Anglo-Saxon institutions

The people where divided into two classes: the 'eorls', or nobles, and the 'ceorls', or freeman; but in some parts of the country a third class, the 'laets', or tributary dependents, were recognized, and there were also the slaves. 

An ordinary freeman owned what was called a 'hide', an area of land usually reckoned as sufficient to mantain the owner's household and family in comfortable circumstances. A hundred 'hides' formed a unit known as a 'Hundred'.
These 'Hundreds' were presided over by a headman known as a 'reeve'; and in later days, when the large shires or counties began to appear, there was a 'shire-reeve' (sheriff). 
Each 'hide' provided employment and subsistence for a large number of 'laets' and slaves.
The King had his 'thegns' or ministers, and his particular retinue of friends. He ruled through a sort of parliament, called the 'Witan', or 'Witan-Gemot', composed of his own nomenees, and to some extent he had their advice.

Punishments for offences against the law usually took the form of fines, and the extent of these was carefully set out in books of 'dooms' or "judgements", 33 gold pieces for instance, having to be paid by one who had had the misfortune to kill an 'eorl', 100 pieces by one who had killed a 'ceorl' and so forth. A robber, if caught, had to pay back the value of the articles stolen multiplied by a figure strictly graded acording to the rank of the person robbed, it could be twelve times, ninefold or even threefold.

There were `dooms` for every sort of offence, but if a fight were to break out in the King`s presence, the life of the instigator might be forfeit, since such a squabble might endanger the sovereign himself, whose skin, at best, was never very safe, in view of the fact that he was expected to fight personally in battle, and battles were frequent.

 When Christianity had taken a firm hold upon the nation the bishops became the most important personages in the land, and there were many laws directed towards the maintenance of the sanctity of the Church and towards the observance of religous codes. There were fines also for not having a child baptisted, for example.




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