Jura regalia is a medieval legal term that denoted rights that belonged exclusively to the king, either as essential to his sovereignty, such as royal authority, or as accidental, 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 as 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 in which the regalian right did not apply.