_MANORS AND SERFDOM UNDER SAXON RULE._
I. THE SAXON 'HAMS' AND 'TUNS' WERE MANORS WITH VILLAGE COMMUNITIES
IN SERFDOM UPON THEM.
«The _hams_ and _tuns_ were manors.»
Having now ascertained that the open field system was prevalent
during Saxon, and probably pre-Saxon times, we have next to inquire
whether the 'hams' and 'tuns' to which the common fields belonged
were manors--_i.e._ estates with a village community in serfdom upon
them--or whether, on the contrary, there once dwelt within them
a free village community holding their yard-lands by freehold or
allodial tenure.
Let us at once dismiss from the question the word 'manor.' It was
the _name_ generally used in the Domesday Survey, for a _thing_
described in the Survey as already existing at the time of Edward the
Confessor. The estate called a manor was certainly as much a Saxon
institution under the Confessor as it was a _Norman_ one afterwards.
The Domesday book itself does not always adhere to this single word
'_manor_' throughout its pages. [p127]
The word _manerium_ gives place in the Exeter Survey to the word
_villa_ for the whole manor, and _mansio_ for the manor-house;
and the same words, _villa_ and _mansio_, are also used in the
instructions[153] given at the commencement of the _Inquisitio
Eliensis_. It is perfectly clear, then, that what was called a
_manor_ or _villa_, both in the west and in the east of England, was
in fact the estate of a lord with a village community in villenage
upon it.
In the Boldon Book also the word _villa_ is used instead of manor.
So in Saxon documents the whole manor or estate was called by various
names, generally '_ham_' or '_tun_.'
«King Alfred's will.»
In King Alfred's will[154] estates in the south-east of England,
including the villages upon them, which by Norman scribes would have
been called manors, are described as _hams_ (the _ham_ at such a
place). In the old English version of the will given in the 'Liber de
Hyda'[155] the word '_twune_' is used to translate 'ham,' and in the
Latin version the word 'villa.'[156]
«Parable of the prodigal son.»
In the Saxon translation of the parable of the prodigal son, the
country estate of the citizen--the '_burh-sittenden man_'--to which
the prodigal was sent to feed swine, and where he starved upon the
'bean-cods' that the swine did eat, was the citizen's '_tune_.'[157]
So that the '_hams_' and '_tuns_' of Saxon times were in fact
commonly private estates with villages upon them, _i.e._ manors.
«Grants of whole manors.»
This fact is fully borne out by the series of Saxon [p128] charters
from first to last. They generally, as already said, contain grants
of _whole_ manors in this sense, including the villages upon them,
with all the village fields, pastures, meadows, &c., embraced within
the boundaries given. And these boundaries are the boundaries of the
_whole village or township_--_i.e._ of the whole estate.
«Saxon words.»
Further, a careful examination of Anglo-Saxon documents will show
that the Saxon manors, not only at the time of Edward the Confessor,
as shown by the Domesday Survey, but also long previously, were
divided into the land of the lord's _demesne_ and the land _in
villenage_, though the Norman phraseology was not yet used. The lord
of the manor was a _thane_ or '_hlaford_.' The demesne land was the
_thane's inland_. All classes of villeins were called _geneats_. The
land in villenage was the _geneat-land_, or the _gesettes-land_,
or sometimes the _gafol-land_. And further, this _geneat-_, or
_gesettes-_, or _gafol-land_ was composed, like the later land in
villenage, of hides and yard-lands, whilst the villein tenants of it,
as in the Domesday Survey, were divided mainly into two classes: (1)
the _geburs_ (villani proper), or holders of yard-lands; and (2) the
_cottiers_ with their smaller holdings. Beneath these two classes of
holders of _geneat_ land were the _theows_ or slaves, answering to
the _servi_ of the Survey. Lastly, there is clear evidence that this
was so as early as the date of the laws of King Ine, which claim to
represent the customs of the seventh century.
To the proof of these points attention must now be directed. [p129]
II. THE RECTITUDINES SINGULARUM PERSONARUM.
In order to make these points clear, attention must be turned to a
remarkable document, the Saxon version of which dates probably from
the tenth, and the Latin translation from the twelfth century.[158]
«The '_Rectitudines_,' tenth century.»
It is entitled the '_Rectitudines Singularum Personarum_,' which may
be translated '_the services due from various persons_.'
It commences with two general sections, the first relating to the
services of the '_thane_,' and the second to those of the '_geneat_.'
«Thane's services.»
«Geneat's or villein's services.»
ÐEGENES LAGU.
Degenes lagu is ꝥ he sy his boc-rihtes wyrðe. ⁊ ꝥ he ðreo ðinc
of his lande do. fyrd-færeld. ⁊ burhbote ⁊ bryc-geweorc. Eac of
manegum landum mare land-riht arist to cyniges gebanne. swilce
is deorhege to cyniges hame. ⁊ scorp to frið-scipe. ⁊ sæ-weard.
⁊ heafod-weard. ⁊ fyrd-weard. ælmes-feoh. ⁊ cyric-sceat. ⁊
mænige oðeremistliceðingc. ►
TAINI LEX.
Taini lex est, ut sit dignus rectitudine testamenti sui, et ut
ita faciat pro terra sua, scilicet, expeditionem, burh-botam
et brig-botam. Et de multis terris majus landirectum exurgit
ad bannum regis, sicut est deorhege ad mansionem regiam et
sceorpum inhosticum, et custodiam maris et capitis, et pacis,
et elmesfeoh, id est pecunia elemosine et ciricsceatum, et alie
res multimode.
THANE'S LAW.
_The thane's law is that he be worthy of his_ boc-rights, _and
that he do three things for his land_, fyrd-færeld, burh-bot,
_and_ brig-bot. _Also from many lands more land-services are
due at the king's bann, as deer-hedging at the king's_ ham,
_and apparel for the guard, and_ sea-ward _and_ head-ward _and_
fyrd-ward _and_ almsfee _and_ kirkshot, _and many other various
things_. [p130]
GENEATES RIHT.
Geneat-riht is mistlic be ðam ðe on lande stænt. On sumon he
sceal land-gafol syllan ⁊ gærsswyn on geare. ⁊ ridan ⁊ auerian
⁊ lade lædan. wyrcan ⁊ hlaford feormian. ⁊ ripan ⁊ mawan.
deorhege heawan. ⁊ sæte haldan. bytlian. ⁊ burh hegegian
nige faran to tune feccan. cyric-sceat syllan ⁊ ælmes-feoh.
heafod-wearde. healdan ⁊ hors-wearde. ærendian. fyr swa nyr.
swa hwyder swa him mon to-tæcð. ►
VILLANI RECTUM.
Villani rectum est varium et multiplex, secundum quod in terra
statutum est. In quibusdam terris debet dare landgablum et
gærsswin, id est, porcum herbagii, et equitare vel averiare, et
summagium ducere, operari, et dominum suum firmare, metere et
falcare, deorhege cedere, et stabilitatem observare, edificare
et circumsepire, novam faram adducere, ciricsceatum dare et
almesfeoh, id est, pecuniam elemosine, heafod-wardam custodire
et horswardam, in nuncium ire, longe vel prope, quocunque
dicetur ei.
GENEAT'S SERVICES.
_The geneat's services are various as on the land is fixed. On
some he shall pay_ land-gafol _and_ grass-swine _yearly, and
ride, and carry, and lead loads; work and support his lord, and
reap and mow, cut deer-hedge and keep it up, build, and hedge
the_ burh, _make new roads for the_ tun: _pay_ kirkshot _and_
almsfee: _keep_ head-ward _and_ horse-ward: _go errands far or
near wherever he is directed_.
Then follow what really are sub-sections of the latter clause, and
they describe the services of the various classes of _geneats_; first
of the cottiers.
«Cottier's services.»
KOT-SETLAN RIHT.
Kote-setlan riht. be ðam ðe on lande stent. On sumon he sceal
ælce Mon-dæge ofer geares fyrst his laforde wyrcan. oðð .III.
dagas ælcre wucan on hærfest.
ne ðearf he land-gafol syllan. Wim ge-byriað [.V.] æceras to
habbanne. mare gyf hit on lande ðeaw sy. ⁊ to lytel hit bið beo
hit a læsse. forðan his weorc sceal beon oft-ræde. sylle his
heorð-pænig on halgan Ðunres dæg. eal swa ælcan frigean men
gebyreð. ⁊ werige hid hlafordes inland. gif him man beode. æt
sæ-wearde ⁊ æt cyniges deor-hege. ⁊ æt swilcan ðingan swilc his
mæð sy. ⁊ sylle his cyric-sceat to Martinus mæssan. ►
COTSETLE RECTUM.
Cotsetle rectum est juxta quod in terra constitutum est. Apud
quosdam debet omni die Lune per anni spatium operari domino
suo, et tribus diebus unaquaque septimana in Augusto. Apud
quosdam operatur per totum Augustum, omni die, et unam acram
avene metit pro diurnale opere. Et habeat garbam suam quam
præpositus vel minister domini dabit ei. Non dabit landgablum.
Debet habere quinque acras ad perhabendum, plus si consuetudo
sit ibi, et parum nimis est si minus sit quod deservit, quia
sepius est operi illius. Det super heorðpenig in sancto die
Jovis, sicut omnis liber facere debet, et adquietet inland
domini sui, si submonitio fiat de sewarde, id est de custodia
maris, vel de regis deorhege, et ceteris rebus que sue mensure
sunt; et det suum cyricsceatum in festo Scĩ Martini.
COTTIER'S SERVICES.
_The cottier's services are what on the land is fixed. On some
he shall each Monday in the year work for his lord, and three
days a week in harvest._
_He ought not to pay_ land-gafol. _He ought to have_ five
acres _in his holding, more if it be the custom on the land,
and too little it is if it be less: because his work is often
required. He pays_ hearth-penny _on Holy Thursday, as pertains
to every freeman, and defends his lord's inland, if he is
required, from_ sea-ward _and from king's_ deer-hedge, _and
from such things as befit his degree. And he pays his kirkshot
at Martinmas_.
Then the services of the _gebur_ or holder of a _yard-land_ are
described as follows:--
«Gebur's services.»
«Week-work.»
«Gafol.»
«Bene-work.»
«Gafol-yrth.»
«Outfit of two oxen to yard-land.»
GEBURES GERIHTE.
Gebur-gerihta syn mislice. gehwar hy syn hefige. gehwar eac
medeme. on sumen lande is ꝥ he sceal wyrcan to wic-weorce .II.
dagas. swilc weorc swilc him man tæcð ofer geares fyrst. ælcre
wucan. ⁊ on hærfest .III. dagas to wic-weorce. ⁊ of Candelmæsse
oð Eastran .III. gif he aferað ne ðearf he wyrcan ða hwile
ðe his hors ute bið. He sceal syllan on Michaeles mæsse-dæig
.X. gafol-ƥ. ⁊ on Martinus mæsse-dæg .XXIII. systra beres.
⁊ II. henfugelas. on Eastran an geong sceap. oððe .II. ƥ. ⁊
he sceal licgan of Martinus mæssan oð Eastran æt hlafordes
falde. swa oft swa him to-begæð. ⁊ of ðam timan ðe man ærest
ereð oð Martinus mæssan he sceal ælcre wucan erian .I. æcer.
⁊ rædan sylf ꝥ sæd on hlafordes berne. to-eacan ðam .III.
æceras to bene. ⁊ .II. to gærsyrðe. gyf he maran gærses beðyrfe
ðonne earnige [erige?] ðæs swa him man ðafige. His gauol-yrðe
.III. æceras erige ⁊ sawe of his aganum berne. ⁊ sylle his
heorð-pænig. twegen ⁊ twegen fedan ænne heador-hund. ⁊ ælc
gebur sylle .VI. hlafas ðam in-swane ðonne he his heorde to
mæs-tene drife. On ðam sylfum lande ðe ðeos ræden on-stænt
gebure gebyreð ꝥ him man to land-setene sylle .II. oxan ⁊ .I.
cu. ⁊ .VI. sceap. ⁊ .VII. æceras gesawene on his gyrde landes.
forðige ofer ꝥ gear ealle gerihtu ðe him to-gebyrigean. ⁊ sylle
him man tol to his weorce ⁊ andlaman to his huse. Ðonne him
forð-sið gebyrige gyme his hlaford ðæs he læfe. ►
Ðeos land-lagu stænt on suman lande. gehwar hit is swa ic ær
cwæð hefigre gehwar eac leohtre. forðam ealle land-sida ne syn
gelice. On sumen lande gebur sceal syllan hunig-gafol. on suman
mete-gafol. on suman ealu-gafol. Þedeseðe scirehealde ꝥ he wite
á hwæt eald land-ræden sy. ⁊ hwæt ðeode ðeaw. ►
GEBURI CONSUETUDINES.
Geburi consuetudines inveniuntur multimode, et ubi sunt
onerose et ubi sunt leviores aut medie. In quibusdam terris
operatur opus septimane, II. dies, sic opus sicut ei dicetur
per anni spatium, omni septimana; et in Augusto III. dies pro
septimanali operatione, et a festo Candelarum ad usque Pascha
III. Si averiat, non cogitur operari quamdiu equus ejus foris
moratur. Dare debet in festo Scĩ Michaelis X. đ. de gablo, et
Scĩ Martini die XXIII., et sestarium ordei, et II. gallinas.
Ad Pascha I. ovem juvenem vel II. đ. Et jacebit a festo Scĩ
Martini usque ad Pascha ad faldam domini sui, quotiens ei
pertinebit. Et a termino quo primitus arabitur usque ad festum
Scĩ Martini arabit unaquaque septimana I. acram, et ipse
parabit semen domini sui in horreo. Ad hæc III. acras precum,
et duas de herbagio. Si plus indigeat herbagio, arabit proinde
sicut ei permittatur. De aratura gabli sui arabit III. acras,
et seminabit de horreo suo et dabit suum heorðpenig; et duo
et duo pascant unum molossum. Et omnis geburus det VI. panes
porcario curie quando gregem suum minabit in pastinagium. In
ipsa terra ubi hec consuetudo stat, moris est ut ad terram
assidendam dentur ei II. boves et I. vacca, et VI. oves, et
VII. acre seminate, in sua virgata terra. Post illum illum
annum faciat omnes rectitudines que ad eum attinent; et
committantur ei tela ad opus suum et suppellex ad domum suam.
Si mortem obeat, rehabeat dominus suus omnia.
Hæc consuetudo stat in quibusdam locis, et alicubi est, sicut
prediximus, gravior, et alicubi levior; quia omnium terrarum
instituta non sunt equalia. In quibusdam locis gebur dabit
hunigablum, in quibusdam metegablum, in quibusdam ealagablum.
Videat qui scyram tenet, ut semper sciat que sit antiqua
terrarum institutio, vel populi consuetudo.
GEBUR'S SERVICES.
_The Gebur's services are various, in some places heavy, in
others moderate. On some land he must work at_ week-work _two
days at such work as he is required through the year every
week, and at harvest three days for_ week-work, _and from
Candlemas to Easter three. If he do carrying he has not to
work while his horse is out. He shall pay on Michaelmas Day_
x. _gafol-pence, and on Martinmas Day_ xxiii. _sesters of
barley and two hens; at Easter a young sheep or two pence;
and he shall lie from Martinmas to Easter at his lord's fold
as often as he is told. And from the time that they first,
plough to Martinmas he shall each week plough one acre, and
prepare himself the seed in his lord's barn. Also_ iii. _acres_
bene-work, _and_ ii. _to_ grass-yrth. _If he needs more grass
then he ploughs for it as he is allowed. For his_ gafol-yrth
_he ploughs_ iii. _acres, and sows it from his own barn. And he
pays his_ hearth-penny. _Two and two feed one hound, and each
gebur gives_ vi. _loaves to the swineherd when he drives his
herd to mast. On that land where this custom holds it pertains
to the gebur that he shall have given to him for his outfit_
ii. _oxen and_ i. _cow and_ vi. _sheep, and_ vii. _acres sown
on his_ yard-land. _Wherefore after that year he must perform
all services which pertain to him. And he must have given to
him tools for his work, and utensils for his house. Then when
he dies his lord takes back what he leaves._
_This land-law holds on some lands, but here and there, as I
have said, it is heavier or lighter, for all land services are
not alike. On some land the gebur shall pay_ honey-gafol, _on
some_ meat-gafol, _on some_ ale-gafol. _Let him who is over the
district take care that he knows what the old land-customs are,
and what are the customs of the people._
Then follow the special services of the beekeeper, oxherd, cowherd,
shepherd, goatherd, &c, upon which we need not dwell here; and the
document concludes with another declaration that the services vary
according to the custom of each district. [p134]
«Correspondence with the Domesday Survey.»
This important document is therefore a general description of the
services due from the thane to the king, and from the classes in
villenage to their manorial lord. And it might be the very model
from which the form of the Domesday Survey was taken. Both, in
fact, first speak of the lord of the manor, and then of the villein
tenants; the latter being in both cases divided into the two main
classes of villani and cottiers; for, as already stated, the Saxon
_thane_ answered to the Norman _lord_, the Saxon _gebur_ answered to
the _villanus_ of the Survey, and the _cotsetle_ to the cottier or
_bordarius_ of the Survey. But these various classes require separate
consideration.
III. THE THANE AND HIS SERVICES.
«The thane's 'three needs.'»
The '_Rectitudines_' begins with the thane or lord of the manor;
and informs us that he owed his military and other services (for
his manor) to the king--always including the three great needs--the
_trinoda necessitas_; viz. (1) to accompany the king in his military
expeditions, or _fyrd_; (2) to aid in the building of his castles, or
_burhbote_; (3) to maintain the bridges, or _brigbote_.
«Thane's 'inland.'»
The lord's demesne land was called the 'thane's inland.' So, too, in
a law of King Edgar's already quoted, the tithes are ordered to be
paid 'as well on the _thane's inland_ as on _geneat land_,' showing
that this distinction between the two was exhaustive.
So also in Scotland, where the old Saxon words were not so soon
displaced by Norman terms as in [p135] England, the lord of a
manor was long called the _thane_ of such and such a place. In the
chronicler Wintoun's story of Macbeth, as well as in Shakespeare's
version of it, there are the 'thane of Fyfe' and the 'thane of
Cawdor.'
«Scotch example of burhbote.»
And the circumstance which, according to Wintoun, gave rise to
Macbeth's hatred of Macduff is itself a graphic illustration of the
'burhbote,' or aid in castle-building due from the thane to his
king:--
And in Scotland than as kyng
This Makbeth mad gret steryng
And set hym than in hys powere
A gret hows for to mak off were
Upon the hycht off Dwnsynane.
Tymbyr thare-till to draw and stane
Off Fyfe and off Angws he
Gert mony oxin gadryd be.
Sa on a day in thare traivaile
A yhok off oxyn Makbeth saw fayle,
Than speryt Makbeth quha that awcht
The yhoke that fayled in that drawcht.
Thai awnsweryd till Makbeth agayne,
And sayd, 'Makduff off Fyffe the Thane
That ilk yhoke off oxyn awcht
That he saw fayle in to the drawcht.'
Than spak Makbeth dyspytusly,
And to the Thane sayd angryly,
Lyk all wythyn in hys skin,
Hys awyn nek he suld put in
The yhoke and gev hym drawchtis drawe.[159]
«The thane as a soldier.»
But the military service was by far the most important of 'the three
needs' or services due from the thane to the king. The thane was a
_soldier_ first of all things. The very word _thane_ implies this. In
translating the story of the centurion who had soldiers under him,
the Saxon Gospel makes the [p136] 'Hundredes ealdor' say, '_I have
thanes_ under me' (ic hæbbe þegnas under me).[160] And though the
text of the translation may not be earlier than the tenth century,
yet, as the meaning of words does not change suddenly, it shows that
the military service of the thane dated from a still earlier period.
And just as in Norman times the barons and their Norman followers
(_Francigenæ eorum_) were marked off from the population in villenage
as companions or associates of the king or some great earl, or as
they might now be called 'county men,' so the Saxon thanes 400 years
before the Norman Conquest were 'Gesithcundmen,' in respect of
their obligation to 'do fyrd-færeld,' _i.e._ to accompany the king
in his royal expeditions. But this association with the king did
not break the bond of _service_. By the laws of King Ine[161] the
_gesithcundmen_ were fined and forfeited their land if they neglected
their 'fyrd:'--
LI. Gif gesiðcund mon land-agende forsitte fyrde geselle .c.xx.
scill. ⁊ þolie his landes.
51. If a gesithcund man owning land neglect the _fyrd_, let him
pay cxx. shillings and forfeit his land.
«As a landlord.»
But the 'gesithcund' thanes were landlords as well as soldiers. And
King Ine found it needful to enact laws to secure that they performed
their landlord's duties. They must not absent themselves from their
manors without provision for the cultivation of the land. When he
_færes_, _i.e._ goes on long expeditions, a gesithcundman may take
with him on his journey his reeve, his smith to forge his weapons,
and his child's fosterer, or nurse.[162] But if he have xx. hides of
land, he must show xii. hides at least of [p137] gesettes land on
his manor; if he have x. hides, vi. hides of gesettes land; and if
he have iii. hides, one and a half hides of gesettes land before he
absents himself from his manor.[163]
«The _geneat_, _geset_, or _gafol_ land.»
That 'geset land' was a general and rather loose term meaning the
same thing as 'geneat land' is clear from a charter of A.D. 950,
which will be referred to hereafter, wherein a manor is described
as containing xxx. hides, ix. of inland and xxi. of 'gesettes
land,' and the latter is said to contain so many yard-lands ('gyrda
gafol-landes'). This instance also helps us to understand how
_gafol land_, and _gesettes land_, and _geneat land_ were all
interchangeable terms--all, in fact, meaning 'land in villenage,' to
the tenants on which we must now turn our attention.
IV. THE GENEATS AND THEIR SERVICES.
«_Geneat_ land was land in villenage.»
It has been shown that the Saxon thane's estate or manor was divided
into _thane's inland_ or demesne land, and _geneat land_ or _gesettes
land_, answering to the land in villenage of the Domesday Survey. Let
us now examine into the nature of the villenage on the geneat land
under Saxon rule.
'Gesettes land' etymologically seems to mean simply land set or let
out to tenants. In the parable of the vineyard, the Saxon translation
makes the '_wíngeardes hlaford[164] gesette_' it out to husbandmen
(gesette þone myd eorð-tylion) before he takes his journey into a far
country, and the husbandmen are to pay him as tribute a portion of
the annual fruits. [p138]
«Need of husbandmen.»
In early times, when population was scanty, there was a lack of
husbandmen.
King Alfred, in his Saxon translation of Boethius, into which
he often puts observations of his own, expresses in one of the
most often quoted of these interpolations what doubtless his own
experience had shown him, viz., that 'a king must have his tools to
reign with--his realm must be well peopled--full manned.' Unless
there are priests, soldiers, and workmen--'_gebedmen_, _fyrdmen_, and
_weorcmen_'--no king, he says, can show his craft.[165]
We are to take it, then, that population was still scanty, that a
thane's manor was not always as well stocked with husbandmen as the
necessities of agriculture required. The nation must be fed as well
as defended, and both these economic needs were imperative. How,
then, was a thane to plant new settlers on his 'gesettes-land'?
«_Settene stuht_, or outfit of _geburs_.»
We have seen the Kelso monks furnishing their tenants with their
outfit or '_stuht_'--the two oxen needful to till the husbandland
of two bovates; also a horse, and enough of oats, barley, and wheat
for seed. The '_Rectitudines_' shows that in the tenth century this
custom had long been followed by Saxon landlords. It further shows
that the new tenants so created were settled on _yard-lands_, and
called _geburs_.
«Two oxen to yard-land.»
It states that in some places it is the custom that in settling the
_gebur_ on the land, there shall be given to him 'to _land setene_'
(_i.e._ as 'stuht' or outfit) two oxen, one cow, six sheep, and seven
acres sown on his _yard-land_ or virgate. Then after the first year
[p139] he performs the usual services. Having been supplied by his
lord, not only with his stuht, but also even with tools for his work
and utensils for his house, it is not surprising that on his death
everything reverted to his lord.
The gebur here answers exactly to the villanus of post-Domesday
times.[166] His normal holding is the _yard-land_ or virgate. His
_stuht_, which goes with the yard-land 'to setene,' or for outfit,
is two oxen, one cow, &c.; _i.e._ one ox for each of the two bovates
which made up the yard-land.
That this was the usual outfit of the yard-land, and that the
yard-land at the same time was the one-fourth part of the _sulung_
or full plough-land, in still earlier times than the date of the
'_Rectitudines_,' receives clear confirmation from an Anglo-Saxon
will dated A.D. 835, in which there is a gift of '_an half swulung_,'
and 'to ðem londe iiii oxan & ii cy & 1 scepa,' &c.[167] The
_half-sulung_ being the double of the yard-land, it is natural that
the allowance for outfit in [p140] the bequest of oxen and cows
should be just double the outfit assigned by custom to the yard-land.
It is obvious that the allotment to the whole _sulung_ would be a
full team of eight oxen.
«Services.»
The gebur, then, having been 'set' upon his yard land by his lord,
and supplied with his _setene_ or 'stuht,' had to perform his
services.
What were these services?
An examination of them as stated in the '_Rectitudines_' will show at
once their close resemblance to those of the holders of virgates in
villenage in post-Domesday times.
They may be classified in the same way as these were classified.
«Gafol.»
Some of them are called _gafol_; _i.e._ they were _tributes_ in money
and in kind, and in work at ploughing, &c., in the nature rather of
rent, rates, and taxes than anything else. They were as follows:
«_Gafol-yrth._»
At _Michaelmas_ x. gafol-pence.
At _Martinmas_ xxiii. sesters of barley and ii. hens.[168]
At _Easter_ a young sheep, or ii.d.
Of gafol-ploughing (_gafol_-yrð) to plough three acres, and sow
it from his barn.
The hearth-penny.
With another gebur to feed a hound.
Six loaves to the swineherd of the manor, when he takes the
flock to pasture.
In some places the gebur gives _honey-gafol_, in some
_mete-gafol_, and in some _ale-gafol_.
«_Bene_-work.»
Next there were the _precariæ_ or _bene-work_, extra special services:
To plough three acres 'to bene' (_ad precem_), and two to
'gærsyrðe.'[169] [p141]
«Week-work.»
Lastly, the chief services were the regular _week-work_ (wic-weorc),
generally limited to certain days a week according to the season.
'He shall work for week-work two days at such work as he is
bid throughout the year, each week; and in August three days'
week-work, and from Candlemas to Easter three days.'
«Thirty acres in yard-land; ten in each field.»
These were the services of the _gebur_ or _villanus_, and we may
gather that his yard-land embraced the usual thirty acres or strips,
_i.e._ ten strips in each of the three common fields of his village.
This seems to follow from the fact that his outfit included '_seven
acres sown_.' These seven acres were no doubt on the wheat-field
which had to be sown before winter. It was seven acres, and not ten,
because the crop on the other three counted as 'gafolyrð' to his
lord, and this was not due the first season. The oats or beans on the
second or spring-sown field he could sow for himself. The third field
was in fallow. The only start he required was therefore the seven
acres of wheat which must be sown before winter.
So much for the _gebur_; now as to the _cottier_.
«Cottier's holding of five acres, and his services.»
The cottier tenant, in respect of his five acres (more or less),
rendered similar services on an humbler scale. His week-work was on
Mondays each week throughout the year, three days a week at harvest.
He was free from land-gafol, but paid hearth-penny and church-scot
at Martinmas. The nature of his work was the ordinary service of
the geneat as [p142] required by his lord from time to time; only,
having no oxen, he was exempt from ploughing, as he was also after
the Norman Conquest.
V. THE DOUBLE AND ANCIENT CHARACTER OF THE SERVICES OF THE
GEBUR--GAFOL AND WEEK-WORK.
Returning to the services of the gebur, stress must be laid upon
their double character. Like the later _villanus_ he paid a double
debt to his lord in respect of his yard-land and outfit, or
'_setene_'--(1) _gafol_; (2) week-work.
«Laws of King Ine.»
This is a point of great importance at this stage of the inquiry;
for it gives us the key to the meaning of an otherwise almost
unintelligible passage in the laws of King Ine[170], which bears
directly upon the matter in hand.
«Geset-land.»
This passage immediately follows those already quoted, requiring
one-half or more of the land of the absentee landlord to be 'gesettes
land.'
It follows in natural order after this requirement, because it
evidently relates to the process of increasing the number of tenants
on the gesettes land, so introducing new geburs or villani, with new
yard-lands or virgates, into the village community. The clause is as
follows:
«Yard-land.»
«_Gafol_ and _weorc_.»
BE GYRDE LONDES.
Gif mon geþingað gyrðe lander oþþe mære to pæðe-gafole. ⁊
geereð. gif se hlaforð him pile ꝥ lanð aræran to weorce ⁊ to
gafole. ne þearf he him onfón gif he lum nan botl ne selð. . . .
OF A YARD OF LAND.
If a man agree for a yard-land or more at a fixed _gafol_ and
plough it, if the lord desire to raise the land to him _to work
and to gafol_, he need not take it upon him, if the lord do not
give him a dwelling. . . . [p143]
The meaning of it apparently is that if a man agree for a yard-land
or more to 'ræd-gafol' (_i.e._ at such gafol payments as have been
described), and plough it, still the lord cannot put the new holding
'_to weorce_ and _to gafole_,' that is, make the holder completely
into a _gebur_ or villanus, owing both gafol and week-work to his
lord, unless the lord also supply the homestead ('botl').
That the 'botl' or homestead was looked upon as the essential part of
a man's holding is shown by another law of King Ine:--
LXVIII. Gif mon gesiðcundne monnan adrife. fordrife þy botle.
næs þære setene. ►
68. If a gesithcund man be driven off, it must be from the
_botl_, not the _setene_.
«The manor and serfdom in seventh century.»
Now the importance of these passages can hardly be exaggerated;
for, if we may trust the genuineness of the laws of King Ine,[171]
they show more clearly than anything else could do, that in the
seventh century--400 years before the Domesday Survey--the manor was
already to all intents and purposes what it was afterwards. They
show that at that early date part of the land was in the lord's
demesne and part let out to tenants, who when supplied by the lord
with everything--their homestead and their yard-land--owed, not
only customary tribute or _gafol_, but also '_weorc_' or service
to the lord; and how otherwise could this 'weorce' be given then
or afterwards [p144] except in the shape of labour on the lord's
demesne, as is described in the '_Rectitudines_'?
It is worth while to notice that while the double debt of both gafol
and week-work was due from the _gebur_ or _villanus_ proper, and the
week-work was the most servile service, yet even the mere payment
of gafol was the sign of a submission to an overlordship. It had a
servile taint about it, as well it might, being paid apparently part
in kind and part in work. As the class of free hired labourers had
not yet been born into existence under these early Saxon economic
conditions, in times when the _theows_ were the servants, so the
modern class of farmers or free tenants at a rent of another's land
had not yet come into being. It was the 'ceorl' who lived on 'gafol
land,'[172] and to pay gafol was to do service, though of a limited
kind.
«_Gafol_ a servile _tribute_.»
The Saxon translators of the Gospels rendered the question, 'Doth
your master pay tribute?'[173] by the words '_gylt he gafol?_' And
they used the same word _gafol_ also in translating the counter
question, 'Of whom do kings take _tribute_, of their own people or of
aliens?'
«Bede.»
So when Bede described the northern conquest of Ethelfred, king of
the Northumbrians, over the Britons in A.D. 603, and spoke of the
inhabitants as being either exterminated or subjugated, and their
lands as either cleared for new settlers or _made tributary_ to
the English, King Alfred in his translation expressed [p145] the
latter alternative by the words 'set to gafol'--_to gafulgyldum
gesette_.[174]
No doubt the Teutonic notion of a subjugated people was that of a
people reduced to serfdom or villenage. _They_--the conquerors--were
the nation, the freemen. The conquered race were the aliens,
subjected to _gafol_ and servitude.
«Parable of 'the unjust steward.'»
Thus, recurring to the Saxon translation of the parable of 'the
unjust steward,' one may recognise how perfectly naturally everything
seemed to the translators to transfer itself to a Saxon thane's
estate, and to translate itself into Saxon terms.[175]
The '_hlaford_' of the '_tun_' or manor had his '_tun-gerefa_'
or reeve, just as the Saxon thane had. The land in villenage was
occupied not by mere trade debtors of the lord, as our version has
it, but by '_gafol-gyldan_'--tenants to whom land and goods of the
lord had been entrusted, as Saxon tenants were entrusted with their
'setene,' and who, therefore, paid _gafol_ or tribute in kind. The
natural _gafol_ of the tenant of an olive-garden would be so many
'sesters' of oil. The tenant of corn land would pay for _gafol_,
like the English tenant of a yard-land _inter alia_ so [p146]
many 'mittan' of wheat; and it was the duty of the unrighteous
'tun-gerefa,' or reeve of the manor, to collect the _gafol_ from
these tenants, as it was the duty of the Saxon thane's reeve to
gather the dues from his servile tenants.
How many otherwise free tenants hired yard-lands without becoming
_geburs_, and rendering the full _week-work_ as well as _gafol_, we
do not know. Except in the Danish district they seem to have left,
as we have seen, no trace behind them on most manors in the Domesday
Survey. The fact already mentioned, that the yard-lands of _geburs_,
who owed both gafol and services, were sometimes called '_gyrda
gafollandes_,' shows how completely the _gafol_ and the services had
become united as coincidents of a common villein tenure. All villein
tenants were apparently 'geneats' and paid 'gafol,' and there is a
passage in the laws of King Edgar which states that if a _geneat-man_
after notice should persist in neglecting to pay his lord's _gafol_,
he must expect that his lord in his anger will spare _neither his
goods nor his life_.[176]
«Completeness of the evidence to the seventh century.»
On the whole, leaving out of notice doubtful and exceptional tenants,
as well we may, we are now in a position to state generally what were
the main classes of villein tenants in early Saxon times, and what
were their holdings on the land in villenage, whether it were known
as _geneat_, or _geset_, or _gafol_ land.
_First_, the '_Rectitudines_,' of the tenth century, describes, as we
have seen, these tenants as all _geneats_ or villeins, and records
their services in general terms. [p147] It then divides them into
classes, just as the Domesday Survey does. And the two chief classes
of the geneats are the _geburs_ and the cottiers. These two classes
are evidently the _villani_ and the _bordarii_ or cottiers of the
Domesday Survey.
_Secondly_, the same document describes the holdings of these two
classes. It speaks of the cottiers as holding mostly five acres
each--sometimes more and sometimes less--in singular coincidence with
the Domesday Survey and later evidence. And it describes the _gebur_,
as we have seen, as holding a _yard-land_ or _virgate_, the typical
holding of the Domesday villanus, and as having allotted to him as
'outfit' two oxen, just as was the case with the Kelso husbandmen.
_Thirdly_, the laws of King Ine bring back the evidence to the
seventh century by their incidental mention of the _yard-land_ as a
typical holding on _geset-land_; and also of _half-hides_[177] and
_hides_, as well as of _geneats_[178] and _geburs_,[179] with their
_gafol_ and _weorc_.
When this concurrence of the evidence of the tenth and the seventh
century is duly considered, it will be seen how complete is the proof
that in the seventh century the West Saxon estate, though called a
'_tun_' or a '_ham_,' was in reality a _manor_ in the Norman sense
of the term--an estate with a village community in villenage upon it
under a lord's jurisdiction. [p148]
VI. SERFDOM ON A MANOR of KING EDWY.
The evidence hitherto given on the nature of the serfdom on
Anglo-Saxon manors has been of a general character.
We are fortunately able to confirm and illustrate it by reference to
actual local instances.
«Manor of Tidenham.»
The first example is that of the manor of _Tidenham_, and it derives
a more than ordinary value from its peculiar geographical position.
The parish of Tidenham comprises the wedge-shaped corner of
Gloucestershire, shut in between the Wye and the Severn, where they
join and widen into the Bristol Channel; while to the north-east, on
its land side, it was surrounded by the Forest of Dean.
In the belief of local antiquaries, the Roman road from Gloucester
to Caerleon-upon-Usk--the key to South Wales--passed through it as
well as the western continuation of the old British road of Akeman
Street from the landing-place of the Severn, opposite Aust (where St.
Augustine is said to have met the Welsh Christians) to the further
crossing-place on the Wye. Lastly, upon it was the southern end of
_Offa's Dyke_, the mysterious rampart which, commencing thus at the
mouth of the Wye, extended to the mouth of the Dee.[180]
«Saxon since A.D. 577,»
The manor probably has been in English hands ever since about the
time when, according to the Saxon Chronicle, after Deorham battle
in A.D. 577, Bath, Gloucester, and Cirencester were wrested from
[p149] the Welsh by Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons. According to
the Welsh legends of the _Liber Landavensis_[181] this was about the
time when the diocese of Llandaff was curtailed by the Wye instead
of the Severn becoming the boundary between the two kingdoms. It
may therefore have been for nearly five centuries before the Norman
Conquest the extreme corner of West Saxon England on the side of
South Wales.
[Illustration: THE MANOR OF TIDENHAM.]
«was a royal manor,»
Conquered probably by Ceawlin, or soon after the year 577, the manor
of Tidenham seems to have remained folkland or _terra regis_ of the
West Saxon kings, till Offa conquered it from them and gave his name
to the dyke upon it. One of its hamlets bore, as we shall find, the
name of _Cinges tune_, and Tidenham Chase remained a royal chase till
after the Norman Conquest.
«given by King Edwy, A.D. 956, to the Abbey of Bath.»
The manor itself was granted by King Edwy in A.D. 956 by charter[182]
to the Abbot of Bath, under whose name it is registered in the
Domesday Survey. It is in this charter of King Edwy that the
description of the manor and of the services of the tenants is
contained. The services must be regarded, therefore, as those of a
royal manor before it was handed over to ecclesiastical hands.
«The boundaries still to be traced.»
The boundaries as appended to the charter are given below,[183] and
may still, with slight exceptions, be traced on the Ordnance Survey.
[p150]
The northern limit on the Severn is described as _Astege pul_, now,
after a thousand years, known as _Ashwell Grange Pill_, the _puls_
of 1,000 years ago and the present _pills_ being the little streams
which wear away a sort of miniature tidal estuary in the mudbanks as
they empty themselves into the Severn and the Wye. Numbers of pills
are marked in the Ordnance map, and as many 'puls' are mentioned in
the boundaries of Saxon charters and those inserted in the _Liber
Landavensis_.
«_Inland_ and _gesettes_ land.»
After the boundaries, under the heading '_Divisiones et consuetudines
in Dyddanhamme_,'[184] the document proceeds to state that 'at
Dyddanhamme are xxx. hides, ix. of _inland_ and xxi. of _gesettes
land_.' The manor was therefore in the tenth century divided into
demesne land and land in villenage.
Next are stated separately the contents of each hamlet on the manor,
as follows:--
«Yard-lands.»
«_Hæc-_ and _cyt-_ weirs.»
At _Stræt_ are xii. hides--xxvii. gyrda gafollandes, and on the
Severn xxx. cytweras.
At _Middeltun_ are v. hides--xiiii. gyrda gafollandes, xiiii.
cytweras on the Severn, and ii. hæcweras on the Wye.
At the _Cinges túne_ are v. hides--xiii. gyrda gafollandes, and
i. hide above the dyke, which is now also gafolland; and that
outside the hamme is still part inland and part gesett to gafol
to 'scipwealan.' At the Cinges túne on the Severn are xxi.
cytweras, and on the Wye xii.
At the _Bishop's túne_ are iii. hides, and xv. cytweras on the
Wye.
At _Landcawet_ are iii. hides and ii. hæcweras on the Wye, and
ix. cytweras.
«The hamlets.»
Thus this manor, like the Winslow manor, had hamlets or small
dependencies upon it, and these are [p151] still traceable on the
map. _Street_ is still _Stroat_ on the old Roman street--the _Via
Julia_ (?)--from Gloucester to Caerleon. The _Cinges túne_, now
_Sudbury_, lay on the high wedge-shaped southern promontory above the
cliffs, between the Wye and Severn where they join; and it lies as it
did then, part on one side and part on the other side of Offa's Dyke,
as if the dyke had been cut through its open fields. Its fisheries
were naturally some on the Severn and some on the Wye. The '_Bishop's
túne_' is still traceable in _Bishton_ farm. Lastly, _Llancaut_, the
only hamlet on this Saxon manor 900 years ago with a Welsh name,
bears its old name still. This hamlet is surrounded almost entirely
by a bend of the Wye, and its situation backed by its woods (_coit_
= _wood_) may well have protected it from destruction at the time of
the Saxon conquest.
Next, it is clear that the _geset land_ in the open fields round
each 'túne' or hamlet, except at _Llancaut_ and _Bishop's tune_,
was divided, as usual, into yard-lands--_gyrda gafollandes_. These
yard-lands and the open fields have long since been swept away by the
enclosure of the parish.
«The fishing _weirs_.»
Besides the yard-lands there were belonging to each hamlet the
numerous fisheries--_cytweras_ and _hæcweras_--some on the Severn and
some on the Wye. What were these '_cyt_' and '_hæc_' weirs?
They certainly were not the ancient dams or banks across the river
which are now called 'weirs,' over which the tidal wave sweeps, thus--
'Hushing half the babbling Wye.'
It is impossible that there can have been so many of these as there
were _cytweras_ and _hæcweras_ 900 [p152] years ago--as many as
thirty together at Street, fourteen at Middletune, and twenty-one
at Cingestune. The fact is that the old Saxon word _wera_ meant any
structure for entrapping fish or aiding their capture. And no doubt
arrangements which would not be called 'weirs' now were so called
then. The words _cyt_ and _hæc_ weras seem to point rather to wattled
basket and hedge weirs than to the solid structures now called weirs.
But the best illustration of what they were may be derived from the
arrangements now at work for catching salmon in the Wye and Severn.
«Cytweras.»
«Hæcweras.»
The stranger who visits this locality will find here and there
across the muddy shore of the Severn structures which at a distance
look like breakwaters; but on nearer inspection he will find them
to be built up of rows two or three deep of long tapering baskets
arranged between upright stakes at regular distances. These baskets
are called _putts_ or _butts_ or _kypes_, and are made of long rods
wattled together by smaller ones, with a wide mouth, and gradually
tapering almost to a point at the smaller or butt end. These _putts_
are placed in groups of six or nine between each pair of stakes,
with their mouths set against the outrunning stream; and each group
of them between its two stakes is called a 'puttcher.' The word
'puttcher' can hardly be other than a rapidly pronounced _putts
weir_, _i.e._ a weir made of _putts_. If the baskets had been called
'cyts' instead of 'putts,' the group would be a _cytweir_. So,
_e.g._, the thirty _cytweras_ at Street would represent a breakwater
such as may be seen there now, consisting of as many puttchers. This
use of what may be called basket weirs [p153] is peculiar to the
Wye and the Severn, and has been adopted to meet the difficulty
presented by the unusual volume and rapidity of the tidal current.
[Illustration: Group of Puttchers on the Severn near
Tedenham.]
Then as to the _hæcweras_ there is nothing unusual in the use of
barriers or fences of wattle, or, as it is still called, _hackle_, to
produce an eddy, or to entrap the fish. Thus a statute (1 Geo. I. c.
18, s. 14) relating to the fisheries on the Severn and the Wye uses
the following words: 'If any person shall make, 'erect, or set any
bank, dam, _hedge_, stank, or net across the same,' &c.
These wattled hedges or hackle-weirs are sometimes used to guide
the fish into the puttchers, but generally in the same way as more
permanent structures on the Wye, now called _cribs_, to make an
eddy in which the fish are caught from a boat in what is called a
_stop-net_.
«Salmon fisheries.»
This mode of fishing is also peculiar to the Wye and Severn. The boat
is fixed by two long stakes sideways across the eddy, and a wide net,
like a bag with its open end stretched between two poles, is let down
so as to offer a wide open mouth to the stream which carries the
closed end of the bag-net under the boat. When a salmon strikes the
net the open end is raised out of the water, and the fish is taken
out behind. This clumsy process of catching salmon is the ancient
traditional method used in the Wye and Severn fisheries, and so
tenaciously is it adhered to that the fishermen can hardly be induced
to substitute more efficient modern improvements.
So much for the _cytweras_ and the _hæcweras_.
The fisheries are now almost exclusively devoted to salmon. About
the date of the Norman Conquest [p154] the manor of Tidenham
was let on lease by the Bishop of Bath to Stigand, Archbishop
of Canterbury,[185] and as a portion of the rent reserved was 6
porpoises (merswin) and 30,000 herrings, it would seem at first sight
that the main fisheries there were for herrings rather than salmon,
but it is more probable that the lease was a mutual arrangement
whereby the archbishop's table was provided with salmon from the
west, and the monks of Bath with herrings from the east.
Turning from the fisheries to the services, they are described as
follows:[186]--
«General services of _geneats_.»
Of Dyddanhamme gebyreð micel weorcrǽden.
Se geneát sceal wyrcan swá on lande, swá of lande, hweðer swá
him man byt, and ridan and auerian, and láde lǽdan, dráfe
drífan, and fela óðra þinga dón.
To Tidenham belong many services.
The geneat shall work as well on land as off land, whichever he
is bid; and ride, and carry and lead loads, and drive droves,
and do other things.
And after thus stating, to begin with, the general services of
all _geneats_, the document proceeds, like the '_Rectitudines_,'
to describe the special services of the _gebur_, or holder of a
yard-land.
«Services of _geburs_.»
«Week-work.»
Se gebúr sceal his riht dón.
He sceal erian healfne æcer tó wíceworce, and ræcan sylf ðæt
sæd on hláfordes berne gehálne tó cyrcscette, sá hweðere of his
ágenum berne.
Tó werbolde xl. mæra oððe án foðer gyrda; oððe viii. geocu
byld. iii. ebban tyne. Æcertyninge xv. gyrda, oððe díche
fiftyne; and dície i. gyrde burhheges, ripe óðer healfne æcer,
máwe healfné; on oðran weorcan wyrce, á be weorces mæðe.
The gebur shall do his '_riht_.'
He shall plough a half-acre as week-work, and himself prepare
the seed in the lord's barn ready for kirkshot, or else from
his own barn.
For weir-building 40 large rods or 1 load of small rods, or
build 8 yokes and wattle 3 ebbs. Of acre-fencing 15 yards,
or ditch 15; and ditch 1 yard of burh-hedge, reap 1 acre and
a half, mow half an acre. At other work, work as the work
requires. [p155]
These are the various details of his _week-work_. Then follow the
_gafol_-payments.
«Gafol.»
Sylle vi. penegas ofer éstre, healfne sester hunies tó
Hlafmæssan. vi. systres mealtes tó Martines mæsse, an cliwen
gódes nettgernes. On ðam sylfum lande stent seðe vii. swýn
hæbbe ðæt he sylle iii. and swá forð á ðæt teoðe, and ðæs
naðulæs mæstenrǽdene ðonne mæsten beó.
Pay 6d. after Easter, half a sester of honey (or mead?)
at Lammas. 6 sesters of malt at Martinmas, 1 clew of good
net-yarn. On the same land, if he has 7 swine, he pays 3, and
so forth at that rate, and nevertheless give mast dues if there
be mast.
It will be observed that in their _week-work_ the geburs of Tidenham,
in addition to strictly agricultural services, had to provide the
materials for the puttchers and hedge-weirs, as well as other
requisites for the fisheries.
What the eight _geocu_ to be built may have been is doubtful; but the
tyning or wattling of three ebbs was at once explained on the spot by
the lessee of the fisheries, who pointed out that when hackle weirs
were used, three separate wattled hedges would always be needed, as,
owing to the very various heights of the tide, the hedge must be
differently placed for the spring tides, the middle tides, and the
neap tides respectively.
The '_week-work_' was shown by the '_Rectitudines_' to be the chief
service of the gebur, and this _work_, added to the _gafol_, made the
holder of the yard-land into a _gebur_, according to the laws of Ine.
«No limitation of week-work to three days.»
Two things are very striking about the week-work on the manor of
Tidenham. (1) There is no limit to three days a week more or less,
as in the '_Rectitudines_.' (2) There is a clear adaptation of the
week-work [p156] to local circumstances. In particular the fisheries
have a prominent regard in its arrangement. As described in the
'_Rectitudines_,' the work varied according to the customs of each
place.
So much for the 'week-work.'
«No _bene-work_.»
Next, there were at Tidenham no '_precariæ_,' or '_bene_' works,
which formed so prominent a feature in the later services. When the
week-work was not limited to some days only, clearly there was no
need or room for these additional services.
Lastly, as to the _gafol_--this formed a prominent feature of the
_weorc-ræden_ of the Tidenham yard-land.
«_Gafol_ chiefly in produce: honey, &c.»
It consisted mainly of the produce of the land, like the gafol of
the _gafolgylders_ in the Saxon translation of the parable of 'the
unjust steward.' Honey and malt, or ale, and yarn and pork--these,
as we shall see by-and-by, were the chief products of this and the
adjoining districts of Wales.
These, then, were the services of the geburs of Tidenham in respect
of their yard-lands in A.D. 950, while the manor was still in royal
hands just before it was handed over to the Abbot of Bath.
«Comparison of services in the thirteenth century.»
Now let us compare these services with the services on the same
manor 350 years afterwards, in the time of Edward I. An _Inquisitio
post mortem_ of the 35th year of Edward I. enables us to make this
comparison.[187]
The following is an abstract of the services of a tenant who held
a messuage and xviii. acres of land in villenage (probably a
half-virgate). [p157]
His _week-work_ was--
5 days in every other week for xxxv. weeks in the year
from Michaelmas to Midsummer, except the festival works of
Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost; 87½ works.
2½ days every week for 6 weeks from Midsummer to Gules of
August; 15 works.
3 days every week for 8 weeks from Gules of August to
Michaelmas; 24 works.
And of this week-work between Michaelmas and Christmas, 1 day's
work every other week was to lie ploughing and harrowing a
half-acre. Each ploughing was accounted for a day's work.
Then as to his _precariæ_,--
He made 1 _precaria_ called 'cherched,' and he ploughed and
harrowed a half-acre for corn, and sowed it with 1 bushel of
corn from his own seed; and in the time of harvest he had to
reap and bind and stack the produce, receiving one sheaf for
himself on account of the half-acre, 'as much as can be bound
with a binding of the same corn, cut near the land.'
And he had to plough 1 acre for oats, and this was accounted
for 2 days' manual work.
And he made another _precaria_, ploughing a half-acre with his
own plough for winter sowing with as many oxen as he possessed,
so that there should be a team of 8 oxen. But if he had no oxen
he did not plough.
And he made [several other _precariæ_ of various kinds].
Lastly came his _gafol_, &c.
He gave i. hen, which was called 'wodehen,' at Christmas.
And 5 eggs at Easter.
And 1D. for every yearling pig, and ½d. for those only of
half-year, by way of pannage.
He paid . . . for every horse or mare sold.
And viii. gallons of beer at every brewing.
And he could not marry his daughter without licence.
Now, comparing the services on the manor of Tidenham at these dates
300 years apart, at which period was the service most complete
serfdom? at the later date, when the week-work of the villeins was
limited to two and a half or three days a week, and in addition he
made _precariæ_ or extra works; or at the earlier date, _when his
week-work was unlimited_ [p158] as to the days, and therefore there
was no room for the extra work?
«Saxon services more complete.»
Surely the unlimited week-work marked the most complete serfdom.
Surely the later services, limited in their amount and commutable
into money payments, were clearly a mitigated service fast growing
into a fixed money rent. In fact, the _gebur_ or _villanus_ was
fast growing into a mere customary tenant in the time of Edward I.
Indeed, he is not called in the 'Inquisition' a '_villanus_,' but
a '_custumarius_,' and such he was. He was halfway on the road to
freedom. Another sign of the times was this, that at the later date,
side by side with the customary tenants on the land in villenage, a
whole host of _libere tenentes_ had already grown up upon the lord's
demesne, not, as we have more than once observed, necessarily _liberi
homines_ at all, but some of them villein tenants or _custumarii_
holding additional pieces of free land of the lord's demesne. Of
these free tenants there were none at the earlier period. So that
the _gebur_, with his _weorc-ræden_ 100 years and more before the
Norman Conquest, was much more clearly a serf, and rendered far more
complete and servile services than his successor in the thirteenth
century, with the Black Death and Wat Tyler's rebellion in the near
future before him.
Finally, let us look backward and ask how long this more complete
serfdom had lasted on the manor of Tidenham.
«They probably go back to near the first conquest.»
If in the laws of King Ine are found, as we have seen, the '_geset
land_' and '_gyrd lands_,' and the '_gafol_,' and the '_weorc_,' and
the '_geneat_,' and the '_gebur_,' and the obligation not to leave
the lord's [p159] land; and if all those were incidents of what in
the '_Rectitudines_' and in the charter of King Edwy just examined
was in fact serfdom--if the laws of Ine are good evidence that this
serfdom existed in full force in the seventh century _anywhere_--they
must surely be good evidence that it existed on the manor of
Tidenham. For it was, as we have seen, a royal manor of King Edwy,
and most probably he had received it through a succession of royal
holders from King Ine. There is no evidence of its having ceased to
be folcland, and so to be in the royal demesne of the kings of Wessex
or of Mercia, from Ine's time to Edwy's. And if it was a royal manor
of King Ine's, surely the laws of King Ine may be taken to interpret
the serfdom on his own estate. Lastly, looking further back still, as
King Ine probably held the manor in direct succession from Ceawlin,
or whoever conquered it from the Welsh, and cut it from the diocese
of Llandaff in A.D. 577 or thereabouts, the inference is very strong
indeed that the _weorc-ræden_ had remained much the same ever since,
100 years before the date of King Ine's laws, it first fell under
Saxon rule.
«Changes in local customs very slow.»
The lesson to be learned from a careful tracing back of the customs
of such a manor as Tidenham, and we might add also the methods of
fishing, and the construction of the '_cyt_' and '_hæcweras_,' surely
is, that in those early times changes in custom and habit were slow,
and not easily made. It would be as unlikely that between the days
of King Ceawlin and those of King Ine great changes should have been
made in the internal economic structure of a Saxon manor, as that in
the same period bees should have changed the shape of their hexagonal
cells. [p160]
VII. SERFDOM ON A MANOR OF KING ALFRED.
«Manor of Hysseburne, which had belonged to Egbert,
Ethelwulf, and Alfred.»
The second example of a Saxon manor is that of 'Stoke-by-Hysseburne,'
a royal estate in Hampshire.[188] It had belonged in succession to
King Egbert, King Ethelwulf, and King Alfred, and was by his son
Edward given over to the monks of the 'old minster' at Winchester
under the following curious circumstances.
King Alfred, towards the close of his reign, in his anxiety for
the better education of the children of his nobles, called to his
aid the monk Grimbald, from the monastery of St. Bertin, near St.
Omer in Picardy, in which he himself had spent some time in his
childhood on his way to Rome. It was the plan of Grimbald and King
Alfred to build a new monastery (the 'new minster') at Winchester
where Grimbald should carry out the royal object. But King Alfred
died before this wish was fully accomplished. He had bought the land
for the chapel and dormitory in [p161] the city, but the building
and endowment of the monastery was left for his son King Edward to
complete. Grimbald, then eighty-two years old, was the first abbot,
but within a year died and was canonised. The body of King Alfred
lay enshrined in Winchester Cathedral, in the 'old minster' of the
bishop; but the canons of the old foundation having, according to
the Abbey Chronicle, conceived 'delirious fancies' that the royal
ghost, roaming by night about their cloisters, could not rest in
peace, the remains of Alfred and his queen were removed to the 'new
minster.'[189]
«Granted to the 'old minster' at Winchester.»
Now, King Ethelwolf, when dying, having left to King Alfred his son
certain lands at '_Cyseldene_' and elsewhere, with instructions when
he died to give them over to the refectory of the old minster, King
Alfred in his will gave his land at that place to the proper official
at Winchester accordingly. In other words, the body of King Alfred
lay in the 'new minster,' and this land given for the good of his
soul belonged to the 'old minster.' So it came to pass--whether this
time the 'delirious fancies' of the superstitious canons had anything
to do with it or not cannot be told--that this property at Cyseldene,
like the royal donor's body, could not rest in the hands of the 'old
minster,' but must be transferred to the 'new minster.' So King
Edward in the year 900 made an arrangement with the monks, whereby
the lands at Cyseldene were transferred to the 'new minster,' and by
charter he gave instead of them to the 'old minster' ten holdings
(_manentes_) at [p162] _Stoke-be-Hisseburne, with all the men who
were thereon, and those at 'Hisseburne,' when King Alfred, died_.
«The '_hiwisc_,' or family holding, equal here to
yard-land.»
It is in the charter[190] effecting this object that the services are
described. 'Here are written the _gerihta_ 'that the ceorls shall do
at Hysseburne.' From every '_hiwisc_' such and such services. The
_hiwisce_ or _family holding_ seems from the services to have been a
yard-land of 30 acres. The services were as follows:--
«Services.»
Hér synd gewriten ða gerihta ðæ ða ceorlas sculan dón tó
Hysseburnan.
Ærest æt hilcan hiwisce feorwerti penega tó herfestes emnihte:
and vi. ciricmittan ealað; and iii. sesðlar hláfhwétes: and
iii. æceras ge-erian on heora ægenre hwíle, and mid heora
ágenan sæda gesáwan, and on hyra ágenre [h]wíle on bærene
gebringan: and þréo pund gauolbæres and healfne æcer gauolmǽde
on hiora ágienre hwíle, and ðæt on hreace gebringan: and iiii.
fóðera áclofenas gauolwyda tó scidhræce on hiora ágenre hwíle:
and xvi. gyrda gauoltininga eác on hiora ágenre hwíle: and tó
Eástran twó ewe mid twam lamban, and we [talað] twó geong sceap
tó eald sceapan: and hí sculan waxan sceap and scíran on hiora
ágenre hwíle.
Here are written the services that the ceorls shall do at
Hysseburne.
From each _hiwisc_ (family) 40d. at harvest equinox, and 6
church-mittans of ale, and 3 sesters of bread-wheat: and plough
3 acres in their own time, and sow it with their own seed,
and in their own time bring it to the barn: and 3 pounds of
gafol-barley, and a half-acre of gafol-mowing in their own
time, and to bring it to the rick: and split 4 fothers (loads)
of gafol-wood and stack it in their own time, and 16 yards of
gafol-fencing in their own time; and at Easter two ewes with
two lambs, and two young sheep may be taken for one old one:
and they shall wash sheep and shear them in their own time.
«Gafol and gafol-_yrthe_.»
Here we have clearly, as in the '_Rectitudines_,' the _gafol_,
including the three acres of _gafol-yrth_ or ploughing, as well as
other gafol-work and payments in [p163] kind. And if the services
had stopped here, we might have concluded that the 'ceorls' of
Hysseburne were gafolgelders, and not serfs. But there is another
clause which forbids such a conclusion--which shows that, in the
words of the laws of King Ine, they were 'set to _work_ as well as to
_gafol_.' It is this:--
«Week-work.»
And ǽlce wucan wircen ðæt hí man háte bútan þrim, án tó
middan-wintra, oðeru tó Eástran, þridde to Gangdagan.
And every week do what work they are bid, except three
weeks--one at midwinter, the second at Easter, and the third at
'Gang days.'
«Unlimited.»
Comparing these services with the other examples, they do not seem to
be any more the services of freemen, or any less those of serfs. They
seem to plainly bear the ordinary characteristics of what is meant by
serfdom wherever it is found. There is the _gafol_ and there is the
_week-work_; and the latter is not limited to certain days each week,
as in the '_Rectitudines_,' but '_each week, except three in the
year, they are_ TO WORK AS THEY ARE BID.'
And these are the services--this is the serfdom--on a manor which was
part of the royal domain of King Alfred, which for three successive
reigns at least, and probably for generations earlier, had been royal
domain, and now by the last royal holder is handed over, with the
men that were upon it, to the perpetual, never-dying lordship of a
monastery, as an eternal inheritance.
«The chain of evidence complete.»
Finally, the evidence of these Saxon documents--the '_Rectitudines_'
and the charters of Tidenham and Hysseburne--read in the light
of the later evidence and of the earlier laws of King Ine, is so
clear that it seems needful to explain how it has happened that
[p164] there has ever been any doubt as to the servile nature
of the services of the holders of yard-lands in Saxon times. The
explanation is simple. Mr. Kemble quotes from all these documents in
his chapter on '_Lænland_;'[191] but for want of the clear knowledge
what a yard-land was, it never seems to have occurred to him that
in these services of the _geburs_ or holders of yard-lands we have
the services of the later _villani_ of the Domesday Survey--the
services of the holdings embracing by far the greater part of the
arable land of England. Dr. Leo, in his work on the '_Rectitudines_,'
confesses that he does not know what is meant by the yard-land of
the gebur.[192] It is only when, proceeding from the known to the
unknown, we get a firm grasp of the fact that the yard-land was the
normal holding of the _gebur_ or _villanus_, that it was a bundle
of normally thirty scattered acres in the open fields, that it was
held in villenage, and that these were the services under which it
was held of the manorial lord of the _ham_ or _tun_ to which it
belonged--it is only when these facts are known and their importance
realised, that these documents become intelligible, and take their
proper place as links in what really is an unbroken chain of evidence.
VIII. THE THEOWS OR SLAVES ON THE LORD'S DEMESNE.
«The _theows_, or slave class.»
One word must be said of the _theows_ or slaves on the lord's
demesne--the thane's _inland_--lest we should [p165] forget the
existence of this lowest class of all, in contrast with whose slavery
the _geburs_ and cottiers on the _geneat_ land, notwithstanding their
serfdom, were '_free_.' These latter were prædial serfs 'adscripti
glebæ,' but not slaves. The _theows_ were slaves, bought and sold
in the market, and exported from English ports across the seas as
part of the commercial produce of the island. Some of the _theows_
were slaves by birth. But it seems to have been a not uncommon thing
for freemen to sell themselves into slavery under the pressure of
want.[193]
«The servi of the Domesday Survey.»
The 'servi' of the Domesday Survey were no doubt the successors of
the Saxon _theows_. And as in the Survey the _servi_ are mostly found
on the demesne land of the lord, so probably in Saxon times the
_theows_ were chiefly the slaves of the manor-house. Most of the farm
work on the thane's _inland_, especially the ploughing, was done no
doubt by the services of the villein tenants; but as, in addition to
the villein ploughs, there were the great manorial plough teams, so
also there were _theows_ doing slave labour of various kinds on the
home farm of the lord, and maintained at the lord's expense.
In the bilingual dialogue of Ælfric,[194] written in Saxon and Latin
late in the tenth century as an educational lesson, in the reply of
the '_yrthling_' or ploughman to the question put as to the nature of
his daily work, a touching picture is given of the work of a theow
conscious of his thraldom:-- [p166]
«Feelings of the theow.»
Hwæt sægest þu yrþlinge?
Hu begæst þu weorc þin?
Eala leof hlaford þearle ic deorfe ic ga ut on dægræd þywende
oxon to felda and iugie hig to syl. Nys hyt swa stearc winter
þæt ic durre lutian æt ham for ege hlafordes mines ac geiukodan
oxan and gefæstnodon sceare and cultre mit þære syl ælce dæg ic
sceal erian fulne æþer (æcer) oþþe mare.
Hæfst þu ænigne geferan?
Ic hæbbe sumne cnapan þywende oxan mid gad isene þe eacswilce
nu has ys for cylde and hreame.
Hwæt mare dest þu on dæg?
Gewyslice þænne mare ic do. Ic sceal fyllan binnan oxan mid hig
and wæterian hig and sceasn (scearn) heora beran ut. hig hig
micel gedeorf ys hyt geleof micel gedeorf hit ys forþam ic neom
freoh.
What sayest thou, plowman?
How dost thou do thy work?
Oh, my lord, hard do I work. I go out at daybreak driving the
oxen to field, and I yoke them to the plough. Nor is it ever so
hard winter that I dare loiter at home, for fear of my lord,
but the oxen yoked, and the ploughshare and coulter fastened to
the plough, every day must I plough a full acre, or more.
Hast thou any comrade?
I have a boy driving the oxen with an iron goad, who also is
hoarse with cold and shouting.
What more dost thou in the day?
Verily then I do more. I must fill the bin of the oxen with
hay, and water them, and carry out the dung. Ha! ha! hard work
it is, hard work it is! because _I am not free_.
Perhaps some day his lord will provide him with an outfit of oxen,
give him a yard-land, and make him into a _gebur_ instead of a
_theow_. This at least seems to be his yearning.
IX. THE CREATION OF NEW MANORS.
We have hitherto spoken only of the manors. Are we therefore to
conclude that there was no land extra-manorial?
«Folkland, or _terra regis_, included royal _hams_ or
manors.»
It may be asked whether 'folkland' was not extra-manorial.
Now in one sense all that belonged to the ancient demesne of the
Crown was folkland and extra-manorial. All estates with the villages
and towns upon them, which had no manorial lord but the king, [p167]
were in the demesne of the Crown, as also were the royal forests.
Formerly, while there were many petty kings in England, and
before the kingship had attained its unity and its full growth,
_i.e._ before it had, as we are told by historians, absorbed in
itself exclusively the sole representation of the nation, the
term _folkland_ was apparently applied to all that was afterwards
included in the royal demesne. All that had not become the _boc-land_
or private property either of members of the royal house or of a
monastery or of a private person was still folkland. And it would
appear that the kings had originally no power to alienate this
folkland without the consent of the great men of their witan.
But inasmuch as the royal demesne or folkland included an endless
number of manors as well as forest, it cannot properly be said that
it was necessarily extra-manorial. More correctly it was in the
manor of the king. The king was its manorial lord, and the _geburs_
and cottiers upon it were _geneats_ or _villani_ of the king. The
Tidenham and Hysseburne manors were both of them manors of the royal
demesne until they were granted by charter to their new monastic
owners.
Now, it is clear that in the course of time, after that in a similar
way grant after grant had been made of 'ham' after 'ham,' with its
little territory--its _ager_ or _agellus_, or _agellulus_, as the
ecclesiastical writers were wont to describe it in the charters--to
the king's thanes or to monasteries, as _boc-land_ or private estate,
the number of 'hams' still remaining folkland would grow less and
less. [p168]
«These were granted as lænland to thanes in reward for
services.»
In the meantime the royal forests were managed by royal foresters
under separate laws and regulations of great severity, whilst the
royal _hams_ or manors were put under the management of a resident
steward, _præpositus_ or _villicus_--in Saxon '_tun-gerefa_,'--or
were let out for life as _lænland_ to neighbouring great men or their
sons, or to thanes in the royal service.
This granting of life-leases of folkland or _hams_ on the royal
demesne seems to have been a usual mode of rewarding special
military services, and Bede bitterly complained that the profuse and
illegitimate grants which were wheedled out of the king for pretended
monastic purposes had already in his time seriously weakened the
king's power of using the royal estates legitimately as a means of
keeping up his army and maintaining the national defences.[195] To be
able to provide some adequate maintenance for the thanes, on whose
services he relied, was a king's necessity; for well might King
Alfred enforce the truth of the philosophy of his favourite Boethius
by exclaiming that every one may know how 'full miserable and full
unmighty' kings must be who cannot count upon the support of their
thanes.[196]
«Tendency for them to pass into private hands.»
But from the nature of the case it was inevitable that the area
of folkland or royal demesne must constantly be lessened as each
succeeding grant increased the area of the _boc-land_. In other
words, to use the later phrase, the tendency was not only for new
[p169] manors to be created out of the royal forests and wastes, but
also for more and more of the royal manors to pass from the royal
demesne into private hands.
«King Alfred's sketch of the growth of a new _ham_.»
Now there is a remarkable passage in one of King Alfred's
treatises[197] which incidentally throws some light upon this
process, and explains the way in which new manors may have been
created. He describes how the forest or a great wood provided every
[p170] requisite of building, shafts and handles for tools, bay
timbers and bolt timbers for house-building, fair rods (_gerda_)
with which many a house (_hus_) may be constructed, and many a fair
_tun_ timbered, wherein men may dwell permanently in peace and quiet,
summer and winter, which, writes the king with a sigh, 'is more than
I have yet done!' There was, he said, an eternal '_ham_' above,
but He that had promised it through the holy fathers might in the
meantime make him, so long as he was in this world, to dwell softly
in a log-hut on _lænland_ ('_lænan stoclif_'[198]), waiting patiently
for his eternal inheritance. So we wonder not, he continued, that men
should work in timber-felling and in carrying and in building,[199]
for a man hopes that if he has built a cottage on lænland of his
lord, with his lord's help, he may be allowed to lie there awhile,
and hunt and fowl and fish, and occupy the _læn_ as he likes on
sea and land, until through his lord's grace he may perhaps some
day obtain _boc-land_ and permanent inheritance. Then finally he
completes his parable by reverting once more to the contrast between
'thissa lænena stoclife' and '_thara ecena hama_'--between the log
hut on lænland and the permanent freehold '_ham_' on the _boc-land_,
or hereditary manorial estate.
It is true that in this passage King Alfred does not suggest
distinctly that the lord would make the actual holding of lænland
into boc-land, thus converting a clearing in his forest into a new
manor for his thane; but, on the other hand, there was a good reason
[p171] for this omission, seeing that such a suggestion would have
just overreached the point of his parable.
Be this as it may, the vivid little glimpse we get into the _modus
operandi_ of the possible growth of a Saxon manorial estate, out of
folkland granted first as _lænland_, and then as _boc-land_, or out
of the woods or waste of an ealdorman's domain, may well be made use
of to illustrate the matter in hand.
«The _rod_, _gyrd_, or _virga_ in the growth of a new
_ham_.»
The typical importance in so many ways of the _gyrd_, or _rod_, or
_virga_ in the origin and growth of the Saxon 'tun' or 'ham' is worth
at least a moment's notice.
The typical site for a new settlement was a clearing in a wood or
forest, because of the 'fair rods' which there abound. The clearing
was measured out by rods. An allusion to this occurs in Notker's
paraphrase of Psa. lxxviii. 55--'He cast out the heathen before
them, and divided them an inheritance by line.' The Vulgate which
Notker had before him was 'Et sorte divisit eis terram in funiculo
distributionis;' and he translated the last clause thus--'teilta er
daz lant mit mazseile,'--to which he added, '_also man nu tuot mit_
RUOTO,' as they now do it with _rods_, _i.e._ at St. Gall in the
tenth or eleventh century.[200]
So in England the typical holding in the cleared land of the open
fields was called _yard_-land, or in earlier Saxon a _gyrd_ landes,
or in Latin a _virgata_ terræ; _yard_, _gyrd_, and _virga_ all
meaning _rod_, and all meaning also in a secondary sense a yard
measure. The holdings in the open fields were of _yarded_ or [p172]
_rooded_ land--land measured out with a rod into acres four rods
wide, each _rod_ in width being therefore a _rood_, as we have seen.
Again, the whole homestead was called a _tun_ or a _worth_, because
it was _tyn_ed or _gird_ed with a wattled fence of _gyrds_ or rods.
And so, too, in the Gothic of Ulfilas the homestead was a '_gard_.'
So that in the evident connexion of these words we seem to get
confirmation of the hint given by King Alfred of the process of the
growth of new manors.
«It begins with a clearing in the forest.»
The young thane, with his lord's permission, makes a clearing in
a forest, building his log hut and then other log huts for his
servants. At first it is forest game on which he lives. By-and-by
the cluster of huts becomes a little hamlet of homesteads. He
provides his servants with their outfits of oxen, and they become his
_geburs_. The cleared land is measured out by rods into acres. The
acres ploughed by the common plough are allotted in rotation to the
yard-lands. A new hamlet has grown up in the royal forest, or in the
outlying woods of an old _ham_ or manor. In the meantime the king
perhaps rewards his industrious thane, who has made the clearing in
his forest, with a grant of the estate with the village upon it, as
his boc-land for ever, and it becomes a manor, or the lord of the old
manor of which it is a hamlet grants to him the inheritance, and the
hamlet becomes a subject manor held of the higher lord.
So we seem now to see clearly how new _tuns_ and _hams_ or manors
were always growing up century after century, on the royal demesne
and on private estates or manors, as in a former chapter it became
[p173] clear incidentally how new geburs with fresh yard-lands could
be added to the village community, and the strips which made up the
yard-lands intermixed with those of their neighbours in the village
fields.
X. THE LAWS OF KING ETHELBERT--THERE WERE MANORS IN THE SIXTH CENTURY.
«_Tuns_ and _hams_ in the time of Ethelbert,»
We have seen that not only the general description of serfdom
contained in the '_Rectitudines_,' but also the two examples we have
been able to examine of serfdom upon particular manors in Saxon
times, testify clearly to the existence of a serfdom upon Saxon
manors as complete and onerous as the later serfdom upon Norman
manors. And we have seen that, connecting this evidence with that of
the laws of King Ine, the proof is clear of the existence of manors
and serfdom in the seventh century, _i.e._ 400 years before the
Norman Conquest. There remains to be quoted the still earlier though
scanty evidence of the laws of King Ethelbert, A.D. 597–616; which,
if genuine, bring us back to the date of the mission of St. Augustine
to England.
«in single ownership.»
The evidence of these laws is accidental and indirect, but taken in
connexion with that already considered, it seems to show conclusively
that the 'hams' and 'tuns' of that early period were already manors.
Upon one point at least it is clear. It goes so far as to indicate
that they were in the ownership of individuals, and not of free
village communities.
The following passages occur:-- [p174]
III. Gif cyning æt mannes ham drincæð, &c.
V. Gif in cyninges túne man mannan ofslea, &c.
XIII. Gif on eorles túne man mannan ofslæhð, &c.
XVII. Gif man in mannes tun ærest geirneð, &c.
3. If the king drink at a man's _ham_, &c.
5. If in the king's _tun_ a man slay another, &c.
13. If in an earl's _tun_ a man slay another, &c.
17. If a man into a man's _tun_ enter, &c.
If there be any doubt as to the manorial character of these 'hams'
and 'tuns,' it lies not in the point of the single ownership of them,
but in other points, whether they were worked and tilled by the
owners' slaves, or by a village community in serfdom.
The only classes of tenants which are mentioned in the laws of King
Ethelbert are the three grades of _læts_ referred to in the following
passage:
XXVI. Gif [man] læt ofslæhð þone selestan. lxxx. scill.
forgelde. Gif þane oðerne ofslæhð. lx. scillingum forgelde.
þane þriddan. xl. scillingum forgelden.
26. If [a man] slay a _læt_ of the best [class], let him pay
lxxx. shillings: if he slay one of the second, let him pay lx.
shillings: of the third, let him pay xl. shillings.
«with _semi_-servile tenants or 'læts.'»
The word _læt_ is of doubtful meaning in this passage. It might have
reference to the Roman _læti_, or people of conquered tribes deported
into Roman provinces at the end of a war; or it might refer to the
_liti_ or _lidi_--the servile tenants mentioned in so many of the
early Continental codes. We are not yet in a position to decide. But
in any case these _læts_ of King Ethelbert's laws were clearly of
a semi-servile class here in Kent, as were the _lidi_ in Frankish
Gaul,[201] for their 'wergild' was distinctly less than that of the
Kentish freemen.[202] Whether they were a [p175] different class
from the _geburs_ or _villani_, or identical with them, it is not
easy to decide.
XI. RESULT OF THE SAXON EVIDENCE.
The evidence of the earliest Saxon or Jutish laws thus leaves us
with a strong presumption, if not actual certainty, that the Saxon
_ham_ or _tun_ was the estate of a lord, and not of a free village
community, and that it was so when the laws of the Kentish men were
first codified a few years after the mission of St. Augustine.
«The manorial system not of ecclesiastical origin.»
It becomes, therefore, all but impossible that the manorial character
of English _hams_ and _tuns_ can have had an ecclesiastical origin.
The codification of the laws was possibly indeed the direct result of
ecclesiastical influence no less than in the case of the Alamannic,
and Bavarian, and Visigothic, and Burgundian, and Lombardic codes.
In all these cases the codification partook, to some extent, of
the character of a compact between the king and the Church. Room
had to be made, so to speak, for the new ecclesiastical authority.
A recognised status and protection had to be given to the Church
for the first time, and this introduction of a new element into
national arrangements was perhaps in some cases the occasion of the
codification. This may be so; but at the same time it is impossible
that a new system of land tenure can have been suddenly introduced
with the new [p176] religion. The property granted to the Church
from the first was already manorial. A _ham_ or a _tun_ could not
be granted to the Church by the king, or an earl, unless it already
existed as a manorial estate. The monasteries became, by the grants
which now were showered down upon them, lords of manors which were
already existing estates, or they could not have been transferred.
«The holdings in yard-lands implied serfdom,»
«because inconsistent with the equal division of allodial
property among heirs.»
Further, looking within the manor, whether on the royal demesne
or in private hands, it seems to be clear that as far back as the
evidence extends, _i.e._ the time of King Ine, the holdings--the
yard-lands--were held in villenage, and were bundles of a recognised
number of acre or half-acre strips in the open field, handed
down from one generation to another in single succession without
alteration.
Now let it be fully understood what is involved in this indivisible
character of the holding, in its devolution from one holder to
another without division among heirs. We have seen that the theory
was that as the land and homestead, and also the _setene_, or outfit,
were provided by the lord, they returned to the lord on the death
of the holder. The lord granted the holding afresh, most often, no
doubt, to the eldest son or nearest relation of the landholder on his
payment of an ox or other relief in recognition of the servile nature
of the tenure, and thus a custom of primogeniture, no doubt, grew up,
which, in the course of generations--how early we do not know--being
sanctioned by custom, could not be departed from by the lord. The
very possibility of this permanent succession, generation after
generation, of a single holder to the indivisible bundle of strips
[p177] called a yard-land or virgate, thus seems to have implied the
servile nature of the holding. The lord put in his servant as tenant
of the yard-land, and put in a successor when the previous one died.
This seems to be the theory of it. It was probably precisely the
same course of things which ultimately produced primogeniture in the
holding of whole manors. The king put in a _thane_ or _servant_ of
his (sometimes called the '_king's geneat_'), or a monastery put in
a steward or _villicus_ to manage a manor. When he died his son may
have naturally succeeded to the _office_ or _service_, until by long
custom the office became hereditary, and a succession or inheritance
by primogeniture under feudal law was the result. The benefice, or
_læn_, or office was probably not at first generally hereditary;
though of course there were many cases of the creation of estates of
inheritance, or _boc-land_, by direct grant of the king. As we have
seen from the passage quoted from Bede, the _læn_ of an estate for
life was the recognised way in which the king's thanes were rewarded
for their services.
Thus it seems that in the very nature of things the permanent
equality of the holdings in yard-lands (or double, or half
yard-lands), on a manor, was a proof that the tenure was servile,
and that the community was not a free village community. For imagine
a free village community taking equal lots, and holding these lots,
as land of inheritance, by allodial tenure, and with (what seems to
have been the universal custom of Teutonic nations as regards land
of inheritance) equal division among heirs, how could the _equality_
be possibly maintained? One holder of a yard-land would have seven
sons, and another two, and another [p178] one. How could equality
be maintained generation after generation? What could prevent the
multiplication of intricate subdivisions among heirs, breaking up
the yard-lands into smaller bundles of all imaginable sizes? Even
if a certain equality could be restored, which is very unlikely, at
intervals, by a _re-division_, which should reverse the inequality
produced by the rule of inheritance, what would become of the
_yard-lands_? How could the contents of the yard-land remain the
same on the same estate for hundreds of years, notwithstanding the
increase in the number of sharers in the land of the free village
community?
We may take it, then, as inherently certain that the system of
yard-lands is a system involving in its continuance a _servile
origin_. The community of holders of yard-lands we may regard
as a community of servile tenants, without any strict rights of
inheritance--in theory tenants at the will of their lord, becoming
by custom _adscripti glebæ_, and therefore tenants for life, and by
still longer custom gaining a right of single undivided succession by
primogeniture, or something very much like it.
«Result of the Saxon evidence.»
Now we know that the holdings were _yard-lands_ and the holders
_geburs_, rendering the customary _gafol_ and _week-work_ to their
lords, in the time of King Ine, if we may trust the genuineness of
his 'laws.' There was but an interval of 100 years between Ine and
Ethelbert; whilst Ine lived as near to the first conquest of large
portions of the middle districts of England as Ethelbert did to the
conquest of Kent.
«No room for a system of free village communities, which
afterwards sank into serfdom.»
The laws of Ethelbert, taken in connexion with the subsequent laws
of Ine, and the later actual [p179] instances of Saxon manors which
have been examined, form a connected chain, and bring back the links
of the evidence of the manorial character of Saxon estates to the
very century in which the greater part of the West Saxon conquests
took place. The existence of earl's and king's and men's _hams_ and
_tuns_ in the year of the codification of the Kentish laws, A.D. 602
or thereabouts, means their existence as a manorial type of estate in
the sixth century; and with the exception of the southern districts,
the West Saxon conquests were not made till late in the sixth
century. Surely there is too short an interval left unaccounted for
to allow of great economic changes--to admit of the degeneracy of an
original free village community if a widely spread institution, into
a community in serfdom. So that the evidence strongly points to the
_hams_ and _tuns_ having been manorial in their type from the first
conquest. In other words, so far as this evidence goes, the Saxons
seem either to have introduced the manorial system into England
themselves, founding _hams_ and _tuns_ on the manorial type, or to
have found them already existing on their arrival in Britain. There
seems no room for the theory that the Saxons introduced everywhere
free village communities on the system of the German 'mark,' which
afterwards sank into serfdom under manorial lords.
«The tribal system must be investigated.»
But before we can be in a position to understand what probably
happened we must turn our attention to those portions of Britain
_which were not manorial_, and where village communities did not
generally exist. They form an integral part of our present England,
and English economic history has to do with the [p180] economic
growth of the whole people. It cannot, therefore, confine itself to
facts relating to one element only of the nation, and to one set of
influences, merely because they became in the long run the paramount
and overruling ones. And, moreover, the history of the manorial
system itself cannot be properly understood without an understanding
also of the parallel, and perhaps older, _tribal system_, which in
the course of many centuries it was destined in some districts to
overrule and supplant; in others, after centuries of effort, to fail
in supplanting.
FOOTNOTES:
[153] '--_villani uniuscujusque villæ._ Deinde quomodo vocatur
_mansio_' (f. 497).
[154] _Liber de Hyda_, p. 63.
[155] _Id._ p. 68.
[156] _Id._ p. 72.
[157] Luke xv. 16.
[158] See _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, Thorpe, p. 185.
This document was the subject of a special treatise by Dr. Heinrich
Leo, Halle, 1842.
[159] _The Cronykil of Scotland_, B. VI. c. xviii.
[160] Matt. viii. 9.
[161] _Ines Domas_, s. 51. Thorpe, p. 58.
[162] _Id._ s. 63. Thorpe, p. 62.
[163] _Id._ s. 63–6. Thorpe, pp. 62–3.
[164] Matt. xxi. 33.
[165] Boethius, c. xvii.
[166] In the _Codex Diplomaticus_, No. MCCCLIV., there is an
interesting document early in the eleventh century, the original
of which is in the British Museum (_MS. Cott. Tib._ B. v. f. 76
_b_), written on the back of a much older copy of the Gospels, and
containing particulars respecting the _geburs_ on the Hatfield estate
in Hertfordshire--their _pedigrees_, in fact--showing that they had
intermarried with others of the following manors in Hertfordshire,
viz.:--_Tæccingawyrde_ (Datchworth), _Wealaden_ (King's or Paul's
Walden), _Welugun_ (Welwyn), _Wadtune_ (Watton), _Munddene_ (Mundon),
_Wilmundeslea_ (Wymondley), and _Eslingadene_ (Essenden). The fact
that it was worth while to preserve a record of the pedigree of
the _geburs_ shows that they were _adscripti glebæ_. And there can
be no doubt of the identity of the _geburs_ of this document with
the _villani_ of the Domesday Survey of these various places. The
pedigrees of _villani_ or _nativi_ were carefully kept in some manors
even after the _Black Death_.
[167] Cotton MS. _Augustus_, ii. 64. Fac-similes of Ancient Charters
in the British Museum, Part II.
[168] This may be read 23d. and a sester of barley; or, perhaps, 20d.
and three sestras of barley. But the best reading seems to be that in
the text.
[169] This is a word often used in later documents, and seems to
mean a certain amount of ploughing done as an equivalent for an
allowance of grass. _Grass-yrth_ may be the _gafol_ for the share
in the _Lammas meadows_, and the _gafol-yrth_ for the arable in the
_yard-land_.
[170] _Laws of Ine_, s. 67. Thorpe, p. 63.
[171] The opening clause of Ine's laws, as republished by King Alfred
with his own, states that they were recorded under the counsel and
teaching of his father _Cenred_, who resigned his kingship to Ine in
A.D. 688.
[172] _Alfred and Guthrum's Peace_, Thorpe, p. 66. 'We hold all
equally dear, English and Danish, at viii. half marks of pure gold,
except the "ceorle þe on _gafol-lande sit_, and heora _liesingum_"
(_lysingon_); they also are equally dear at cc. shillings,' _i.e._
they are '_twihinde men._'
[173] Matt. xvii. 25.
[174] _Beda_, i. c. 34:--
Nemo enim in tribunis, nemo in regibus plures eorum terras,
exterminatis vel subjugatis indigenis, aut tributarias genti
Anglorum, aut habitabiles fecit.
Ne wæs æfre ænig cyning ne ealdorman ꝥ ma heora landa ute
amærde ⁊ him to gewealde underþeodde forþon ðe he hi to
gafulgyldum gesette on Angel ðeodde. oþþe of heora lande adraf.
Never was there ever any king nor ealdorman that more their
lands exterminated, and to his power subjected, for that he
them to gafol set to the English people, or else off their land
drove.
[175] Luke xvi.
[176] _Supplement to Edgar's Laws_, i. Thorpe, p. 115.
[177] Thorpe, p. 53, where they are mentioned as sometimes held by
even '_Wiliscmen_,' _i.e._ tenants not of Saxon blood.
[178] Thorpe, p. 50.
[179] _Ibid._ p. 46.
[180] For the archæology of Tidenham see _Proceedings of the
Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club_, 1874–5, and Mr. Ormerod's
_Archæological Memoirs_ relating to the district adjacent to the
confluence of the Severn and the Wye. London, 1861 (not published).
[181] Pp. 374–6.
[182] Kemble's _Cod. Dip._ CCCCLII. (vol. ii. p. 327).
[183] _Codex Dip._ iii. p. 444; App. CCCCLII. 'Ðis synd ða landgemæra
tó Dyddenháme. Of Wægemúðan to iwes héafdan; of iwes héafden on
Stánræwe; of Stánræwe on hwítan heal; of hwítan heale on iwdene; of
iwdene on brádan mór; of brádan mór on Twyfyrd; of Twyfyrd on astege
pul ut innan Sæfern.'
[184] _Cod. Dip._ iii. p. 450, where they are evidently misplaced.
[185] _Cod. Dip._ DCCC., XXII.
[186] _Cod. Dip._ iii. p. 450.
[187] Record Office, _Chancery Inquisitions post mortem_, Anno 35
Edw. I. No. 46_b._ Gloucestria, § _Manerium de Tudenham_.
[188] Mr. Kemble identifies this place with Stoke near Hurstbourne
Priors, near Whitechurch; but it may possibly be one of the Stokes on
the Itchin River near Winchester.
That the upper part of the Itchin was called 'Hysseburne' and
'Ticceburne,' see _Cod. Dip._ MLXXVII., CCCXLII., MXXXIX. & CLVIII.
The boundaries in MLXXVII. of 'Hysseburna' (beginning at Twyford)
correspond at a few points with those of 'Hisseburne' in Abingdon,
i. p. 318, and of Eastune appended thereto, and of Eastune in _Cod.
Dip._ MCCXXX. The position of Twyford and Easton seems to fix this
locality on the Itchin. The parishes of Itchin Stoke and Titchbourne
('æt Hisseburne') still nearly adjoin those of Twyford and Easton,
but the parishes here are intermixed, and the 'Hysseburne' of the
charters may have been a district with different boundaries, and may
not be the Hysseburne of King Alfred's will. Compare Domesday Survey,
i. 40, where _Twyford_, _Eastune_, and _Stoches_ occur together among
the '_Terra Wintonensis Episcopi_.'
[189] See _Liber de Hyda_, Mr. Edwards' Introduction.
[190] _Codex Dip._ MLXXVII.; and Dugdale, Winchester Monastery, Num.
X. This charter is preserved in a copy of the twelfth century in the
Winchester Cartulary (St. Swithin's) now in the British Museum. Add.
MSS. 15350, f. 69_b._
[191] _Saxons in England_, pp. 319 _et seq._
[192] H. Leo, _Rectitudines_. Halle, 1842, p. 231. 'Wenigstens weisz
ich "on his gyrde landes" (auf seiner rute des gutes, oder des
landes) an dieser stelle nicht anders zu erklären.'
[193] See Kemble's _Saxons in England_, i. p. 196.
[194] _British Museum_ Cotton MS. Tib. A. III. f. 58_b._ For the text
of this passage I am indebted to Mr. Thompson of the British Museum.
[195] Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert. Smith, p. 309. 'Quod enim turpe
est dicere, tot sub nomine monasteriorum loca hi qui monachicæ vitæ
prorsus sunt expertes in suam ditionem acceperunt, sicut ipsi melius
nostis, _ut omnino desit locus, ubi filii nobilium aut emeritorum
militum possessionem accipere possint_,' &c.
[196] King Alfred's Boethius, c. xxix. s. 10.
[197] Alfred's _Blossom Gatherings out of St. Augustine_. British
Museum, Vit. A. xv. f. 1:--Gaderode me þonne kigclas ⁊ stuþan
sceaftas ⁊ lohsceaftas ⁊ hylfa to ælcum þara tola þe ic mid pircan
cuðe ⁊ bohtimbru ⁊ bolt timbru ⁊ to ælcum þara peorca þe ic pyrcan
cuðe þa plitegostan treopo be þam dele ðe ic aberan meihte. ne com
ic naþer mid anre byrðene ham þe me ne lyste ealne þane pude ham
brengan gif ic hyne ealne aberan meihte. on ælcum treopo ic geseah
hpæt hpugu þæs þe ic æt ham beþorfte. For þam ic lære ælcne ðara þe
maga si ⁊ ma[nigne] wæn hæbbe ꝥ he menige to þam ilcan puda þar ic
ðas stuðan sceaftas cearf. Fetige hym þar ma ⁊ gefeðrige hys pænas
mid fegrum gerdum þat he mage pindan manigne smicerne pan ⁊ manig
ænlic hus settan ⁊ fegerne tun timbrian ⁊ þara ⁊ þær murge ⁊ softe
mid mæge oneardian ægðer ge pintras ge sumeras spa spa ic nu ne gyt
ne dyde. Ac se þe me lærde þam se pudu licode se mæg gedon ꝥ ic
softor eardian ægðer ge on þisum lænan stoclife be þis pæge ða phile
þe ic on þisse peorulde beo ge eac on þam hecan hame ðe he us gehaten
hefð þurh scanctus augustinus ⁊ sēs gregorius ⁊ scanctus Ieronimus
⁊ purh manege oððre halie fædras spa ic gelyfe. eac ꝥ he gedo for
heora ealra earnum ge ægðer ge þisne peig gelimpfulran gedo þonne he
ær þissum pes ge hure mines modes eagan to þam ongelihte ꝥ ic mage
rihtne peig aredian to þam ecan hame ⁊ to þam ecan are ⁊ to þare ecan
reste þe us gehaten is þurh þa halgan fæderas sie spa. Nis hit nan
pundor þeah m[an] sp[ylce] on timber gepirce ⁊ eac on þæ[re] lade ⁊
eac on þære bytlinge. ac ælcne man lyst siððan he ænig cotlyf on his
hlafordes læne myd his fultume getimbred hæfð ꝥ he hine mote hpilum
þar ongerestan. ⁊ huntigan. ⁊ fulian. ⁊ fiscian. ⁊ his on gehpilce
pisan to þære lænan tilian ægþær ge on se ge on lande oð oð þone
fyrst þe he bocland ⁊ æce yrfe þurh his hlafordes miltse geearnige.
spa gedo se pile ga gidfola seðe egðer pilt ge þissa lænena stoclife
ge þara ecena hama. Seðe ægþer gescop ⁊ ægðeres pilt forgife me ꝥ
me to ægðrum onhagige ge her nytpyrde to beonne ge huru þider to
cumane.--For the text of this passage I am indebted to Mr. Thompson.
[198] '_Stoc-lif_,' literally _stake-hut_. The logs were put upright,
as in the case of the Saxon church at _Greenstead_ in Essex.
[199] 'Bytlinge;' hence the house was a '_botl_.'
[200] _Schilteri Thesaur. Antiq. Teut._ i. p. 158. Ulm, 1728.
[201] See M. Guérard's _Introduction to the Polyptyque de l'Abbé
Irminon_, pp. 250–75.
[202] The _leod-geld_ or _wer-gild_ of a 'man' was 200 shillings
(see mention of the half leod-geld of c. shillings, s. 21). As
regards the three grades of _læts_, there were also three grades of
female _theows_ of the king (see s. 10–11), the _cup-bearer_, the
_grinding-theow_, and the _lowest class_. See also s. 16, where again
there is mention of three classes of _theows_, each with its value.
[p181]