Detailed list of persons and their roles in the Capitulare de Villis (Carolingian royal estates, c. 800–802)

Below I list every individual or class named in the Capitulare de Villis, grouped by place and function, with (a) where they operate (palace, district, estate, forest, workshops, etc.), (b) their duties as given or implied in the text, and (c) how they fit into the Carolingian hierarchy. After the lists I explain the legal/social categories — especially "our men/our people", "men of the fisc", "free men", "serfs", "householders/manse‑holders" and holders of benefices — and give a short hierarchy summary.

Top of hierarchy (royal household and policy)

• The King ("we") — Place: palace / realm. Role: ultimate owner and policymaker; issues orders about estate management, revenues, punishments, tithe policy, military supplies, and appointments. Everything held in reserve or sale is "to await our instructions."
• The Queen — Place: palace. Role: co-authority on some orders; stewards must obey orders from the queen as well as the king; appears as co-head of household authority.
• Seneschal (household steward, dapifer) — Place: palace and household. Role: senior household officer; issues orders in the king's name (the capitulary explicitly treats commands from the seneschal as royal commands). Coordinates palace service and sometimes estate tasks sent out from court.
• Butler (cupbearer/pincerna) — Place: palace/household. Role: senior officer responsible for wine, cellars and related provisioning; issues orders in the king's/queen's name (like the seneschal).
• Hunters and falconers permanently attending the palace — Place: palace and estates. Role: palace servants specialised in hunting and falconry; when sent on errands over the estates they must be assisted by stewards or local officers as ordered.
• Missi (missi dominici) and their retinues — Place: travelling royal envoys across districts. Role: royal inspectors and envoys; customarily provisioned and assisted by local officials and the count when travelling to/from palace; they must not lodge in royal manor houses except by express royal order.
• Count (comes) — Place: district (pagus/county). Role: regional official; in context he is responsible for providing pack‑horses and necessities for missi and their retinues in his district — i.e. a local magnate with administrative duties toward royal agents.

Estate and district managers

• Stewards (magistri, heads of royal estates) — Place: district/estate. Role: the principal managers of royal demesne. Duties spelled out at length: supervise sowing, ploughing, harvesting, vineyards, mills, livestock, fishponds, storehouses; keep measures; collect and send produce and money; arrange tithes to churches on royal estates; appoint men for beekeeping; keep harvest/seed records; keep craftmen and workshops supplied; hold hearings and dispense justice for "our people" on the estates; maintain buildings, parks and fences; provide materials and barrels for the palace/army; report annually on income to the king at Christmas; enforce discipline (punishment, abstention from food/drink until presented at palace) and ensure subordinates obey orders from palace, seneschal or butler. Stewards are central intermediaries between palace and local workforce.
• Mayors (majores, villae mayors) — Place: villages/manors within a steward's district. Role: local official on each manor who performs official duties in lieu of manual labour in return for holding a benefice; may be required to send a substitute to carry out physical labour. Mayors should be modest men, loyal rather than powerful. They must not hold more land than they can inspect in a single day. They also may be required to feed puppies or care for animals under certain rules.
• Deans (decanus) — Place: estate/manor. Role: local administrative/possibly ecclesiastical officer who, together with mayors and cellarers, helps manage day‑to‑day tasks and can be entrusted with feeding, kennels, or other responsibilities.
• Cellarers — Place: manor/estate. Role: responsible for cellars, wine handling, storage and provisioning; give pigs in return for holdings (i.e. their tenure expects service not manual labour); they supervise wine-presses, sends wine to royal cellars, and ensure cleanliness in wine-making.
• Stablemen — Place: stables on estates/palace. Role: care for horses, grooms' coordination, maintain stallions and mares as ordered; may be officials who render services instead of manual labour.
• Foresters — Place: royal woods and forests. Role: guard, manage and protect royal woods and forests: prevent excessive cutting, guard game, collect dues (including tithe for pannage), manage pigs turned in to woods for fattening; enforce forest discipline.
• Toll‑collectors — Place: markets, bridges, roads within estate/district. Role: collect tolls and dues for the fisc; considered estate officials who perform assigned services instead of providing manual labour.

Local and specialized estate staff (craftsmen, workshop staff, and others)

• Grooms — Place: stables. Role: care for horses; grooms who are free men and have benefices live off those benefices; those without holdings receive food from the demesne.
• Master‑brewers — Place: estate/palace (when steward attends). Role: brew beer and other beverages; accompany steward to palace to brew for household.
• Bakers — Place: estate (special bakeries). Role: bake bread for royal use.
• Blacksmiths, goldsmiths, silversmiths — Place: estate workshops. Role: produce and repair metal goods, weapons, tools; stewards must ensure iron tools are suitable for army use and returned to stores.
• Shoemakers, turners, carpenters, shield‑makers, saddlers — Place: estate workshops. Role: produce footwear, turned objects, timberwork, shields, saddlery — essential craftsmen for household and military needs.
• Fishermen — Place: fishponds/pools. Role: manage fishponds (keep them stocked, sell fish when king not present and profit for royal benefit), supply fish for Lenten and household needs.
• Net‑makers — Place: workshops. Role: make nets for hunting, fishing, fowling.
• Soap‑makers, brewers, beekeepers, brewers of cider/perry — Place: estate workshops. Role: produce soap, beer, cider, mead; stewards must keep bees and have soap/wax supply obligations.
• Falconers — Place: estate/palace. Role: keep and train hawks and falcons for royal hunting; must be kept ready and assisted when on errands.
• Gardeners — Place: estate gardens. Role: cultivate a very long list of herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees; the text names the gardener and exact plants to be kept.
• Keeper of mills — Place: mills on estates. Role: manage mills and their associated poultry (chickens/geese) and supplies for royal table.
• Workshop women and women’s‑work supervisors — Place: women’s workshops and women’s quarters. Role: run spinning/weaving and other textile/household production; stewards must supply linen, wool, dyes, soap and tools; women’s quarters must be well built and kept safe and heated.
• Kennel attendants / those who feed puppies — Place: kennels on estates. Role: feed palace dogs/puppies; sometimes done by mayors, deans, cellarers or men appointed by stewards; stewards may also set aside food if palace pays.
• Guards and watch‑fire keepers — Place: royal houses and manors. Role: watch and guard houses; keep continuous watch‑fires to maintain safety.

Rural producers, tenants and dependent population

• Our men / Our people (nostri, our serfs/servants on royal demesne) — Place: royal estates (demesne/fisc). Role: dependents attached to royal estates who supply labour, animals, produce and services to the demesne; explicitly under steward supervision. The capitulary treats them as subject to corporal punishment (whipping) rather than fines; they are protected from being impoverished and are entitled to royal justice administered by stewards. Many of the specific tasks (bees, pigs, poultry, seed, ploughing teams) are sourced from "our people."
• Men of the fisc — Place: attached to the royal fisc (domain). Role: overlapping with "our people"; those who are considered part of the royal domain and whose dues, services and justice obligations and protections derive from that attachment. They are obligated to provide full justice to others and to report income. The term emphasizes fiscal/administrative attachment to the crown.
• Serfs (servi, villeins) — Place: manor/estate. Role: unfree agricultural laborers attached to the demesne; owe labour services, produce, animals and other dues; subject to corporal punishment (whipping) for faults on the royal demesne; steward and master must defend their legal right to justice and not compel them unlawfully to extra labour.
• Free men who live on crown lands and estates (liberi; freemen) — Place: royal lands but legally free. Role: free peasants resident on the king's lands; they are subject to their own law in disputes and must pay fines for wrongs according to that law; whatever they pay as fines is assigned to the king's use. They owe dues and are a source of revenue (fines, rents, market dues) but are not to be treated like serfs (no corporal punishment instead of fine). They may hold benefices.
• Householders and manse‑holders — Place: holding manses on royal estates. Role: smaller free or semi‑free holders who provide carts and goods for the army and household when called upon; they hold a manse (a small estate holding) and are recorded by stewards. They may be required to provide specific cart loads for military provisioning.
• Those who hold manses / holders of benefices — Place: district/estate. Role: persons holding land or benefices that give them a living and exempt them partly from manual labour; may be local officials (mayors, grooms who are free men) and expected to live off their benefice.
• Newly acquired slaves — Place: estate. Role: the capitulary mentions vacant manses and newly acquired slaves as estate resources; slaves are distinct from serfs but appear as property/resources that stewards inventory and report about if surplus exists.
• Substitutes for official holders — Place: manor/estate. Role: when officials who hold benefices (e.g. a mayor) cannot do manual labour, they appoint substitutes to perform the manual tasks on their behalf.
• Shepherds — Place: pastures/estates. Role: supply carts and services for the army and household; stewards keep records of what is set aside for military uses from shepherds and householders.

Other persons and agents mentioned

• Messengers — Place: district/estate. Role: sent by stewards when they cannot be present; must be trustworthy and reliable to settle affairs or supervise work.
• Pack‑horse providers (men traditionally responsible for missi) — Place: local districts. Role: traditional local men who furnish pack‑horses and needs to the missi; the count or these traditional men continue to provide such assistance.
• Toll and market officials — Place: markets, roads, bridges. Role: collect market dues, tolls and fines whose revenue goes to the fisc; stewards include such receipts in annual accounts.
• Judges / hearing officials — Place: stewards’ hearing courts on estates. Role: stewards are instructed to hold frequent hearings and dispense justice for "our people" and other cases relating to the estate; they ensure people are not forced unnecessarily to appear at the palace.
• Wolf‑hunters and trackers — Place: district/forest. Role: tasked to catch wolves and bring skins to the king; stewards must report annually on wolf numbers and hunting results.
• Men who tend pigs in woods (pannage participants) — Place: royal woods. Role: those who send pigs into woods to be fattened; if steward or mayor sends pigs, they must pay tithes first to set an example.
• Hostage (hostiatus / hostage of ours) — Place: sometimes kept outside estates. Role: the document forbids stewards commending a royal hostage on the estates — a political/legal safeguard indicating hostages could be maintained but not entrusted to estate command.

Clarifying legal and social categories and hierarchy

• King / Queen — top. Issue orders; own the fisc/demesne; receive fines and revenues.
• Royal household officers (seneschal, butler) — exercise royal authority in the palace; their orders carry royal weight and must be obeyed by stewards.
• Stewards — key local managers; they are the King's agents on the estates and districts; intermediate authority between palace and local population. They supervise craft, agriculture, livestock, storage, justice and revenue collection.
• Mayors, deans, cellarers, stablemen, toll‑collectors, foresters — local estate officials under the steward; may hold benefices and perform official duties in lieu of manual labour; mayors are chosen from modest station to secure loyalty.
• Men of the fisc / our men / our people — residents attached to the royal domain. Typically include serfs and dependent householders; they supply labour and produce to the demesne and enjoy protections and jurisdiction from the steward. "Our men/our people" in this document are those who belong to the king's estates and are to be defended from exploitation; they are subject to corporal punishment (whipping) rather than fines for most offences on the demesne.
• Serfs — unfree labourers attached to the land. They owe service to the demesne and are under the direct supervision of stewards and masters. The capitulary specially orders stewards not to force extra labour or take gifts from serfs beyond allowed items, and to ensure they are not reduced to poverty.
• Free men living on crown lands — free peasants who reside on royal lands. They enjoy personal freedom and are judged according to their own law; if fined their fines go to the king. They are required to pay dues like other residents and appear in steward accounts as distinct from serfs.
• Householders / manse‑holders — smallholders who hold a manse and provide carts, plough teams, or other resources for army and household obligations; they may be semi‑free or free and are recorded by stewards.
• Holders of benefices — local officials or free men who have been granted land/income (benefice) enabling them to live off that income instead of performing manual labour; may appoint substitutes to do manual tasks. Grooms and mayors could be in this category.
• Slaves — property; the capitulary notes newly acquired slaves among estate resources; distinct from serfs but part of estate inventory.

How punishments, justice and fines operate in this ordering

• Serfs/"our people": whipping is the prescribed punishment for many offences on the royal demesne; stewards must ensure they are not impoverished or forced to perform private labour for stewards.
• Free men on crown lands: judged by their own law; wrongs are paid by fines (cattle or other payment) which go to the king.
• Stewards: must give justice to others as law requires; if they fail, they face abstention from food/drink and must appear before the king/queen to seek forgiveness and may be punished.

Short hierarchical map (top → bottom)

1. King & Queen
2. Palace household (seneschal, butler, permanent palace servants including hunters/falconers)
3. Stewards (royal estate/district managers)
4. Local officials under stewards (mayors, deans, cellarers, stablemen, foresters, toll‑collectors)
5. Craftsmen & specialised staff (blacksmiths, brewers, bakers, gardeners, falconers, net‑makers, etc.)
6. Householders/manse‑holders/holders of benefices (semi‑independent smallholders who supply carts/services)
7. Free men resident on crown lands (free peasants)
8. Serfs / men of the fisc / "our people" (unfree dependents attached to the demesne)
9. Slaves (property, newly acquired slaves as estate resources)

Short notes and teaching points

• The capitulary is prescriptive: it records what the king expects of his officers and how the royal domain should be run. Many of the named persons are estate officials or categories of dependent population rather than individuals.
• "Our men/our people" and "men of the fisc" are central: they are the workforce and resources of the royal demesne and receive both protection and regulation from the steward; they are not interchangeable with "free men", who have different legal standing and pay fines to the king when convicted.
• Stewards are the pivot of administration — they supervise production, justice, supplies, and report income; palace officers (seneschal, butler) and the king/queen stand above them.

If you want, I can (a) produce a one‑page printable table of roles/duties/place, (b) map the relationships as a flowchart, or (c) annotate the original Latin terms against each English role for primary‑source cross‑reference.