Lensmann

'fief man'; Old Norse: lénsmaðr) is a term with several distinct meanings in Nordic history.

The term lensmann traditionally referred to a holder of a royal fief in Denmark and Norway.

Modern Norwegian historians often use the term lensherre (English: 'fief lord') instead of lensmann, although from the legal point of view, the king was the fief lord, and the title used by contemporaries was lensmand, not lensherre.

[1] While the lensmann was a fief-holder from the nobility, the amtmann was a civil servant who might be ennobled as a reward.

The title lensmann is also used in an entirely different meaning in modern Norway, denoting the leader of a rural police district known as a lensmannsdistrikt.