Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/179

 1920 BARONY AND THANAGE 171 thanes '/ and cannot be considered as anything but small squires.^ The king's thane, whose heriot is four horses, two saddled and two unsaddled, two swords, four spears and as many shields, a helmet and a hauberk, and fifty mancuses of gold (£6 5s.), is a very different person. He is a great man with much land, probably with thanes of his own i^ he is ' nigh ' to the king ; above all, he has his soc, the soc that the king alone can give.* Throughout the Anglo-Saxon laws in fact we find the ' cynges thegn ' associated as a matter of course with the ealdorman, or the earl, and the 'gerefa ', both royal officials, as having rights and duties that set him above other freemen. He has a wergild, a ' fihtwite ' and a ' bot ' for ' burhbreche ', lower than an ealdorman 's but higher than the gesithcund landowner's and six times a ceorl's. His oath is worth six times as much as a ceorl's ; and the fore- oath may be taken on his behalf by his own thane. Moreover, he has the right of trial before the king. ' Over the king's thane none but the king shall have soc ; ' for he holds of the king ' bocland ' to the amount of at least five hides, and the wite of all such the king takes. But as an offset to these privileges, the king's thane who is convicted of murder, witchcraft, or magic, or who neglects to pay Romscot or tithe, must pay 10 half- marks instead of the mere landowner's 6, or the ceorl's 12 ore.^ Above all, the king's thane has administrative and judicial rights and duties that make him the peer of the gerefa and sometimes of the ealdorman. The king's thane as such is responsible for the ' burhbot ', ' brygwork ', and ' fyrdfare ' due to the king from the men of his bocland.^ Like the ealdorman and the abbot the king's thane can give the thief or robber who comes to him three nights' sanctuary.' Like the gerefa, the king's thane who takes a bribe to pervert justice has to pay the king's ' over- hernesse ' of 120s. and take shame ; if he will not obey the king's command to keep the peace and take pledges of his ' hired ' men, he has to pay 60s. ;^ if he judges unjustly, he has to pay the king 120s., unless he dare swear that he knew no better, and lose his thaneship, unless he afterwards buy it from the king at what ' ' Mediocris hominis, quem Angli dicunt laesse thegen' : Inst. Cnuti 71, 2, Lieber- mann, i. 359. ^ Vinogradoff, EtigL Soc, p. 66. ' Rectitudines Singularum Personarum, c. 3. Willelmus F. Ansculfi tenet ... in Efnefeld iii hidas. . . Alricus tenuit cum soca teini regis.' ^ Liebermann, ii, s. v. ' Thegn '. Chronicle, a. d. 894 : ' Then Ethelrcd the ealdorman, and Ethelm the ealdorman and Ethelnoth the ealdorman, and the king's thanes who were then at home in fortified places (burhs), gathered forces from every town east of the Parret,' &c. ' IV Athelstan, c. 6. » V Athelstan, c. 1 (3), (4) ; VI Athelstan, c. U.
 * II Cnuti Leges, cc. 31, 71. Cf. Domesday Book, i. 249 b: ' Statfordscire —
 * Gethynctho, c. 2; Northleoda Laga, c. 9; Rectitudines, c. 1. Cf. Anglo-Saxon