Serf's duties...
*work the lord's land (the demense)
*due a varying number of days labor on the manor of the lord.
*Frequently owed military service (not always)
*Swear absolute loyalty to the lord
*Pay taxes and fees required by the lord
*Only leave the manor with the lord's permission
{in short, work to keep the manor running}
Lord's Duties
*Protect his serfs from attack
*Settle disputes between serfs
*Conduct trials and punish criminals
{in short, manage the economic and social aspects of the manor inluding policing and military protection
The peasant would grow the Lord's food, he would cook the lord's food, he would take care of his livestock,he would do the tailoring, he would have a whole list of chores that he had to do for the Lord.
Most serfs worked on manors as farmers. Serfs also worked at other jobs as well, including nearly all unskilled labor. This included forestry, mining, providing labor for building castles and roads, carting, river transportation, and so on. Some serfs were manorial officers who organized the labors of other serfs and the land they were assigned to work on. There were serfs who worked at other specialized tasks, including blacksmithing, baking, weaving, spinning, simple carpentry, and making pottery. Many of these people became skilled enough to establish themselves as independent craftsmen.
Being the richest, except for the king, lords normally had castles or palaces located in a place where watching over their territory could be easy. Most of the castles governed by lords were medium-sized.Within the fief he owned, the lord had nearly total authority. He was the judge and jury whenever a dispute needed to be settled. He was also the judge and jury for dispute between his various vassals. Lords also watched over the serfs to make sure that they succesfully planted, tended, and harvested the crops.
a villein is someone who would have to work for the lord of the manor 40 days for free. but that changed after the plague. mst of the town would have been villeins
Serfs were the lowest level of workers in most areas of medieval Europe, though in some there were slaves, who were at a lower level. Serfs were not slaves, but were not free to leave the land where they worked. Their obligation with their feudal lord was mutual; he had obligations to them, to provide a place and protect them, just as they had obligations to him, to give a part of the crop, or later, money for rent. Serfs could not be bought or sold. They belonged to the land, not the lord. If the lord sold the land, they went with it. The new owner did not have the option of moving them off the land. Most serfs worked in agriculture, and lived on the land. Some lived in towns or villages, and formed the lowest level of laborers there. They could be cooks helpers, or even cooks. They could work in such trades as weaving. Miners were serfs of a sort. They could be masons' helpers. They did not usually occupy positions that involved mastery of a craft, such as the master masons, or the best cooks, who worked entirely for hire and were free. The serfs without plots of land were called villeins, a word related to the word village. Various customs in various places allowed the serfs to become free, meaning they could leave the land they were born on and go elsewhere. In some cases, when a king needed to populate a new port, for example, they could be freed by running away and staying in the new town for a year. In other cases, such as after the Black Death, they were bribed off their land to farm lands of other lords that had been depopulated. The result is that serfdom ended in some places several generations before the end of the Middle Ages. The technicalities of ending serfdom took longer; for example, serfdom was technically legal in Scotland for four hundred years after it had died out nearly everywhere in the country. And in some places, such as Russia, it remained in practice into the nineteenth century. Loosely, the term serf might be applied to anyone of peasant class, including laboring freemen, cottars, villeins, bordars, and even slaves. This use should be considered rather imprecise, however. Please see the links below for more information.
They were called serfs.
Serf's duties... *work the lord's land (the demense) *due a varying number of days labor on the manor of the lord. *Frequently owed military service (not always) *Swear absolute loyalty to the lord *Pay taxes and fees required by the lord *Only leave the manor with the lord's permission {in short, work to keep the manor running} Lord's Duties *Protect his serfs from attack *Settle disputes between serfs *Conduct trials and punish criminals {in short, manage the economic and social aspects of the manor inluding policing and military protection
The serfs were supposed to work on the manor and do whatever their superiors told them to do. The lord was supposed to allow his manor as a place of protection for the serfs - during the time of feudalism, this was very much needed - and a place to live. The lords got the better end of the deal.
In the Manor System the mutual obligations meat the lord provide military protection for his serfs and the serfs provided labor.
Serfs
the customs and traditions of the manor
Peasants who were bound to a manor were known as serfs or villeins. They were required to work the land and pay dues to the lord of the manor in exchange for protection and the right to live on the land. Serfs were not free to leave the manor without the lord's permission.
a serf is a person who worked on the lord manor and make food
They both served a lord and worked on the manor.
Most peasants were serfs. Serfs were people who could not lawfully leave the place where they were born. Though bound to the land, serfs were not slaves. If a lord transferred ownership of land, the serfs went with it. Their lords could not sell or buy them, but most of what their labor produced belonged to the lord.
A lord's estate was called a manor. It had a manor house for the lord and his family, a number of cottages for the serfs who lived and worked on the manor, farm buildings, farm land, woods, and fields. Usually, the serfs' cottages were grouped into one or more hamlets and quite possibly a village with a church.
surfs