Manorialism: This is the organization of rural economy and society in medieval western and parts of central Europe, characterized by the vesting of legal and economic power in a lord supported economically from his own direct landholding and from the obligatory contributions of a legally subject part of the peasant population (serfs).
Peasant: A member of a class of persons who are small farmers or farm laborers of low social rank.
Feudal Contract: A set of unwritten rules that determined the relationship between a lord and his vassal (which included serfs).