ased to be felt?

Even before the Black Death, it was frequently the case that villain
holdings could be filled only by compulsion. The difficulty in finding
tenants did not originate in the decrease in the population caused by
the pestilence. There is little evidence that there was a lack of men
qualified to hold land even after the Black Death, but it is certain
that they sought in every way possible to avoid land-holding. The
villains who were eligible in many cases fled, so that it became
exceedingly difficult to fill a tenement when once it became vacant.
Land whose holders died of the pestilence was still without tenants
twenty-five and thirty years later, although persistent attempts had
been made to force men to take it up. When compulsion succeeded only
in driving men away from the manor, numerous concessions were made in
the attempt to make land-holding more attractive. It is important to
notice that these concessions were economic, not social. The force
which was driving men away was not the desire to escape the incidents
of serfdom, but the impossibility of making a living from holdings
burdened with heavy rents. These burdens were eased, grudgingly,
little by little, by landlords who had exhausted other methods of
keeping their land from being deserted. It was necessary to reduce
the rent in some way in order to permit the villains to live. The
produce of a customary holding was no longer sufficient to maintain
life and to allow the holder to render the services and pay the rent
which had been fixed in an earlier century when the soil was more
fertile.

Notices of vacated holdings date from before 1220 on the estates of
the Berkeleys. Thomas the First was lord of Berkeley between 1220 and
1243, and

Such were the tymes for the most part whilest this Lord Thomas
sate Lord, That many of his Tenants in divers of his manors ...
surrendred up and least their lands into his hands because they
were not able to pay the rent and doe the services, which also
often happened in the tyme of his elder brother the Lord
Robert.[57]

This entry in the chronicle is significant, for it is typical of
conditions on many other manors at a later date. The tenants were not
able to pay the rent and do the services, and therefore gave up the
land. It was leased, when men could be found to take it at all, at a
rent lower than that which its former holders had found so oppressive.
It is interestin