But these wars had often driven the ceorl or freeman of the township to "commend" himself to a thegn who pledged him his protection in consideration of payment in a rendering of labour.
But these services and the time of rendering them were strictly limited by custom, not only in the case of the ceorl or villein but in that of the originally meaner "landless man.
War in fact was no sooner over than the warrior settled down into the farmer, and the home of the ceorl rose beside the heap of goblin-haunted stones that marked the site of the villa he had burned.
Within the township every freeman or ceorl was equal.
While the pure "theow" or absolute slave disappeared therefore the ceorl or villein sank lower in the social scale.
What ground was actually occupied may have been assigned to each group and each family in the group by lot, and Eorl and Ceorl gathered round them their læt and slave as in their homeland by the Rhine or the Elbe.
Sidenote: Læt and Slave] It was this sharing in the common land which marked off the freeman or ceorl from the unfree man or læt, the tiller of land which another owned.
How the difference arose we do not know, but we do know that the Eorl had privileges which the Ceorl had not.
The Eorl was hereditarily distinguished by birth, and the Ceorl was a simple freeman without any such distinction.
Friend," spoke a ceorl near by, "have a care to thy words.
When morning dawned, as I searched for them, fearing that they might have been slain by the Dane, a bode came running with the tidings that they had taken refuge in the house of a ceorl in one of the villages.
The ceorlneeds it neither for ploughing, or for sowing, or for tending his herds.
Stopping at the houses of ceorl and thegn alike for shelter and refreshment, she gave her merriest smile and sang her gayest songs.
At last a light shone through the darkness, and towards it the ceorlwho bore Egwina walked rapidly.
The ceorl wrapped her in his mantle and lifted her in his arms.
Hence, Haco; rouse the household; summon hither the handmaids; call henchman and ceorl to guard this foul raven.
Little do I know of it, save to scold a ceorl or a nurse.
This done--the ships sail back to their haven; the thegn seeks his homestead and the ceorl returns to the plough; for with Godwin are no strangers; and his force is but the love of his countrymen.
Ye all know that this was the strongest violation of Saxon right; ye know that the meanest ceorl hath the proverb on his lip, 'Every man's house is his castle.
Every ceorl hath some hours to himself to employ to his profit, and can lay by for his own ends.
Thus the Norman very soon lost sight of that distinction the Anglo-Saxons had made between the agricultural ceorl and the theowe; i.
The ceorl sprang from the gate, and opened it, bending low.
An eorl could call upon the ceorl farmers for about forty days to fight off an invading group.
If a ceorl killed an eorl, he paid three times as much as an eorl would have paid as murderer.
If a man commit a rape upon a ceorl's female slave, he must pay bot to the ceorl of 5 shillings and a wite [fine to the King] of 60 shillings.
This year Ceorl the ealdorman, with the men of Devonshire, fought against the heathen men at Wembury [near Plymouth], and there made great slaughter and got the victory.
We have all read of the ceorl who 'throve to thegn-right.
The prosperous ceorl will be no thegn until he has put himself under some lord.
But a rule which valued the oath of a single thegn as highly as the oath of six ceorls would make the ceorl but a poor witness and tend to keep him out of court[170].
The ceorl obtains the thegnly wergild if he has an estate rated for military purposes at five hides.
To say nothing of Welshmen, there was quite enough inter-tribal warfare to supply the ceorlwith a captive.
But we have every reason to suppose that in the first half of the eleventh century a fortunate ceorl had many opportunities of amassing land and of thriving at the expense of his thriftless or unlucky neighbours.
If the bishop often insisted on the letter of this severe rule, he must have reduced many a free ceorl to beggary.
We see that one of the main lines which has separated the rightless slave from the free ceorl is disappearing, for the lord, as suits his interest best, will treat the same man now as free and now as bond[1120].
This done-- the ships sail back to their haven; the thegn seeks his homestead and the ceorl returns to the plough; for with Godwin are no strangers; and his force is but the love of his countrymen.
The ceorl owned a hide of land, bore arms, had a vote, and took part in the thing, or general assembly of his mark.
Each ceorl walked past his chiefs and touched their weapons in token of fealty--the ceremony of the wapentake.
The difference does not consist merely in a diversity of legal value, social influence and occupation, but also in the fact that the ceorl may economically and legally be dependent on the eorl, and afterwards on the thane.
And when we come to Saxon evidence, we shall see how intimately the condition of the ceorl connects itself with the state of the villain along the main lines and in detail.
At all events it is certain that the ceorl was frequently a holder of land, and a person of some position, and that he could attain the rank of a thegn.
And thus we find in our Saxon laws, particularly those of King Athelstan, the several weregilds for homicide, established in progressive order, from the death of the ceorl or peasant, up to that of the king himself.
Tithings and the process of compurgation came to the assistance of other criminals, but the ceorl could appeal to none, and expect neither pity nor aid.
At all events, while the ceorl tasted all the bitterness of his serfdom, the adjudged felon in other stations was able to obtain much leniency.
The stocks and the whipping-post, which stood in front of every castle, were the commonest instruments in use for the punishment of the ceorl and villein who displeased their masters.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "ceorl" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
