Why Villeinage Declined
Villeinage – the bondage of serfs to the land and their lord – is not easily extinguished. It is convenient to imagine that its passing was instantaneous and terminated abruptly with the ravages of the Black Death. In reality, villeinage was steadily undermined well before 1348 and persisted for another 150 years.
Serfs had questioned the firmness of their bondage before the Black Death, and they were emboldened to challenge the manorial power structure when it was revealed that the local manor was not originally granted to the lord but belonged to the king. The first recorded successful lawsuit dates back to 1280 and the Derbyshire village of Mickleover. The locals took the matter to the king – and, for a moment, it seemed as if their argument had weight: since the manor belonged to the Crown, villeinage there was illegitimate. However, they ultimately failed in their endeavor. Other villages followed Mickleover’s example: in 1278, the residents of Halesowen, in the 1320s – those of Mildenhall, and in 1346 – Ingatestone. None managed to achieve their goal, but the villagers of Ingatestone continued to use their seals for private negotiations with their lord, which was prohibited for bonded peasants. Moreover, it was not uncommon for serfs to leave the manor of their birth, seeking better opportunities elsewhere. For instance, in Worcestershire in 1305, more than 10% of all tenants were outsiders who had moved to the region, and few of them were formally bound to the land.
The Black Death accelerated the erosion of villeinage significantly. The demographic catastrophe that followed the plague epidemic resulted in a severe shortage of labor. Consequently, wages increased and lords became particularly interested in binding workers to their manors under any terms. For example, the bishop’s wages rose by 69% between 1360 and 1380 – compared to only 6% for his wheat harvest. A free peasant plowman became an attractive alternative to a villein, as he was guaranteed to produce a good harvest. A century later, villeinage was formally abandoned as a social category. However, the legacy of the manorial system lives on today in the English language in the form of words such as villain (from the French villein), churlish (from the Old English ceorl) and boorish (from the Old English gebur).
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