I keep hearing excuses like “but your highness the entire crop was destroyed and we’re starving” or “but my lord I’m dying of the plague”. Like ok? That sounds like a you problem. Someone has to do all the work around here and that someone’s not going to be me.
As is my right and privilage to have serfs, it is my responsibility to ensure they have enough so they are not starved.
Starved serfs are unproductive and unproductive means I’m even more harrowed by the tax collector than otherwise. This is, naturally, an unacceptable condition.
Nono they can’t LEAVE… Gods that’s crazy talk. Well. Under escort and when performing duties as menials fine, so long as their share of the work is completed at home. there is a surprising amount of low knowledge to be had from these men of mud. Plus I count more than a few as … suitable enough to show that their sons and daughters may be worth the expense in training for more specialized tasks around my holdings.