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'Then again as lord of many manors throughout the Palatinate I should have had all the old feudal dues coming in to my treasury waifs and strays, treasure trove, deodands 'And merchet of women? queried his cousin mischievously.
Previous payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowledgments of serfdom, the obtaining of their land on burdensome conditions, were all recorded on the rolls and could be produced to prove the custom of the manor to the disadvantage of the tenant.
Their economic position was often so similar that the classes shaded into one another. But the villain was, as has been seen, usually burdened with much heavier services. He was subject to special payments, such as "merchet," a payment made to the lord of the manor when a woman of villain rank was married, and "leyr," a payment made by women for breach of chastity.
'Ay, replied the 'Golden Canon' with a responsive twinkle in his eye, "merchet of women" also, but as an antiquary I must tell ye that it's not what you two young men would wish it to be
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