Saxons and Normans

• Hides


  Measurement of land, roughly 120 acres
• Thanes


  • Local lords, required to own more than 5 hides of land and live in a manor with a tower and separate church
• Earls


  Aristocracy, sat at the top of the hierarchy below the king, ruled over vast areas of land called earldoms
• King


  Most powerful person, responsible for protecting people, giving laws, and maintaining safety and security
• Oath of loyalty


  Every boy at age 12 swears an oath to be faithful to the king, administered by the shire reeve (sheriff)
• Shire reeve (sheriff)


  • King's official in an area, manages the king's estates, collects revenue, and is in charge of local courts
• King's power


  • Controls production of silver pennies, owns large estates, can grant or take away land, can raise a national army and fleet, has power of taxation
• Forging coins is a very serious crime</b>
• Land holders have obligations to the king such as tax and military service
• Witan


  Advisory body to the king, made up of aristocrats and archbishops, appoints a new king when the old one dies
• Earls


  • Collect taxes for the king, keep about one-third of the taxes, oversee justice within their earldoms
• Housecarls


  • Earls' warriors
• Edward the Confessor was not a warrior king, had to rely on his earls like Earl Godwin to protect England
• Edward the Confessor faced tensions with Earl Godwin


  Godwin refused to punish the people of Dover, leading to his exile, but he later returned with an army and forced Edward to restore his earldom
• The Witan was an advisory body that appointed a new king every time the old King died
• When Edward the Confessor died, there were people wanting to take his place
• Earl Godwin was the Earl of Wessex
• Earls were the head of the shires, which were large areas of land ruled by a nobleman
• Earls


  They collected taxes for the King and got to keep about one-third of the taxes, and they also got to oversee justice within their shire
• Housecarls


  The elite soldiers and military leaders within the kingdom, who the King would rely on
• Key divisions of the country

  • Shires
  • Tithings
• Shires


  Reasonably big areas of land, not as big as counties today
• Tithings


  Groups of 10 households that were collectively responsible for one another
• Shire Reeves


  The King's officials in an area who collected taxes, fines, and oversaw justice
• Military structure


  • Select fyrd (elite soldiers who could fight anywhere)
  • General fyrd (local army who stayed in their area)
• The general fyrd had to provide 40 days of service
• Blood feud


  When one family would kill someone and then the victim's family would seek revenge, leading to an ongoing cycle of killings
• Wergild


  Compensation paid for killing someone, to try to stop the blood feud
• Hue and cry


  The system where if a crime was witnessed, everyone had to chase after and catch the criminal, or be held responsible
• Around 10% of people lived in towns in 1066, which had a capital town for each shire
• Burhs were fortified towns built so that no one was more than 20 miles from one
• Villages tended to be more spread out, with fields interspersed throughout
• The English church


  It was Catholic at the time, resistant to reforms, and centered around local saints
• There was tension between bishops and thanes over control of churches
• Local priests were generally ordinary people who could marry, unlike in the rest of Europe
• Monasteries were in decline in Saxon England, unlike in Normandy
• The monarch was appointed by God
• In 1053, Earl Godwin died and his son Harold Godwinson became the new Earl of Wessex
• In 1055, Tostig Godwinson became Earl of Northumbria
• In 1057, Leofwine and Gyrth, other sons of Godwin, became Earls of Kent and East Anglia respectively