Intermediate Social Groups in the Medieval Agrarian Society

Common ideas on medieval agrarian societies, which are also shared by many historians, are shaped by the perception that these communities were basically formed of two antagonistic blocks, bondmen and lords. The influence of our major sources on this depiction is obvious - they privileged the perspective of the then ruling groups anxious to consolidate their domination. But a thorough review of all available sources reveals some fractures in this pattern of interpretation. People come then forth, who cannot be subsumed under either of these categories. Their position was not similar to that of bondmen, and they did not belong to the class of the lords. One of their distinguishing features was that they disposed of varying ways of access to land. Not always did they depend on land allocations by the lords. They also owned land, they leased it, or they took it as a fief. Thus, relations of domination and of dependence were diversified. Being a personal subject of a lord did not necessarily mean to farm his land as a tenant, i. e. to depend economically on him. Even persons born unfree were able to acquire a socially elevated position, and their status was not exclusively defined by their servile condition. © Oldenbourg.