1. History Revision Sheet – Yr9 Assessment December Anglo-Saxon Society
Anglo-Saxon Social Structure
ROLES
King – Defend kingdom, pass good laws, make sure they were obeyed.
Earls – King’s main advisers (part of Witan), enforced kings laws, raised men for army in time of war.
Thegns – Primarily warriors and tax collectors. Had to also repair bridges and fortifications.
Ceorls – Free to go wherever they pleased. Many worked as farmers, some worked as merchants.
Peasant Farmers – Had to work for 3 days on their lord’s lands doing whatever job he said. Got their own land. Had to ask lord for permission for things e.g. to leave, to marry.
Slaves – Not free, had no land, had to do as they were told. Their lord controlled their entire lives.
How you could move up or down the social structure:
Anybody who committed a crime could be demoted down the social structure e.g. a peasant farmer found guilty of a crime could be made into a slave as punishment.
A slave could be granted his freedom by his master.
A ceorl could become a thegn if he made enough money to buy a large estate of his own.
A thegn could be made an earl by the king.
Anglo-Saxon Government
King – King had ‘absolute’ power and took all the important decisions. Anglo-Saxon government can be called an ‘absolute monarchy’. Had to defend church and appoint church leaders, defend country, deal with disputes amongst earls. Pass good laws and make sure they were obeyed.
Witan – Means ‘meeting of wise men’ and the king called it whenever he needed it (it wasn’t a regular thing). Usually included earls, archbishops, some of the most powerful thegns and some bishops. By consulting them the King made important people happy because shows he respected their views. Most powerful role of Witan came in deciding who should be king if a king died without an heir.
Shire-Reeves – They were thegns that were selected to upkeep the king’s laws. They collected taxes, ran the shire courts which dealt with serious crimes in the shire and raised soldiers for an army in times of war. A shire-reeve knew what to do because he was sent documents known as ‘writs’ by the king.
(Each shire was subdivided into ‘hundreds’ and there was somebody called a ‘reeve’ who would run the hundred courts for less serious crimes and judge on them.)
Anglo-Saxon Law and Order
Blood-feud – Revenge killings between families, a cycle of violence when people took the law into their own hands.
Wergild – A payment intended to prevent blood-feuds developing. Size of payment depended on the importance of the person murdered or the size of the injury caused. E.g. 100 shillings for a ceorl murdered and 300 for a thegn. 20 shillings for a thumb severed and 10 for a toe.
Tithings – Anglo-Saxons were put into groups of ten as soon as they reached age 12. They all had to be responsible for each other’s behaviour. If one broke law, others had to take him to court, if they didn’t they would all be punished.
Collective Responsibility – The attitude of Anglo-Saxons to law and order was that everybody was responsible. This can be seen in ‘hue and cry’ whereby if a crime was being committed somebody had to raise the hue and cry or they would be punished. Anybody hearing it had to come running or they too would be punished.
Trial by Ordeal – One example was accused had hands put in boiling water. If after 2 weeks they were healing nicely then it was seen as God showing that the person was innocent.
Trial by Jury – People decided whether or not somebody was guilty. People on jury knew the accused.