in Law, is used as synonymous with liberty, and is defined "a royal privilege, or branch of the king's prerogative, subsisting in the hands of a subject." Being thus derived from the crown, a franchise must arise from the king's grant; or in some cases it may be held by prescription, which presupposes a grant. The kinds of franchise are almost infinite.

Franchise is also used to denote an asylum or sanctuary, where the persons of those who take refuge in them are secure. One of the most remarkable capitulars made by Charlemagne in his palace of Herstal, in 779, was that relating to the franchises of churches. The right of franchise was held so sacred that even the less rigid righteous kings scrupulously observed it; but in course of time it was carried to such excess, that Charlemagne reduced it, by forbidding the conveying of provisions to criminals who had fled for protection to these sanctuaries.