Corvée is the name usually given to the obligation on the inhabitants of districts to perform gratuitous labour (such as the maintenance of roads) for the sovereign or feudal lord. The forced labour for the aristocracy was one of the grievances of the French peasantry, which led to the Revolution. See FRANCE.
Corvée
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 500
Source scan(s): p. 0511