AS Society

• King


  at the top of the social system
• king 


  only 1
• earls 


  about 5 very powerful earls
• earls 


  powerful landowners who controlled regions of England
• earls 


  relationships with earls and king based off loyalty
• earls 


  competed against each other to be kings favourite
• Thegns 


  about 4000-5000
• thegns 


  local lords eg at village level
• thegns 


  had a lot of land which they rented to peasants
• ceorls 


  peasant who could move around
• peasants 


  most people
• peasants


  rented small pieces of land off the local lord to farm on
• peasants


  had to work for the lord - if they didn't they'd loose their land
• slaves


  10% of the population (200000)
• slaves 


  were owned and could be bought/sold
• changing social status 


  fluid system
• changing social status

  other parts of Europe (eg Normandy), people status was based on ancestry ; how important their ancestors were
• changing social status

  a peasant who prospered and obtained 5 hides of land that he paid tax on could gain the status of a thegn
• changing social status

  merchant who made a number of trips abroad in their own ships could become a thegn
• changing social status

  slaves could be freed by their masters and free peasants could sell themselves into slavey as a desperate measure to feed their families
• changing social status

  at the top of the system, thegns could become earls, and sometimes earls could become kings