Editing Manorialism (section)

==Common features==
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2021}}
[[Image:Plan mediaeval manor.jpg|thumb|Generic map of a medieval manor.<br>The mustard-coloured areas are part of the '''[[demesne]]''', the [[hatching|hatched]] areas part of the '''[[glebe]]'''. William R. Shepherd, ''Historical Atlas'', 1923.]]

Manors each consisted of up to three classes of land:
#'''[[Demesne]]''', the part directly controlled by the lord and used for the benefit of his household and dependents;
#'''Dependent''' ('''serf''' or '''[[villein]]''') holdings carrying the obligation that the peasant household supply the lord with specified labour services or a part of its output (or cash in lieu thereof), subject to the custom attached to the holding; and
#'''Free peasant land''', without such obligation but otherwise subject to manorial jurisdiction and custom, and owing money rent fixed at the time of the lease.

Additional sources of income for the lord included charges for use of his mill, bakery or wine-press, or for the right to hunt or to [[Grazing rights#Pigs|let pigs feed]] in his woodland, as well as court revenues and single payments on each change of tenant. On the other side of the account, manorial administration involved significant expenses, perhaps a reason why smaller manors tended to rely less on villein [[Land tenure|tenure]].{{original research inline|date=June 2016}}

Dependent holdings were held nominally by arrangement of lord and tenant, but tenure became in practice almost universally hereditary, with a payment made to the lord on each succession of another member of the family. Villein land could not be abandoned, at least until demographic and economic circumstances made flight a viable proposition; nor could they be passed to a third party without the lord's permission, and the customary payment.

Although not free, villeins were by no means in the same position as slaves: they enjoyed legal rights, subject to local custom, and had recourse to the law subject to court charges, which were an additional source of manorial income. Sub-letting of villein holdings was common, and labour on the demesne might be commuted into an additional money payment, as happened increasingly from the 13th century.

{{Anchor|Manorial waste|Lord's waste}}Land which was neither let to tenants nor formed part of [[demesne]] lands was known as "manorial waste"; typically, this included [[hedge]]s, [[Road verge|verges]], etc.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/12/manorial-wastes|work=House of Lords Official Record|publisher=[[Hansard]]|title=Manorial Wastes|date=12 July 1966|author=[[John Cordle ]]}}</ref> Common land where all members of the community had right of passage was known as "lord's waste". Part of the [[Demesne|demesne land]] of the manor which being uncultivated was termed the Lord's Waste and served for public roads and for common pasture to the lord and his tenants.<ref>''Black’s Law Dictionary'', 6th ed., 1990, quoted at http://www.henleynews.co.uk/history/LordsWaste.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926192536/http://www.henleynews.co.uk/history/LordsWaste.pdf |date=2021-09-26 }}.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Jeffrey Lehman |author2=Shirelle Phelps |title=West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Vol. 6 | edition=2 |date=2005 |publisher=Thomson/Gale |location=Detroit |isbn=9780787663742 |page=420}}</ref> In many settlements during the [[Early modern Europe|early modern]] period, illegal building was carried out on lord's waste land by squatters who would then plead their case to remain with local support. An example of a lord's waste settlement, where the main centres grew up in this way, is the village of [[Bredfield]] in [[Suffolk]].<ref>See Bredfield Parish Plan 2006, p.9: {{cite web |url=http://www.bredfield.org.uk/material/Report.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2009-06-27 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209130638/http://www.bredfield.org.uk/material/Report.pdf |archivedate=2008-12-09 }}</ref> Lord's waste continues to be a source of rights and responsibilities issues in places such as [[Henley-in-Arden]], [[Warwickshire]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.henleynews.co.uk/history/LordsWaste.pdf|accessdate=12 March 2022|author=Jonathan Dovey|title=Lord's Waste|website=Henley News|archive-date=26 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926192536/http://www.henleynews.co.uk/history/LordsWaste.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In examining the origins of the monastic [[cloister]], [[Walter Horn]] found that "as a manorial entity the [[Carolingian]] [[monastery]]&nbsp;... differed little from the fabric of a feudal estate, save that the corporate community of men for whose sustenance this organisation was maintained consisted of monks who served God in chant and spent much of their time in reading and writing."<ref>Horn, "On the Origins of the Medieval Cloister" ''Gesta'' ''' 12'''.1/2 (1973:13–52), quote p. 41.</ref>

===Residents of a manor===
*[[Lord of the manor]] (who could be an [[Absentee landlord|absentee]])
*[[Serfdom|Serfs]]
*[[Villein]]s
*[[Cottar]]s
*[[Bordar]]s
*[[Freehold (law)|Freeholders]]
*[[Copyhold]]ers

===Tenants===
Tenants owned land on the manor under one of several legal agreements: [[Freehold (law)|freehold]], [[copyhold]], [[customary freehold]] and [[leasehold]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/manorialrecords/manors/whatis.htm|website=[[Lancaster University]]|title=What is a Manor?|author1=Angus Winchester|author2=Eleanor Straughton|accessdate=12 March 2022}}</ref>