RANKS IN RURAL SOCIETY 21 



or an apprentice. His lands and his goods and chattels might be 

 seized by his lord, and when he died, his holding was given to 

 whom the lord willed : his heir bought a licence to inherit even his 

 moveables, and paid a fine when he was admitted to his father's 

 tenancy. In the thirteenth century, some at least of these condi- 

 tions had been modified. The bondman's services had become 

 fixed ; he could buy and sell, hold property, and dispose of his 

 possessions by will. In theory he might still be at the mercy of 

 the lord's will : but custom had so regulated the exercise of that 

 will that it could no longer be capricious. 



Speaking broadly, 1 the mass of the occupiers of land were, in 

 the eye of the law, unfree bondmen who rented the shares in the 

 land which they cultivated for themselves by labour services on 

 the lord's demesne. It was the amount and certainty of their 

 services which determined the rank of the unfree. Sometimes the 

 service was for the autumn only, or for autumn and spring work, 

 whether on specified days or at particular periods ; sometimes of 

 team work, sometimes of manual labour, sometimes of both ; some- 

 times of week-work throughout the year, and either of one, two, or 

 three days in each week. All their spare time was spent on their 

 own holdings. Of this semi-servile class the villeins formed the 

 aristocracy. The villein was neither a servant in husbandry nor 

 a labourer for wages. He occupied land, and, like Chaucer's 

 ploughman, had " catel " of his own. He was a partner in the 

 village association, holding land of various amounts. In theory 

 the size of his holding was based on the number of oxen which, in 

 discharge of his share of the joint liability, he could contribute to 

 the manorial plough-team. 2 A " hide " of land, which Professor 



1 Students of Professor Maitland's invaluable works will recognise the danger 

 of broad and general statements, to all of which there are exceptions and 

 modifications. 



1 The hide, or "carucate" of Domesday Book, or "ploughland," which aver- 

 ages 120 acres, is sometimes said to have been as much land as a team of 8 oxen 

 could plough in a year of 44 weeks of working days. But Walter of Henley, 

 who is the authority for this statement, only tries to show that the area should 

 be 1 60, or even 1 80, acres ; he does not say that it actually was of this larger 

 size. It does not seem likely that a fiscal unit varied with the nature of the 

 soil, the weight of the plough, the condition of the team, the configuration 

 of the land, and the temperament of the ploughman. It seems more probable 

 that the hide or carucate was the definite area of 120 acres. Therefore a 

 quarter of a carucate (30 acres) was the Domesday " virgate," which, under 

 the name of " broad ox-gang," "husband-land," "farm-hold" or "farm" 

 in the North, " yardland " in the Midlands, " full land " in Cambridgeshire, 

 and " living " or " whole place " in Dorsetshire, formed the typical arable 



