Serf was a type of rural farmer who lived in Europe, mainly in the early Middle Ages. Serfdom developed in western Europe in the 500’s. At that time, the slave-based Roman agricultural system collapsed, and landowners began to grant their former slaves more freedoms.
Serfs were allowed to have their own houses and plots of land on large estates that historians call bipartite estates or manors. Serfs had to pay the landlord, or lord, of the manor heavy rents. These payments included money, farm products such as chickens or wheat, and a certain number of work days. On work days, serfs had to work in their lord’s fields rather than in their own. Serfs could not become priests or give testimony in court. They had to pay a fine if they wanted to marry serfs of a different lord. Unlike slaves, serfs themselves could not be bought and sold as property. But serfs were not free to leave the manor, either. When an estate was sold or given away, serfs were sold or given away as part of the property.
From about the 600’s to the 1100’s, most farmers in western Europe were serfs, though there were some free peasants as well. As economic conditions improved in the 1100’s and 1200’s, many serfs in western Europe sought their freedom. Some bought their way out of serfdom, and some ran away to the rapidly growing cities. Others moved to newly cleared lands where the landowners were looking for free, rent-paying tenants.
By the 1200’s, few serfs were left in France and Italy. Most peasants there either owned land or rented it without losing their freedom. In England, several serfs’ revolts took place before serfdom ended in the 1500’s (see Wat Tyler’s Rebellion). Serfdom continued into the 1400’s in western Germany. A few serfs there became wealthy and powerful, however. In eastern Germany and Russia, serfdom began in the 1300’s and ended in the 1800’s.
See also Agriculture (The Middle Ages); Aztec (The Aztec Empire); Germany (Serfdom in German lands.); Manorialism; Russia (History).
