Slavery Almanac | Western Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1500)

• Serfdom: A new form of slavery
• Fact Focus
• Europe's religious unity
• Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire
• Anglo-Saxon England
• The Crusades
• The decline of serfdom

Serfdom: A new form of slavery

Slavery in western Europe changed dramatically after the fall of the Roman Empire in 476. As it was practiced in Italy, France, Germany, and England under Roman rule, slavery was a very organized institution, with distinct differences in society between slaves and free people. Slaves basically had no legal rights, and their lives were...