CHURL. In Old English law the word ceorl denoted the ordi nary free man, who formed the basis of Anglo-Saxon society. In the course of time he lost much of his original independence, and after the Norman Conquest became included within the great class of villeins (see VILLEINAGE) who were regarded in law as personally unfree. It is largely owing to this depression that the word "churl" came to bear a derogatory sense. Nevertheless, even in Anglo-Norman law the ceorl had not wholly sunk into a servile position ; he retained the wergild of a free man until the whole system of wergilds became obsolete, and he was long subject to the duty of attending public courts such as that of the Hundred (q.v.). His depression was due essentially to economic causes; men of his class suffered heavily in the wars of the loth and I 1 th centuries and the lawyers of a later time who regarded their de scendants as legally dependent upon their lords were only recog nizing accomplished facts.