Thanes


Thanes

 

(thegns), in Anglo-Saxon England, the military nobility; bodyguards of the king. The thanes obtained landholdings by performing knightly military service. If the land was held for three generations, the thanes gained the right of hereditary knighthood.

In Scotland the title “thane” was applied to hereditary nobility until the 15th century.

REFERENCE

Sokolova, M. N. “Vozniknovenie feodal’nogo zemlevladeniia i klassa feodalov v Anglii VII-X vv.” In the collection Srednie veka, fasc. 12. Moscow, 1958.