Lord’s Manor in the Middle Ages

Manor is among the most important things in Medieval economy of France and England, but this word is usually misunderstood. What is it? Maybe it is a lord’s house? Not at all. A plot of land given to somebody? Partially, but not exactly. So, manor is an agricultural land belonging to somebody rich as a fief from a king or higher noble, that has at least a village with peasants and usually a manor house of the owner and a small church. Manor is mostly self-sufficient, meaning that while it does participate in the outer economy by selling some surplus, sometimes even exporting it, in classical Medieval period manor can absolutely live off what is produced inside of it – food, clothes, small tools. Economy based on such manors is called a “manorial economy”, and it was most common in Western Europe during the Middle Ages; in other parts of Europe it also existed in some way or another, but there were many more important local details and varieties.

Lord of the manor, a person who owns this land, was usually a noble, but not always a knight – many were just untitled lesser nobles. Rich peasants at times could own a manor too, but in this case they could only be lords of so-called “villain manors”, and not of “shield manors”, while a knight or other noble could own any kind of those. The difference for a knight was that for owning a shield manor he was obliged by military service to his sovereign, usually 40 days a year, and also some other minor duties performed by his peasants for the king – like maintenance of bridges. If the owner of a shield manor didn’t serve, for example he was a noble but not a knight, then he had to pay some annual sum in exchange. At the same time, owner of a villain manor, even if he was a knight, should have paid natural rent for his sovereign, e.g. agricultural and craft products from his manor, particular list depended on region and manor but usually the biggest part of it was grain or wine.

There was no defined size of a manor, it depended heavily on where is it located, local traditions and circumstances of the past. However, as it should have supported at least one knight ready for combat didn’t allow making it too small, but neither kings and lords wanted to give too much to a single knight, of course. For England a manor often had a village with 200-300 dwellers of all ages, farmlands, pond or river shore, grove or a piece of forest, and some pastures. There it had an average size about 1000 acres, or 4 square kilometers.

Lord of the manor had judicial power over peasants living on his land, and as serfdom was strengthening, those peasants had become in fact “attached” to the land where they work – they couldn’t voluntarily leave it and go elsewhere. However, they also had rights – including a fixed in advance amount of natural rent they must pay (and all the rest they left for themselves), and a right to be protected by their lord; a knight who doesn’t protect his manor from brigands could even lose the ownership of it.