History of the Italian Republic the first time. The 1994 elections also swept media magnate Silvio Berlusconi (leader of "Pole of Freedoms" coalition, which included Forza Italia, the regionalist far-right "Lega Nord" party and the far-right "Alleanza Nazionale"), into office as Prime Minister. Berlusconi, however, was forced to step down in December 1994 when the "Lega Nord" withdrew support. The Berlusconi government was succeeded by a technical government headed by Lamberto Dini, which left office in early 1996. A series of center-left coalitions dominated Italy's political landscape between 1996 and 2001, which introduced a number of progressive reforms in areas such as social security. In
Droit du seigneur of the "right of first night" with money payment as an alternative. According to Howarth, this suggests that "droit du seigneur" was a familiar notion to people at that time, which he traces back to Boece. The Jesuit hagiographical work Acta Sanctorum (Acts of the Saints), published from 1643 onwards, recorded the existence of "jus primae noctis" in its biographies of St Margaret and St Forannan. English lexicographer Thomas Blount recorded the "right" as a medieval custom of some English manors in "Fragmenta Antiquitatis" in 1679. French philosopher Montesquieu referred to the practice in The Spirit of the Laws (1748),