The Villagers of Rosny Who Fought Their Serfdom for 47 Years

Around 1179 the villagers of Rosny-sous-Bois, east of Paris, began contesting their status as serfs of the Abbey of St Genevieve, to which Louis VII had granted the village by 1163. A royal judgment went against them; Pope Lucius III confirmed it in 1182, then reversed himself. In 1219 they argued serfdom left them unable to find spouses and Honorius III ordered an inquiry, while the monks won a royal licence for a jail. By 1226, 89 household heads had given up. The account draws on a 1939 article by Marc Bloch and ends in 1246, when the monks gave up their lordship for 60 livres a year.