Land Tenure in Early England Flashcards
(19 cards)
What s bocland?
‘Bookland’ - the rights over land conveyed by charters
What is Folcland?
Not clear - could be land held ‘in common’ or could refer to the normal way in which farms were held by laymen
What could Lord’s retinues (eg reeves) become?
Thegns - with no reason to suggest they were freeborn or slaves
What is the indicator for a sizeable estate according to Trevor Aston?
Names ending ‘tun’, ‘ington’, ‘ham’
Why might some places have ‘ingas’ in their name according to Aston and TCE?
Aston: Uncertain, thinks something like ‘the dependents and followers of a certain individual’
TCE: Because of inheritance system, may be a cluster of agnatic kinsmen named after a common ancestor
Difference in these views is that its sim idea but Aston class based and TCE inheritance/kindred based
What does Aston think about family and followers?
Never mutually exclusive categories (contrary to TCE but TCE more concerned with ceorls)
What were some common inheritances?
Not to get a full hide
Also common for up to half a hide to be split between a group of followers
According to TCE what was the hide?
A “territorial unit for the assessment of taxes, rents, renders and services for kingdom and lordship”
It appears to be used this way as early as Ine’s laws
Why does TCE think the hide as a measurement must have been given to kings by the past evolutions of society?
Because of a lack of resources to survey the kingdom
What were the three main beliefs attached to a hide? (acc. to TCE)
- Hide is the land of one family
- The land of the normal freeman
- The land worked by one plough
What are some of the historiographical debate around the idea of a hide being the land of one farm?
Bede said this but not who constituted one family
- Maitland thought it was the extended family
- CE thinks this is unlikely cos of the emphasis on sexual relations within Germanic words cognate with old english ‘hide’
What was inheritance system in EME?
Likely split amongst sons with preference to the eldest (Getting the parental home)
Royal inheritance seems the same
What was a consequence of this type of inheritance?
Clusters of agnatic kinsmen (hence ingas)
How did kingroups organise themselves agriculturally?
Kinsmen still participated in inheritance and cooperated in farming, but the farm was lived in by a single family
What was a ceorl?
Difficult term but appears to be a man with full legal rights
Since ceorl means husband and freeman, CE argues hide specifically land of a normal freeman
Was the idea of a ceorl owning a hide accurate for Ine’s time?
Unlikely
CE = the old link between ceorl, his family, and the standard area of land gone for England (but not for britons)
What were the sufficient and necessary conditions for status in this period (Ine)?
Owning land a sufficient conditions for English but not a necessary one (more about birthright at this point)
It was a necessary condition for Britons however
Where might laets fit into the picture?
Semi-free class in Kentish laws - may be Britons, but appear to be dependents of the ceorls
CE notes in Aethelberht’s laws that there is a grant of 6s to a ceorl if his Hlafaeta (loaf-eater) was killed
What, according to CE, was the normal pattern of kindred group formation in EME?
Probably a group of men tracing their ancestry back to a particular man
