Bailiwick

Bailiwick (pronounced bey-luh-wik)

(1) In law, the district or area within which a bailie or bailiff has jurisdiction.

(2) A person's area of skill, knowledge, authority, or work.

1425–75: From the late Middle English, the construct being baili- (or bailie) + wick (district of a bailiff, jurisdiction of a royal officer or under-sheriff), a mid-fifteenth century contraction of baillifwik, from bailiff + the Middle English wik, from the Old English wic (village).  The figurative sense of "one's natural or proper sphere" was a creation of American English first recorded in 1843.  Bailiwick is a noun; the noun plural is balilwicks.

From the Ancien Régime

Bailiwick’s origin was in pre-revolutionary France.  Under the Ancien Régime, the bailli (bailiff in the Old French) was the king's representative in a bailliage, in charge of the application of justice and the machinery of local administration.  For historic reasons, in the southern provinces, the more frequently used term was sénéchal and they discharged duties similar to a bailli in a sénéchaussée.  The network of baillages, structurally the most enduring creation of early-Modern France, was created during the thirteenth century, using mostly the geographical boundaries of the earlier medieval fiscal and tax divisions (the baillie) which had been the systems of the various dukedoms and principalities.  In English, the French bailie was combined with the Anglo-Saxon suffix “-wic” (village), the compound meaning literally “bailiff's village”, and defining the geographic scope of each bailiwick.  In the nineteenth century, it was absorbed into American English as a metaphor for a sphere of knowledge or activity.  The term survives in administrative usage in the British Crown dependencies of the Channel Islands which are grouped into two bailiwicks (1), Jersey (Jersey, and the uninhabited islets (Minquiers & Écréhous et al) and (2), Guernsey (Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, Brecqhou, Herm, Jethou & Lihou).  A Bailiff is the head of each Channel Island bailiwick.

Ridderlijke Duitsche Orde Balije van Utrecht

The Ridderlijke Duitsche Orde Balije van Utrecht (Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order) is a charity based in Utrecht in the central Netherlands.  The origin of the order was in 1231 as a division of the order of Teutonic Knights but during the sixteenth century Reformation most of the members became Protestant (mainly Reformed or Lutheran), one consequence of which was the Bailiwick sundering its association with the order based in the Holy Roman Empire, and placing itself under the protection of the United Provinces of the Netherlands.  The order was briefly suppressed during the Napoleonic era, but revived in 1815 after the restoration of the House of Orange and in 1995 it returned its headquarters to the Duitse Huis (Teutonic House), a building dating from 1348.

The origins of the Teutonic Order were during the siege of Acre (1190) in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, the original purpose the nursing of sick and wounded crusaders and it was another eight years before a military component was added with the mission of fighting the enemies of Christendom and protect pilgrims visiting the holy land, the statutes of the order confirmed by Innocent III (1161–1216; pope 1198-1216) in a bull of 19 February 1199.  The Teutonic Order was typical of the times in that it had a multi-national character with many branches in the west providing both funds and recruits; it was particularly active in the states around the Baltic.  Rapidly, the order established an organization throughout the German Empire of bailiwicks headed by a land commander reporting to the German master.

Fictitious portraits of the Commanders of Utrecht of the German Order (1578), attributed to "an anonymous painter, called "Roelof" or "De Meester van het Duitse Huis" resident in Utrecht circa 1578".  The use of "fictitious" portraits was not uncommon during times of religious conflict although the details such as clothing, weaponry and heraldry was usually a true depiction.

In the way things happened in Europe over the thousand-odd years, the fortunes of the Teutonic Order fluctuated until, by order of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; leader of the French Republic 1799-1804 & Emperor of the French from 1804-1814 & 1815), in 1811 it was abolished in the Kingdom of Holland, its estates confiscated.  However, after the fall of Napoleon, on 8 August 1815 the Bailiwick was revived by the royal decree of William I (1772–1843; King of the Netherlands 1815-1840), initially with a membership limited to Lutheran noblemen with sixteen noble quarterings (formally in heraldry the Seize Quartiers, a measure of nobility in ancestry reaching back four generations (ie to the great-great-grandparent level)).  In the modern era this rule has been relaxed but to be eligible a members must still have four noble grandparents and the families of both the paternal and maternal lines must pre-date 1795.  Now the oldest charitable institution based in the Netherlands, its activities extend to assisting those with disabilities, the homeless and those with issues of substance abuse.