villeinage

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But besides what belonged thus exclusively to the lord of the manor, there was a great deal more that was legally described as held in villeinage.

From Mediaeval Socialism by Jarrett, Bede

The institution of villeinage is last mentioned in a commission of Queen Elizabeth, 1574, directing Lord Burleigh and others in certain counties to compound with all such bondmen or bondwomen for their manumission and freedom.

From Popular Law-making by Stimson, Frederic Jesup

The facts are all against them; these showing it a scheme of villeinage, more oppressive than the European serfdom of the Middle Ages.

From The Death Shot A Story Retold by Reid, Mayne

In the seventy years which had intervened since the last peasant rising, villeinage had died naturally away before the progress of social change.

From History of the English People, Volume III The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540 by Green, John Richard

The rebels at first demanded no more than that Richard should declare villeinage abolished, and that all feudal dues and services should be commuted for a rent of fourpence an acre.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5 English History by Various