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.

One of your most illustrious judges, who was also a profound and philosophical historian, has said "that villeinage was not abolished, but went into decay in England."

From Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject by Elliott, E. N.

Their inhabitants, in spite of ascetic regulations, found that life was none so hard—at least in comparison with that of serfdom or villeinage; luxuries were not less available than to the laity.

From England under the Tudors by Innes, Arthur D. (Arthur Donald)

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

But when villeinage ceased, various and opposite courses seemed to have been pursued in different boroughs.

From The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860 by Yonge, Charles Duke