| Obviously a good grovel is as necessary today as it was in the days of serfs. |
| Commoners therefore include knights as well as esquires, gentlemen, serfs, and so on. |
| Above the serfs were the Villeins, freemen who were tied to their lord's land, equivalent to the Saxon gebur. |
| For instance, the lords of the manor were learning to make better use of their serfs. |
| The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 left the countryside in deep poverty. |
| It is the rent that kings took for allowing the serfs and others to work the land that the kings owned. |
