Medieval serfs (aka villeins) were unfree labourers who worked the land of a landowner (or tenant) in return for physical and legal protection and the right to work a separate piece of land for their own basic needs .
What does a serf do in a day?
Medieval Serfs had to labor on the lord’s domain for two or three days each week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting, Medieval Serfs had to do do extra work. The daily life of a serf was dictated by the requirements of the lord of the manor.
What is the job of the serfs?
Serfs were the farmers of the Middle Ages. They got up at dawn and went to sleep at dusk; they spent the daylight hours working the land. Their day was the same as the Earth’s day. Their year followed the natural seasons of the year too.
Do serfs get paid?
The usual serf “paid” his fees and taxes by working for the lord 5 or 6 days a week . ... The Lord would give them very good food when they worked for him. The serfs also had to pay taxes and fees. The Lord decided how much taxes they would pay from how much land the serf had, usually 1/3 of their value.
How many hours did serfs work?
One day’s work was considered half a day, and if a serf worked an entire day, this was counted as two “days-works.”[2] Detailed accounts of artisans’ workdays are available. Knoop and jones’ figures for the fourteenth century work out to a yearly average of 9 hours (exclusive of meals and breaktimes)[3].
How did serfs become free?
Neither could the serf marry, change his occupation, or dispose of his property without his lord’s permission. He was bound to his designated plot of land and could be transferred along with that land to a new lord. ... A serf could become a freedman only through manumission, enfranchisement, or escape .
What’s the difference between a peasant and a serf?
The main difference between serf and peasant is that peasants were free to move from fief to fief or manor to manor to look for work . Serfs, on the other hand, were like slaves except that they could not be bought or sold. Above peasants were knights whose job it was to be the police force of the manor.
What happens if a serf ran away?
If a serf ran away to another part of the country there may have been no proof of their status. However serfdom could end legitimately . ... In many cases the lord of the manor held the right to receive a serf’s possessions after their death.
How did serfs pay rent?
What three ways did serfs pay rent to their lords? By giving the lords a share of every product they raised , paying for the use of common pasture lands and turning over a part of the can’t from ponds and streams. Name the three great events celebrated by feasts within the Christian faith.
What did female serfs do?
What did female serfs do? Most of the peasants were Medieval Serfs or Medieval Villeins. Women were expected to help their peasant husbands with their daily chores as well as attending to provisions and the cooking of daily meals and other duties customarily undertaken by women .
What taxes did serfs pay?
A serf faced a maximum tax rate of 33 percent , but a slave was owned by another and had no claim to his own labor beyond subsistence. In the 19th century, this meant a tax rate of about 50 percent.
What did serfs do in their free time?
Without much property of their own, the serfs gave up their freedom of movement and their labour in exchange for the benefits of life on the estate of a landowner . The most important function of serfs was to work on the demesne land of their lord for two or three days each week.
What is lower than a peasant?
In the peasant class there were different social levels. The lowest of low were a kind of slaves called serfs . ... Above the serfs were the farmers. Some farmers would own their own farms but the vast majority worked alongside the serfs on the Lord’s land.
What did the serfs eat?
The main meal eaten by Medieval peasants was a kind of stew called pottage made from the peas, beans and onions that they grew in their gardens. The only sweet food eaten by Medieval peasants was the berries, nuts and honey that they collected from the woods. Peasants did not eat much meat.
Why did serfdom end in Europe?
Serfdom in Western Europe came largely to an end in the 15th and 16th centuries, because of changes in the economy, population, and laws governing lord-tenant relations in Western European nations . ... An important factor in the decline of serfdom was industrial development—especially the Industrial Revolution.
What is an example of a serf?
An agricultural worker in the middle ages who was responsible for growing and harvesting wheat on land owned by a lord and who paid dues to the lord for the privilege of living on the land is an example of a serf.
