Map of runestones raised over a thegn.

In Early Medieval Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon culture, a thegn or thane was an attendant, servant, retainer, or official. The word is Anglo-Saxon: þeg(e)n. In Old High German degan, and in Old Norse þegn ("thane, franklin, freeman, man")[1]. In the Domesday Book "thegn" is Latinised as tainus. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 515 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (600 × 699 pixel, file size: 44 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image was (or all images in this article or category were) uploaded in the JPEG format. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 515 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (600 × 699 pixel, file size: 44 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image was (or all images in this article or category were) uploaded in the JPEG format. ... A rune stone Rune stones are somewhat flat standing stones with runic stone carvings from the Iron Age (Viking Age) and early middle ages found in most parts of Scandinavia. ... Justinians wife Theodora and her retinue, in a 6th century mosaic from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. ... Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ... For other uses, see Anglo-Saxon. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... A line drawing entitled Domesday Book from Andrew Williamss Historic Byways and Highways of Old England. ...

From the first, however, it had a military significance, and its usual Latin translation was miles, meaning soldier, although minister was often used. Joseph Bosworth (Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, new ed. by TN Toller) 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." 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.^[1] For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... Joseph Bosworth (1789 - May 27, 1876), British Anglo-Saxon scholar, was born in Derbyshire. ...

It is only used once in the laws before the time of Aethelstan (c. 895-940), but more frequently in the charters. 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. 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. 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. Athelstan redirects here. ... Events Bohemia breaks away from Great Moravia Arnulf of Carinthia undertakes his second Italian campaign Approximate date of composition of the Musica enchiriadis, the beginnings of western polyphonic music Births Athelstan of England Erik Bloodaxe, king of Norway 933-935 (+954) Deaths Categories: 895 ... Events Births Brian Boru, high king of Ireland Abul-Wafa, iranian mathematician Deaths ar-Radi (Caliph of Baghdad) Athelstan, who was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund Categories: 940 ... Hector Munro Chadwick (October 22, 1870 –January 2, 1947) was an English scholar. ... The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings and the events leading to it. ... Heriot was the right of a lord in feudal Europe to seize a serfs best horse and or clothing upon his death. ...

Thus from a document of uncertain date, possibly about the time of Alfred the Great, and translated by Stubbs (Select Charters) 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." 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. 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." His status is shown by his wergild. Over a large part of England this was fixed at 1200 shillings, or six times that of the ceorl. He was the twelfhynde man of the laws, sharply divided from the twyhynde man or ceorl. Alfred (also Ælfred from the Old English: ÆlfrÄ“d //) (c. ... A churl, in its earliest Anglo-Saxon meaning, was simply a man, but the word soon came to mean a non-servile peasant, still spelt ceorle, and denoting the lowest rank of freemen. ... 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 granted its use to sub-tenants in return for further services, gave rise to several terms, particular to Britain... For other uses, see Earl (disambiguation). ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Weregild (Alternative spellings: wergild, wergeld, weregeld, etc. ... This article is about coinage. ...

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"). 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. A count is a nobleman in most European countries, equivalent in rank to a British earl, whose wife is also still a countess (for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term). ... Headline text Canute (anglicized form of Knut, from Old Norse knútr meaning knot, sometimes Cnut; Danish Knud) is the name of several kings of medieval Denmark, two of whom reigned also over England during the first half of the 11th century. ...

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." And again when he was "called to consecrate the church of a thegn named Addi," giving life to the phrase "church and kitchen." Bede (IPA: ) (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or (from Latin) Beda (IPA: )), (ca. ... Arms of the Archbishop of York The Archbishop of York, Primate of England, is the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York, and is the junior of the two archbishops of the Church of England, after the Archbishop of Canterbury. ...

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 the thegns appear to have been merged in the class of knights. The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ...

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. // Wolverhampton is a City in the historical county of Staffordshire and metropolian county of the West Midlands. ... The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader and senior clergyman of the Church of England, recognized by convention as the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... An Ealdorman, or Alderman, was the prior magistrate of a British shire in A. D. 900 to A. D. 1100. ... Abbots coat of arms The word abbot, meaning father, has been used as a Christian clerical title in various, mainly monastic, meanings. ...

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.S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, vol. i. 1903), and thus they have some connexion with the grand jury of modern times. A hundred is an administrative division, frequently used in Europe and New England, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller geographical units. ... Ethelred II (c. ... In the American common law legal system, a grand jury is a type of jury which determines if 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. This article is about the 11th century census. ...

The word thane was used in Scotland until the 15th century, to describe a hereditary non-military tenant of the crown. This is the form used in Shakespeare's famous play, Macbeth. This article is about the country. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath by Théodore Chassériau. ...

Compare the separate development of the concept of "vassal", from a warlord's henchman to one of Charlemagne's great companions. Look up vassal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Robin Shoots with Sir Guy by Louis Rhead. ... Charlemagne (left) and Pippin the Hunchback. ...

Notes

References

• This entry retains some updated public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Richard P. Abels, Lordship and military obligation in Anglo-Saxon England, 1988

Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ...

External links

• Domesday Book: "Thane"
• 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)