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Saxon kings in battle, the one at top left accompanied by a shield bearer who Has no weapon but whose sole duty was to protect his lord. The accompanying sketch makes weapons and equipment easier to discem.

The thegns were a numerous class, and charters ofAethelred II (978-1016) are witnessed by twenty or morę king’s thegns. Nor were thegns restricted to the service of the king in this later period, for the great earls had their own thegns; and even the older, morę powerful and landed thegns might have their own thegns in tura.

Below the thegns were the ceorls, simple freemen or yeoman farmers, independent landed house-holders who formed the backbone of the Saxon kingdom, based as it was on a rural economy. There were probably three main classes of ceorls, al-though the boundaries between the classes are blurred. Firstly there were the geneatas, the peasant aristocracy, who paid rent to their overlord: geneatas derives from the Old English geneat, originally meaning a companion, and this intplies that the class originated from the lord’s household, probably receiving land as a gift. Secondly there were the kotsetla, who paid no rent but had to perform numerous duties for their overlords; and thirdly, the gebur, who was totally dependent on his lord and whose life was dominated by the labour services he owed him.

Below the gebur were the serfs or bondmen, the slaves or thralls. The economy depended con-siderably on slave labour and though the gebur was a lowly peasant, he was a privileged class compared to the slaves, and had the right and duty to serve in the Fyrd. Ceorls could win promotion through prosperity or military service, and if for example a ceorl possessed five hides of land, he became entitled to the rights of a thegn. He could not, however, rise to be an earl.

The military organization of the Anglo-Saxons is a notoriously difficult and obscure subject and it is not possible to give any firm dates for developments over the centuries, nor precise details of those developments—mainly because the Saxons did not need to dehne their military organization for themselves; it was part of the life of every able-bodied man.

In the beginning there were simply the war bands, smali bodies of professional warriors led by their chosen chicfs, somc of whom subsequently set themselves up in smali kingdoms. Loyalty to a chief was the greatest virtue, and the warriors sought out a leader who could further their career, swore allegiance to him, and vowed to increase his stature and riches by their exploits. In return the chief feasted and wincd them royally and gave tliem magnihcent gifts of arms, armour and gold, enhancing his rcputation by the size of these gifts. Ten to twenty men might be an average strength for these early war bands, but the later petty kingdoms of the early 7th century might perhaps have helded thirty men or morę. The bands were swollen for major raids or wars by attracting