Life in a Medieval Village - Frances Gies [77]
Nevertheless, the lord took an interest in sex mores, at least a financial interest, focusing on men and women previously haled into Church court for adultery, and young women detected indulging in premarital sex. The jurors were relied on to report cases of leirwite, or of matrimony without the lord’s license, and were fined for failing to do so.
A village woman, however, ran a much greater risk of being fined for her brewing than for her dallying. “[Allota] is a common brewer at a penny and sometimes at a halfpenny, and sold before the tasting [by the village ale tasters] and sometimes made [the ale] weak. Therefore [she is] in mercy two shillings.”42 “Alice wife of Blythe [sold] three times at a halfpenny and at a penny and sold before the tasting, did not bring her measures [to be checked]. Twelve pence.” “Matilda Abovebrook at a halfpenny and a penny, sometimes weak ale, she sells before the tasting, did not bring her measures. Sixpence.”43 Sometimes the lengthy list of women (only six men ever appear among Elton brewers) is simply put down in the court record with the fine noted. The unfailing frequency of the ale fines has led to a conjecture that the assize of ale was a sort of back-door license fee collected by the lord in lieu of the monopoly he had failed to obtain in this important branch of village business.44 At the same time, the very number of home brewers makes credible a need for government regulation, while the fines varied and the charges differed: the ale is “weak,” “not of full value,” “not worth the money,” the measures are not sealed, the price is too high. Enforcement of standards for price and quality was of value to consumers, and the insistence on checking brewers’ measures indicates serious purpose.
In Elton as everywhere that open field agriculture prevailed, a large proportion of the manor court’s business consisted of enforcement of the bylaws and customs governing crops and pasture. Reeve and bailiff were mainly responsible for bringing to book defaulters on work obligations, but for surveillance of the army of harvest workers they had the help of the two “wardens of autumn.” “The wardens of autumn present that Master Stephen made default at one boon-work…Therefore let him be distrained to answer [be arrested and brought to court].” “Of Reginald Child for the same at another boon-work of the autumn of one man [as] above. Pledge Richard the beadle.” “Of John Heryng for the same of one man three pence. Pledge Roger Gamel.” “Of Robert Chapman for the same of one man sixpence. Pledge John Page.”45 Failure to appear, tardiness, or simply performing the service badly brought sure, if moderate, penalties.
“I do not advise you to plead against your lord,” warned a satiric poem ascribed to a canon of Leicester Abbey. “Peasant, you will be vanquished…You must endure what the custom of the earth has given you.”46 Modern scholar George C. Homans, however, has written: “The striking fact is that many such disputes [between lord and tenant] were settled in the hallmote just as they would have been if the parties had both been simple villagers.” Homans cites a case involving tenants of the Bishop of Chichester in 1315, in which an inquest of three hallmotes backed the tenants in their refusal to cart dung for the lord. “The lord’s arbitrary will was bounded, or rather he allowed it to be bounded, by custom as found by the tenants.”47
A number of cases in Elton pitted villagers against the lord, his steward, or his lesser officials. In 1312 “John Troune entered a plea contrary to the lord’s statutes” and was fined sixpence for contempt.48 Two men who pleaded “in opposition to the steward” in the court of 1331 were fined three pence and sixpence, respectively.49 Thus an individual peasant, as the canon of Leicester warned, appears to have been at a substantial disadvantage in pleading against his betters. But in three other cases, though no final outcome is recorded, the villagers’ side of the argument is unmistakably accorded a respectful hearing. One difference