kind, 1 quarter of seed-wheat at Michaelmas; 1 peck of wheat, 4 bushels of oats, and 3 hens on November 12th ; also 1 cock and 2 hens, and 2d. worth of bread every Christmas. His services are-to plough and till -acre of the lord's land, to give 3 days' labour at harvest, and other days when required by the bailiff. This was the rent for about 12 or 15 acres of land (half a virgate), and, upon a calculation of the worth of labour and provisions at that time (end of thirteenth century), it comes to about 6d. an acre for his land and 3s. a year for his house and the land about it (curtilage). So far mention has been made only of tenants in villeinage; but in the Domesday Book we find another class of tenants, called free,1 who had to pay a fixed rent, either in money or kind, and sometimes in labour. This rent was fixed and unalterable in amount, and they were masters of their own actions as soon as it was paid. They were not like the villeins, bound to the soil, but could transfer their holdings, or even quit the manor if they liked. They were, however, subject to their lord's jurisdiction in matters of law, and hence were called soke-men (from soke or soc = jurisdiction exercised by a lord). They also were bound to give military service when called upon, which the villeinage tenants had not to give. If they had any services to render, these were generally commuted into money payments; and here we may observe that there was a constant tendency from the Conquest to the time of the Great Plague (1348) towards this commutation. Villeins also could, and did frequently, commute their labour rents for money rents. 2 In Domesday we find that the Eastern and East-central counties were those in which "free tenants or soke-men 2 Ib. 1 Liberi homines, sochemanni; cf. Seebohm, V. C., pp. 87, 88. 3 The whole of the services, both week-work and boon-days, are found occasionally commuted as early as 1240; Ashley, Econ. Hist., I. c., i. p. 31. Complete commutation became general by the reign of Edward II. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 218. Ellis gives 10,097 liberi homines, of which more than half (5344) were were most prevalent. There they form from 27 to 45 per cent. of the inhabitants of those parts, though, taking all England into view, they only form 4 per cent. of the total population.1 It is almost certain that they were of Danish or (later) of Norman origin; for it is in the Danish districts that they are chiefly found, and their position is exceptional and privileged. The number of free tenants, however, was constantly increasing, even among tenants in villeinage, for the lord often found it more useful to have money, and was willing to allow commutation of services; or, again, he might prefer not to cultivate all his own land (his demesne), but to let it for a fixed money rent not only to a freeman but to a villein 2 to do what he could with it, and thus the villein became a free man, while the lord was sure of a fixed sum from his land every year, whether the harvest were good or bad. § 43. The Distinction between Free and Unfree Tenants. The classification of the inhabitants of the manors which we have just examined is based upon the classification of Domesday. But, like that of Domesday, though clear in its main features, it is rough and even artificial. In fact, being drawn up for the purposes of a fiscal survey, the Domesday inquirers classed the various kinds of tenants under heads "too few and simple to be accurate." In Domesday the demesne land is distinguished from land held "in villeinage," and the Book does not recognise free tenants (libere tenentes) on land in villeinage, because, for the purposes of the survey, such tenants were practically villeins, and, therefore, "unfree." But, as a matter of fact, there were in those times many people whom Domesday regarded simply as villani who were really more free than ordinary villeins.3 But this the Norman surveyors, and in Suffolk; also 2041 liberi homines commendati (1895 in Suffolk), and no less than 23,072 sochemanni. Introd., pp. 511-514. 1 See also the maps in Seebohm, V. C., p. 86. 2 Ashley, Econ. Hist., I. i. p. 27, who quotes the case of Ralph de Diceto in Domesday of St Paul's, 114. For instance, free men often took, in addition to their own land, a villein holding with the services attached to it, but still preserved their personal freedom. the Norman lawyers of the same period, could not understand. They were inclined to follow the theory of Roman Law, which recognised no middle position between freedom and slavery. As a matter of fact, we notice after the Conquest a continual attempt to degrade the villein in the eyes of the law by accentuating all the servile elements in his condition, and ignoring the very numerous elements that betoken some kind of freedom. 3 It is no wonder, then, that we find a persistent tradition, to which modern investigation gives no slight support, to the effect that the freedom of the villein was greater in Saxon than in Norman times. It is even held that the privileged socmen represent a state of freedom that at one time was the normal condition of villeins. However this may be, we may arrive with some certainty at the conclusions already indicated: (1) An analysis of the legal evidence of Norman times shows that the classification of society into villeins (or "unfree" men) and freeholders is comparatively late and artificial.5 (2) For there existed between these two clearlymarked classes a large body of "customary" freeholders," and from these customary holders the ranks of the villeins. were constantly recruited, as the legal minds of the day tended to debase the condition of freedom which the customary holders possessed. But (3) originally the customary freeholders formed the main bulk of the population. Now, the work of the statesmen and lawyers of Norman times tended to change the "customary" freedom of the villein into an almost complete servitude from the legal point of view. But, on the other hand, economic forces were at work which tended inevitably to give the villein more and more practical, if not legal, freedom. The advantages of a settled government, the extension of commerce and manufactures, and the prosperity gained thereby under 1 Domesday even regarded the free men in Kent and in Danish manors in Essex as villani. Vinogradoff, V. in E., p. 208. 2 Vinogradoff, V. in E., p. 135, though Seebohm rather doubts it; see his criticism in Eng. Hist. Review, July 1892, p. 449. Vinogradoff, p. 136. 5 Villeinage in England, pp. 177, 220. 4 P. 56. See p. 56 above. the cover of the law and order established very soon after the Conquest, all gave back to the villein tenants on the economic and industrial side far more than the lawyers took away in legal definitions and status.1 The economic effects of the new industry, commerce, and prosperity became the source of a practical freedom,2 which existed none the less surely though it was persistently ignored by the lawyers; and this practical freedom grew greater and greater, till at last, in spite of legal definitions, villeinage became a state more of antiquarian than of actual interest. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 opened the eyes of England to this fact, and from that year the death-knell of villeinage as a practical institution was already sounded. § 44. Illustrations of Manors from Domesday. But this is greatly to anticipate the story of industrial development. We must return to the manors of Norman days, and it will perhaps be well to give two illustrations drawn from the Domesday Book (eleventh century) and from bailiffs' accounts of a later period (end of thirteenth century). First, we will take a manor in Warwickshire in the Domesday Survey 3 (1089)-Estone, now Aston, near Birmingham. It was one of a number belonging to William, the son of Ansculf, who was tenant-in-chief, but had let it to one Godmund, a sub-tenant, or tenant-in-mesne. The Survey runs-"William Fitz-Ansculf holds of the King Estone, and Godmund of him. There are 8 hides. The arable employs 20 ploughs; in the demesne the arable employs 6 ploughs, but now there are no ploughs. There are 30 villeins with a priest, and 1 bondsman, and 12 bordars (i.e., cottars). They have 18 ploughs. A mill pays 1 This follows the view of Seebohm (cf. his remarks in Eng. Hist. Rev., July 1892, p. 457). 2 A serf or villein could in later days even become a knight, as did Sir Robert Sale, or a bishop, as did Grostête of Lincoln. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 32. 3 Domesday of Warwick, q.v. 4 A hide varied in size, and was (after the Conquest) equal to a carucate, which might be anything from 80 to 120 or 180 acres. See Cunningham, Growth of Eng. Industry, i. 120, and cf. note 1, p. 65 above. three shillings. The woodland is three miles long and half-amile broad. It was worth £4; now 100 shillings." Here we have a good example of a manor held by a subtenant, and containing all the three classes mentioned before in this chapter-villeins, cottars, and slaves (i.e., bondsmen). The whole manor must have been about 5000 acres, of which 1000 were probably arable land, which was of course parcelled out in strips among the villeins, the lord, and the priest. As there were only 18 ploughs among 30 villeins, it is evident that some of them at least had to use a plough and oxen in common. The demesne land does not seem to have been well cultivated by Godmund the lord, for there were no ploughs on it, though it was large enough to employ six. Perhaps Godmund, being an Englishman, had been fighting the Normans in the days of Harold, and had let it go out of cultivation, or perhaps the former owner had died in the war, and Godmund had rented the land from the Norman noble to whom William gave it. § 45. Cuxham Manor in the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries. Our second illustration can be described at two periods of its existence at the time of Domesday and 200 years later. It was only a small manor of some 500 acres, and was held by a sub-tenant from a Norman tenant-in-chief, Milo Crispin. It is found in the Oxfordshire Domesday, in the list of lands belonging to Milo Crispin. The Survey says: "Alured [the sub-tenant] now holds 5 hides for a manor in Cuxham. Land for 4 ploughs; now in the demesne, 2 ploughs and 4 bondsmen. And 7 villeins with 4 bordars have 3 ploughs. There are 3 mills of 18 shillings; and 18 acres of meadow. It was worth £3, now £6." Here, again, the three classes of villeins, cottars or bordars, and slaves are represented. The manor was evidently a good one, for though smaller than Estone, it was worth more, and has three mills and good meadow land as well. Now, by the end of the thirteenth century this manor had passed into the hands of Merton College, Oxford, which then represented the lord, but farmed it by |