What were Peasants called in the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

There were many different types of peasant and the word "serf" is today incorrectly applied to all of them - it is really used as an alternative word for peasant.

At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, the levels of farming peasants were:

• Colibert, a former slave given liberty - but still unfree
• Bordar, a cottager lower in status than a villan - unfree
• Cottar, also a cottager - unfree
• Cotset, also a cottager - unfree (the exact status of these last two is not known)
• Villan or tunsman, a villager higher in status than a cottar; notionally unfree because subject to the manorial court - unfree
• Freeman or Sokeman, a non-noble landholder owing service to a lord with increased legal rights and protections - free.

Some of these grades disappeared as the medieval period went on, but in general terms they illustrate just how complex the levels of peasant were; each would hold a certain amount of land from the lord of the manor and would in turn owe certain customary obligations of work and payment..

Answer 2

During the Black Death, most peasants were called "Serfs".