At the end of the 10th century, the free peasants with smallholdings began to decline in the face of difficulties with the large landholdings of the clergy and nobility. The magistrates, in the castles granted to them by the counts, appropriated the peasants freeholds and abused their authority. During the first half of the 11th century, the feudal lords, who had taken over public functions such as justice and taxation, imposed new duties and personal services on the peasants, who opposed them by denouncing them to the county justice or by taking up arms. Nevertheless, feudalisation was unstoppable and the peasants lost their rights over their freehold property.