Final answer:
The manor court underscored the differences between free and unfree peasants by highlighting the servitude and lack of freedom of the serfs within the feudal system. The lord's judicial authority over the serfs reaffirmed their subordinate status and obligations, such as unpaid labor and personal restrictions that only applied to them. This system was challenged after the Black Death, as surviving peasants gained leverage to improve their conditions, yet the nobility enacted laws to resist these social changes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The manor court presented another difference between free and unfree peasants during the medieval period through the exercise of the lord’s judicial power over the serfs. Free peasants, while still living under feudal obligations, had more autonomy than unfree peasants and were not strictly bound to the land or the lord’s authority in the same way. Serfs, on the other hand, were bound to the land through the system of manorialism and had obligations such as unpaid labor, restrictions on marriage, and requiring the lord’s permission for many aspects of their lives.
The feudal system of the High Middle Ages incorporated the manor court, which was not just a judicial body but also a symbol of the lord’s authority and the serfs’ servitude. The position of unfree peasants was further highlighted by the fact that they did not have the same legal rights as free individuals, and they were subject to the lord’s commands and punishments at the manor court, solidifying the social hierarchy.
Following the Black Death, the plight of the peasants improved as the decrease in population allowed survivors to access more resources and negotiate better working conditions. However, this shift in power was met with resistance from the nobility, who passed laws to keep wages and peasant status at pre-plague levels, in an effort to preserve the manorial system and their control over the unfree peasants.