Index:
1. A French Customal, c.1080-1082 (click here)
2. A Manorial Court, 1246-1249 (click here)
1. A FRENCH CUSTOMAL, c.1080-1082
This text is a customal for the manor of Méron, which belonged
to the abbey of St. Aubin. A customal lists the customary obligations
owed by the peasants of a manor to their lord. In this case the lord
is the abbey of St. Aubin (a useful reminder that churches were major property
owners, too).
The men of Méron will
have pasture at Lanthon for their animals, save for their sheep and goats,
from Michaelmas until St. Aubin's Day, up till the time the bushes bear
fruit and foliage. From St. Aubin's Day until Michaelmas, the woodland
pasture shall be forbidden to all beasts belonging to serfs. Throughout
the year, if any animal enters the wood to save itself and if the shepherd
can show that he had no hand in knowingly directing it into the woods,
he shall not pay a fine for this ...
... Tolls shall not be paid
for what is carried on the neck, save for the feathers, wax, lard, beehives
and foreign and costly goods. For feathers, a penny; for a table
or a honeycomb, a halfpenny; for a hive, a halfpenny; for more than six
sous of lard, a halfpenny; for a ham with its lard, a penny; for a bed
with bedding, one penny; for a wedding outfit, four pennies; for an unshod
horse or mare, one penny; if it is shod, two pennies; for an ox, an ass,
or a pig, a halfpenny; for three sheep or three goats, one penny; for one
load of wool, one penny.
If several men have loaded
an ass with different kinds of merchandise, they shall owe toll for the
ass, save if it is foreign or costly merchandise. For other things,
the toll shall be paid according to its value.
... For anything that a
man of Méron shall bring in from outside for his own food, whether
it be the fruit of his labor or goods that he has purchased, either bread,
wine, meat, hay or any other thing, so long as he does not sell it, he
shall not pay a toll; if he sells anything here, he shall pay toll on the
day on which he sells it.
... If shepherds or others
take secretly in the vineyards fruit or grapes to eat and take home, but
not to make wine, or if they steal as much as three sheaves, or take them
from one field to another to steal them, and these things shall be found
by their owner and taken back as his, this shall not be judged as larceny.
Similarly, little things,
like a knife, an arrow, a bow, a shield, or an ass's traces. If such
things, or others just as small, are stolen, we prescribe that it shall
not be judged as larceny.
If a villein of Méron
removes his animals to a place outside the manor, and if he brings them
back within a year and a day, he shall not pay toll. But if he hands
these animals over to another man to be fattened, he shall pay toll the
day when they return. Then he shall pay toll according to the increase.
If a serf wishes to sell
the skins of his animals, such as catskins, lambskins, or other similar
animals' skins, he shall pay no toll, unless, in buying and selling he
shall act as a merchant.
[From: Georges Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval
West, trans. Cynthia Postan (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina
Press, 1968), 409-410. Duby's translation is of a text in Cartulaire
de Saint-Aubin d'Angers, 3 vols., ed. Bertrand de Broussillon (Paris,
1903), 1:262-264]
2. A Manorial Court: 1246-1249 (from the On-Line
Medieval Sourcebook)
The following document contains a selection of pleas heard by a
typical English manorial court. Rural society was organized around
the manor; each manor had a lord, almost every peasant "belonged" to a
manor, and each lord held a court to settle disputes and punish offenders.
Lords started keeping records of the business of their manorial courts
in the late 12th century, and these records tell us much about the obligations
that peasants owed to the lord, about crime and punishment, about family
life and sexual practices, and so forth. Although it is dangerous to project
the information from 1246-9 backwards into the 11th century, we have every
reason to think that the flow of manorial life was largely unchanged from
the 10th century to the mid 14th century. This document can thus
stand as a model for peasant life and peasant obligations for the High
Middle Ages.
John Sperling complains that
on the Sunday before the last St. Bartholomew's Day, Richard Newmere came
with his cattle, horses, and pigs and wrongfully destroyed [ie., ate up]
the wheat on John's land. John values the damages to one thrave of
destroyed wheat and, for the dishonor done to him, two shillings; on account
of this John has filed suit. And Richard comes and defends all of
it. Therefore let him go to the law six handed. His pledges
are Simon Combe and Hugh Frith.
Hugh Freeman [is] at the
mercy of the lord because his animal was caught in the lord's garden.
Pledges, Walter Hill and William Slipper. Fine: 6 pence. [to be in
mercy means to be guilty and to therefore owe a fine]
[The] twelve jurors say
that Hugh Cross possesses a right to the bank and hedge, concerning which
a dispute had grown up between him and William White. Therefore let
him hold his right in peace and let William be distrained for his many
trespasses. Afterwards William made fine for 12 pence.
Roger Pleader is at his
law against Nicholas Croke [to prove] that neither Roger nor any of his
family killed Nicholas' peacock. Pledges, Ringer and Jordan.
Afterwards Roger made his law and therefore is quit.
The entire manor of Little
Ogbourne, except seven men, [is fined] for not coming to wash the lord's
sheep: 6shillings, 8 pence.
Gilbert Richard's son pays
5 shilings for licence to marry a wife. Pledge, Seaman. Term
[for payment,] the Purification [this means that he has until the Feast
of the Purification to pay his 5 s.]
William Jordan is in mercy
for bad ploughing on the lord's land. Pledge, Arthur. Fine,
6 pence.
The parson of the
Church is in mercy for his cow caught in the lord's meadow. Pledges,
Thomas Ymer and William Coke.
From Martin Shepherd, 6
pence for the wound that he gave Pekin.
Ragenhilda of Bec
pays 2 shillings for having married without licence. Pledge, William
of Primer.
Walter Hull gives 13 shillings
4 pence for licence to dwell on the land of the Prior of Harmondsworth
so long as he shall live; and as a condition [for this license], he provides
the following pledges: William Slipper, John Bisuthe, Gilbert Bisuthe,
Hugh Tree, William Johnson, John Hulle. These pledges all promise
to ensure that the said Walter shall render to the lord all the services
and customs which he would do if he dwelt on the lord's land, and that
his heriot shall be secured to the lord in case he dies at Harmondsworth.
["heriot" was a death tax; lords usually took heriot in the form of the
dead man's best animal.]
The Court announced that
William Noah's son is the born serf of the lord and a fugitive and dwells
at Dodford. Therefore he must be sought. They say also that
William Askil, John Parsons and Godfrey Green have furtively stolen four
geese from the vill of Horepoll.
It was presented that Robert
Carter's son by night invaded the house of Peter Burgess and in felony
threw stones at his door so that Peter raised the hue. Therefore
let Robert be committed to prison. Afterwards he made fine with 2
shillings
Upon the oath of twelve
men [ie., a jury], all of the ploughmen of Great Ogbourne are convicted
of having poorly plowed the land of the lord, thereby incurring damages
to the lord of 9 shillings. ... And Walter Reaper is in mercy for
concealing [i.e. not giving information about] this bad ploughing.
Afterwards he made fine with the lord with 1 mark of silver.
[from F. W. Maitland, ed., "Select Pleas in Manorial Courts," in G. G. Coulton, ed., Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1918), pp. 306-308. Text slightly modernized by Richard Barton. This text was taken from the Internet Medieval Source Book, which is operated by Paul Halsall and located at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/manor-pleas.html, and modernized by Richard Barton The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use]