The villeins had not won their freedom this time but had changed history and themselves forever, and within 50 years villeinage had disappeared from England forever. |
Britton, who wrote in the reign of Edward I., thus describes this tenure under the name of villeinage. |
Meanwhile, one great portion of our villeinage in our larger towns we have much mitigated. |
Against a background of villeinage and week-work, the borough begins to stand out as the scene of burgage tenure. |
So long as villeinage had importance, the courts reinforced status by requiring some labour services over and above that fixed by custom and practice. |
For one thing, the poll-tax was stopped, and the end of villeinage was hastened. |