History: Cottager: Middle Ages

Peasantry

Villein

The wealthiest class of peasant, they usually culti

vated 20-40 acres of

land, often in isolated strips. In medieval Europe

a peasant personally

bound to his lord, to whom he paid dues and service

s, sometimes

commuted to rents, in return for his land. A member

of a class of partially free persons

under the feudal system, who were serfs with respec

t to their lord but had the rights and

privileges of freemen with respect to others. 

 

Small Holder

A middle class peasant, farming more land than a co

ttager but less than a villein. A

typical small holder would have farmed 10 to 20 acr

es. 

 

Cottager

A peasant of lower class who owned a cottage, but o

wned little or no land.

Commoner

Lowest class of people. A person who does not belon

g to the nobility. A person who has

a right in or over common land jointly with another

or others.

Peasant

Farm laborers of low social rank; coarse, unsophist

icated, boorish, uneducated person of

little financial means.

Serf

Serfs lived in small communities called manors that

were ruled by a local lord or vassal.

Most peasants were serfs. They were bound to the ma

nor and could not leave it or marry

without the manor lord's permission. Serfs did all

the work on the manor farm: they

worked the fields, cared for the livestock, built a

nd maintained the buildings, made the

clothing, and cut firewood. Men, women, and childre

n worked side by side. Serfs had

small plots of land they could work for themselves;

sometimes a serf saved enough

money to buy his freedom and became a freeman.

A semi-free peasant (cottagers, small holders, or v

illeins) who worked his lord's land and

paid him certain dues in return for the use of land

, the possession (not ownership) of

which was heritable. These dues ("corvee"), were in

the form of labor on the lord's land,

averaging three days a week. Essentially a slave in

medieval times.