Explanatory Notes
a) Fyrdwyte was the Anglo-Saxon penalty imposed on a military tenant for not appearing in arms or going on an expedition,
b) Sac was a right to jurisdiction granted by the crown, for holding pleas, trying causes and offences, levying fines and forfeiture, and doing other acts contingent to a Court Leet.
Soc was the territory or limits over which this jurisdiction extended. It often included several parishes , which were then together called the Soke; the Sac or privilege of holding pleas extending throughout the whole.
Team and Theame, or Tem and Theme ( from the Saxon T’yman, ie, propagare to Teem or bring forth ) signifies a Royalty granted by the King’s Charter to the Lord of a Manor for the restraining and judging of Bondsmen and Villains with their children, goods, and chattels in his court.
c) Tol is the liberty to buy and sell without paying toll within the precincts of a manor and to take tolls from others buying and selling in the manor,
d) Infangenethef is compounded of three Saxon words,-the prep. in, fang or fong to take or catch, and thefe a robber- It signifies a privilege or liberty granted unto Lords of certain Manors to judge any thief taken within their fee.
e) Amercements are the equivalent of fines,
f) Virgate — a measure of land usually about 30 acres,
g) Danegeld — an annual tax to raise funds for protection against Danish invaders,
h) Assart — land cleared of trees for use as arable land,
I) Scot — a tax or contribution,
j) Reeve — a local official.
k) Witan — members of the Kings Council
I) Thegn — a man who held land from a King ranking between a Freeman and a Noble.
m) Ferm — an established amount
n) Demesne – Manorial land retained for the private use of a feudal Lord
o) Yardland –
p) Advowson – Is the right in English Law of presenting or appointing a
nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical beneface. In effect this
means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in
a parish.
q) Frankpledge –
Was an English institution in which units (often referred to as tithing) of ten households were bound together and held responsible for one another’s conduct. All men over 12 years of age were joined in groups of approximately ten households. This unit, under a leader known as the chief-pledge or tithing-man, was then responsible for producing any man of that tithing suspected of a crime. The system originated in Anglo-Saxon times, but continued into the Norman period.
r) Tumbrel-
A tumbrel, or tumbril was a tipcart—usually used for carrying dung, sand, stones and so forth—which transported condemned prisoners to the gallows.
s) Toft – An entire holding, consisting of a homestead and the attached arable land.
t) Ealdorman – From Old English ealdorman, literally meaning” elder man” is the term used for a high-ranking royal official prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut. The term ealdorman was rendered in Latin as dux in early West Saxon charters, and as praefectus. As the chief Magistrate of a shire or group of shires (County) in Anglo-Saxon England, he commanded the army on the shire(s) and districts under his control on behalf the King.
Ealdormen were appointees of the King and were originally mostly from the ancient and powerful families, but later were often chosen from among the King’s comites ( companion) and many, especially in the early Danish period, were new to high office. The office was not hereditary, but there are several examples of 10th century ealdorman who sons became ealdormen ( if not always in the same district), such as Æthelstan Half-King and Æthelweard the Chronicler. towards the end of the 10th century, the term ealdorman gradually disappeared as it gave way to eorl, probably under the influence of the Danish term jarl, which evolved into the modern English earl.
1) Father of Harold 1 who was killed at the Battle of Hastings
1066
2) Harold 1 (who died at Hastings)
3) Half-Brother of William the Conqueror
4) Eleanor of Castile
5) Father of Robert the Bruce King of Scotland crowned 1306