SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



existence ; he is merely a member of the villeinage, as a sheep might be a 

 member of the flock. 



That the villein was rightless as against his lord is one of the first 

 axioms of the thirteenth-century law^yers, but in the ordinary course of 

 manorial history a good tenant, even though unfree, seems to have possessed 

 a de facto if not a legal security of tenure. An instance, however, upon a 

 Dorset manor about the year i 240 shows how utterly defenceless his position 

 might be if his lord chose to exercise his full rights. On the feast of 

 St. Luke in that year Thomas Cusin, Hugh de Aula, and James de Ludinton 

 came to the house of Gunilda de Stokes, carried her out into the fields, and 

 took away all her goods. Whether Gunilda appealed to the manorial or 

 local courts does not appear, but four years elapsed without her obtaining 

 any redress. In the summer of 1 244 the justices of assize came to Sher- 

 borne. What hope the unfortunate woman cherished of obtaining abstract 

 justice at their hands is open to question. She brought her case before them, 

 however, and Thomas was summoned. He acknowledged all her charges, 

 and did not even seek to prove that he had any moral justification on account 

 of her bad tenancy or default in rent, merely replying that he certainly ' took 

 her goods as of his villein, and could eject her from her tenement as from 

 his villeinage.' The case being put to the jurors they acknowledged that it 

 was as Thomas said, and Gunilda was apparently dismissed without redress. '^ 

 In a society regulated by a code of justice of which this is an instance, it is 

 hardly surprising to find an innocent man flying from his lord for fear ; ^^ it 

 would be interesting to know more of the case of Walter Middewynter, who 

 was presented by the jurors at the same eyre for having done so. It is at 

 least satisfactory to know that the justices merely decided that as he had done 

 no ill he might return if he would, but imposed no fine upon him, and gave 

 his master no assistance towards forcing him to come back. 



That there was probably very little real distinction in economic rank 

 between the smaller freeman and the more wealthy villein is obvious ; but 

 any freedom of intercourse must have been strained by the risk of degrada- 

 tion to the free tenant. A case is recorded which occurred in the year 

 1232, when Isabella de Frome brought a suit against Gregory de Turri and 

 Emma his wife for half of two parts of a knight's fee in Frome. Emma 

 and Isabel were at least half-sisters, if they were not more nearly related, 

 yet Emma and Gregory declared that they were not bound to answer the 

 plea as Isabel was a villein, and that she certainly could lay no claim to the 

 free inheritance. The land in dispute they stated should have passed from 

 William le Fitzsamere their uncle to his sister and coheiress Christina, 

 who, however, married a villein William Muc, and thus forfeited her claim 

 to her moiety of her brother's inheritance. Isabel was the daughter of this 

 villein marriage, and sister to Hugh Muc, a villein, still hving. After the 

 death of her first husband Christina married ' a certain knight,' and con- 

 sequently received her inheritance, which had now descended to Emma the 

 issue of the free marriage. Isabel, however, successfully repudiated all 

 relationship with Hugh Muc and was awarded half the land in dispute with 

 the exception of the capital messuage ^^ — probably a wise provision in view 

 of the relations between the half-sisters. 



" Assize R. 201, m. 4. '" Ibid. m. 5 d. " Maitland, Bracton's Note Bk. Case 70Z. 



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