READING GUIDE 11: Peasants and Lordship
A. A French
Customal (for Méron), 1080-1082
1. What were the sorts of “taxes” or customs that peasants had to pay
to their lords?
2. Why were animals so important to the peasants?
3. From this list, can we gain an idea why lords (in this case an abbot)
were so jealous of their lordly privileges?
B. An English
Manorial Court, 1246-1249
The previous text described what ought to happen on a typical manor.
In this text, we learn about what happened when those customs were not
obeyed. Remember that this is not a royal court; it is a manorial
court. Each lord had the right to hold a court in his lands.
Thus the peasants in these cases would have had their complaints and problems
heard by the lord (or, more probably, his flunky). Notes: to be “in mercy”
is to owe a fine. “To be at one’s law” is to be impleaded, or accused;
“to make one’s law” is to demonstrate you were in the right. “Heriot” is
a death-duty (a tax that someone’s heirs had to pay out of the deceased’s
goods).
1. What sorts of things brought peasants to court?
2. What were the offenses that were most heavily punished?
3. From these cases (ie., what does appear in the lord’s court and
what doesn’t appear in the lord’s court), can we learn what were the competencies
of a manorial court? Ie., does it seem like the lord didn’t have the right
to hear and judge certain cases? If so, what were they?
4. What does it mean to “raise the hue”? Other documents tell
us that to not “raise the hue and cry” was almost as serious an offense
as the initial crime. What does this tell us about “police” procedures
in these types of manors?
5. Can we learn anything about social status and the family structure
of peasants from these sources?
C.
Royal Texts on Peasant Servitude in the Region around Paris, 1108-1140
a. Louis VI Rules that Serfs can Testify Against Free Men
Recall that serfs are unfree peasants, who owe significant obligations
to their aristocratic lord and who do not own their own property.
Technically, because they were unfree, they also had no legal status, but
by 1108 this was proving to be a problem in court. King Louis VI
(whose power and jurisdiction did not extend much beyond Paris itself)
sought to alter this.
1. What motivated Louis to allow serfs to testify
in court? Humanitarian interests? Or something else?
2. What problem did Louis identify? How did he plan
to identify this?
3. Notice the limited extent of Louis’ ruling -
which serfs does it affect? Which serfs does it not affect? What does this
say about serfdom? About Louis’ royal
power? About local secular
lords’ power?
4. What legal rights will serfs have in court after
this ruling? What was to happen if someone refused to accept a serf’s testimony?
What penalties would befall
such a person?
b. Louis VI Rules on the Marriage of Serfs, 1124
1. Can serfs be married? Why is this important?
2. What happens if a free woman marries a serf?
What happens to her status? To that of her kids?
3. Notice, again, that this ruling was directed
to a very narrow group of individuals. Which women seem to be the ones
in question? Which lord is losing the
servitude of these women?
Who is gaining by Louis’ ruling? How? Why?
c. Louis VI Rules on the Status of Henry of Lorraine, 1112
1. How did the accusation that Henry was a serf
reach Louis’ ears? What specifically did it say?
2. How did Louis respond? Are you surprised at his
reaction, given the flimsiness of the accusation? What does this say about
the serious nature of serfdom?
3. What motives does the king have? Is he in a win-win
situation? Why?
4. How did Henry respond to the accusation?
5. How did the court proceed? Did it examine the
facts of the case or make a decision based on procedure?
6. Why was it important that Louis’ judgment read
“a charter not of the donation of freedom but of the proof of freedom”?
Of what was Henry afraid?
d. Louis VII Rules on the Division of the Offspring of Serfs 1139-1140
1. Note that this act is actually a confirmation
of a ruling made earlier by Louis VI.
2. Explain the case of Guoinus and Sehes. Why was
the church of St Magloire upset?
3. What sorts of problems might have ensued from
the couple’s union?
4. How did Louis resolve the dilemma? What does
this say about serfs’ rights (or lack thereof)?