This law existed in some European countries and was designed to prevent the distribution of wealthy estates between many members of the family, thus weakening their position.
The term is not used to refer to inheritances in England, where the practice was the norm, in the form of entails (also known as fee tails.
[2] Like English entails, the consequences of majorats were often used in fiction to add complexity to plots; Honoré de Balzac was especially interested in them.
A couple of Polish magnates' fortunes were based on ordynacja: namely those of the Radziwiłłs, Zamoyskis, Wielopolskis.
In Portugal, there was a similar arrangement called a morgadio, the holder of which was denominated the morgado (or morgada if female).