#FREEMAN IN FEUDALISM IN THE MIDDLE AGES FREE#
Other options included negotiating a new parcel of land from the lord, working for a local clergyman or trying their luck in a town or city where they might find unskilled employment working for a tradesman such as a miller or a blacksmith.Īs customs varied from estate to estate and over time, there were some labourers who occupied a grey area of status between the free and unfree. Serfs born into a large family very often did not receive any land of their own to work and so were obliged to continue to live in the home of their parents, marry another serf with land or live in the household of another peasant elsewhere giving their labour as rent. The serfs on the estate farmed that land reserved for their use as well as the demesne. The second part was the land the labourers lived and worked on for their own daily needs ( mansus), typically around 12 acres (5 hectares) per family. Typically, the demesne was 35-40% of the total land on the estate. The first part was the demesne (domain) which was reserved for the exclusive exploitation of the landowner. The land of the estate was divided into two main parts. Besides a manor and/or castle, the estate had simple dwellings for the labourers and might also include a small river or stream running through it, a church, mill, barns and an area of woodlands. The majority of manors were like small villages as they created self-contained and independent communities. Manors could be owned by the monarch, aristocrats or the church, and the very rich could own several hundred manors, collectively known as an 'honour'. The smallest unit of land was called a manor. Some country estates covered as little as a few hundred acres, which was just about enough land to meet the needs of those who lived on it. Serfdom declined by the 14th century thanks to social and economic changes, particularly the wider use of coinage with which serfs could be paid, allowing some the possibility of eventually buying their own freedom. The relationship of the peasantry to these manors and their lords is known as manorialism. The hub of the medieval rural community and reason for a serf's existence was the manor or castle – the estate owner's private residence and place of communal gatherings for purposes of administration and legal matters. Serfs might not have been slaves but they were subject to certain fees and restrictions of movement which varied according to local custom. Serfs made up 75% of the medieval population but were not slaves as only their labour could be bought, not their person. Medieval serfs (aka villeins) were unfree labourers who worked the land of a landowner (or tenant) in return for physical and legal protection and the right to work a separate piece of land for their own basic needs.
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