SERF

(Lat. servns.) The French name for the lowest cla of slaves in the dark ages; those who were incapable of holding property, attached to the land, and liable to feudal services of the lowest description. In England this appears to have been the general character of the condition of the villeins; but in France and Germany Mr. Hallam thinks that the villeins, properly so called, were a superior cla , only bound to fixed payments and duties in respect of their land. (Middle Ages, chap. ii. parts. See Villein.) The emancipation of this cla j m France was extremely gradual. I^ouis Hutin en- | franchised them on the royal domains by edict in 13l."j; •. but it does not anpear to have been carried immediately '' 1104 SERJEANTS-AT-ARMS. into execution, and a limited kind of servitude existed in some places down to the Revolution. The " serfs," or "gens de main morte," on some estates (e.g. in part of Champagne and Nivernois), could not leave their habitations, and might be followed by the lord in any part of France for the taille, or villem tax, which in some localities was not permanent, but a volonte. ( See, as to the progre of enfranchisement, a memoir by Duprey, Hist. Ac. /.38.) [s. 1117]