Following on from my post, The Social World of the Anglo-Saxons: the Peasants – Revisited, I decided to continue with the Theigns.

Above the ceorls, the peasants of the Anglo-Saxon world, sat the ‘theigns’. They were to all intents and purposes the middle class. To qualify as a theign a man needed to own a minimum of 5 hides of land. A hide was not an exact measurement in Anglo-Saxon England but roughly equated to enough land for a family to live on. Although a ceorl from the top end of that class, a geatsas, might own that much or even more land this alone did not qualify them to be considered theign-worthy; they still had to be promoted to that position.

Theigns were appointed by the king initially and they did service to him accordingly, if they failed in this respect they could lose their lands and be demoted to the peasant classes or even suffer execution if their transgression was considered serious enough. In the begin it seems that theigns were warriors who took on the more common duties of management and they were made responsible for overseeing the building and maintaining of defences, bridges, and the organisation of the fyrd; the Saxon army. They were expected to give military service for which they would supply their own equipment; horses, servants, arms and armour. Later, the theigns also took on a more administrative role in ensuring that the peasant classes obeyed the king’s law and fulfilled their duties.

The full post can be read here: The Social World of the Anglo-Saxons: The Theigns