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-Ge...