Manor

A manor (in Latin: manerium ) is the Latin residence or residence ( manere : to remain, remain) of noble. The building is sometimes indicated also by “ gentilhommière ”, the dwelling of a “nice ”, i.e. of noble of birth.

With its pace of small castle established on a Stronghold or a “field”, it is thus very often, in a village or a hamlet, the vastest masonry, most beautiful and best equipped, since lived there a Hobereau, which could, contrary to others more fortunate and powerful still, not to lay out of other residences such as a private mansion in the close city, more comfortable in winter.

One can distinguish a manor from a castle by the fact that the farm essential for the manor and was managed directly by its lord, who did not have the privilege to exert more honorary functions, military or administrative (acquired not by competence but by purchase of “loads”).

The manor is thus also in all the provinces and until the French revolution the center décisonnel of the local figure of the minor nobility, making exploit itself the grounds of its field by “its” peasants, its closer neighbors, “his” people.

History

The construction of these buildings often goes back to or 16th century, i.e. the century which followed the end of the Guerre One hundred Year old, testifying to a found prosperity, even if always in prey with the fear of disorders.

A manor generally had the aspect of a “strong” house or a castle surrounded by fields, farms, pastures and of wood. It was not to in no case a building with military vocation, therefore not a strong Château, since it was interdict with the main Vassal places to equip it with turns and a Donjon.

By extension, the term of “manor” could indicate any residence of Master or approval, some importance surrounded by grounds cultivated, in any event quite remarkable among all the other dwellings, “Masure S” or “Chaumière S” occupied by the small people, the churls, later called “manouvriers”.

More rarely still, of the old documents, in certain areas, make state of “manor not piled up”, indicating a ground without house ( farmhouse , hovel or maisière ), because destroyed since sometimes an unspecified time.

The field of the manor was largely self-sufficing and made trade of certain surpluses with other manors in order to buy some rare products if necessary. With the liking of the development of the markets in the cities of the the Middle Ages, the manors started to specialize in certain productions: manufacture of cheese, breeding of pigs, vine growing, culture of cereals or vegetables, etc

The “Master” occupied the manor with his family, some servants and servants.

The population of the field was primarily made up of peasants (i.e. commoners). The grounds were initially populated mainly serfs who passed most of their time to work the ground of the lord in exchange of his protection. The serfs had or exploited for their subsistence right some strips of land in fields of the manor. If the serf were not a slave, it was not therefore free. It could not marry, change trade or leave the manor without the permission of its lord, but it had some rights all the same. Its statute hereditary and was thus transmitted to its descent. Its ground could not be to him delighted insofar as it fulfilled its obligations with respect to its lord. If the relation between lord and vassal can seem a priori comparable with that of serf and lord, the Middle Ages made a clear distinction between a honourable contract aiming at providing to the lord a military service and the simple work provided by the serf.

The agricultural technique ended all the same up transforming the life of the serfs of the Middle Ages. The agricultural outputs increased with the wire of time, which made it possible to make trade of the surpluses thus released. From there, the serfs gradually obtained the means of repurchasing their freedom. However, even if at the dawn of the 19th century, right before the Revolution, the Western Europe counted only few serfs, the mass of rural, sometimes still confronted with the famine, lived locally in a state of extreme economic dependence, social and “political” with respect to the powerful ones of the manor.

Famous manors

Other

See too

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