From the 1066 Norman Conquest until the Black Death in the 1340s, English agricultural workers' status was fixed into three classes. A few free Norman tenants paid rent and military service for their farms. "Bondsmen" were serfs (slaves) to the "Lord" (landlord) of their manors. About half the population were Anglo-Saxon "villeins," tied by birth to manorial properties. Villeins' civil rights gradually advanced and the yeoman farmer status arose among them.
The Plague
Half the population of England died during the Black Death, leaving about 3 million survivors. Labor shortages drove wages higher despite laws intended to control them. Often, the price of labor was freedom. Declining population made real estate available for freemen to purchase with the rising wages. By 1381, the suddenly middle class believed that the time for social change had arrived. The third of three per capita taxes to fund foreign wars prompted the Peasant Revolt, an insurrection among newly prosperous yeoman farmers.
Sumptuary Laws
A generation of yeoman prosperity prompted legislation to control "outrageous and excessive apparel of many people contrary to their estate and degree." In 1363, personal property that yeomen and their families could own was restricted. The value of their clothing was limited. No silver, gold or jeweled ornaments were allowed. They were forbidden to wear ribbon, embroidered clothing, silk clothing, and any garment of imported cloth. Sumptuary laws were phased out in the 1500s.
Formal Status
The medieval yeoman farmer was a freeholder of land that generated a minimum 40 shillings ($2,000) annual income. His property entitled him to serve on juries and vote for "knights of the shire" (county representatives in Parliament). Yeomen qualified for any function that required a "good and lawful man" (probus et legalis homo), such as testifying in court. Medieval clarity about yeomen's status became unnecessary over the centuries, so that during a treason trial in 1795, Justice Chamberlain commented, "Upon the best English authorities, yeoman is a title of courtesy."
Copyhold
The Crown assigned land to lords as tenants, but agricultural work was done by villeins legally tied to the land. By the 1500s, labor obligations to the landlord changed to rental payments as a subtenant of the landlord. Rental agreements were recorded on manor rolls. Subtenants held copies of the agreements. Copyholders could sell their copyhold or bequeath it to their heirs. Prosperous copyholders could purchase land and become a freehold yeoman. Many "freeholders" were in fact multigeneration copyholders.
Security
The security of yeomen copyholders is illustrated by a 1543 joint lawsuit brought by the tenants of Abbots Ripton against John St. John, a cousin of Henry VIII. When Henry seized the property of the Catholic Church, he took possession of a church manor at Ripton. He forced that manor onto his cousin, in exchange for a highly profitable manor and large annual payments. To avoid financial ruin, St. John tried to force his subtenants from their copyholds and "enclose" the manor for wool production. The court ordered him to restore their properties and grant them fair rents.
Tags: Black Death, yeoman farmer
