ABSTRACT
The inner development of seignorial proprietorship, especially of the occidental manor, was conditioned, in the first place, by political and social class relations. Within the manor was first the seigniorial land, or demesne, including the terra salica, which was managed directly by the lord's officials and the terra indominicata, seigniorial holdings in free peasant villages; and second the hide land of the peasants. As a consequence of the development of feudalism, when the landed nobility began to collect the taxes, there arose exemption from taxation of the nobility itself, with liability to taxation on the part of the unarmed peasantry. The medieval peasantry became strongly differentiated within and held together through the power of the lords and the manorial law. The lords secured rentals, in numerous ways: through feudal dues, which the free peasant paid in goods; through fees on occasion of a change in tenant, enforced by the lord as a condition of the sale of the holding.
