Villeinage

A villein, otherwise known as cottar, torpare, crofter, is a serf tied to the land in the feudal system. Villeins had more rights and status than those in slavery, but were under a number of legal restrictions which differentiated them from the freeman.

Villein, or villain, was a term used in the feudal era to denote a peasant (tenant farmer) who was legally tied to a lord of the manor – a villein in gross – or in the case of a villein regardant to a manor. Villeins occupied the social space between a free peasant (or "freeman") and a slave. The majority of medieval European peasants were villeins. An alternative term is serf, from the Latin servus, meaning "slave". A villein was thus a bonded tenant, so could not leave the land without the landowner's consent.

The term derives from Late Latin villanus, meaning a man employed at a Roman villa rustica, or large agricultural estate. The system of tied serfdom originates from a decree issued by the late Roman Emperor Diocletian (ruled 284–305) in an attempt to prevent the flight of peasants from the land and the consequent decline in food production. The decree obliged peasants to register in their locality and never leave it; they could leave their villages only to deliver a message or to accompany their lord to war.

Because of the low status, the term became derogatory. In modern French vilain means "ugly" or "naughty" and in Italian, villano means "rude" or "ill-mannered". For the Spanish villano, the RAE preserves the definition of "neighbor or inhabitant of a village or town", but it also accepts the derogatory use, which is very similar to English usage; in modern English villain means a scoundrel, criminal or a lawless member of society.

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