Agriculture of Denmark. 
283 
to those yeomen or bondmen on condition that they cultivated 
Jind built upon it, paid an annual ground-rent (Landgilde) in 
corn or money, or gave a certain number of days' personal 
service on the proprietor's estate ; this latter manorial service 
was at first only required when the proprietor's estate lay close to 
the land leased, and was later called " Hoverie " (villcnage). 
These leases (Foeste) were for the lives of the lessee and his wife, 
for a term of fifty years, or for the lives of two persons named. 
When a leaseholder died the land was leased on payment of 
a fine (Indffrstning) to another person, who, as a general rule, 
was a son of the deceased, or related to him. 
At first this system was a mutual advantage ; the lessee, though 
subordinate, was nevertheless almost an independent man, who 
could give notice to quit the property, if it did not suit him, 
and go where he liked ; but in the course of time circumstances 
changed and he became less free ; the " Landgilde," or ground- 
rent, was raised, the manorial service was increased and made 
more arbitraiy, so much so that the yeoman was frequently called 
upon to work on the estate of the feudal lord at the period when 
his own land required most of his time and labour. In their 
despair these yeomen at different times sought to throw off the 
yoke by revolting, but these attempts were put down, and they 
were then more than ever oppressed, and, by the introduction of 
*' Vornedskab " (bondage, without tlie right to quit their home- 
stead), even deprived of personal liberty. The feudal lords, then, 
not only considered the yeoman's leasehold, but himself, as their 
property, and he was not permitted to leave the estate on which 
he was born, without the sanction of the owner and the payment 
of a sum of money. 
The privileges of the feudal lords were enlarged, and the 
oppression exercised on yeomen increased to such an extent, 
that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they became almost 
an article of merchandise — sold and bought as cattle, — whilst 
the few vain attempts made from time to time by the govern- 
ment to promote the interest of this class, failed. In the 
middle of the sixteenth century there were 1)ut 5000 free yeo- 
men in Denmark, and of these the largest number, 3400, was 
in Jutland, where their position, in consequence of the non- 
existence of the " Vornedskab" there, was altogether better than 
on the islands. On the latter scarcely any yeoman had property 
of his own ; thus, on the island of Sealand, only 185, and on that 
of Falster only 2, such were to be found. 
The condition of the yeomen appeared at this period to have 
reached its worst point, but the following centuries proved that 
such had not been the case. When German princes ascended 
the Danish throne, Danes were supplanted at court by Germans, 
VOL. XXI. X 
