Village Life

Life on a Lythian manorial village

Written By: John P. McDonald
First Release: HarnLine on Duffle Board 1991-05-27

Part I

While most player character's probably left the drudgery of everyday life on the rural manor, they should be familiar with the social, economic and political issues that are involved with agriculture. Those characters not familiar with manorial life in the civilized regions of Lythia, may also find the workings of a small manor or village interesting. Most importantly from a standpoint of a campaign, the GM should be able to infer the possibilities for numerous scenarios from the following text.

Town and Field

The layout of most villages are determined by the characteristics of the land and the builder, but all share the commonalities of function. Most rural settlements are divided into two distinct sections, notably town and field. The simple delineation between the village proper, and the fields have distinct meanings. Both are considered part of the village.

The field is further divided into woodland and champion. The woodland included the lords forest and often served as his hunting grounds. Champion is the arable land used for crops. The Champion was divided into the lords personal land, and that held by his serfs. The land held by serfs was divided into toft and croft. Toft was the land held by the husbandman's house that he farmed under his agreement with his lord. The croft, was a small personal plot that the husbandman could plant as he saw fit. Usually in vegetables, etc.

The village proper or "town" consists of the lord's personal manor house and possibly gardens or orchards. In addition the homes of freemen, villeins and cottagers, there was likely to be a mill and a smithy. The church (local parish) was often centrally located, it doubled as a townhall.

Populace

Serfs are generally either Husbandmen (or Villeins) who own houses, and yardlands of about 30 acres, or Cottagers (Cotters) who own cottages, or rent/labour for their room and board, and cotlands of about 5 acres. Villeins and cotters provided labour for their lord in exchange for land that they could work themselves.

Not all serfs however were farmers alone. Some provided more specific labour for their lord in exchange for their land. The village reeve is chosen after harvest for a period of one year or longer. The serfs themselves sometimes choose the reeve, but this is subject to the lords approval. The reeve serves as an officer of the lord in the administration of feudalism, manorial administration, and common law. The Reeve generally serves at court for the lord. The village plowman drives the lords plow team, while most villages have common animal handlers Shepherd/Neatherd. Non-guilded tradesmen were sometimes serfs as well.

Freemen held a larger variety of positions. The wealthiest were often guildsmen. Millers were the most common, but other craftsmen often find villages more prosperous than the big city. Yoemen served as the lords organized military. There were a number of responsibilities. The Woodward was responsible for the woodland, preventing poaching and the like. The Hayward keeps the fields free of damage, serves as warden of the village corn, and served as an officer of the court.

The Beadle is the lords policeman. He is an officer of the court, and is responsible for collecting fines, taxes, and issuing summons, etc.

Wealthy Lords employed bailiffs who would run the manor in their stead. If a Lord owned several manors, a steward would serve as an auditor or overseer.

Two other interesting local character's are the town bull and boar. They had the run of the town.

Husbandry

Unlike modern agriculture, the Lythian village is a single farming unit. While the freemen pay rent for their land, and may profit from their crops, the village as a whole decides what crops should be grown, when to harvest, etc. A husbandmans plot would consist of a number of furlongs in the field. A furlong is the distance that a team of oxen could plow in a day.

Lythians have no knowledge of three field crop rotation. They use fallowing as a primary means of nitrogen fixation. For small plots, marling (mixing with carbonate of lime), or dunging (manure, straw, compost) is often used. Lythians did not use grasses as field crops. Hay for cattle was collected from natural river bottoms rather than sown.

Death and Taxes

While farming was the primary means of survival, there are other things that a Lythian villager would understand. One of the social rules prevalent in Lythian society is that a man cannot marry until he inherits his fathers land. The general idea was that until he could support a family, he didn't need a wife. Once the marriage was arranged, the woman would offer a dower. In some cultures, the ritual known as troth-plight took place. The couple would move in together, and would be married after the woman became pregnant, or the first child was born. If pregnancy did not occur within one year, the husband could renounce the troth-plight (more like an annulment than a divorce). In some churches on Lythia, the troth-plight is replaced with a formal marriage.

When the head of household died, he would grant his land to an heir. The lord would usually collect a heriot tax. In some cases, clanhead would give out inheritances before his death, with the understanding that his heir would care for him. Usually the eldest son would inherit, but a daughter could inherit if the clanhead desired. Daughter's usually were dowered, and married off as soon as possible. Younger siblings were often given portions. This might include some of the clanheads tools, that the younger offspring could use to make their living.

Part II

This is one of the series of articles on the legends and folklore of Harn and Lythia, collectively called Common Knowledge. These tales are presented in two parts: the legend itself (player version), and GM notes, arranged on separate pages, so that the GM may give a photocopy of the legend to his players.

The Village Life Common Knowledge file is somewhat different from other CK files. The following riddle could be used to stump players however:

My nose is Downward;
I go Deep and Dig into the Ground;
I move as the grey foe of the wood guides me;
And my lord who goes stooping as guardian at my tail;
He pushes me in the plain, bears and urges me, sows in my track;
I hasten forth, brought from the grove, strongly bound, carried on the wagon, I have many wounds;
On one side of me as I go there is green, on the other side my track is charblack.
Driven through my back a cunning point hangs beneath;
Another on my head fixed and prone falls at the side, so that
I tear with my teeth, If he who is my lord serves me rightly from behind.
What Am I?
Answer: A Plow.

Any farmer will know the answer to this little riddle, but adventurers may have a little trouble. This common knowledge file is designed to help modern players understand how a village in a feudal system worked. There are endless opportunities for adventure, but a few are listed below:

The party inadvertently tramps through the village fields, and must face the Hayward, pay damages, appear in court, etc.
The party is caught poaching in the lords woodland, etc.
The beadle asks the parties help in issuing a summons, collecting fines, etc.
The party becomes involved in a family dispute over marriage/inheritance.
The party becomes involved in a dispute between a villager and the lord. See the MANOR article in EH for more info.
The party becomes involved in a dispute between husbandmen.