Medieval British and Scandinavian noble title
In later
Anglo-Saxon England
, a
thegn
(
pronounced
;
Old English
:
þe?n
) or
thane
[1]
(or
thayn
in
Shakespearean English
) was an aristocrat who owned substantial land in one or more counties. Thanes ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and
ealdormen
.
Thanage
refers to the tenure by which lands were held by a thane as well as the rank.
The term
thane
was also used in
early medieval
Scandinavia
for a class of retainers, and
thane
was a title given to local royal officials in medieval eastern
Scotland
, equivalent in rank to the child of an
earl
.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The
Old English
þe?(e)n
(
IPA:
[?θej(e)n]
, "man, attendant, retainer") is
cognate
with
Old High German
degan
and
Old Norse
þegn
("thane,
franklin
, freeman, man").
[3]
[
dead link
]
Thegn
is only used once in the laws before the time of
Aethelstan
(
c.
895?940
), but more frequently in the charters.
[4]
Apparently unconnected to the
German
and
Dutch
word
dienen
('to serve'),
H. M. Chadwick
suggests "the sense of subordination must have been inherent... from the earliest time".
It gradually expanded in meaning and use, to denote a member of a territorial nobility, while thegnhood was attainable by fulfilling certain conditions.
[4]
The thane had a military significance, and its usual
Latin
translation was
miles
, meaning soldier, although
minister
was often used.
An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
describes a thane as "one engaged in a king's or a queen's service, whether in the household or in the country". It adds: "the word... seems gradually to acquire a technical meaning... denoting a class, containing several degrees".
[4]
Origins
[
edit
]
In the 5th century,
Germanic peoples
collectively known as
Anglo-Saxons
migrated to
sub-Roman Britain
and came to dominate the east and southeast of the island. Based on archaeological evidence (such as burials and buildings), these early communities appear to have lacked any social elite. Around half the population were free, independent farmers (Old English:
ceorlas
) who cultivated a
hide
of land (enough to provide for a family).
Slaves
, mostly native
Britons
, made up the other half.
By the late 6th century, the archeological evidence (grander burials and buildings) suggests the development of a social elite. This period coincided with the
Late Antique Little Ice Age
and the
Plague of Justinian
. These events would have caused famine and other societal disruptions that may have increased violence and led previously independent farmers to submit to the rule of strong lords. The Old English word for
lord
is
hlaford
(
'
loaf-guardian
'
or
'
bread-giver
'
).
The early
law codes of Kent
use the Old English word
eorl
(
'
high born
'
,
'
noble
'
) to describe a nobleman. By the 8th century, the word
gesith
(
'
companion
'
; Latin:
comes
) had replaced
eorl
as the common term for a nobleman.
There were both land-owning and landless gesiths.
A landless gesith would serve as a
retainer
in the
comitatus
of a king, queen, or lord. In return, they were provided protection (Old English:
mund
) and gifts of gold and silver. Young nobles were raised with the children of kings to someday become their gesith.
A gesith might be granted an estate in reward for loyal service.
By the 10th century, Anglo-Saxon society was divided into three main social classes: slaves,
ceorlas
(
'
free men
'
), and
þegnas
(
'
thegns
'
,
'
aristocrats
'
).
Thegn
(Old English:
þe?n
) meant servant or warrior, and it replaced the term
gesith
in the 10th century.
Law codes assigned a
weregeld
or man price of 200
shillings
for a
ceorl
and 1,200s for a thegn.
Ranks and functions
[
edit
]
Thegns were divided into three ranks:
ealdormen
(later
earl
), king's thegns, and median thegns.
Below ealdormen were king's thegns, so called because they only served the king. The lowest thegnly rank were the median thegns who owed service to other thegns. The higher a thegn's rank, the greater the
heriot
he paid to the king.
Thegns were the backbone of local government and the military.
Sheriffs
were drawn from this class, and thegns were required to attend the
shire court
and give judgment. For these reasons, historian
David Carpenter
described thegns as "the
country gentry
of Anglo-Saxon England".
[15]
Although their exact role is unclear, the twelve senior thegns of the
hundred
played a part in the development of the English system of justice. Under a law of
Aethelred
they "seem to have acted as the judicial committee of the court for the purposes of accusation".
This suggests some connection with the modern
jury trial
.
Social mobility
[
edit
]
Children inherited thegnly status from their father, and a thegnly woman who married a
ceorl
retained her noble status.
A successful thegn might hope to be promoted to earl.
[4]
A prosperous
ceorl
could become a landlord in his own right and aspire to thegnly rank. In the legal tract
Geþyncðo
, Archbishop
Wulfstan
of York (1002?1023) detailed the criteria for attaining thegnhood: "And if a
ceorl
prospered, that he possessed fully five hides of his own, a
belhus
and a
burhgeat
[a defensible manor house], a seat and special office in the king’s hall, then was he henceforth entitled to the rights of a thegn."
[17]
The legal text
Norðleoda laga
(
'
law of the Northern People
'
) also included the five-hide qualification but added that the land had to be kept for three generations.
Thegnhood was also attainable to the merchant who "fared thrice over the wide sea by his own means."
Post-conquest England
[
edit
]
In 1066, there were an estimated 5,000 thegns in England.
After the
Norman conquest of England
in 1066,
William the Conqueror
replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy with Normans, who replaced the previous terminology with their own names for such social ranks. Those previously known as thegns became part of the knightly class.
[4]
Runestones
[
edit
]
During the later part of the tenth and in the eleventh centuries in
Denmark
and
Sweden
, it became common for families or comrades to raise memorial
runestones
. Approximately fifty of these note that the deceased was a thegn. Examples of such runestones include
So 170
at Nalberga,
Vg 59
at Norra Harene,
Vg 150
at Velanda,
DR 143
at Gunderup,
DR 209
at Glavendrup, and
DR 277
at Rydsgard.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Chadwick, Hector Munro
(1905).
Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions
. Cambridge University Press.
- Carpenter, David
(2003).
The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066?1284
.
Penguin History of Britain
. Penguin Books.
ISBN
0140148248
.
- Huscroft, Richard (2016).
Ruling England, 1042-1217
(2nd ed.). Routledge.
ISBN
978-1138786554
.
- Holdsworth, William Searle
(1903).
A History of English Law
. Vol. 1. London: Methuen & Co.
- Holland, Arthur William (1911).
"Thegn"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). p. 743.
- Jolliffe, J. E. A. (1961).
The Constitutional History of Medieval England from the English Settlement to 1485
(4th ed.). Adams and Charles Black.
- Keynes, Simon (2014). "Thegn". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.).
The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
(2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. pp. 459?461.
ISBN
978-0-470-65632-7
.
- Liebermann, F.
(1905).
Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen
. Vol. 1. Halle: M. Niemeyer.
- Loyn, HR
(1955). "Gesiths and Thegns in Anglo-Saxon England from the Seventh to Tenth Century".
The English Historical Review
.
70
(277): 529?549.
doi
:
10.1093/ehr/LXX.CCLXXVII.529
.
JSTOR
558038
.
- Morris, Marc
(2021).
The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400?1066
. Pegasus Books.
ISBN
978-1-64313-312-6
.
- Stubbs, William
(1895).
Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, from the Earliest Times to the Reign of Edward the First
(8th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- "Thane"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. 20 July 1998.
- Whitelock, Dorothy
, ed. (1955).
English Historical Documents
c. 500?1042
. Vol. 1. London: Eyre and Spottiswood.
- Williams, Ann
(2008).
The World Before Domesday: The English Aristocracy, 900?1066
. London: Continuum.
ISBN
9781847252395
.
Further reading
[
edit
]