VILLEIN, or VILLAIN, denotes a species of bondman subject to his feudal superior. The word is from the low Latin form Villanus, which is from the Latin word Villa. In England, during the Anglo-Saxon period, a large part of the people appear to have been in a ser vile condition, either as domestic slaves or cultivators of the land. The power of the master among the Anglo-Saxons, though very extensive, had some limits. If a master beat out the eye or the tooth of his slave, the slave was entitled to his freedom; if he killed him, he paid a fine to the king, unless the slave lived a day after the wound was inflicted, in which ease the offence was unpunished. The Norman conquest did not materially alter the state of slavery in England. The lands were transferred to Norman mas ters, and the slaves passed as part of the property. After the Conquest there were four classes of slaves. 1, Villeins in gross, who were the personal property of their lords, and performed the lowest household duties. They were very nu merous, and were -frequently sold and even exported to foreign countries. (Wal Bingham, Hist. Ang., p. 258.) 2, Vil leins regardant, or praedial slaves, who were attached to the soil and specially engaged in agriculture. These were in
a better condition than villeins in gross, were allowed many indulgences, and even, in some cases, a limited kind of property ; yet the law held that the per son and property of the villein belonged entirely to his lord, the rule being the tame as that in the Roman law, that whatever was acquired through the slave was aired by the lord. 3, A class called i is mentioned in Domesday Book ; and 4, in the same book, a class called Bordarii. But the first two classes in fact comprised all the villeins.
The legal condition of villeins in the reign of Edward IV., when Littleton wrote his book of Tenures, appears from that work, Sections 172-208.
In England a few instances of praedial servitude existed so late as the reign of Elizabeth, and perhaps at a still later period. (Barrington, On the Statutes, 274; Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 223.) In some parts of France it existed down to the time of the Revolution [5x.s VERY.] (Bracton ; Littleton ; Coke's First last. ; Reeves, Hist. of English Law ; Blackstone's Commentaries.)