which the cure of souls was attached. It is difficult to determine when and where the "jura regalia" was first exercised. In the West Frankish Kingdom it made its first appearance probably towards the end of the Carolingian dynasty, that is, in the course of the tenth century. In England, the exact practice prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 is unclear, but for monasteries it is likely that the bishop or the prior administered the estate, and that the revenues did not go to the king. Under King William the Conqueror, the record is also unclear, but the absence of monastic complaints suggests that revenues did not go to the royal treasury. The first historical mention we find of it is in connection with King William II of England, who, after the death of Lanfranc in 1089, kept the Diocese of Canterbury vacant for more than three years, during which period the king seized all the archiepiscopal revenues.