Did Medieval Lords own whole villages?

Under the manorial system, the medieval system for which western Europe is best remembered, farmers did not usually own the land they farmed. Most of them were usually serfs or tenant farmers, the difference being that the serfs were not entirely free and could not move off the manors where they worked, but the tenant farmers could. There were other farmers, however, who had their own small holdings, and these people were called yeomen.

There were other systems in use as well, in addition to the manorial system. It was not used in the Byzantine Empire, and other parts of Europe, including Scandinavia and Russia. And it was not used for the entire Middle Ages. So generalizations are never entirely accurate.