villein

plural villeins · alternative archaic villain

1. historicalA feudal tenant, a serf.

   "Then you're not - " "Darling," I said, "do you really see me in the position of a seigneur, driving my serfs and villeins before me with a whip - even if the triffids haven't overrun me first?"

   1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 269

   1 more example

   If any burgess be appealed of a plea whereon wager of battle may issue by a villein or outdweller , let him defend himself by oath, that is to say by the 36 men, unless he is challenged in respect of a crime that the law requires him to defend by battle, in no case ought a burgess to fight against a villein if he have challenged him unless before the dispute he shall have quitted the burgage.

   1907, Antiquities of Sunderland and Its Vicinity - Volumes 5-7, page 73