Villainage in England Part 14

2. The development from food-farms to labour organisation, and lastly to money-rents, was a result not of one-sided pressure on the part of the landlords, but of a series of agreements between lord and tenants.

3. The settlement of the burdens to which peasants were subjected depended to a great extent on distinctions as to the social standing of tenants which had nothing to do with economic facts.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LORD, HIS SERVANTS AND FREE TENANTS.

[Medieval rural system.]

Descriptions of English rural arrangements in the age we are studying always suppose the country to be divided into manors, and each of these manors to consist of a central portion called the demesne, and of a cl.u.s.ter of holdings in different tributary relations to this central portion. Whether we take the Domesday Survey, or the Hundred Rolls, or the Custumal of some monastic inst.i.tution, or the extent of lands belonging to some deceased lay lord, we shall again and again meet the same typical arrangement. I do not say that there are no instances swerving from this beaten track, and that other arrangements never appear in our records. Still the general system is found to be such as I have just mentioned, and a very peculiar system it is, equally different from the ancient _latifundia_ or modern plantations cultivated by gangs of labourers working on a large scale and for distant markets, from peasant owners.h.i.+p scattered into small and self-dependent households, and even from the conjunction between great property and farms taken on lease and managed as separate units of cultivation.

The characteristic feature of the medieval system is the close connexion between the central and dominant part and the dependent bodies arranged around it. We have had occasion to speak in some detail of these tributary bodies--it is time to see how the lord's demesne which acted as their centre was const.i.tuted.

[The home-farm.]

Bracton mentions as the distinguis.h.i.+ng trait of the demesne, that it is set aside for the lord's own use, and ministers to the wants of his household[679]. Therefore it is sometimes called in English 'Board Lands.' The definition is not complete, however, because all land occupied by the owner himself must be included under the name of demesne, although its produce may be destined not for his personal use, but for the market. 'Board lands' are only one species of domanial land, so also are the 'Husfelds' mentioned in a charter quoted by Madox[680].

This last term only points to its relation to the house, that is the manorial house. And both denominations are noteworthy for their very incompleteness, which testifies indirectly to the restricted area and to the modest aims of domanial cultivation. Usually it lies in immediate connexion with the manorial house, and produces almost exclusively for home consumption.

This is especially true as to the arable, which generally forms the most important part of the whole demesne land. There is no exit for a corn trade, and therefore everybody raises corn for his own use, and possibly for a very restricted local market. Even great monastic houses hold only 300 or 400 acres in the home farm; very rarely the number rises to 600, and a thousand acres of arable in one manor is a thing almost unheard of[681]. Husbandry on a large scale appears only now and then in places where sheep-farming prevails, in Wilts.h.i.+re for instance. Exceptional value is set on the demesne when fisheries are connected with it or salt found on it[682].

[Bockyng, Ess.e.x.]

The following description of Bockyng in Ess.e.x[683], a manor belonging to the Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury, may serve as an example of the distribution and relative value of demesne soil. The cartulary from which it is drawn was compiled in 1309.

The manorial house and close cover five acres. The gra.s.s within its precincts which may serve as food for cattle is valued at 8_d._ a year.

Corn is also sold there to the value of 12_d._ a year, sometimes more and sometimes less, according to the quant.i.ty sown. The orchard provides fruit and vegetables worth 13_s._ 4_d._ a year; the duty levied from the swine gives 6_d._

The pigeon-house is worth 4_d._

Two mills, 7_l._ 1_s._ 8_d._

A fishery, 12_d._

A wood called Brekyng Park, containing 480 acres, and the brushwood there is worth 40_s._

Gra.s.s in the wood 12_d._, because it grows only in a few places.

Pannage duty from the swine, 10_s._

Another wood called Le Flox contains 10 acres, and the brushwood is worth 6_d._

Pannage from the swine, 6_d._

Gra.s.s, 6_d._

Arable, in all fields, 510 acres, the acre being a.s.sessed at 6_d._ all round.

Each plough may easily till one acre a day, if four horses and two oxen are put to it.

Two meadows, one containing eight acres, of which every single acre yields 4_s._ a year; the other meadow contains seven acres of similar value.

Pasture in severalty--30 acres, at 12_d._ an acre.

Of these, 16 acres are set apart for oxen and horses, and 14 for cows.

Some small particles of pasture leased out to the tenants, 4_s._

The prior and the convent are lords of the common pasture in Bockyng, and may send 100 sheep to these commons, and to the fields when not under crop. Value 20_s._

As important an item in the cultivation of the home farm as the soil itself is afforded by the plough-teams. The treatises on husbandry give very minute observations on their composition and management. And almost always we find the manorial teams supplemented by the _consuetudines villae_, that is by the customary work performed on different days by the peasantry[684]. As to this point the close connexion between demesne and tributary land is especially clear; but after all that has been said in the preceding chapter it is hardly necessary to add that it was not only the ploughing-work that was carried on by the lord with the help of his subjects.

[The demesne and the village.]

As a matter of fact, villages without a manorial demesne or without some dependence from it are found only exceptionally and in those parts of England where the free population had best kept its hold on the land, and where the power of the lord was more a political than an economical one (Norfolk and Suffolk, Lincoln, Northumberland, Westmoreland, etc.[685]). And there are hardly any cases at all of the contrary, that is of demesne land spreading over the whole of a manor. Tillingham, a manor of St. Paul's, London, comes very near it[686]: it contains 300 acres as home farm, and only 30 acres of villain land. But as a set-off, a considerable part of the demesne is distributed to small leaseholders.

It must be noted that, as a general rule, the demesne arable of the manor did not lie in one patch apart from the rest, but consisted of strips intermixed with those of the community[687]. This fact would show by itself that the original system, according to which property and husbandry were arranged in manorial groups, was based on a close connexion between the domanial and the tributary land. We might even go further and point out that the mere facilities of intercourse and joint work are not sufficient to account for this intermixture of the strips of the lord and of the homage. The demesne land appears in fact as a share in the a.s.sociation of the village, a large share but still one commensurate with the other holdings. In two respects this subjection to a higher unit must necessarily follow from the intermixture of strips: inasmuch as the demesne consists of plots scattered in the furlongs of the towns.h.i.+p, it does not appropriate the best soil or the best situation, but has to gather its component parts in all the varied combinations in which the common holdings have to take theirs. And besides this, the demesne strips were evidently meant to follow the same course of husbandry as the land immediately adjoining them, and to lapse into undivided use with such land when the 'defence' season was over.

Separate or private patches exempted from the general arrangement are to be found on many occasions, but the usual treatment of demesne land in the thirteenth century is certainly more in conformity with the notion that the lord's land is only one of the shares in the higher group of the village community.

['Ministeriality.']

The management of the estate, the collection of revenue, the supervision of work, the police duties inc.u.mbent on the manor, etc., required a considerable number of foremen and workmen of different kinds[688].

Great lords usually confided the general supervision of their estates to a _seneschal_, steward or head manager, who had to represent the lord for all purposes, to preside at the manorial courts, to audit accounts, to conduct sworn inquests and extents, and to decide as to the general husbandry arrangements. In every single manor we find two persons of authority. The bailiff or beadle was an outsider appointed by the lord, and had to look to the interests of his employer, to collect rents and enforce duties, to manage the home farm, to take care of the domanial cattle, of the buildings, agricultural implements, etc. These functions were often conferred by agreement in consideration of a fixed rent, and in this case the steward or beadle took the name of _firmarius_[689]. By his side appears the reeve, or _praepositus_, nominated from among the peasants of a particular towns.h.i.+p, and mostly chosen by them[690].

Manorial instructions add sometimes that no villain has a right to hold aloof from such an appointment, if it is conferred on him[691]. The reeve acts as the representative of the village community, as well in regard to the lord as on public occasions. He must, of course, render help to the steward in all the various duties of the latter. The reeve has more especially to superintend the performance of labour imposed on the peasantry. Manorial ploughings, reapings, and the other like operations are conducted by him, sometimes with the help of the free tenants in the place. Of the public duties of the reeve we have had occasion to speak. Four men, acting as representatives of the village, accompany him.

Next after the reeve comes, on large estates, the _messor_, who takes charge of the harvest, and sometimes acts as collector of fines imposed for the benefit of the lord[692]. The _akermanni_ or _carucarii_ are the leaders of the unwieldy ploughs of the time[693], and they are helped by a set of drivers and boys who have to attend to the oxen or horses[694].

Shepherds for every kind of cattle are also mentioned[695], as well as keepers and warders of the woods and fences[696]. In the Suffolk manors of Bury St. Edmund's we find the curious term _lurard_ to designate a person superintending the hay harvest[697].

By the side of a numerous staff busy with the economic management of the estate, several petty officers are found to be concerned with the political machinery of the manor. The duty to collect the suitors of the hundred and of the county court is sometimes fulfilled by a special 'turnbedellus[698]'. A 'vagiator' (vadiator?) serves writs and distrains goods for rents[699]. The carrying of letters and orders is very often treated as a service imposed on particular tenements. It must be noted that sometimes all these duties are intimately connected with those of the husbandry system and imposed on all the officers of the demesne who own horses[700].

A third category is formed by the house-servants, who divide among themselves the divers duties of keeping accounts, waiting on the lord personally, taking charge of the wardrobe, of the kitchen, etc. The military system and the lack of safety called forth a numerous retinue of armed followers and guards. All-in-all a mighty staff of _ministeriales_, as they were called in Germany, came into being. In England they are termed sergeants and servants, _servientes_. In Glas...o...b..ry Abbey there were sixty-six servants besides the workmen and foremen employed on the farm[701]. Such a number was rendered necessary by the grand hospitality of the monastery, which received and entertained daily throngs of pilgrims. In Bury St. Edmund's the whole staff was divided into five departments, and in each department the employments were arranged according to a strict order of precedence[702].

[Formation of the cla.s.s.]

The material for the formation of this vast and important cla.s.s was supplied by the subject population of the estates. The Gloucester manorial instruction enjoins the stewards to collect on certain days the entire grown-up population and to select the necessary servants for the different callings. It is also enacted that the men should not be left without definite work, that in case of necessity they should be moved from one post to the other[703], etc. The requirements of the manorial administration and of the lord's household opened an important outlet for the village people. Part of the growing population thus found employment outside the narrow channel of rural arrangements. The elder or younger brothers, as it might be, took service at the lord's court.

The husbandry treatises of the thirteenth century go further and mention hired labourers as an element commonly found on the estate. We find, for instance, an elaborate reckoning of the work performed by gangs of such labourers hired for the harvest[704]. In doc.u.ments styled 'Minister's Accounts' we may also find proof, that from the thirteenth century downwards the requirements of the lord's estate are sometimes met by hiring outsiders to perform some necessary kind of work. These phenomena have to be considered as exceptional, however, and in fact as a new departure.

[Remuneration of the cla.s.s.]

The officers and servants were remunerated in various ways. Sometimes they were allowed to share in the profits connected with their charges.

The swine-herd of Glas...o...b..ry Abbey, for instance, received one sucking-pig a year, the interior parts of the best pig, and the tails of all the others which were slaughtered in the abbey[705]. The chief scullion (_scutellarius_) had a right to all remnants of viands,--but not of game,--to the feathers and the bowels of geese[706]. Again, all the household and workmen constantly employed had certain quant.i.ties of food, drink, and clothing a.s.signed to them[707]. Of one of the Glas...o...b..ry clerks we hear that he received one portion (_liberacio_) as a monk and a second as a servant, and that by reason of this last he was bound to provide the monastery with a goldsmith[708].

Those of the foremen and labourers of estates who did not belong to the immediate following of the lord and did not live in his central court received a gratification of another kind. They were liberated from the labour and payments which they would have otherwise rendered from their tenements[709]. The performance of the specific duties of administration took the place of the ordinary rural work or rent, and in this way the service of the lord was feudalised on the same principle as the king's service--it was indissolubly connected with land-holding.

[Importance of the 'ministeriality.']