Feudalism- Forms AND Structures - Manors PDF

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The manor served as the primary unit of economic and social life during the feudal era. To begin, a manor was nothing more than a collection of small, subordinate farms, each of which was directly ruled by a lord and tended by serfs or peasant cultivators who were bound to the land. Having its roots...

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FEUDALISM: FORMS AND STRUCTURES MANORS The manor served as the primary unit of economic and social life during the feudal era. To begin, a manor was nothing more than a collection of small, subordinate farms, each of which was directly ruled by a lord and tended by serfs or peasant cultivators who were bound to the land. Having its roots in the Roman colony or villae, it has survived in the Frankish Gauls and Italy in a recognisable form ever since. It was only during the development of feudalism that manors gained new powers by combining different tenures and transferring many allods to the control of a powerful individual. By force and contract, manors grew in size. The estates were tucked away in the middle of vast expanses of forest and savannah. Peasant families lived in crude homes clustered around a church, grist and stone mill, blacksmith shop, winepress, bakery, and other facilities in a typical manner. Because some essentials like salt and metalware had to be purchased from outside sources, the manorial village was not completely self-sufficient, but it was able to supply most of its residents' daily needs. There were times when purchases had to be made outside of the village to meet the needs of lords and their families. The village was typically located in the middle of the farmland, near the nearest water source. Village churchyards served as burial grounds for peasants who lived, worked, and died on the lord's estate. The mediaeval peasant's world was essentially the manor estate's world and experience. One could see a stark contrast between the single-roomed mud brick and straw homes of the peasants and a lord's spacious castle or manor house. Anxiety about maintaining, expanding, and consolidating their territories led to small-scale arms races with their neighbours in the tenth century, even though the invasions had been contained and eventually defeated. War was fought for both conquest and treasury. While surprise and mobility were essential for the attacker, a well-fortified and well-guarded location was the most effective response for the defender. Most battles were fought in the months before harvest, and destroying farmland to put pressure on the enemy was a common tactic. During the high Middle Ages, the construction of fortifications became increasingly expensive. In the event of an attack by a rival lord, the peasants were usually protected by the castle walls. There was also a lot of arable land, meadowland, and wasteland to take care of the draught animals. The arable fields were rotated every two or three years (used for summer pasture for animals of the whole manor and also providing wood, nuts, berries, honey, rabbits to the community). Strips of ploughed farmland, worked together by the peasants, are the most common form of farmland organisation. The manor's fields were dotted with fields of crops and peasant holdings. In addition to agricultural land, there was a large amount of land known as the commons, which was open to all to graze their animals on, gather firewood from, trap, fish, and hunt from. The vast majority of the manorial population was made up of servile peasants of various origins, but the distinction has largely faded over the centuries. These people were not simply tenants on land they didn't own; they had no legal freedom to move, buy or sell land or commodities, dispose of their labour or marry and start a family, or leave property to heirs. The term "serf" was used to describe the lowest stratum of this body. Although the villein was supposed to enjoy the rights and privileges of a freedman, in reality he was little different from a serf despite the fact that he had no civil claim against his lord. There is no

doubt that slavery was a major factor in the development of feudal serfdom. After the Roman landowners began to divide up large parts of their former land holdings that were no longer profitable, they gave their slaves the right to an indivisible number of land parcels (manses) in exchange for tit-for-tat and other forms of compensation. They were compelled into servitude by the control of social justice and the promise of "protection," making them hereditarily bound by the land they owned, as well as the threat of levies and labour services. Even though poor harvests and fleeing invaders led some freemen to give up their freedom, pressure from above was probably more powerful than the consent from below. According to David Whitton, it wasn't until the eleventh century that the peasantry was subjected to the most rapid encroachment on their rights. The lord's servants were obligated to perform a variety of tasks for him. Every villein household was required to send a labourer to work on the lord's farm for approximately half of the week. The lord's fields had to be ploughed, and the villein had to bring his own oxen and plough to do so. Villeins had to harrow and carry their harvest in wains and carts in the same way that farmers had to do. Carrying duties, both on horseback and in carts, were also assigned. Manual labour was then required for everything from erecting and maintaining hedges to maintaining dykes to thrashing and gathering corn to tending and shearing sheep to a myriad of other tasks. Mowing and reaping necessitated an enormous amount of time and effort. Vignerons were also subject to the servile fine of'merchet' (formariage) on their daughter's marriage, as well as the exaction of their best beast as "heriot" (mainmorte) or inheritance tax, in addition to being tied to the land. Before he could marry, he had to get the lord's permission and pay a small fee. It's also possible for a lord to force his serf to marry a woman he has chosen for him. On top of all that, the lord demanded the annual capitation or head tax (literally "tax on life," since it was literally a tax on existence), as well as the taille (a tax on the serf's property) and heriot (an inheritance tax). Finally, mediaeval serfs had to pay a variety of "banalities," such as taxes to use the lord's mills, ovens, and presses. On several occasions, the villeins were required to pay the clergy additional fees for the upkeep of the church in addition to the regular tithe they were required to pay. There were many freeholders in the manor, despite the general belief that a villein's possessions were his and could be seized by his lord. Certain fixed rents were paid by the lord's tenants, or they performed certain specified services, which were burdensome but not part of the general obligation of rural labour owed to the villeins. For the freeholders, the royal courts provided protection for their rights and gave them an advantage over the villeins when it came to holdings, dues, and services. A distinction between tenants who have a contractual relationship with their Lord and those who are subordinated by custom must not be overstated, however. The freeholders had to participate in the management of the manorial village community, but they also had to adhere to the decisions made by the community. When it came to using their plots as they saw fit, dividing up their arable and grazing acreage among themselves, and keeping up a separate and independent husbandry, they weren't truly free. Those who broke the rules of the community were fined if they did so. The villeins and the freemen alike had to pay a variety of taxes. The by-laws and customs of the village and its complex economic practises were outlined in both sections of the document. We should also mention that over time, an internal manorial staff grew, mainly from those who were not freeholders but who were villagers or villeins themselves. There were stewards and seneschals, who were in charge of overseeing everything, presiding over manorial courts, keeping financial records, and representing the lord at all times, as well as

reeves, who served as a go-between for the villagers and the lord and organised rural services, beadles, radknights, and radmen, who were in charge of serving summonses and carrying orders, and various warders, such as the hay It was in the lord's best interest to strengthen the customary order that protected the peasantry from extortion and arbitrary rule by powerful intermediaries. These customs were recorded in the twelfth century, leading to the enrolment of custom in regards to holdings and services. They protected the interests of both the lord and the tenants. Manorial staff expansion was a clear sign of growing social divisions within the peasantry....