Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History. Paul Vinogradoff
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Название: Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History

Автор: Paul Vinogradoff

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Жанр: Юриспруденция, право

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Another Saxon term—gebúr—has left its trace in the burus and buriman of Norman records. The word does not occur very often, and seems to have been applied in two different ways—to the chief villains of the township in some places, and to the smaller tenantry, apparently in confusion with the Norman bordarius, in some other271. The very possibility of such a confusion shows that it was going out of common use. On the other hand, the Danish equivalent bondus is widely spread. It is to be found constantly in the Danish counties272. The original meaning is that of cultivator or 'husband'—the same in fact as that of gebúr and boor. Feudal records give curious testimony of the way in which the word slid down into the 'bondage' of the present day. We see it wavering, as it were, sometimes exchanging with servus and villanus, and sometimes opposed to them273. Another word of kindred meaning, chiefly found in eastern districts, is landsettus, with the corresponding term for the tenure274; this of course according to its etymology simply means an occupier, a man sitting on land.

      Terms to indicate the nature of services.

      Several terms are found which have regard to the nature of services. Agricultural work was the most common and burdensome expression of economical subjection. Peasants who have to perform such services in kind instead of paying rents for them are called operarii275. Another designation which may be found everywhere is consuetudinarii or custumarii276. It points to customary services, which the people were bound to perform. When such tenants are opposed to the villains, they are probably free men holding in villainage by customary work277. As the name does not give any indication as to the importance of the holding a qualification is sometimes added to it, which determines the size of the tenement278.

      In many manors we find a group of tenants, possessed of small plots of land for the service of following the demesne ploughs. These are called akermanni or carucarii279, are mostly selected among the customary holders, and enjoy an immunity from ordinary work as long as they have to perform their special duty280. On some occasions the records mention gersumarii, that is peasants who pay a gersuma, a fine for marrying their daughters281. This payment being considered as the badge of personal serfdom, the class must have consisted of men personally unfree.

      Terms to indicate the size of the holding.

      Those names remain to be noticed which reflect the size of the holding. In one of the manors belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral in London we find hidarii282. This does not mean that every tenant held a whole hide. On the contrary, they have each only a part of the hide, but their plots are reckoned up into hides, and the services due from the whole hide are stated. Virgatarius283 is of very common occurrence, because the virgate was considered as the normal holding of a peasant. It is curious that in consequence the virgate is sometimes called simply terra, and holders of virgates—yerdlings284. Peasants possessed of half virgates are halfyerdlings accordingly. The expressions 'a full villain285' and 'half a villain' must be understood in the same sense. They have nothing to do with rank, but aim merely at the size of the farm and the quantity of services and rents. Ferlingseti are to be met with now and then in connexion with the ferling or ferdel, the fourth part of a virgate286.

      The constant denomination for those who have no part in the common arable fields, but hold only crofts or small plots with their homesteads, is 'cotters' (cotsetle, cottagiarii, cottarii287, etc.). They get opposed to villains as to owners of normal holdings288. Exceptionally the term is used for those who have very small holdings in the open fields. In this case the authorities distinguish between greater and lesser cotters289, between the owners of a 'full cote' and of 'half a cote290.' The bordarii, so conspicuous in Domesday, and evidently representing small tenants of the same kind as the cottagers, disappear almost entirely in later times291.

      Results as to terminology.

      We may start from this last observation in our general estimate of the terminology. One might expect to find traces of very strong French influence in this respect, if in any. Even if the tradition of facts had not been interrupted by the Conquest, names were likely to be altered for the convenience of the new upper class. And the Domesday Survey really begins a new epoch in terminology by its use of villani and bordarii. But, curiously enough, only the first of these terms takes root on English soil. Now it is not a word transplanted by the Conquest; it was in use before the Conquest as the Latin equivalent of ceorl, geneat, and probably gebúr. Its success in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is a success of Latin, and not of French, of the half-literary record language over conversational idioms, and not of foreign over vernacular notions. The peculiarly French 'bordier,' on the other hand, gets misunderstood and eliminated. Looking to Saxon and Danish terms, we find that they hold their ground tenaciously enough; but still the one most prevalent before the Conquest—ceorl—disappears entirely, and all the others taken together cannot balance the diffusion of the 'villains.' The disappearance of ceorl may be accounted for by the important fact that it was primarily the designation of a free man, and had not quite lost this sense even in the time immediately before the Conquest. The spread of the Latin term is characteristic enough in any case. It is well in keeping with a historical development which, though it cannot be reduced to an importation of foreign manners, was by no means a mere sequel to Saxon history292. A new turn had been given towards centralisation and organisation from above, and villanus, the Latin record term, illustrates very aptly the remodelling of the lower stratum of society by the influence of the curiously centralised English feudalism.

      The position of the peasantry gets considered chiefly from the point of view of the lord's interests, and the classification on the basis of services comes naturally to the fore. The distribution of holdings is also noticed, because services and rents are arranged according to them. But the most important fact remains, that the whole system, though admitting theoretically the difference between personal freedom and personal subjection, works itself out into uniformity on the ground of unfree tenure. Freemen holding in villainage and born villains get mixed up under the same names. The fact has its two sides. On the one hand it detracts from the original rights of free origin, on the other it strengthens the element of order and legality in the relations between lord and peasant. The peasants are custumarii at the worst—they work by custom, even if custom is regulated by the lord's power. In any case, even a mere analysis of terminological distinctions leads to the conclusion that the simplicity and rigidity of legal contrasts was largely modified by the influence of historical tradition and practical life.

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<p>271</p>

Glastonbury Inquis. 105: 'Ernaldus buriman dimidiam virgatam, Iohannes burimannus dimidiam virgatam.' Cf. Custumal of Bleadon, p. 189; Cartulary of Shaftesbury, Harl. MSS. 61, f. 45.

<p>272</p>

It is to be found sometimes out of the Danish shires, e.g. in Oxfordshire. Rot. Hundred. ii. 842, b: 'Bondagium: Johannes Bonefaunt tenet unam virgatam terre de eodem Roberto … reddit … 11 sol. pro omni servicio et scutagium quando currit 20 d.' Of course there were isolated Danish settlements outside the Denelaw.

<p>273</p>

Rot. Hundred. ii. 486, a: 'Tenentes Alicie la Blunde. Bondi, A. habet in eadem villa 2 villanos, quorum quilibet tenet mesuagium cum 30 a. Id. Al. hab. 1 bondum qui ten. 20 a. Custumarii, Id. Al. habet 1 villanum, qui tenet 1 mes. cum 44 a.' Rot. Hundred. ii. 486, a: 'De W. le Blunde. Villani, R. de Badburnham. Bondi cotarii.' Cf. Ibid. 422, b; 423, a: 'Libere tenentes … Custumarii … Bondi.'

<p>274</p>

Ramsey Inquisitions, Galba, E. x. 34: 'W.L. tenet in landsetagio 12 a. pro 9 den. et ob. R. 24 a. de landsetagio et 12 a. de novo.' Cartulary of Ramsey (Rolls Series), i. 426: 'G.C. dat dim. marcam ut K. filius suus fiat heusebonde de 6 a. terrae de lancetagio.' Registr. Cellararii of Bury St. Edmund's, Cambridge University, Gg. iv. 4, f. 400, b: '9 acre unde 4 a. fuerunt libere et 5 lancettagii.' Cartulary of Ramsey (Rolls Series), i. 425: 'S. Cl. recognovit, quod 24 a., quas tenet, sunt in lanceagio dom. Abbatis salvo corpore suo et quod faciet omnes consuetudines serviles … lancectus nacione.'

<p>275</p>

Domesday of St. Paul's, 17: 'Item omnes operarii dimidiae virgatae debent invenire vasa et utensilia ter in anno ad braciandum.' Cf. 28.

<p>276</p>

Rot. Hundred. ii. 422, 423. Cf. 507, a: 'Libere tenentes … Nicholaus Trumpe 3 a. terre cum mesuagio et red. per ann. 20 d. Custumarii … Nicholaus Trumpe ten. 1 a. terre et redd. 2 sol.'

<p>277</p>

Exch. Q.R. Misc. Alien Priories, 2/2. (Chilteham): '… Redditus villanorum de 126 villanis 41 libre, 14 s. 11 d. Item sunt 70 custumarii qui debent arare bis per annum cum 17 carucis.... Item sunt 25 villani qui debent herciare quilibet eorum per 2 dies,' etc.

<p>278</p>

Cartulary of St. Peter of Gloucester (Rolls Series), iii. 203: 'Omnes consuetudinarii majores habebunt tempore falcationis prati unum multonem, farinam, et salem ad potagium. Et minores consuetudinarii habebunt quilibet eorum 1 panem et omnes 1 caseum in communi, unam acr. frumenti pejoris campi de dominico et unum carcasium multonis, et unum panem ad Natale.'

<p>279</p>

Cartulary of Malmesbury (Rolls Series), i. 154, 155. Cf. i. 186, 187. Cartulary of St. Mary of Worcester (Camden Society), 43, b; Rot. Hundred. ii. 775, b.

<p>280</p>

Rot. Hundred ii. 602, a. Cf. Exch. Q.R. Alien Priories, 2/2: 'Item sunt in eadem villata de Wardeboys 6 dimidias virgatas—que vocantur Akermannelondes, quorum W.L. tenet ½ virgatam pro qua ibit ad carucam Abbatis si placeat abbati vel dabit sicut illi qui tenent 6 Maltlondes preter 15 d.' Rot. Hundred, i. 208: 'Utrum akermanni debent servicium suum vel servicii redempcionem.'

<p>281</p>

Registr. Cellararii of Bury St. Edmund's, Cambridge University, Gg. iv. 4, f. 26: 'Gersumarii (Custumarii).... Gersuma pro filia sua maritanda.' Ibid. 108, b: 'Tenentes 15 acrarum custumarii—omnes sunt gersumarii ad voluntatem domini.' Cartulary of Bury St. Edmund's, Harl. MSS. 3977, f. 87, d: 'Nichol. G gersumarius tenet 30 a. pro 8 sol. que solent esse custumarie.' I may add on the authority of Mr. F. York Powell that landsettus (land-seti), as well as akermannus (aker-maðr) and gersuma (görsemi), are certainly Danish loan-words, which accounts for their occurrence in Danish districts.

<p>282</p>

Hale, Introduction to the Domesday of St. Paul's, xxv: 'If we compare the services due from the Hidarii with those of the libere tenentes on other manors, it will be evident, that the Hidarii of Adulvesnasa belonged to the ordinary class of villani, their distinction being probably only this, that they were jointly, as well as severally, bound to perform the services due from the hide of which they held part.'

<p>283</p>

Eynsham Inquest, 49, a: 'Summa (prati) xvi a. et iv perticas que dimidebantur xi virgatariis et rectori ut uni eorum et quia jam supersunt tantummodo 4 virgatarii et rector, dominus habet in manu sua 7 porciones dicti prati.'

<p>284</p>

Cartulary of Battle, Augmentation Office, Miscell. Books, 57, f. 35, s: 'Yherdlinges … custumarii.' Ibid. 42, b: 'Majores Erdlinges scil. virgarii. Halferdlinges (majores cottarii) Minores cottarii.'

<p>285</p>

Black Book of Peterborough, 164: 'In Scotere et in Scaletorp—24 plenarii villani et 2 dimidii villani—Plenarii villani operantur 2 diebus in ebdomada.'

<p>286</p>

Glastonbury Inqu. (Roxburghe Series), 23: 'Operatur ut alii ferlingseti.'

<p>287</p>

Glastonbury Inqu. (Roxburghe Series), 137: 'Cotsetle debent faldiare ab Hoccade usque ad festum S. Michaelis.' Cartulary of St. Peter of Gloucester (Rolls Series), iii. 71: 'Burgenses Gloucestriae reddunt una cum aliis tenentibus ad manerium Berthonae praedictae per annum de coteriis cum curtillagiis in suburbio Gloucestriae quorum nomina non recolunt 29 solidos 7 d. de redditu assiso.' Ibid. iii. 116: 'Cotlandarii: Johannes le Waleys tenet unum mesuagium cum curtillagio et faciet 8 bederipas et 3 dies ad fenum levandum, et valent 13½ d.'

<p>288</p>

Norfolk Feodary, Additional MSS. 2, a: 'Et idem Thomas tenet de predicto Roberto de supradicto feodo per predictum servicium sexaginta mesuagia; 21 villani de eodem Thoma tenent. Item idem Thomas tenet de predicto Roberto 9 cotarios, qui de eo tenent in villenagio,' Cf. Rot. Hundred, ii. 440, a.

<p>289</p>

Cartulary of Battle, Augment. Office, Misc. Books, 57, f. 37, b: 'Virgarii … Cotarii, qui tenent dimid. virgatam.' Ibid. 36, b: 'Cottarii majores et minores.'

<p>290</p>

Glastonbury Inquis. (Roxburghe Series), 114: 'Rad. Forest. ½ cotsetland pro 18 d. et operatur sicut dimidius cotarius sed non falcat.'

<p>291</p>

Glastonbury Inquis. (Roxburghe Series), 14: 'Predictus W. habet tres bordarios in auxilium officii sui. Illi tres bord. habent corredium suum in aula abbatis, in qua laborant.' Terrae Templariorum, Queen's Rem. Misc. Books, 16, f. 27: 'Unusquisque bordarius debet operari una die in ebdomada.' Cf. 27, b.

<p>292</p>

The history of the terms in Saxon times and the terminology of the Domesday Survey will be discussed in the second volume. My present object is to establish the connexion between feudal facts and such precedents as are generally accepted by the students of Saxon and early Norman evidence.