Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

== Life and society ==
The larger narrative, seen in the history of Anglo-Saxon England, is the continued mixing and integration of various disparate elements into one Anglo-Saxon people.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} The outcome of this mixing and integration was a continuous re-interpretation by the Anglo-Saxons of their society and worldview, which Heinreich Härke calls a "complex and ethnically mixed society".<ref name="Härke, Heinrich 1992">Härke, Heinrich. "Changing symbols in a changing society. The Anglo-Saxon weapon burial rite in the seventh century." The Age of Sutton Hoo. The Seventh Century in North-Western Europe, ed. Martin OH Carver (Woodbridge 1992) (1992): 149–165.</ref>

=== Kingship and kingdoms ===
{{Main|Government in Anglo-Saxon England}}
[[File:Hexateuch king.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Anglo-Saxon king with his [[witan]]. Biblical scene in the [[Old English Hexateuch|Illustrated Old English Hexateuch]] (11th century) in the [[British Library]], London]]

The development of Anglo-Saxon [[kingship]] is little understood before the 7th century. Royal dynasties often claimed descent from [[Woden]] or another deity to justify their rule, but the true basis of their power was as warleaders. Kings were buried as warriors, and war helmets instead of crowns were used in coronations until the 10th century. A king's relationship with his warband (Latin: {{Lang|la|[[Comitatus (warband)|comitatus]]}}) involved mutual obligations. His warriors fought for the king in return for food, shelter, and gifts such as weapons. The people supported their king and his warriors with [[Food render|food rent]].{{Sfn|Yorke|1990|pp=15–17}} Kings extracted surplus by raiding and collecting food rent and "prestige goods".{{Sfn|Hough|2014|p=117}}

The later sixth century saw the end of a 'prestige goods' economy, as evidenced by the decline of accompanied burial, and the appearance of the first 'princely' graves and high-status settlements.<ref>Hamerow, Helena. "The earliest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms' in The New Cambridge Medieval History, I, c. 500-c. 700. ed. Paul Fouracre." (2005): 265.</ref> The ship burial in mound one at [[Sutton Hoo]] (Suffolk) is the most widely known example of a 'princely' burial, containing lavish metalwork and feasting equipment, and possibly representing the burial place of King [[Raedwald]] of East Anglia. These centres of trade and production reflect the increased socio-political stratification and wider territorial authority which allowed seventh-century elites to extract and redistribute surpluses with far greater effectiveness than their sixth-century predecessors would have found possible.<ref>Scull, C. (1997),'Urban centres in Pre-Viking England?', in Hines (1997), pp. 269–98</ref> Anglo-Saxon society, in short, looked very different in 600 than it did a hundred years earlier.

By 600, the establishment of the first Anglo-Saxon 'emporia' (alternatively 'wics') appears to have been in process. There are only four major archaeologically attested [[-wich town|wics]] in England – London, Ipswich, York, and Hamwic. These were originally interpreted by [[Richard Hodges (archaeologist)|Richard Hodges]] as methods of royal control over the import of prestige goods, rather than centre of actual trade-proper.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hodges | first1= Richard |author-link = Richard Hodges (archaeologist)|title=Dark Age Economics: the origins of towns and trade A.D. 600–1000 |date=1982 |location=London|publisher = Gerald Duckworth & Co. }}</ref> Despite archaeological evidence of royal involvement, emporia are now widely understood to represent genuine trade and exchange, alongside a return to urbanism.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Richards, Naylor |author2=Holas-Clark |title=Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Economy: using portable antiquities to study Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age England |url=https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue25/2/toc.html |journal=Internet Archaeology |date=2009 |issue=25 |page= |pages= |doi=10.11141/ia.25.2}}</ref>

According to [[Bede's Ecclesiastical History|Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History'']], England was divided into many [[petty kingdom]]s during the 7th century. The [[Tribal Hidage]] of the later 7th century lists 35 people groups south of the [[Humber]]. The first law code written in a Germanic language, the [[Law of Æthelberht]], depicts a king not only as the leader of a warband but also as the maintainer of law and order. His laws concerned all levels of society: the nobility, [[Churl|ceorls]] (freemen), and [[Slavery in Britain|slaves]]. Traders, missionaries, and other foreigners who lacked the protection of a lord or kinship ties {{See below|[[#Kinship|below]]}} were under the king's protection (Old English: {{Lang|ang|[[Mund (law)|mund]]}}).{{Sfn|Yorke|1990|pp=9 & 18}}

The most powerful king could be recognised by other rulers as {{Lang|ang|[[bretwalda]]}} (Old English for "ruler of Britain").{{Sfn|Yorke|1990|p=16}} Bede's use of the term ''imperium'' has been seen as significant in defining the status and powers of the bretwaldas, in fact it is a word Bede used regularly as an alternative to ''regnum''; scholars believe this just meant the collection of tribute.<ref>Fanning, Steven. "Bede, Imperium, and the bretwaldas." Speculum 66.01 (1991): 1–26.</ref> Oswiu's extension of overlordship over the Picts and Scots is expressed in terms of making them tributary. Military overlordship could bring great short-term success and wealth, but the system had its disadvantages. Many of the overlords enjoyed their powers for a relatively short period.{{efn|Oswiu of Northumbria (642–70) only won authority over the southern kingdoms after he defeated Penda at the battle of the Winwæd in 655 and must have lost it again soon after Wulfhere regained control in Mercia in 658.}} Foundations had to be carefully laid to turn a tribute-paying under-kingdom into a permanent acquisition, such as Bernician absorption of Deira.<ref>Wood, Mark. "Bernician Transitions: Place-names and Archaeology." Early medieval Northumbria: kingdoms and communities, AD (2011): 450–1100.</ref>

Only five Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are known to have survived to 800, and several British kingdoms in the west of the country had disappeared as well. The major kingdoms had grown through absorbing smaller principalities, and the means through which they did it and the character their kingdoms acquired as a result are one of the major themes of the Middle Saxon period. [[Beowulf]], for all its heroic content, clearly makes the point that economic and military success were intimately linked. A 'good' king was a generous king who through his wealth won the support which would ensure his supremacy over other kingdoms.<ref>Campbell, J 1979: Bede's Reges and Principes. Jarrow Lecture</ref> The smaller kingdoms did not disappear without trace once they were incorporated into larger polities; on the contrary their territorial integrity was preserved when they became ealdormanries or, depending on size, parts of ealdormanries within their new kingdoms. An example of this tendency for later boundaries to preserve earlier arrangements is Sussex; the county boundary is essentially the same as that of the West Saxon shire and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Leslie |first1=Kim |url= |title=An Historical Atlas of Sussex |last2=Short |first2=Brian |date=1999 |publisher=Phillimore |isbn=978-1-86077-112-5 |language=en}}</ref>

The Witan, also called Witenagemot, was the council of kings; its essential duty was to advise the king on all matters on which he chose to ask its opinion. It attested his grants of land to churches or laymen, consented to his issue of new laws or new statements of ancient custom, and helped him deal with rebels and persons suspected of disaffection.

King Alfred's digressions in his translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, provided these observations about the resources which every king needed:
{{blockquote|In the case of the king, the resources and tools with which to rule are that he have his land fully manned: he must have praying men, fighting men and working men. You know also that without these tools no king may make his ability known. Another aspect of his resources is that he must have the means of support for his tools, the three classes of men. These, then, are their means of support: land to live on, gifts, weapons, food, ale, clothing and whatever else is necessary for each of the three classes of men.<ref>Irvine, Susan, Susan Elizabeth Irvine, and Malcolm Godden, eds. The Old English Boethius: with verse prologues and epilogues associated with King Alfred. Vol. 19. Harvard University Press, 2012.</ref>}}

This is the first written appearance of the division of society into the 'three orders'; the 'working men' provided the raw materials to support the other two classes. The advent of Christianity brought with it the introduction of new concepts of land tenure. The role of churchmen was analogous with that of the warriors waging heavenly warfare. However what Alfred was alluding to was that in order for a king to fulfil his responsibilities towards his people, particularly those concerned with defence, he had the right to make considerable exactions from the landowners and people of his kingdom.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abels |first=Richard P |url= |title=Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England |date=2013-11-26 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-317-90041-2 |language=en}}</ref> The need to endow the church resulted in the permanent alienation of stocks of land which had previously only been granted on a temporary basis and introduced the concept of a new type of hereditary land which could be freely alienated and was free of any family claims.<ref>Higham, N.J. "From Tribal Chieftains to Christian Kings." The Anglo-Saxon World (2013): 126.</ref>

The nobility under the influence of Alfred became involved with developing the cultural life of their kingdom.<ref>Woodman, David. "Edgar, King of the English 959–975. New Interpretations–Edited by Donald Scragg." Early Medieval Europe 19.1 (2011): 118–120.</ref> As the kingdom became unified, it brought the monastic and spiritual life of the kingdom under one rule and stricter control. However the Anglo-Saxons believed in 'luck' as a random element in the affairs of man and so would probably have agreed that there is a limit to the extent one can understand why one kingdom failed while another succeeded.<ref>{{cite book | last = Chaney | first = William A. | author-link = William Chaney | title = The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity | date = 1970 | publisher = Manchester University Press | location = Manchester }}</ref> They also believed in 'destiny' and interpreted the fate of the kingdom of England with Biblical and Carolingian ideology, with parallels, between the Israelites, the great European empires and the Anglo-Saxons. Danish and Norman conquests were just the manner in which God punished his sinful people and the fate of great empires.<ref name="Keynes, Simon 2001" />

===Religion===
{{Main|Anglo-Saxon Paganism|Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England|}}
[[File:Franks Casket vorne links.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.3|The right half of the front panel of the seventh-century [[Franks Casket]], depicting the pan-Germanic legend of [[Wayland the Smith]], which was apparently also a part of Anglo-Saxon pagan mythology.]]
Although Christianity dominates the religious history of the Anglo-Saxons, life in the 5th and 6th centuries was dominated by [[Germanic paganism|pagan religious beliefs with a Scandinavian-Germanic heritage]].

Pagan Anglo-Saxons worshipped at a variety of different sites across their landscape, some of which were apparently specially built [[heathen hofs|temples]] and others that were natural geographical features such as [[Vörðr|sacred trees]], hilltops or wells. According to place name evidence, these sites of worship were known alternately as either ''[[Hörgr|hearg]]'' or as ''[[Vé (shrine)|wēoh]]''. Most poems from before the Norman Conquest are steeped in pagan symbolism, and their integration into the new faith goes beyond the literary sources.{{Cn|date=April 2025}} Thus, as Lethbridge reminds us, "to say, 'this is a monument erected in Christian times and therefore the symbolism on it must be Christian,' is an unrealistic approach. The rites of the older faith, now regarded as superstition, are practised all over the country today. It did not mean that people were not Christian; but that they could see a lot of sense in the old beliefs also."<ref>Lethbridge, Gogmagog. The Buried Gods (London, 1957), p. 136.</ref>

Early Anglo-Saxon society attached great significance to the horse; a horse may have been an acquaintance of the god [[Woden]], or they may have been (according to [[Tacitus]]) confidants of the gods. Horses were closely associated with gods, especially [[Odin]] and [[Freyr]]. Horses played a central role in funerary practices as well as in other rituals.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jennbert|first=Kristina|title=The Horse and its role in Icelandic burial practices, mythology, and society|year=2006|pages=130–133}}</ref> Horses were prominent symbols of fertility, and there were many horse fertility cults. The rituals associated with these include horse fights, burials, consumption of horse meat, and horse sacrifice.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sikora|first=Maeve|title=Diversity in Viking Age Horse Burial: A Comparative Study of Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland|journal=The Journal of Irish Archaeology|volume=13|issue=2004|pages=87–109}}</ref> [[Hengist and Horsa]], the mythical ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, were associated with horses,{{Efn|Their names mean, literally, "Stallion" and "Horse"}} and references to horses are found throughout Anglo-Saxon literature.<ref name="Owen-Crocker2000">{{cite book|last=Owen-Crocker|first=Gale R.|title=The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RsNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA71|access-date=25 June 2012|year=2000|publisher=Manchester UP|isbn=978-0-7190-5497-6|page=71}}</ref> Actual horse burials in England are relatively rare and "may point to influence from the continent".<ref name="jupp" /> A well-known Anglo-Saxon horse burial (from the sixth/seventh century) is [[Sutton Hoo#The cremations and inhumations, Mounds 17 and 14|Mound 17]] at [[Sutton Hoo]], a few yards from the more famous [[ship burial]] in Mound 1.<ref name="Carver1998">{{cite book|last=Carver|first=M. O. H.|title=Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780812234558|url-access=registration|access-date=25 June 2012|year=1998|publisher=U of Pennsylvania P|isbn=978-0-8122-3455-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780812234558/page/167 167]}}</ref> A sixth-century grave near [[Lakenheath]], Suffolk, yielded the body of a man next to that of a complete horse in harness, with a bucket of food by its head.<ref name="jupp">{{cite book|last1=Jupp|first1=Peter C.|last2=Gittings|first2=Clare|title=Death in England: An Illustrated History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWhOh31-yUwC&pg=PA72|access-date=26 June 2012|year=1999|publisher=Manchester UP|isbn=978-0-7190-5811-0|pages=67, 72}}</ref>

Bede's story of Cædmon, the cowherd who became the 'Father of English Poetry,' represents the real heart of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons from paganism to Christianity. Bede writes, "[t]here was in the Monastery of this Abbess (Streonæshalch – now known as [[Whitby Abbey]]) a certain brother particularly remarkable for the Grace of God, who was wont to make religious verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of [[Bible|scripture]], he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much sweetness and humility in Old English, which was his native language. By his verse the minds of many were often excited to despise the world, and to aspire to heaven." The story of Cædmon illustrates the blending of Christian and Germanic, Latin and oral tradition, monasteries and double monasteries, pre-existing customs and new learning, popular and elite, that characterizes the Conversion period of Anglo-Saxon history and culture. Cædmon does not destroy or ignore traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead, he converts it into something that helps the Church. Anglo-Saxon England finds ways to synthesize the religion of the Church with the existing "northern" customs and practices. Thus the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was not just their switching from one practice to another, but making something new out of their old inheritance and their new belief and learning.<ref>Frantzen, Allen J., and I. I. John Hines, eds. Cædmon's Hymn and Material Culture in the World of Bede: Six Essays. West Virginia University Press, 2007.</ref>

[[File:MS. Hatton 48 fol. 6v-7r.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|An 8th-century copy of the Rule of St. Benedict]]
[[Christian monasticism|Monasticism]], and not just the church, was at the centre of Anglo-Saxon Christian life. Western monasticism, as a whole, had been evolving since the time of the [[Desert Fathers]], but in the seventh century, monasticism in England confronted a dilemma that brought to question the truest representation of the Christian faith. The two monastic traditions were the Celtic and the Roman, and a decision was made to adopt the Roman tradition. ''Monasteria'' seem to describe all religious congregations other than those of the bishop.

In the 10th century, [[Dunstan]] brought Athelwold to [[Glastonbury Abbey|Glastonbury]], where the two of them set up a monastery on [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] lines. For many years, this was the only monastery in England that strictly followed the [[Rule of Saint Benedict|Benedictine Rule]] and observed complete monastic discipline. What Mechthild Gretsch calls an "Aldhelm Seminar" developed at Glastonbury, and the effects of this seminar on the curriculum of learning and study in Anglo-Saxon England were enormous.<ref name="Gretsch, Mechthild 2009" /> Royal power was put behind the reforming impulses of Dunstan and Athelwold, helping them to enforce their reform ideas. This happened first at the Old Minster in [[Winchester]], before the reformers built new foundations and refoundations at Thorney, Peterborough, and Ely, among other places. Benedictine monasticism spread throughout England, and these became centers of learning again, run by people trained in Glastonbury, with one rule, the works of Aldhelm at the center of their curricula but also influenced by the vernacular efforts of Alfred. From this mixture sprung a great flowering of literary production.<ref>Keynes, Simon. "The 'Dunstan B'charters." Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994): 165–193.</ref>

=== Fighting and warfare ===
Soldiers throughout the country were summoned, for both offensive and defensive war; early armies consisted essentially of household bands, while later on men were recruited on a territorial basis. The mustering of an army, annually at times, occupied an important place in Frankish history, both military and constitutional. The English kingdoms appear to have known no institution similar to this. The earliest reference is Bede's account of the overthrow of the Northumbrian [[Æthelfrith]] by [[Rædwald of East Anglia|Rædwald]] overlord of the southern English. Rædwald raised a large army, presumably from among the kings who accepted his overlordship, and "not giving him time to summon and assemble his whole army, Rædwald met him with a much greater force and slew him on the Mercian border on the east bank of the river Idle."<ref>HE. Bede, Ecdesiastical History of the English People, quoted from the ed. by B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969). ii.12</ref> At the [[Battle of Edington]] in 878, when the Danes made a surprise attack on Alfred at Chippenham after [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]], Alfred retreated to Athelney after Easter and then seven weeks after Easter mustered an army at "Egbert's stone".<ref>ASC, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in Whitelock 878, Asser c. 55</ref> It is not difficult to imagine that Alfred sent out word to the ealdormen to call his men to arms. This may explain the delay, and it is probably no more than coincidence that the army mustered at the beginning of May, a time when there would have been sufficient grass for the horses. There is also information about the mustering of fleets in the eleventh century. From 992 to 1066 fleets were assembled at London, or returned to the city at the end of their service, on several occasions. Where they took up station depended on the quarter from which a threat was expected: Sandwich if invasion was expected from the north, or the Isle of Wight if it was from Normandy.<ref name="ReferenceA">Hollister, C.W. 1962: Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions (Oxford)</ref>

[[File:2004 sutton hoo 01.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Replica of the [[Sutton Hoo helmet]]]]
Once they left home, these armies and fleets had to be supplied with food and clothing for the men as well as forage for the horses. Yet if armies of the seventh and eighth centuries were accompanied by servants and a supply train of lesser free men, Alfred found these arrangements insufficient to defeat the Vikings. One of his reforms was to divide his military resources into thirds. One part manned the burhs and found the permanent garrisons which would make it impossible for the Danes to overrun Wessex, although they would also take to the field when extra soldiers were needed. The remaining two would take it in turns to serve. They were allocated a fixed term of service and brought the necessary provisions with them. This arrangement did not always function well. On one occasion a division on service went home in the middle of blockading a Danish army on Thorney Island; its provisions were consumed and its term had expired before the king came to relieve them.<ref>ASC, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in Whitelock 893; also Asser c. 100 for the Organisation of the royal household</ref> This method of division and rotation remained in force up to 1066. In 917, when armies from Wessex and Mercia were in the field from early April until November, one division went home and another took over. Again, in 1052 when Edward's fleet was waiting at Sandwich to intercept Godwine's return, the ships returned to London to take on new earls and crews.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The importance of supply, vital to military success, was appreciated even if it was taken for granted and features only incidentally in the sources.<ref>Brooks, N.P.1971: The Development of Military Obligations in Eighth-and Ninth-century England, in Clemoes, P. and Hughes, K. (ed.), England Before the Conquest (Cambridge) pp. 69–84.</ref>

Military training and strategy are two important matters on which the sources are typically silent. There are no references in literature or laws to men training, and so it is necessary to fall back on inference. For the noble warrior, his childhood was of first importance in learning both individual military skills and the teamwork essential for success in battle. Perhaps the games the youthful Cuthbert played ('wrestling, jumping, running, and every other exercise') had some military significance.<ref>Webb, J.F. and Farmer, D.H. 1965: The Age of Bede (Harmondsworth)., pp. 43–4</ref> Turning to strategy, of the period before Alfred the evidence gives the impression that Anglo-Saxon armies fought battles frequently. Battle was risky and best avoided unless all the factors were on your side. But if you were in a position so advantageous that you were willing to take the chance, it is likely that your enemy would be in such a weak position that he would avoid battle and pay tribute. Battles put the princes' lives at risk, as is demonstrated by the Northumbrian and Mercian overlordships brought to an end by a defeat in the field. Gillingham has shown how few pitched battles [[Charlemagne]] and [[Richard I of England|Richard I]] chose to fight.<ref>Gillingham, J. 1984: Richard I and the Science of War in the Middle Ages, in J. Holt and J. Gillingham (eds.), War and Government in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge).</ref>

A defensive strategy becomes more apparent in the later part of Alfred's reign. It was built around the possession of fortified places and the close pursuit of the Danes to harass them and impede their preferred occupation of plundering. Alfred and his lieutenants were able to fight the Danes to a standstill by their repeated ability to pursue and besiege them closely in fortified camps throughout the country. The fortification of sites at Witham, Buckingham, Towcester and Colchester persuaded the Danes of the surrounding regions to submit.<ref>ASC, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in Whitelock 1979 912, 914, 917</ref> The key to this warfare was sieges and the control of fortified places. It is clear that the new fortresses had permanent garrisons, and that they were supported by the inhabitants of the existing burhs when danger threatened. This is brought out most clearly in the description of the campaigns of 917 in the ''Chronicle'', but throughout the conquest of the Danelaw by Edward and Æthelflæd it is clear that a sophisticated and coordinated strategy was being applied.<ref>Campbell, J. 1981: The Anglo-Saxons (Oxford).</ref>

In 973, a single currency was introduced into England in order to bring about political unification, but by concentrating bullion production at many coastal mints, the new rulers of England created an obvious target which attracted a new wave of Viking invasions, which came close to breaking up the kingdom of the English. From 980 onwards, the ''Anglo -Saxon Chronicle'' records renewed raiding against England. At first, the raids were probing ventures by small numbers of ships' crews, but soon grew in size and effect, until the only way of dealing with the Vikings appeared to be to pay protection money to buy them off: "And in that year [991] it was determined that tribute should first be paid to the Danish men because of the great terror they were causing along the coast. The first payment was 10,000 pounds."<ref>[[Julian D. Richards|Richards, Julian D.]] (2013-06-01). Viking Age England (Kindle Locations 418–422). The History Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>
The payment of Danegeld had to be underwritten by a huge balance of payments surplus; this could only be achieved by stimulating exports and cutting imports, itself accomplished through currency devaluation. This affected everyone in the kingdom.

=== Settlements and working life ===
[[File:West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village buildings 2.png|thumb|278x278px|Reconstructed buildings from [[West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village]], [[Suffolk]]]]

Helena Hamerow suggests that the prevailing model of working life and settlement, particularly for the early period, was one of shifting settlement and building tribal kinship. The mid-Saxon period saw diversification, the development of enclosures, the beginning of the toft system, closer management of livestock, the gradual spread of the mould-board plough, 'informally regular plots' and a greater permanence, with further settlement consolidation thereafter foreshadowing post-Norman Conquest villages. The later periods saw a proliferation of service features including barns, mills and latrines, most markedly on high-status sites. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period as Hamerow suggests, "local and extended kin groups remained...the essential unit of production". This is very noticeable in the early period. However, by the tenth and eleventh centuries, the rise of the manor and its significance in terms of both settlement and the management of land, which becomes very evident in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086.<ref name="Hamerow, Helena 2012">Hamerow, Helena. Rural Settlements and Society in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford University Press, 2012.</ref>

[[File:West Stow workshop interior.jpg|thumb|left|Reconstructed workshop at West Stow Anglo-Saxon village|242x242px]]
Typical Anglo-Saxon farms of middle period are often characterised as "peasant farms" but a [[churl|''ceorl'']], who was the lowest ranking freeman in early Anglo-Saxon society, was not a peasant but an arms-owning male with the support of a kindred, access to law and the ''[[wergild]]''; situated at the apex of an extended household working at least one [[hide (unit)|hide of land]].<ref>Higham, Nicholas J. ''An English Empire: Bede, the Britons, and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings''. Vol 2 p.244</ref> The farmer had freedom and rights over lands, with provision of a rent or duty to an overlord who provided only slight lordly input.{{efn|There is much evidence for loosely managed and shifting cultivation and no evidence of "top down" structured landscape planning.}} Most of this land was common outfield arable land (of an outfield-infield system) that provided individuals with the means to build a basis of kinship and group cultural ties.<ref>Oosthuizen, Susan. ''Tradition and Transformation in Anglo-Saxon England: Archaeology, Common Rights and Landscape''. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.</ref>

The collection of buildings discovered at [[Yeavering]] formed part of an Anglo-Saxon [[royal vill]] or king's tun. These 'tun' consisted of a series of buildings designed to provide short-term accommodation for the king and his household. It is thought that the king would have travelled throughout his land dispensing justice and authority and collecting rents from his various estates. Such visits would be periodic, and it is likely that he would visit each royal villa only once or twice per year. The Latin term ''villa regia'' which Bede uses of the site suggests an estate centre as the functional heart of a territory held in the king's demesne. The territory is the land whose surplus production is taken into the centre as food-render to support the king and his retinue on their periodic visits as part of a progress around the kingdom. This territorial model, known as a [[Anglo-Saxon multiple estate|multiple estate]] or [[shire]], has been developed in a range of studies. Colm O'Brien, in applying this to Yeavering, proposes a geographical definition of the wider shire of Yeavering and also a geographical definition of the principal estate whose structures Hope-Taylor excavated.<ref>O'Brien C (2002) The Early Medieval Shires of Yeavering, Bamburgh and Breamish. Archaeologia Aeliana 5th Series, 30, 53–73.</ref> One characteristic that the king's tun shared with some other groups of places is that it was a point of public assembly. People came together not only to give the king and his entourage board and lodging; but they attended upon the king in order to have disputes settled, cases appealed, lands granted, gifts given, appointments made, laws promulgated, policy debated, and ambassadors heard. People also assembled for other reasons, such as to hold fairs and to trade.<ref name="Sawyer, Peter 2013">Sawyer, Peter. The Wealth of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford University Press, 2013.</ref>

[[File:Butser Ancient Farm Saxon Hall with re-enactor .jpg|thumb|Reconstructed Anglo-Saxon house at [[Butser Ancient Farm]], Hampshire]]

The first creations of towns are linked to a system of specialism at individual settlements, which is evidenced in studying place-names. Sutterton, "shoe-makers' tun" (in the area of the Danelaw such places are Sutterby) was so named because local circumstances allowed the growth of a craft recognised by the people of surrounding places. Similarly with Sapperton, the "soap-makers' tun". While Boultham, the "meadow with burdock plants", may well have developed a specialism in the production of burrs for wool-carding, since meadows with burdock merely growing in them must have been relatively numerous. From places named for their services or location within a single district, a category of which the most obvious perhaps are the Eastons and Westons, it is possible to move outwards to glimpse component settlements within larger economic units. Names betray some role within a system of seasonal pasture, Winderton in Warwickshire is the winter tun and various Somertons are self-explanatory. Hardwicks are dairy farms and Swinhopes the valleys where pigs were pastured.<ref>[[N. J. Higham|Higham, Nicholas J]]., and Martin J. Ryan, eds. Place-names, Language and the Anglo-Saxon Landscape. Vol. 10. Boydell Press, 2011.</ref>

Settlement patterns as well as village plans in England fall into two great categories: scattered farms and homesteads in upland and woodland Britain, nucleated villages across a swathe of central England.<ref>Pickles, Thomas. "The Landscape Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan." The English Historical Review 127.528 (2012): 1184–1186.</ref> The chronology of nucleated villages is much debated and not yet clear. Yet there is strong evidence to support the view that nucleation occurred in the tenth century or perhaps the ninth, and was a development parallel to the growth of towns.<ref>Hamerow, Helena, David A. Hinton, and Sally Crawford, eds. ''The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology''. [[Oxford University Press|OUP Oxford]], 2011.</ref>

=== Women, children and slaves ===
[[File:WestStowAngloSaxon-3F7-827647-wiki.jpg|thumb|An Anglo Saxon woman's attire shown at [[West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village]]|left|259x259px]]

Alfred's reference to 'praying men, fighting men and working men' is far from a complete description of his society. Women in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms appear to have enjoyed considerable independence, whether as abbesses of the great 'double monasteries' of monks and nuns founded during the seventh and eighth centuries, as major land-holders recorded in [[Domesday Book]] (1086), or as ordinary members of society. They could act as principals in legal transactions, were entitled to the same weregild as men of the same class, and were considered 'oath-worthy', with the right to defend themselves on oath against false accusations or claims. Sexual and other offences against them were penalised heavily. There is evidence that even married women could own property independently, and some surviving wills are in the joint names of husband and wife.<ref>Klinck, A. L., 'Anglo-Saxon women and the law', Journal of Medieval History 8 (1982), 107–21.</ref>

Marriage comprised a contract between the woman's family and the prospective bridegroom, who was required to pay a 'bride-price' in advance of the wedding and a 'morning gift' following its consummation. The latter became the woman's personal property, but the former may have been paid to her relatives, at least during the early period. Widows were in a particularly favourable position, with inheritance rights, custody of their children and authority over dependents. However, a degree of vulnerability may be reflected in laws stating that they should not be forced into nunneries or second marriages against their will. The system of [[primogeniture]] (inheritance by the first-born male) was not introduced to England until after the Norman Conquest, so Anglo-Saxon siblings – girls as well as boys – were more equal in terms of status.

The age of majority was usually either ten or twelve, when a child could legally take charge of inherited property, or be held responsible for a crime.<ref>Rivers, T. J., 'Widows' rights in Anglo-Saxon law', American Journal of Legal History 19 (1975), 208–15.</ref> It was common for children to be fostered, either in other households or in monasteries, perhaps as a means of extending the circle of protection beyond the kin group. Laws also make provision for orphaned children and foundlings.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fell |first1=Christine E. |url= |title=Women in Anglo-Saxon England |last2=Clark |first2=Cecily |last3=Williams |first3=Elizabeth |publisher=British Museum Publications |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-7141-8057-1 |language=en}}</ref>

The traditional distinction in society, amongst free men, was expressed as ''eorl and ceorl'' ('earl and churl') though the term 'Earl' took on a more restricted meaning after the Viking period. The noble rank is designated in early centuries as ''gesiþas'' ('companions') or ''þegnas'' ('thegns'), the latter coming to predominate. After the Norman Conquest the title 'thegn' was equated to the Norman 'baron'.<ref>''[[Leges Henrici Primi]]''</ref> A certain amount of social mobility is implied by regulations detailing the conditions under which a ceorl could become a thegn. Again these would have been subject to local variation, but one text refers to the possession of five hides of land (around 600 acres), a bell and a castle-gate, a seat and a special office in the king's hall. In the context of the control of [[Ancient borough|boroughs]], [[Frank Stenton]] notes that according to an 11th-century source, "a merchant who had carried out three voyages at his own charge [had also been] regarded as of thegnly status."{{sfn|Stenton|1971|p=530}}<!-- Annoyingly Stenton refers only to "a well-known English tract": it's "Geþyncðo", q.v. --> Loss of status could also occur, as with penal slavery, which could be imposed not only on the perpetrator of a crime but on his wife and family.

A further division in Anglo-Saxon society was between slave and free. [[Slavery in Britain|Slavery]] was not as common as in other societies, but appears to have been present throughout the period. Both the freemen and slaves were hierarchically structured, with several classes of freemen and many types of slaves. These varied at different times and in different areas, but the most prominent ranks within free society were the king, the nobleman or thegn, and the ordinary freeman or ceorl. They were differentiated primarily by the value of their [[weregild]] or 'man price', which was not only the amount payable in compensation for homicide, but was also used as the basis for other legal formulations such as the value of the oath that they could swear in a court of law. Slaves had no weregild, as offences against them were taken to be offences against their owners, but the earliest laws set out a detailed scale of penalties depending both on the type of slave and the rank of owner.<ref>Anglo-Saxon Dictionary edited by Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller and Alistair Campbell (1972), Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-863101-9}}.</ref>

The Exeter Book Riddle 12, 49 and 52 both describe swarthy/dark haired Britons, while Riddle 72 describes a lower class 'dark' Welsh herdsman.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Riddle Ages |url=https://theriddleages.com/riddles/post/exeter-riddle-49/ |access-date=2024-07-25 |website=theriddleages.com}}</ref>

Some slaves may have been members of the native British population conquered by the Anglo-Saxons when they arrived from the continent; others may have been captured in wars between the early kingdoms, or have sold themselves for food in times of famine. However, slavery was not always permanent, and slaves who had gained their freedom would become part of an underclass of freedmen below the rank of ceorl.<ref>Stenton, F. M. "The Thriving of the Anglo-Saxon Ceorl." Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England (1970): 383–93.</ref>