<b>The Manor<b>

The most common fief was a land holding called a manor. During the Middle Ages n
ine families worked on a manor producing food to feed themselves and provide foo
d for a tenth family to do something else. (In the modern United States, the rel
ationship is perhaps 100 to 1 in the other direction.)
A typical manor was a great house or castle, surrounded by fields, cottages, pas
tures, and woodlands. The manor was largely self-sufficient. Surpluses of a few
commodities were traded with other manors for commodities in shortage. As the Mi
ddle Ages continued and the markets of towns grew, manors became more specialize
d because they were more efficient at producing only a few commodities. Some man
ors specialized in cheese, pigs, wine, grain, or vegetables, for example.
The lord of the manor (landlord) occupied the manor house or castle with his fam
ily, servants, and retainers. Retainers were usually knights and professional so
ldiers on hand to provide defense and be ready to fulfill any feudal military ob
ligations to a senior lord. The larger the manor, the greater the number of reta
iners.
The population of a manor consisted mainly of peasants (nonnoble and nonprofessi
onal). The farmhands were mostly serfs who spent up to half of their week workin
g the lord's lands in return for his protection. Each serf family owned several
rows in each of the manor's fields from which it obtained a living. Serfs were n
ot slaves, but they were not free either. They could not marry, change jobs, or
leave the manor without the lord's permission. But a serf had some rights, unlik
e a slave. His position was hereditary and passed down in his family. His land c
ould not be taken so long as he fulfilled his obligations. While the relationshi
p between vassal and lord seems comparable to serf and landlord, a clear distinc
tion was made in the Middle Ages between an honorable contract to provide milita
ry service versus mere manual labor.
Farming technology gradually changed the lives of serfs as the Middle Ages progr
essed. Food production increased and surpluses were sold, providing serfs with t
he money to buy their freedom. By the end of the period, there were few serfs in
western Europe.