villeinage

Now, if the weaker party remained to brave the attack and was conquered, he was reduced to a state of villeinage or of dependence more or less complete.

From The Communes of Lombardy from the VI. to the X. Century An Investigation of the Causes Which Led to the Development Of Municipal Unity Among the Lombard Communes. by William Klapp Williams

Husbandry land held in villeinage was inherited according to the custom of its manor as administered in the lords manorial court.

From Our Legal Heritage June 2011 (Sixth) Edition by S. A. Reilly

The fathers early enacted that there should be neither bond slaves nor villeinage amongst us except captives taken in just wars and those condemned judicially to serve.

From Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of Slavery to the Present Time by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson

The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as villeinage.

From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History by Sir John Alexander Hammerton

Yea," said he, "that wot I well, that these are of the kin of the daughters of the horse-leech; but how shall they slake their greed, seeing that as thou sayest villeinage shall be gone?

From A Dream of John Ball; and, a king's lesson by William Morris