Sokemen
Sokemen
a category of freemen (peasants with personal independence) in medieval England that formed during the Anglo-Saxon period. Sokemen were distinguished by their special obligations toward the lords. After the Norman Conquest (11th century), they subdivided into two categories, those classified as free tenants under common law (in contrast to the enserfed villeins) and the sokemen of “ancient title,” an intermediate stratum of landholders between the villeins and the free sokemen. In the 15th and 16th centuries, sokemen gradually merged with the broader category of free tenants called freeholders.