A serf is a person who is forced to work on a plot of land, especially during the medieval period when Europe practiced feudalism, when a few lords owned all the land and everyone else had to toil on it. The Latin root of the word is servus, which literally means “slave,” but serf and slave are not synonyms.

A serf is a worker bound to a certain piece of land (called a fief) who is loyal to a vassal (lord or noble) above him, usually called a lord. Serfs are tied to the land they work, perform the same menial tasks each day, and receive little or no benefit for their labors.

Serfs were the poorest of the peasant class, and were a type of slave. Lords owned the serfs who lived on their lands. In exchange for a place to live, serfs worked the land to grow crops for themselves and their lord. In addition, serfs were expected to work the farms for the lord and pay rent.

These houses mostly provided shelter for a whole family; that would have included the serf, his wife, their children and quite possibly the extended family.

The most important function of serfs was to work on the demesne land of their lord for two or three days each week.

While we may be accustomed to images of medieval peasants toiling away from dawn until dusk and be convinced from this that we have it better than they ever did — a 13th-century laborer could have up to 25 weeks off per year.

Most of the peasants were Medieval Serfs or Medieval Villeins. Women were expected to help their peasant husbands with their daily chores as well as attending to provisions and the cooking of daily meals and other duties customarily undertaken by women.

What three ways did serfs pay rent to their lords? By giving the lords a share of every product they raised, paying for the use of common pasture lands and turning over a part of the can’t from ponds and streams.

One day’s work was considered half a day, and if a serf worked an entire day, this was counted as two “days-works.”[2] Detailed accounts of artisans’ workdays are available. Knoop and jones’ figures for the fourteenth century work out to a yearly average of 9 hours (exclusive of meals and breaktimes)[3].

The lifestyle of a medieval peasant in Medieval England was extremely hard and harsh. Many worked as farmers in fields owned by the lords and their lives were controlled by the farming year. Their lives were harsh but there were few rebellions due to a harsh system of law and order.

Noble lords tended to despise peasants, especially as they began to get richer and upgraded their lives. Think in terms here of “Those damn peasants are getting uppity!” They thought even less of serfs, whom many considered pure property, nothing less… and nothing more.

For fun during the Middle Ages, peasants danced, wrestled, bet on cockfighting and bear baiting, and played an early version of football. On Sundays, peasants were allowed to rest and go to church. Some pious peasants undertook pilgrimages to gain God’s favor.