villenage

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

To people imbued with ideas of feudalism the way of escape from villenage seemed to be not independence, but a new reversion to it.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 8 "Chariot" to "Chatelaine" by Various

And thus it will be found in the history of nations, that, whenever population has reached that density in the temperate zones, serfdom, villenage, or slavery, whatever it has been called, has disappeared.

From The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Davis, Jefferson

The services of villenage were gradually rendered less onerous and uncertain.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry

The purchasers under these alienations had occasion for labourers; and these would be free servants in respect of such employers, though in villenage to their original lord.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry

I cannot presume to conjecture in what degree voluntary manumission is to be reckoned among the means that contributed to the abolition of villenage.

From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry