servitude.

Their tenure was called villein socage; they were the villeins regardant, who by prescription were attached to the manor of their lord, and, according to some authorities, could not be separated from it. Hallam, however, quoting from Bracton, says they could at any time be dispossessed by the will of their lord, though their chattels were secure from seizure and their person from injury. To this body belonged the bordarii and cottarii of Domesday Book; cottagers who held their cottage and patch of land on condition that they provided the lord's table with poultry (called hen rents), eggs, and other small provisions, and also paid scharnpenny and averpenny, that is, dung penny and arable land (aver) penny. Craftsmen, such as smiths, carpenters, and armourers, who had been instructed in their trades at the charge of their masters, also belonged to this class.

One of these villein socmen was Chaucer's Ploughman, whom he thus describes:

"A trué swinker and a good was he;
Living in peace and perfect charity.
God loved he best with alle his heart

At allé times, were it gain or smart;

And then his neighébour right as himselve.

He wouldé threshe, and thereto dike, and delve
For Christé's sake, for every poore wight
Withouten hire, if it lay in his might."

To the craftsmen had also formerly belonged the Reeve, who
in youth had learned "a good misteré" and "was a well
good wright, a carpenter." But he was a cautious, calcu-
lating, reserved kind of man, who was determined to rise by
some scheme or other. He was therefore an excellent
business man; so excellent, indeed, that no auditor was able
to overreach or detect him in his accounts; yet he contrived
to make great gains out of his lord, and always made better
purchases for himself than for his master. For all which he

pleased his lord right "subtilly," and obtained f only thanks but occasionally "a coat and hood."

Under these half-emancipated tenants, and lo were the pure villeins or villeins in gross, w bought and sold without any regard to the ma were the servi, the thralls, and were the absolute their masters both in body and chattels. The could acquire no property of their own; they had action against their lord, and if they fled from hi could legally recover them by the writ de nativitate Their children were born to the same state of serv though their mother might be a freewoman, t being a slave, they were slaves also. The absol dence of these villiens in gross upon their lor illustrated in the Clerk's Tale, the most affecting stories told by the Canterbury Pilgrims. The Lo being urged by his people to take a wife, consent and presently, to the surprise of all, proposes Grisildis, the daughter of Janicola, one of his The latter, quaking with fear, and knowing that h choice of acceptance or denial, can only say, as by fo he is bound, "Lord, my will is as ye will; nor aga liking may I determine aught-right as you list, this mattére." Grisildis herself is not consulted simply told that the marriage is to be, and that sh expected to carry into her new position all the allegia submission, in every extremity, which she owes to as his villein. He demands of her

ined from him not ood."

and lowest of all 88, who could be e manor. Ther

Solute property of Therefore ther had no right ef m his service he itate probandi. servitude, and , their father bsolute deperlord is well ing of all the Lord Walter,

ents to wed

es to marry

She swears as he requires, and then, as her children are
born, and she is asked to give them up one after another, to
be taken away from her, her language under every trial and
provocation is-

"Lord, all lieth in your pleasance.
My child and I with heartly obeisance
Be yourés all, and ye may save or spill
Your owen thing.

"Ye be my lord, doeth with your owen thing
Right as ye list."

In other words, she acknowledges that he is absolute master
of her life, liberty, and honour, by the recognised laws of the
Feudal System, and that it is her duty, even though she is
his wife, not to presume upon his will or wish, for he is still
her lord, and she is still his villein. Nay further. Even
when he puts her away, and requires her to prepare the
chambers for a new wife that he intends to bring in her stead,
she still replies-

"I am glad

To do your luste, but I desire also
You for to serve and please in my degree
Withouten fainting."

"To love you best with all my true intent."

The

Having thus seen what were the mutual relations which existed between the lord and the agricultural tenants on his manor, let us now take a general view of the estate. persons employed on the manorial farm were the reeve or steward, the bailiff, the head harvestman, carters, ploughmen, plough-drivers, shepherds, swineherds, and deyes, the lowest of farm labourers. The steward held the manorial courts, and preserved all the manorial privileges; he kept the chief accounts of the household and farm, and superintended the domestics. Next to the steward was the bailiff, who super

intended all the farming operations; then ca harvestman, who was annually elected by the during his year of office ate at the lord's table horse kept for him in the stables. The ploug farrier, and the huntsman slept in the same b their cattle. The lighter labours of husban winnowing of corn, the care of the poultry, and of the young cattle, were undertaken by women duly taken care of by the lord, and, as the v saleable property, Magna Charta forbade guardia the men of their wards. This selling of vill common practice, especially in the twelfth and centuries; Bristol and York were the chief sla whence they were sent to Ireland, Scotland, and Gradually, however, the serfs passed from this condition to the position of free labourers, and ma stances aided them in their progress upwards.

The first of f these in the order of time was the copyholders-villeins who, instead of being oblige form every mean and servile office that the arbitra their lord demanded, had been allowed to hold the occupied on condition of rendering agricultural servi were free and certain. For example, they were to lord's corn or cleanse his fish-pond, harrow his lan his timber, so many days in the year. These me from the bordarii, and they were called copyholders the services by which they were bound were record lord's book or roll of his Court Baron, a copy of whic by the steward, was the proof of their tenancy. The of these copyholders began sensibly to increase about of Edward I., though it was not till the reign of Edv that the tenants' copy of the court roll was a compl bar against dispossession by the lord.

The next steps towards the emancipation of the

came the head
The tenants, and
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ough-driver, the
e building with
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nd the tending
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evilleins were
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villeins was a
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nd Denmark
is miserable
many circum

e rise of the

ged to per rary will of lands they vices which

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s, because

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ward IV.
ete legal

villeins

were the payment of wages, and the hiring of labourers. As early as 1257, a serf, if employed before midsummer, received wages; and he was allowed to find a substitute, if he did not work himself. From which it is obvious, first, that the serf had already acquired a right of property, and must have possessed the means of hiring a labourer and, secondly, that there had arisen a class of labourers who were practically free, because they were at liberty to sell their services. This state of things had probably been brought about in this manner. The lord's domain, originally large enough to occupy all his villeins, had gradually become contracted by alienations, sales, and demises, so that he had not so many means of employment as formerly. He therefore allowed them to become free and voluntary labourers for others. But he still retained his original rights over them; they were still his villeins; their earnings were, by law, entirely at his disposal, and he had every right, as their master, to make a profit of their labour. The lord, however, was wealthy beyond his wants; he was too haughty and proud to descend to such pitiful gains; the rapacity of commercial times had not yet corrupted society, and the lord was more ambitious to win the affections of his dependents than to improve his fortune at their expense. Villeins therefore became hired labourers in husbandry for the greater part of the year, by which they obtained a part of the immunities of freemen; and this, together with the right of property which the copyholders acquired, placed them in that position of the social scale which enabled them to treat and contend with their masters for the remainder. All the advances they made after this were but extensions and improvements of these two concessions; and, as many opportunities for acquiring freedom offered themselves after this, the villeins rapidly rose to emancipation.

The most important of these was the improved condition