Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval HistoryVinogradoff, Paul
History
Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History
Vinogradoff, Paul
Villeinage -- England -- History -- To 1500
The same observations hold good in regard to other customs which come to
be considered as implying personal servitude[300]. Merchet was the most
striking consequence of unfreedom, but manorial documents are wont to
connect it with several others. It is a common thing to say that a
villain by birth cannot marry his daughter without paying a fine, or
permit his son to take holy orders, or sell his calf or horse, that he
is bound to serve as a reeve, and that his youngest son succeeds to the
holding after his death[301]. This would be a more or less complete
enumeration, and I need not say that in particular cases sometimes one
and sometimes another item gets omitted. The various pieces do not fit
well together: the prohibition against selling animals is connected with
disabilities as to property, and not derived directly from the personal
tie[302]; as for the rule of succession, it testifies merely to the
fact that the so-called custom of Borough English was most widely spread
among the unfree class. The obligation of serving as a reeve or in any
other capacity is certainly derived from the power of a lord over the
person of his subject; he had it always at his discretion to take his
man away from the field, and to employ him at pleasure in his service.
Lastly, the provision that the villain may not allow his son to receive
holy orders stands on the same level as the provision that he may not
give his daughter in marriage outside the manor: either of these
prohibited transactions would have involved the loss of a subject.
[Control over the movements of the peasantry.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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