The social, economic, and administrative system that emerged in Europe in the 5th century from the chaos and instability following the collapse of the Roman empire. Farmers sought the protection of powerful lords and in return surrendered certain rights and control over their lands. Gradually a system of obligations and service emerged, especially relating to manorial agrarian management, and set down in records called custumals.

The manor consisted of demesne land (private land of the lord) and tenants’ holdings. Tenants were free or unfree (villeins), rank being determined by personal status or the status of their land. Not all manors had this balance of demesne, free land, and unfree land. In addition, meadow land for grazing livestock was available to all, and thus known as common land. Access to woodland for timber and grazing of pigs might be a further facility. The lord presided over the manorial court and received money or labour services from his tenants regularly (week work) or seasonally (boon work). A tendency in the 12th century for labour services to be commuted to cash rents was reversed after c.1200, when inflation encouraged landlords again to exact services in kind. Labour shortages following the Black Death (1348), when Europe’s population fell from 80 million to 55 million, enclosures, tenant unrest, and rebellions such as the Peasants’ Revolt (1381), effectively ended the manorial system in England by c.1500.