villenage

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.

From henceforward we find little notice taken of villenage in parliamentary records, and there seems to have been a rapid tendency to its entire abolition.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry

As a villein might be enfeoffed of freeholds, though they lay at the mercy of his lord, so a freeman might hold tenements in villenage.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry

And even the peasants themselves, though later than other orders of the state, made their escape from those bonds of villenage or slavery in which they had formerly been retained.

From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B. From Henry III. to Richard III. by Hume, David

Much reference was made to the ancient laws of villenage, or semi-slavery, in Britain.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448 Volume 18, New Series, July 31, 1852 by Chambers, William

The purchasers under these alienations had occasion for labourers; and these would be free servants in respect of such employers, though in villenage to their original lord.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry