…without public rights as a freeman; the remaining slaves on the land were mostly skilled specialists. Free and servile tenants essentially paid rent, in money or kind, to their landlords. For the late 8th and 9th centuries, at least in northern Italy and Tuscany, there is evidence of more organized…

Next were the freemen (liberi, ingenui), bound to the king by an oath of allegiance and traditionally under an obligation to serve in the army and in the law courts. A freeman’s Wergeld—the sum that had to be paid to his family if he were killed—was in principle…

…these nobles, there were also freemen who owned their own land (allodium), but little is known about them; they were present, however, in large numbers in the cattle-breeding regions of Flanders, Zeeland, Holland, and Friesland, where the numerous rivers and streams must have split up the land into many small…

…three heredity-based classes—the nobles, the freemen, and the former slaves and their descendants. These social distinctions are no longer strict and are manifest only on ceremonial occasions, such as weddings and funerals. They do, however, form the basis of other economic and social distinctions. During the 19th century the Merina…

…was that of kinship; every freeman depended on his kindred for protection, and the social classes were distinguished by the amount of their wergild (the sum that the kindred could accept in place of vengeance if a man were killed). The normal freeman was the ceorl, an independent peasant landowner;…