Free tenants, also known as free peasants, were

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...

peasants A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising f ...

medieval England England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Middle Ages, medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the Early modern Britain, early modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the co ...

who occupied a unique place in the medieval hierarchy. They were characterized by the low rents which they paid to their manorial lord. They were subject to fewer laws and ties than

villein A villein is a class of serfdom, serf tied to the land under the feudal system. As part of the contract with the lord of the manor, they were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villeins existe ...

s. The term may also refer to the free peasants of the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...

, part of an ordering of classes with legal privileges who constituted the

third estate The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and ...

, a land-owning non-political peasantry, mostly different from other countries with estates.

Definitions

One of the major challenges in examining the free peasants of this era is that no one single definition can be attached to them. The disparate nature of manorial holdings and local laws mean the free tenant in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, for example, may well bear little resemblance to the Free Tenant in the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

. Attempts were made by some contemporary scholars to set out a legal definition of freedom, one of the most notable being the treatise by

Ranulf de Glanvill Ranulf de Glanvill (''alias'' Glanvil, Glanville, Granville, etc., died 1190) was Chief Justiciar of England during the reign of King Henry II (1154–89) and was the probable author of '' Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie ...

written between 1187 and 1189. This stated that: Another way to identify a freeman in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, was to determine what kind of taxes or laws he had to obey. For example, having to pay

merchet Merchet (also: -ett, -ete, -eit, -eat, -iett, -i(e)te, -iatte, mershet(e), marchet, -eit, market) () was a fine paid on a marriage during the Middle Ages in England. The word derives from the Welsh plural form of daughter, ''merched''. Merchet wa ...

, a tax paid upon the marriage of a servile woman, was a key sign of being unfree. They could get married without permission and they could not be moved between estates against their will.

References

External links

"The Town of the Free Peasants near Thirsk"
'' Darlington & Stockton Times'', 7 December 2007. Agricultural labor Feudalism in England Peasants English farmers Agriculture in England Medieval farmers {{labor-stub

Definitions

See also

References

External links