Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 62.142.248.1

Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 6
in the kingdom. With the rewards come responsibilities:
military service, counsel, and support with food, money
and labor. [Glory Awards - One time Honors: page 1271
The gerefa is an officer who administers, but does not
own, some important part of the cyningdom: a burh, the
villages of a farming valley, or a royal manor. Gerefas are
generally thegns or ealdormen of proven character and
responsibility. One important officer is the wigfruma
(“war-leader,” field marshal), who is often the cyning’s
younger brother or son. He can call up the fyrd (“militia”)
to repel invasion.
Thegns form the main military might of the Saxons. Each
must own at least five hides: enough land to support a
full-time warrior. A thegn should have armor, helmet,
sword, shield, and several spears. He may know how to
ride a horse, but he does his fighting on foot. A thegn’s
household usually consists of his immediate family, house
and farm servants, and possibly a heorthgeneat (“hearthcompanion,”
a bodyguard) or two. The heorthgeneats
may perform the duties normally assigned to Cymric
squires in addition to guarding their thegn. Fegn’s
Holding: page 130; Heorthgeneats as Squires: page 1301
On the battlefield, the thegn is expected to fight in the
front rank, along with his heorthwerod (unit of heorthgeneats)
if he has one. Besides serving his lord in battle,
the thegn may owe other duties: naval service, bodyguard
for the cyning, fortifying a burh, or equipping a
ship. Some later Saxon lords let their thegns pay the value
of their duties in bord-bot or shield tax, a custom known
to lazy Cymric knights as scutage.
The lowest class of free Saxon is the ceorl, the farmer or
craftsman. Most own a little land, but some are merely
tenants of a thegn. In either case, most ceorls farm for
their lord as well as themselves: others provide messenger,
heorthgeneat, escort, or hunting services in lieu of
farming. A few ceorls wander from place to place practicing
a special talent, including professional scops (poets)
and wryhtas (artisans), who make fine things for the
nobility. Like all free Saxons, ceorls can conduct trade,
and a few enrich themselves brokering goods between
Britain and the continent.
All ceorls belong to the *rd, the military levy of the
theod, and must own at least a spear and shield. If a ceorl
acquires five hides of land, or makes three trading voyages
in his own ship, he is raised to the status of thegn.
Below ceorls are the semifree laets. A laet is a Briton or
other foreigner in Saxon-conquered territory who has surrendered
to a theod, becoming a tributary dependent of
its cyning. If the cyning agrees, the laet may be made a
heorthgeneat, or may even be granted the land he held
before the invasion. Most laets, though, rarely own more
than a hide or two. Some Romano-British communities
survived the Saxon invasions by adopting laet status en
masse.