What is "villeins"

Usage examples of "villeins".

The ranks of the soldiers filled with grim-faced freemen and villeins, watching avidly, as if the two men were struggling for dominion over the manor itself.

He immediately set about mending fences and clearing hedgerows, ordering the planting of additional acreage and encouraging the villeins to raise their own produce.

She left to the lord his rights over the villeins, on condition that he would molest the city no more and would become co-burgher.

Some villeins might dress their daughters so, but only if they had extra male clothes and could not afford female ones.

I take those away as well Jesu, my villeins ran out of clothes, were all nigh naked that summer I tried to curb her ways.

Several days earlier, one of the village villeins had beat his wife so severely that she had died from it by the next day.

And lame folk were not pitied, they were ignored, considered so inferior they became less than villeins they became beggars.

You know yourself that villeins can be dealt with severely for questioning their betters.