The Lord’s Reeve of Underwell Glen has announced a temporary reprieve from corvée for the coming month. Although Ardda the reeve acknowledges that plough time normally demands heavy workloads from Underwell Glen’s serfs, he says Lord Childiver feels deeply for the ‘sodden wretches of Culriver’ following the devastation from the recent flooding of Culriver.
Fourteen people are missing from communities along the Culriver since it overran its banks seventeen days ago. Although no houses in Underwell Glen were swept away, numerous pens and sheds were carried away by the raging river. The steward of Underwell Glen estimates at least 13 shillings worth of damage to local structures, plus the loss of numerous livestock and stores of seed.
Lord Childiver has authorized the reeve to hire laborers to perform tasks normally assigned through corvée to Underwell Glen’s serfs. There has been a surplus of laborers abroad in recent weeks due to the destruction wrought by the flooding. The village of New Bamhaugh, for example, was completely submerged, and all of its freeholders have since abandoned their leases and are now migrating or hiring themselves out – a tragic fall for many former servile families.
Reeve Ardda presents this as an opportunity for such unfortunates to find solid work, though some critics are not convinced. “Lord Childiver says he’s freeing folks from work dues, but in reality the land’s so soggy now that there won’t be any plowing done for weeks anyways, by which point relief from corvée will have expired and folks’ll have to work extra hard to make up for lost time,” says Runiger, a local freedman who once worked the lord’s lands. “It’s all just to curry favor with the local clergy, who’ve objected to his harsh justice over the past two years.” While Ardda objects to the portrayal of the lord in such a way, he did add, “This is a temporary clemency of seasonal custom and in no way reduces future duty to boon or corvée.”