What does Villeinage mean?

What does Villeinage mean?

noun. the tenure by which a villein held land and tenements from a lord. the condition or status of a villein.

What does the word serfdom means?

Definition of serfdom : the condition of a tenant farmer bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of a landlord : the state or fact of being a serf Despite obvious personal repugnance for serfdom, she enhanced the powers of nobles to demand more labor from their ill-treated and unorganized serfs.—

What is medieval serfdom?

serfdom, condition in medieval Europe in which a tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord. The vast majority of serfs in medieval Europe obtained their subsistence by cultivating a plot of land that was owned by a lord.

What is another term for serfdom?

In this page you can discover 17 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for serfdom, like: slavery, bondage, enslavement, helotry, servileness, servility, yoke, servitude, thrall, thralldom and villeinage.

Is serfdom a form of slavery?

Serfdom was, after slavery, the most common kind of forced labor; it appeared several centuries after slavery was introduced. Whereas slaves are considered forms of property owned by other people, serfs are bound to the land they occupy from one generation to another.

What is the difference between serfs and villeins?

Serfdom was the status of peasants in the manor system, and villeins were the most common type of serf in the Middle Ages. Villeins rented small homes with or without land; as part of their contract with the lord they were expected to spend some time working the land.

Were there slaves in medieval times?

Common knowledge would have it that slavery did not exist in medieval Europe. However, there is a thriving body of scholarship which demonstrates that slavery was practiced widely in various forms in Europe during the Middle Ages, alongside captivity, serfdom, and other types of unfreedom.