anglo saxons

• kings

  • most powerful
  • couldn't rule without support of the nobility
  • single kingdom was ruled by one king
• earls

  • most powerful in the nobility
  • large areas of land
• thegns

  • less powerful members of the nobility
  • received smaller areas of land from their lord
• peasants and slaves

  • most population were peasant farmers
  • they did agricultural work for their Lord and were given a plot of land
  • some peasants were slaves - labourers who could be brought and sold
• why churchmen were important to anglo saxon government?


  to gain their approval of his decisions, especially regarding taxation.
• witan


  an assembly of higher ecclesiastics and important laymen, including king's thegns, that met to counsel the king on matters such as judicial problems
• shire


  a county, especially in england
• hundred


  unit of English local government and taxation, intermediate between village and shire
• villages

  vast majority in anglo-saxon were peasants or slaves and lived in villages

  farming was vital to a villages economy