Now Hist. Forms: α. 4–9 villenage (6 vyllenage, vyllynage, vellenage), 5 vilenage. β. 6–9 villanage, 7 villon-, villianage, 7–9 villainage. γ. 7– villeinage (9 vileinage). [a. AF. vilenage, villenage, OF. vilenage, villenage, vila(i)nage, = Pr. vilanatge, Sp. villanage, Pg. villanagem), or ad. med.L. villenagium, vil(l)anagium, vileinagium, from the same source: see VILLEIN and -AGE.]
1. The tenure by which a feudal villein held or occupied his land; tenure of lands by bond-service rendered to the lord or superior. Also called tenure in villeinage.
α. a. 1325. [see VILLEIN 1 α].
c. 1450. Godstow Reg. (1905), 207. iiij. acres and an half acre and half a Rode of arable lond,… the whiche he holdith in vilenage or bondage.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 12. All these tenauntes maye holde their landes by dyuers tenures…: as by … burgage tenures and tenure in vyllenage.
1544. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, xi. 40. Tenure in vyllenage is most properly whan a vylleyne holdeth of his lorde to whom he is vyllayne certayne landes & tenementes after the custome and maner or els at the wyl of his lorde, and to do his vyllayne seruyce.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. ii. 176. Once Albion liu’d in such a cruell age Than men did hold by seruile villenage.
1602. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 211. Villenage, is where a man holdeth of his Lord, either by doing vnto him some particular base seruice, and such a one is called a tenant by villenage, or by doing generally whatsoeuer base seruice his Lord will commaund and impose vpon him, and such a tenaunt is termed in our Law a villaine.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v., For euery one that houldeth in villenage, is not a villein, or a bond man.
1612. Sir J. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1787), 204. There was but one freeholder made in a whole country, which was the lord himself, all the rest were but tenants at will, or rather tenants in villenage.
1672. Manley, Cowell’s Interpr., s.v., Copy-holders is but a new Name, for anciently they were called Tenants in villenage, or, of base Tenure.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. 92. With regard to the folk-land, or estates held in villenage.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 308. Copyholds being derived from the tenure in villenage, they were not originally within the jurisdiction of the king’s courts at Westminster.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages, III. viii. (1819), III. 259. The tenements in villenage, whether by law or usage, were never separated from the lordship.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., xvi. (1896), II. 475. So villenage grew to be a base tenure, differing in degree rather than in kind from socage, and privileged as well as burdened.
attrib. 1679. Blount, Anc. Tenures, 21. This was an usual restraint of old in Villenage Tenure.
β. 1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Colonarii,… rusticall people, tenantes in villanages.
1607. Norden, Surv. Dial., II. 77. A matter almost out of vse, a tenure called Villanage: that is, where the Tenants of a Mannor were Bondmen and Bondwomen.
1618. Raleigh, Rem. (1644), 59. The bondmen … were grievously prest by their Lords in their tenure of Villanage.
1681. H. Nevile, Plato Rediv., 133. Not only all Villanage is long since abollished, but the other Tenures are so altered and qualified, that they signifie nothing towards making the Yeomandry depend upon the Lords.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., III. ii. I. 473. Tenure in villanage gradually wore out.
1812. G. Chalmers, Dom. Econ. Gt. Brit., 23. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the time, when villainage ceased in England, or even to trace its decline.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., vi. We return to the state of villanage, holding our tenement-houses … of the State.
fig. a. 1653. G. Daniel, Idyll, v. 132. The Earth runs in one Tenure, and we but Prevent Repeals; Villainage is the Lott.
γ. 1641. Termes de la Ley, 262. To hold in pure Villeinage, is to do all that the Lord will him command.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 225. The abolition of the punishment of death, of the lesser tithes, and of villeinage were especially insisted on.
1845. Williams, Real Property, III. 265. Villeinage is to hold part of the demesnes of any lord … by villein services.
b. Land held by this tenure. Obs.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg. (1906), 576. The tythes of the villenagis of medys and litell medis of the same towne.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg. (1913), 26. In cleydon, ij. hides of villenage, þe which my modur ȝafe to þe same church.
2. The state or condition of a feudal villein; complete subjection to a feudal lord or superior; bondage, serfdom, servitude.
α. 1531. Star Chamber Cases (Selden), II. 196. Ony maner of Entree into the seid Courte Rolles … Concernyng ony vyllenage agenst the seid defendauntes.
1551. in J. S. Leadam, Sel. Cases Crt. Requests (Selden), 58. To dyscharge the vyllynage and bondage of the bloudde of the said complaynants.
1600. Holland, Livy, XLI. viii. 1101. They that were to leave such yssue at home, gave their children as it were in villenage to some Romane citizen or other whom they liked of.
1643. Milton, Sov. Salve, 26. Reduced to the terms of the Peasants of France, of villenage and slavery.
1699. Temple, Hist. Eng., 59. The Children that were born of these miserable People, belonged to the Lord of the Soil,… and thus began Villenage in England.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), II. 57. The villenage of the peasantry in some parts of Catalonia was very severe.
1852. H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith, 418. Mr. Newman says that it was Christians, not men, that the Church sought to enfranchise; it little matters; she sought to abolish all villenage.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. iv. 70. I do not doubt that the social state of villenage existed.
fig. 1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 1. No wretchednesse is like to sinfull vellenage.
1604. Hieron, Wks., I. 481. The continuall gamster is, as it were, in the state of villenage to his humor.
1644. Milton, Divorce, II. iii. 36. I spake ev’n now, as if sin were condemn’d in a perpetual villenage never to be free by law, never to be manumitted.
β. 1589. Warner, Albion’s England, V. xxiii. 101. Thus Englands hope with Englands heire in one same Bark did saile: When desprat from their villanage was English bloud of baile.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 449. For those [ichneumons] that are ouercome in combates one with another, are branded with a warlicke marke of Villanage, or subiection to their Conquerors.
1700. Dryden, Wife of Bath’s T., 443. Their Glories shine; But Infamy and Villanage are thine.
1761. [see SERF 2 b].
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 245. Joseph II. rendered an essential service to humanity, in abolishing the servitude or villanage of the peasants of Bohemia.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., II. 287. The original population … had … been conquered and reduced to a sort of villanage by certain Afghan tribes.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., xxiv. V. 480. While the churl sank to the state of villainage, the slave rose to it.
γ. 1641. Termes de la Ley, 262 b. The division of Villeinage, is villeine of blood, and of tenure.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Demerara, ii. 22. Then came the bondage and villeinage of the Gothic nations.
1873. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., v. 103. When villeinage had passed away and serfs were no longer maintained by their owners.
1889. Jessopp, Coming of Friars, ii. 66. A man or woman born in villeinage could never shake it off.
3. The body of villeins; villeins collectively.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. i. 31. The French peasantry or villainage of the period.
