Also 3–5 conqueste. [Represents two OF. words: (1) conquest (now conquêt) m.:—L. type *conquæstum (cf. Pr. conquist, It. conquisto), med.L. conquestum, -quistum, for L. conquīsītum, neuter of pa. pple. of conquīrĕre (see CONQUER); (2) OF. conqueste (now conquête) fem. = Pr. conquesta, Sp., It., med.L. conquesta, -quista, fem. sb. from the pa. pple. (parallel to sbs. in -ata, -ade, -ée). The latter of these expressed the action, the former the proceeds of acquiring or conquering. Cf. acquest, OF. aquest, but inquest, request, OF. enqueste, requeste. Conquêt, conquête are still distinct in F., but in Eng., through loss of final -e and of grammatical gender, the two forms ran together at an early date.
The original sense in med.L. and F. was ‘acquisition, esp. as the result of effort’; including getting by force of arms as well as by other means. Hence two lines of development: first, with the feudal jurists ‘personal acquisition of estate, as opposed to inheritance,’ without specific reference to the mode, whether by force of arms, by grant, or (in later times) by money, called PURCHASE in English Law; secondly, ‘acquisition by force of arms, military conquest.’ The latter of these is by far the earlier in English, and has always been (with its transferred uses) the only popular sense. The general sense of acquisition and esp. the legal sense as opposed to inheritance, is chiefly Scotch and prominent in Scotch law.]
I. Conquest by war or combat.
1. The action of gaining by force of arms; acquisition by war; subjugation of a country, etc. [OF. conqueste.]
c. 1325. Coer de L., 6. It is ful god to here in jeste Off his prowesse and hys conqueste.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 25 [see CONQUER 2]. Ibid., 51. Seuentene ȝere was he [Knoute] kyng þorgh conquest & desceit.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 26. Qwene that the kynge Arthur by conqueste hade wonnyne Castelles and kyngdoms, and contreez many.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vi. 18. Þe sowdan es lord of fiue kyngdomes, whilk he has geten by conquest.
c. 1456. Lydg., Verses on Kings of Eng., x. 4, in Hist. Collect. Camd. Soc. (1876), 49. This myghty Wylliam Duke of Normandye … Made kynge by conqueste of Brutys Albyon.
1555. Eden (title), Decades of the newe worlde or west India, Conteynyng the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., Concl. 391. Conquest … is the Acquiring of the Right of Soveraignty by Victory.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 225. Most conquests have gone from north to south.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 674. They accompanied our soldiers in their conquests, and acquired lands in America.
b. with of and object.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1298 (Dido). To the conqueste of ytayle My destany is soone for to sayle.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 85. Kinges been worshipped … for conquestes of landes & regions.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, Prol. The historie of Iason, towchyng the conqueste of the golden flese.
1695. Enq. Anc. Const. England, 6. Does not … conquest of a nation by arms give the conqueror a power from God to rule over that people?
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 33. The easy conquest of Arakan, and the subjugation of Manipur.
c. transf. and fig.; esp. the gaining or captivating of the favor, affections, or hand of another.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 290. Better conquest neuer canst thou make, Then arme thy constant and thy nobler parts Against these giddy loose suggestions.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., King & No King, I. i. Nature did her wrong, To print continual conquest on her cheeks, And make no man worthy for her to take.
1831. Lytton, Godolphin, 38. Constance, dressed for conquest, sat alone in her dressing-room.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wealth, Wks. (Bohn), II. 76. When mean gain has arrived at the conquest of letters and arts.
1887. J. Knight, in Dict. Nat. Biog. IX. 355/2. The conquest of the marquis was … soon effected, and the pair were married in Paris in 1645.
2. The action of overcoming or vanquishing; gaining of victory. Also fig.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 148. Nys gryt stryf wythoute queade, And ther conqueste ys, stryf ys reade, And som y-schent.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 311. Where is now your sourquydrye & your conquestes.
1485. Caxton, Pref. Malory’s Morte Arthur, 2 b. The fyfthe book treateth of the conqueste of Lucius themperour [by Arthur].
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 208 b. His victory wherin he ouercame the deuyl was moost perfyte triumph and conquest.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. ii. 10. I must yeeld my body to the Earth, And by my fall, the conquest to my foe.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Conquest, victory.
1789. Belsham, Ess., I. xii. 223. The conquest of difficulties is never a source of pleasure.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, IV. xx. Amid the pealing conquest-cry.
b. Attributed to the conquered: The condition of being conquered.
1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol. (1867), 471. But though they may be more troubled, yet they may be furthest from conquest.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 640. Having shifted ev’ry Form to scape, Convinc’d of Conquest, he resum’d his Shape [victus in sese redit].
3. The Conquest or Norman Conquest: the acquisition of the crown of England by William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066.
[1327. Murimuth, Chron., Anno Domini MCCCXXVII … et regis Edwardi tertii a conquestu primo.]
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 14. Kyng Edward þe thridde after þe conquest.
1428. in Surtees Misc. (1890), 3. In þe yer of þe regne of Kyng Henre Sext after þe Conqueste fyft.
1589. Nashe, Wks. (ed. Grosart), I. 50. Some men spring from the coffer, not from the Conquest.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun Mon., 655. Swaine was Lord in the Conquest time.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), 4/1. A family of an ancient extraction, even from the time of the conquest.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. 3. As a conquest, compared with earlier and with later conquests, the Norman Conquest of England holds a middle place between the two classes.
4. That which is acquired by force of arms; a possession or acquisition made in war; a conquered country, etc.: now restricted to territorial acquisitions, formerly also including booty. [OF. conquest.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2540 (Cott.). O þair conquest he tok þe tend.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 27. Alisaundre … To knightes … after that they have deserved Yaf the conquestes, that he wanne.
a. 1500. Chaucer’s Dreme, 934. The lord … said he would within that yle Be lord and sire … And called it there his new conquest.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. i. 37. Wherefore reioyce? What Conquest brings he home? What Tributaries follow him to Rome?
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., I. viii. (1692), 36. They soon became the Conquest of the Greeks.
1692. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 633. Orders are issued for all young men in the new conquests capable of bearing arms, to list themselves in the French service.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, I. 342. No person in Portugal or its conquests should make use of the instrument.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. 224. His new conquest of Calais remained a part of the possessions of the English crown.
b. transf. and fig., said esp. of a person whose favor or affections have been won by art.
a. 1631. Donne, Poems (1650), 57. But thou wilt lose the stile of conquerour, If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 306, ¶ 2. To resign Conquests is a Task as difficult in a Beauty as an Hero.
1771. Junius Lett., lix. 307. Perhaps he found her at first too easy a conquest.
5. Phr. To make (win) a conquest. Also To make a conquest of: to reduce to a conquered position, to conquer.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 93. After this Alexander made grett conquestis.
1570. R. Edwards, Damon & P., in Hazl., Dodsley, IV. 102. I joy as much as he that hath a conquest won.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1767. Shall rotten death make conquest of the stronger And leave the faltering feeble souls alive. Ibid. (1608), Per., I. iv. 69. And make a conquest of unhappy me.
1712. Swift, Let. Eng. Tongue, Wks. 1755, II. I. 186. Till we are invaded and made a conquest by some other states.
1838. Lytton, Alice, 21. Which at once made a conquest of Evelyn’s heart.
1874. Bancroft, Footpr. Time, i. 61. They never made permanent conquests in that direction.
II. Conquest of property, etc. Sc.
6. Sc. Law. a. The personal acquisition of real property otherwise than by inheritance. b. Real estate so acquired, as opposed to heritage (the distinction as it affected the Law of Succession was abolished in 1874); hence fee, heir, succession of conquest.
[1198–9. Pipe Roll 10 Rich. I. (Entry of fine made 30 Hen. II., 1184), in Madox, Form. Angl., 217. Et de primo conquestu vel de escaeta de hereditate ipsarum prædictarum B. et M. a quocunque illud accipient prædicii G. et B. uxor ejus … dabunt, etc.]
c. 1150[?]. Leges 4 Burg. xlii. (Sc. Acts, I. 340). Terram quam habet de conquestu suo [? 15th c. transl. The landis that he has of conquest].
a. 1300[?]. Reg. Maj., iv. xlii (ibid., I. 369). Quia conquestus terrarum … debet gradatim ascendere et hereditas gradatim descendere.
[1375. see CONQUESE].
1425. Wyntoun, Chron., VIII. ii. 181. For he hys sowne wes mydlest He gawe [hym] tharefor hys conqwest.
c. 1583. Sir J. Balfour, Practicks, 162 (Jam.). Gif ony man hes sum landis pertening to him as heritage, and some uther landis as conqueist.
a. 1608. Craig, Jus Feudale, II. xv. § 10. Nos conquæstum dicimus, Angli et Normanni pourches.
1681. Stair, Inst., III. iv. 33. The immediate elder brother succeeding in conquest and the immediate younger in heritage.
1861. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 219. Where the deceased has died without lawful issue … heritage descends to the immediate younger brother of deceased, but conquest ascends to the immediate elder brother.
1874. Act 37 & 38 Vict., c. 94 § 37. The distinction between fees of conquest and fees of heritage is hereby abolished.
c. Conquest of marriage: property acquired during wedlock, and provided for in the marriage contract. (Cf. Littré ‘Conquêt, acquêt fait durant la communauté des époux.’)
1861. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 219. A subject purchased with money acquired by industry or economy is conquest in this sense; but land or any other subject purchased with borrowed money is not conquest of the marriage, except in so far as … of greater value than the price paid for it.
† 7. gen. Acquisition, gain, possession gained. Chiefly Sc. (exc. where fig. from 1). Obs.
1500–20. Dunbar, ‘Schir, ȝit remembir,’ vii. Quhen seruit is all vdir man … Na thing I get, na conquest than.
1556. Lauder, Dewties of Kyngis, 264. Wrang Conquest maks myscheuous end.
1570. Levins, Manip., 92/13. A Conquest, acquisitio.
1603. Jas. I., in S. R. Gardiner, Hist. Eng. (1884), I. 91. How happy I think myself by the conquest of so faithful and so wise a counsellor.
III. Comb.
1814. [see 2].
1818. Shelley, Euganean Hills, 122. With thy conquest-branded brow Stooping to the slave of slaves From thy throne.
