between the Norman peasants and those of other regions. After the suppression of an insurrection at the beginning of this century, we do not hear of any general rising of the Norman peasants, parallel to those risings which make a sad and futile chapter in the annals of many parts of Europe in the Middle Ages. It was, however, a local revolt of the thirteenth century on the lands of the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel that brought out one of the best descriptions of life on a Norman manor, the Conte des Vilains de Verson,[1] and, while it is a bit late for our purpose, it is confirmed by documentary evidence, and may well serve as an illustration of the obligations of the agricultural class:—
In June the peasants must cut and pile the hay and carry it to the manor house. In August they must reap and carry in the convent's grain; their own grain lies exposed to wind and rain while they hunt out the assessor of the champart and carry his share to his barn. On the Nativity of the Virgin the villain owes the pork-due, one pig in eight; at St. Denis' day the cens; at Christmas the fowl, fine and good, and thereafter the grain-due of two sétiers of barley and three quarters of wheat; on Palm Sunday the sheep-due; at Easter he must plow, sow and harrow. When there is building the tenant must bring stone and serve the masons; he must also haul the convent's wood for two deniers a day. If he sells his land, he owes the lord a thirteenth of its value; if he marries his daughter outside the seigniory, he pays a fine. He must grind his grain at the seigniorial mill and bake his bread at the seigniorial oven, where the customary charges do not satisfy the attendants, who grumble and threaten to leave his bread unbaked.
- ↑ Printed by Delisle, Études sur la classe agricole, pp. 668 ff.
