Manorialism

Manorialism, also called seigneurialism or the manor system, was the method of land tenure in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. A lord and his dependents lived in a manor house or castle and administered a rural estate worked by labourers or serfs who owed labour, produce and later cash. It originated in the Roman villa system of the Late Roman Empire, where coloni were bound to the land, and was an essential element of feudal society. It faded slowly with the rise of a money-based market economy: the last feudal dues in France were abolished at the French Revolution, and Junker manors in parts of eastern Germany remained until World War II.