49-531: Pentre Ifan (literally 'Ifan's village') is the name of an ancient manor in the community and parish of Nevern , Pembrokeshire , Wales . It is 11 miles (18 km) from Cardigan, Ceredigion , and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Newport, Pembrokeshire . It contains and gives its name to the largest and best preserved neolithic dolmen in Wales. The Pentre Ifan monument is a scheduled monument and one of three Welsh monuments to receive legal protection under
98-484: A cathedral or canonical chapter or a military order. The power of the lord was exercised through various intermediaries, the most important of which was the bailiff . The sovereign can also be a lord; the seigneuries he owns form the royal domain. The title of lord is also granted, especially in modern times, to individuals holding noble fiefdoms which are not for all that seigneuries. These "lords" are sometimes called sieurs, equivalent terms in medieval times. The lord
147-507: A lord (French seigneur ), usually holding his position in return for undertakings offered to a higher lord (see Feudalism ). The lord held a manorial court , governed by public law and local custom. Not all territorial seigneurs were secular; bishops and abbots also held lands that entailed similar obligations. By extension, the word manor is sometimes used in England as a slang term for any home area or territory in which authority
196-491: A large capstone derived from a glacial erratic , far bigger than is required or sensible if the aim is to roof a chamber. Furthermore, the capstone has a flat underside. Sometimes, as here, this has been arrived at by splitting the rock; at other sites, such as Garn Turne, some 12 km to the southwest, it has been laboriously 'pecked' off using stone tools. The capstone is supported on the tapering tips of slender uprights. As at Pentre Ifan, there are often other stones within
245-569: A source of rights and responsibilities issues in places such as Henley-in-Arden , Warwickshire . In examining the origins of the monastic cloister , Walter Horn found that "as a manorial entity the Carolingian monastery ... differed little from the fabric of a feudal estate, save that the corporate community of men for whose sustenance this organisation was maintained consisted of monks who served God in chant and spent much of their time in reading and writing." Tenants owned land on
294-417: A third of the arable area, and villein holdings rather more; but some manors consisted solely of demesne, others solely of peasant holdings. The proportion of unfree and free tenures could likewise vary greatly, with more or less reliance on wage labour for agricultural work on the demesne. The proportion of the cultivated area in demesne tended to be greater in smaller manors, while the share of villein land
343-416: A viable proposition; nor could they be passed to a third party without the lord's permission, and the customary payment. Although not free, villeins were by no means in the same position as slaves: they enjoyed legal rights, subject to local custom, and had recourse to the law subject to court charges, which were an additional source of manorial income. Sub-letting of villein holdings was common, and labour on
392-495: Is entrusted to a tenant against payment of a royalty, most often called cens and services such as Corvée . The distribution between reserve and tenure varies depending on the period and region. Manors each consisted of up to three classes of land: Additional sources of income for the lord included charges for use of his mill, bakery or wine-press, or for the right to hunt or to let pigs feed in his woodland, as well as court revenues and single payments on each change of tenant. On
441-505: Is free. It is about 11 miles (18 km) from Cardigan , and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Newport, Pembrokeshire . Manorialism Manorialism , also known as seigneurialism , the manor system or manorial system , was the method of land ownership (or " tenure ") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages . Its defining features included a large, sometimes fortified manor house in which
490-507: Is held, often in a police or criminal context. In the generic plan of a medieval manor from Shepherd's Historical Atlas , the strips of individually worked land in the open field system are immediately apparent. In this plan, the manor house is set slightly apart from the village, but equally often the village grew up around the forecourt of the manor, formerly walled, while the manor lands stretched away outside, as still may be seen at Petworth House . As concerns for privacy increased in
539-409: Is the direct or prominent owner of the land assets of his lordship. The notion of absolute ownership over a common good cannot be applied, because there are also others than the main user who have rights over these goods. We distinguish in the land lordship two sets the reserves which is the set of goods of which the lord reserves the direct exploitation and tenant-in-chief , property whose exploitation
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#1732798526222588-413: Is the huge capstone, 5 m (16 ft) long, 2.4 m (7.9 ft) width and 0.9 m (3.0 ft) thick. It is estimated to weigh 16 tonnes and rests on the tips of three other stones, some 2.5 m (8.2 ft) off the ground. There are six upright stones, three of which support the capstone. Of the remaining three, two portal stones form an entrance and the third, at an angle, appears to block
637-544: The Seigniorial Dues Abolition Act of 1935. George Owen of Henllys George Owen of Henllys (1552 – 26 August 1613) was a Welsh antiquarian , author, and naturalist . George Owen was the eldest son born to Elizabeth Herbert and William Owen in Henllys of the parish of Nevern , near Newport, Pembrokeshire . William Owen ( c. 1486–1574) was a successful Welsh lawyer who purchased
686-725: The Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 . The dolmen is maintained and cared for by Cadw , the Welsh Historic Monuments Agency. The Welsh name Pentre Ifan translates to 'Ifan's village' – from pentref 'village' and the personal name Ifan , a form of Ieuan , ultimately from the Latin Johannes . As it now stands, the Pentre Ifan Dolmen is a collection of seven principal stones. The largest
735-608: The Lordship of Kemys . Following his father's death, he inherited the estate. George Owen was educated in law at the Inns of Court in London. He spent considerable time fighting a series of lawsuits against family enemies in the county over ownership of manorial franchises. During his life span he collected antiquarian information about Wales, including the heraldry , genealogy and historical buildings and structures. He also studied
784-560: The Rittergut manors of Junkers remained until World War II . The term is most often used with reference to medieval Western Europe. Antecedents of the system can be traced to the rural economy of the later Roman Empire ( Dominate ). Labour was the key factor of production . Successive administrations tried to stabilise the imperial economy by freezing the social structure into place: sons were to succeed their fathers in their trade, councillors were forbidden to resign, and coloni ,
833-564: The Roman villa system of the Late Roman Empire , and was widely practised in medieval western Europe and parts of central Europe. An essential element of feudal society, manorialism was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian contract. Manorialism faded away slowly and piecemeal, along with its most vivid feature in the landscape, the open field system . It outlasted serfdom in
882-415: The lord of the manor and his dependants lived and administered a rural estate, and a population of labourers or serfs who worked the surrounding land to support themselves and the lord. These labourers fulfilled their obligations with labour time or in-kind produce at first, and later by cash payment as commercial activity increased. Manorialism was part of the feudal system . Manorialism originated in
931-460: The topography of the county of Pembrokeshire and other parts of Wales. During his studies he performed observations of the geology of Wales, including the strata of limestone and coal . Although he did not actually form geological theories about the formations of these strata, he has earned a certain reputation as the progenitor of British geology. He was a literary man who was reflective of this period of interest in history and antiquities during
980-509: The 18th century, manor houses were often located a farther distance from the village. For example, when a grand new house was required by the new owner of Harlaxton Manor , Lincolnshire, in the 1830s, the site of the existing manor house at the edge of its village was abandoned for a new one, isolated in its park, with the village out of view. In an agrarian society, the conditions of land tenure underlie all social or economic factors. There were two legal systems of pre-manorial landholding. One,
1029-597: The Elizabeth era. He associated with a small circle of writers in Pembrokeshire, and was the patron to numerous Welsh bards. From 1587 until 1590 he served as the Deputy Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire, and he reprised this role from 1595 until 1601. In this service he was responsible for the military defensive, including the fortification of Milford Haven against possible Spanish invasion, and he trained
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#17327985262221078-410: The cultivators of land, were not to move from the land they were attached to. The workers of the land were on their way to becoming serfs. Several factors conspired to merge the status of former slaves and former free farmers into a dependent class of such coloni : it was possible to be described as servus et colonus , "both slave and colonus ". The Laws of Constantine I around 325 both reinforced
1127-431: The demesne might be commuted into an additional money payment, as happened increasingly from the 13th century. Land which was neither let to tenants nor formed part of demesne lands was known as "manorial waste"; typically, this included hedges , verges , etc. Common land where all members of the community had right of passage was known as "lord's waste". Part of the demesne land of the manor which being uncultivated
1176-432: The doorway. The dolmen dates from around 3500 BC, and has traditionally been identified as a communal burial. Under this theory the existing stones formed the portal and main chamber of the tomb, which would originally have been covered by a large mound of stones about 30 m (98 ft) long and 17 m wide. Some of the kerbstones, marking the edge of the mound, have been identified during excavations. The stone chamber
1225-409: The group, but they play no part in holding up the capstone, and the resulting effect of the enormous stone appearing to float above the other stones would seem to be deliberate and desired. If these are the key elements of the monument then, it is argued, the stones were never designed to be buried within a mound, and they never formed a chamber to contain bones. What we see today is the monument as it
1274-486: The king, and a greater proportion (rather more than a quarter) were held by bishoprics and monasteries . Ecclesiastical manors tended to be larger, with a significantly greater villein area than neighbouring lay manors. The effect of circumstances on manorial economy is complex and at times contradictory: upland conditions tended to preserve peasant freedoms (livestock husbandry in particular being less labour-intensive and therefore less demanding of villein services); on
1323-430: The latter containing also parts of at least one other manor. This situation sometimes led to replacement by cash payments or their equivalents in kind of the demesne labour obligations of those peasants living furthest from the lord's estate. As with peasant plots, the demesne was not a single territorial unit, but consisted rather of a central house with neighbouring land and estate buildings, plus strips dispersed through
1372-625: The local militia for the county. He also served as the High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1587 and 1602. He died in Haverfordwest and was buried at Nevern. In the Nevern church he is commemorated as the "Patriarch of English Geologists". The wrinkle ridge Dorsum Owen on the Moon is named after him. In 1571 he was married to Elizabeth Phillips. The couple had eleven children, including
1421-478: The manor alongside free and villein ones: in addition, the lord might lease free tenements belonging to neighbouring manors, as well as holding other manors some distance away to provide a greater range of produce. Nor were manors held necessarily by lay lords rendering military service (or again, cash in lieu) to their superior: a substantial share (estimated by value at 17% in England in 1086 ) belonged directly to
1470-564: The manor under one of several legal agreements: freehold , copyhold , customary freehold and leasehold . Like feudalism which, together with manorialism, formed the legal and organisational framework of feudal society, manorial structures were not uniform or coordinated. In the later Middle Ages, areas of incomplete or non-existent manorialisation persisted while the manorial economy underwent substantial development with changing economic conditions. Not all manors contained all three classes of land. Typically, demesne accounted for roughly
1519-607: The most common, was the system of holding land " allodially " in full outright ownership. The other was a use of precaria or benefices , in which land was held conditionally (the root of the English word "precarious"). To these two systems, the Carolingian monarchs added a third, the aprisio , which linked manorialism with feudalism . The aprisio made its first appearance in Charlemagne 's province of Septimania in
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1568-419: The mound, and therefore must predate it. Kerbstones for the mound were also found, but not in a complete sequence, and aligned more to the pits than to the stone chamber. Very few items were found in the excavations, other than some flint flakes, and a small amount of Welsh (Western) pottery. The dolmen is maintained and cared for by Cadw , the Welsh Historic Monuments Agency. The site is well kept, and entrance
1617-491: The other hand, some upland areas of Europe showed some of the most oppressive manorial conditions, while lowland eastern England is credited with an exceptionally large free peasantry, in part a legacy of Scandinavian settlement. Similarly, the spread of money economy stimulated the replacement of labour services by money payments, but the growth of the money supply and resulting inflation after 1170 initially led nobles to take back leased estates and to re-impose labour dues as
1666-487: The other side of the account, manorial administration involved significant expenses, perhaps a reason why smaller manors tended to rely less on villein tenure . Dependent holdings were held nominally by arrangement of lord and tenant, but tenure became in practice almost universally hereditary, with a payment made to the lord on each succession of another member of the family. Villein land could not be abandoned, at least until demographic and economic circumstances made flight
1715-413: The same spot it now occupies. Evidence from the 1948 excavation is compatible with the idea of a large pit being dug at Pentre Ifan, to expose and work on the stone, perhaps splitting it to create a flat underside, It could then be levered vertically upwards a little at a time, using poles, ropes, and large numbers of people, and packed into place using a growing heap of boulders. Once at the required height,
1764-559: The semi-servile status of the coloni and limited their rights to sue in the courts; the Codex Theodosianus promulgated under Theodosius II extended these restrictions. The legal status of adscripti , "bound to the soil", contrasted with barbarian foederati , who were permitted to settle within the imperial boundaries, remaining subject to their own traditional law. As the Germanic kingdoms succeeded Roman authority in
1813-540: The sense that it continued with freehold labourers. As an economic system, it outlasted feudalism, according to Andrew Jones, because "it could maintain a warrior, but it could equally well maintain a capitalist landlord. It could be self-sufficient, yield produce for the market, or it could yield a money rent." The last feudal dues in France were abolished at the French Revolution . In parts of eastern Germany,
1862-731: The site, but the owner of a monument was exempt from any prosecution. The Act however provided for the Commissioner of Works to become 'guardian' of a scheduled monument – in effect to own the monument, even though the land on which it stood remained in private ownership. Perhaps as result of Pitt Rivers' visit, this protection was put in place, and the Commissioner of Works and various successor bodies have been guardians of Pentre Ifan ever since. Archaeological excavations took place in 1936–37 and 1958–59, both led by William Francis Grimes . This identified rows of ritual pits which lay under
1911-492: The south of France , when Charlemagne had to settle the Visigothic refugees who had fled with his retreating forces after the failure of his Zaragoza expedition of 778. He solved this problem by allotting "desert" tracts of uncultivated land belonging to the royal fisc under direct control of the emperor. These holdings aprisio entailed specific conditions. The earliest specific aprisio grant that has been identified
1960-468: The stone chamber, which would be re-used many times. No traces of bones were found in the tomb, raising the possibility that they were subsequently transferred elsewhere. A major study by Cummings and Richards in 2014 produced a different explanation for the monument. They identify several distinctive attributes shared by the class of monument known as dolmens, all of which are particularly well exemplified at Pentre Ifan. First, such monuments typically have
2009-502: The supporting uprights could be introduced, and the boulders removed to leave only the uprights, and such other surrounding stones as were wanted, or for sacrificial ceremonies. Pentre Ifan was studied by early travellers and antiquarians, and rapidly became famous as an image of ancient Wales, from engravings of the romantic stones. George Owen wrote of it in enthusiastic terms in 1603, and Richard Tongue painted it in 1835. The first United Kingdom legislation to protect ancient monuments
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2058-532: The value of fixed cash payments declined in real terms. The last feudal dues in France were abolished at the French Revolution . The last patroonship was abolished in New York in the 1840s as a result of the Anti-Rent War . In parts of eastern Germany, the Rittergut manors of Junkers remained until World War II . In Quebec, the last feudal rents were paid in 1970 under the modified provisions of
2107-562: The west in the fifth century, Roman landlords were often simply replaced by Germanic ones, with little change to the underlying situation or displacement of populations. The process of rural self-sufficiency was given an abrupt boost in the eighth century, when normal trade in the Mediterranean Sea was disrupted. The word derives from traditional inherited divisions of the countryside, reassigned as local jurisdictions known as manors or seigneuries ; each manor being subject to
2156-493: Was at Fontjoncouse , near Narbonne (see Lewis, links). In former Roman settlements, a system of villas , dating from Late Antiquity, was inherited by the medieval world. The possessor of a seigneurie bears the title of " Lord ". He can be an individual, in the vast majority of cases a national of the nobility or of the Bourgeoisie , but also a judicial person most often an ecclesiastical institution such as an abbey ,
2205-434: Was at the southern end of the long mound, which stretched off to the north. Very little of the material that formed the mound remains. Some of the stones have been scattered, but at least seven are in their original position. An elaborate entrance façade surrounding the portal, which may have been a later addition, was built with carefully constructed dry stone walling . Individual burials are thought to have been made within
2254-409: Was greater in large manors, providing the lord of the latter with a larger supply of obligatory labour for demesne work. The proportion of free tenements was generally less variable, but tended to be somewhat greater on the smaller manors. Manors varied similarly in their geographical arrangement: most did not coincide with a single village, but rather consisted of parts of two or more villages, most of
2303-465: Was intended to be seen. It might therefore represent a more elaborate version of a standing stone. Its purpose could be simply to demonstrate the status and skill of the builders, or to add significance and gravitas to an already significant place. The sheer size of the huge capstone that is supported by the larger dolmens makes it overwhelmingly likely that the stone was not brought in from elsewhere, but already stood as an independent glacial erratic on
2352-504: Was passed in 1882, and 'The Pentre Evan Cromlech' (as it was styled) was on the initial list of 68 protected sites – one of only three in Wales. On 8 June 1884, two years after the passing of the first Ancient Monuments Act, Augustus Pitt Rivers , Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments, made a visit and produced sketch plans of the monument. The legal protection the Act gave was limited. It became an offence to remove stones or items from
2401-556: Was termed the Lord's Waste and served for public roads and for common pasture to the lord and his tenants. In many settlements during the early modern period, illegal building was carried out on lord's waste land by squatters who would then plead their case to remain with local support. An example of a lord's waste settlement, where the main centres grew up in this way, is the village of Bredfield in Suffolk . Lord's waste continues to be
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