Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
Note that being "free" (usually called a husbandman at peasant level) delivered you from a lot of annoying duties and restrictions but was not that much of a gain in status - a serf could well be materially better off than many of the freemen in his village.
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It could also mean that you were of lower status than some of the unfree. They might have certain posts and duties that brought status and wealth and which only an unfree person could hold while you, although free, might have only a tiny piece of land that you had to pay excessive rent to continue to hold (and without which you'd be landless and free mostly to starve...).