Map of runestones raised over a thegn in Scandinavia. A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock

A thegn or thane was an attendant, servant, retainer, or official in Early Medieval Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon culture. The Early Middle Ages is a period in the History of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south The word in Anglo-Saxon is þeg(e)n, in Old High German degan, and in Old Norse þegn ("thane, franklin, freeman, man"). ^[1]. In the Domesday Book "thegn" is tainus in the Latin form. The Domesday Book (ˈduːmzdeɪ bʊk also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome.

The thegn had a military significance, and its usual Latin translation was miles, meaning soldier, although minister was often used. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Joseph Bosworth ^[2] describes a thegn as "one engaged in a king's or a queen's service, whether in the household or in the country," and adds, "the word in this case seems gradually to acquire a technical meaning, and to become a term denoting a class, containing, however, several degrees. Joseph Bosworth ( 1789 - May 27, 1876) English scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and Anglo-Saxon literature, was born in " The precursor of the thegn was the gesith, the companion of the king or great lord, a member of his comitatus, and the word thegn began to be used to describe a military gesith. ^[3]

It is only used once in the laws before the time of Aethelstan (c. 895-940), but more frequently in the charters. Births Athelstan of England King Eric I of Norway Gaozu of Later Han Liu Min Events By Place Asia Saadia Gaon compiles his Siddur (Jewish prayer book in Iraq. H. M. Chadwick (Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions, 1905) says that "the sense of subordination must have been inherent in the word from the earliest time," but it has no connection with the German dienen, to serve. Hector Munro Chadwick ( October 22, 1870 – January 2 1947) was an English scholar The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. In the course of time it extended its meaning and was more generally used. The thegn became a member of a territorial nobility, and the dignity of thegnhood was attainable by those who fulfilled certain conditions. The nobility of pre-Conquest England was ranked according to the heriot they paid in the following descending order: earl, king's thegn, median thegn. for the town see Heriot Scotland Heriot was the right of a lord in feudal Europe to seize a Serf 's best horse In Anglo-Saxon hierarchic society, a king's thegn attended in person upon the king, bringing with him his men and resources. A "median" thegn did not hold his land directly from the king but through an intermediary lord.

Thus from a document of uncertain date, possibly about the time of Alfred the Great, and translated by William Stubbs^[4] as "Of people's ranks and laws," we learn: "And if a ceorl throve, so that he had fully five hides of his own land, church and kitchen, bellhouse and burh-gate-seat, and special duty in the king's hail, then was he thenceforth of thegn-right worthy. Alfred the Great (also Ælfred from the Old English Ælfrēd ˈælfreːd (c William Stubbs ( 21 June 1825 &ndash 22 April 1901) was an English Historian and Bishop of Oxford. A churl (etymologically the same name as Charles / Carl and Old High German „karal“ in its earliest Anglo-Saxon meaning was simply "a man" The Feudal system, in which the land was owned by a Monarch, who in exchange for homage and military service granted its use to tenants-in-chief, who in their turn " A hide of land was considered sufficient to support a family. And again—"And if a merchant throve, so that he fared thrice over the wide sea by his own means, then was he thenceforth of thegn-right worthy". In a similar manner a successful thegn might hope to become an earl. Earl was the Anglo-Saxon form and jarl the Scandinavian form of a title meaning " Chieftain " and referring especially to chieftains In addition to the thegns there were others who were thegns on account of their birth, and thus thegnhood was partly inherited and partly acquired. The thegn was inferior to the aethel, the member of a kingly family, but he was superior to the ceorl, and, says Chadwick, "from the time of Aethelstan the distinction between thegn and ceorl was the broad line of demarcation between the classes of society. Aetheling, also spelt Ætheling, Atheling or Etheling, was an Old English term (æþeling used in Anglo-Saxon England to designate " His status is shown by his wergild. Weregeld (alternative spellings wergild, wergeld, weregeld, etc Over a large part of England this was fixed at 1200 shillings, or six times that of the ceorl. The shilling is a unit of Currency used in current and former Commonwealth countries and was continued to be used in countries that left the commonwealth He was the twelfhynde man of the laws, sharply divided from the twyhynde man or ceorl.

The increase in the number of thegns produced in time a subdivision of the order. There arose a class of king's thegns, corresponding to the earlier thegns, and a larger class of inferior thegns, some of them the thegns of bishops or of other thegns. A king's thegn was a person of great importance, the contemporary idea being shown by the Latin translation of the words as comes (compare "count"). A count is a Nobleman in European countries The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin He had certain special privileges. No one save the king had the right of jurisdiction over him, while by a law of Canute we learn that he paid a larger heriot than an ordinary thegn. Knut or Kanute is a Scandinavian first name of which the anglicized form is Canute.

In Bede's History an archbishop of York heals the sick "in the township of one Puch, a thegn" when he was "called thither by the thegn to consecrate a church. Bede (ˈbiːd (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or (from Latin Beda (beda (c The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. " And again when he was "called to consecrate the church of a thegn named Addi," giving life to the phrase "church and kitchen. "

But, like all other words of the kind, the word thegn was slowly changing its meaning, and, as Stubbs says (Constitutional History, vol. i. ), "the very name, like that of the gesith, has different senses in different ages and kingdoms, but the original idea of military service runs through all the meanings of thegn, as that of personal association is traceable in all the applications of gesith. " After the Norman Conquest, William replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy with Normans and the new Norman French ruling class replaced the Anglo-Saxon terminology with Norman French. In this process, king's thegns became barons, and thegns appear to have been merged in the class of knights. Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages.

The charter granting a market to Wolverhampton, 985 AD, is attested by Etherald, King of the Angles, the archbishops of Canterbury and of York, eight bishops, eight ealdormen, two abbots, and ten king's thegns, in that order. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the An ealdorman (modern Alderman) was the prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire from 900 to the time of the Danes. The word abbot, meaning Father, is a title given to the head of a Monastery in various traditions including Christianity.

The twelve senior thegns of the hundred play a part, the nature of which is rather doubtful, in the development of the English system of justice. By a law of Aethelred they "seem to have acted as the judicial committee of the court for the purposes of accusation" (W. Ethelred II ( c. 968 – 23 April 1016 also known as Æthelred II, Aethelred II, Ethelred the Unready, Æthelred the Unready S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, vol. i. 1903), and thus they have some connexion with the grand jury of modern times. In the Common law, a grand jury is a type of Jury which determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial.

Domesday lists the thegns who hold lands directly of the king at the end of their respective counties, but the term became devalued, partly because there were so many thegns. The Domesday Book (ˈduːmzdeɪ bʊk also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey For a highly coloured, but entertaining and readable fictional account of the Worldview of an Anglo Saxon Thegn at the time of the Norman conquest try Julian Rathbone's book^[5] The word thane was used in Scotland until the 15th century, to describe a hereditary non-military tenant of the crown. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. This is the form used in Shakespeare's Macbeth. William Shakespeare ( baptised Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare 's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written some time between

Compare the separate development of the concept of "vassal", from a warlord's henchman to one of Charlemagne's great companions. A vassal (also called feodary or fedary) in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of Medieval Europe, The word henchman (Germanic irregular plural hench men) referred originally to one who attended on a horse that is a Horse groom. Charlemagne (ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus meaning Charles the Great) (747 – 28 January 814 was King of the Franks from 768 to his

Endnotes, references and sources

• This entry retains some updated public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Richard P. Abels, Lordship and military obligation in Anglo-Saxon England, 1988

External links

• David Roffe, "The King's thanes on the eve of the Norman Conquest"
• Mats G. Larsson, "Rinkar, tegnar, karlar svenner" in Populär Historia April 2002 (Swedish)
• "The title 'thegn' on runestones: English and Danish examples
• Canute, King of the English:Heriots and reliefs, c. 1016 - 1035 : the equivalent of "death duties" on the death of a thegn
• Charter of Wolverhampton, 985 AD: (in English)