Villein mobility was significant because the medieval manor system was not static. The manor's lord could settle surplus population on new land Thus, there were outlets for surplus labour to leave overpopulated manors for where they could be more productive.Ģ. Women, work, and life cycle in a Medieval economy: Women in York and Yorkshire c. This last may have been especially true of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries when labour was abundant and land scarce. Landless villeins of either sex left the manor to which they were legally bound with impunity and without due record being made within the court rolls. Hence, prior to the demographic collapse of the Black Death, it appears that: ![]() Beyond that, however, there's little benefit to keeping extra starving peasants around. Their chiefs concerns would have been to collect rent, which required ensuring fields were worked productively. In times of overpopulation, the manorial lord was probably not very concerned with villeins leaving. The implication is that aside from legal departures, landless villains also illegally migrated to where land was available. Note that manorial records would be naturally silent on those who had obtained permission to leave without being required to make payments. For instance, they might have stood to inherit land in the manor. Given the logical difficulties for a manor to enforce such powers over departed villeins, it has been speculated that those who did continue to render such tributes had special interest to do so. Slavery and Serfdom in the European Economy from the 11th to the 18th Centuries. For virtually all of the chevage payers these conditions consisted at least of an annual obligation to give one or two capons (a type of fowl) to the lord and to return to the manor to attend one or both 'great' sessions of the manor court.īriggs, Christopher. Permission to leave the manor and dwell elsewhere was granted to these men on certain conditions. This is not surprising since such apparently landless men had more reason to migrate than their landholding parents. Ne finds that chevage fell mostly on the sons of villeins. For instance, manorial records often feature payments of chevage by landless sons who had left the manor: ![]() Rather, they were forbidden from leaving without permission from the lord, which was usually obtainable. ![]() It should be noted that villeins were not absolutely prohibited from leaving their manors. The surplus population could leave for underpopulated areas.
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