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A more disciplined military force was provided by subjecting all owners of five hides of land to thegn-service, a step which recognized the change that had now substituted the thegn for the eorl and in which we see the beginning of a feudal system. How effective these measures were was seen when the new resistance they met on the Continent drove the northmen to a fresh attack on Britain.
"4th. And he who so prosperous a vicegerent had not, swore for himself according to his right or it forfeited. "5th. And if a 'thane' thrived so that he became an eorl, then was he thenceforth of eorl-right worthy. "6th.
The social distinction of the eorl was founded on the peculiar purity of his blood, on his long descent from the original settler around whom township and thorpe grew up. A new distinction was now to be found in service done to the king.
The title of ealdorman came in time to eorl, or erl, and that of high reeve to high sheriff.
A more disciplined military force was provided by subjecting all owners of five hides of land to "thane-service," a step which recognized the change that had now substituted the thegn for the eorl and in which we see the beginning of a feudal system. How effective these measures were was seen when the new resistance they met on the Continent drove the Northmen to a fresh attack on Britain.
He represents, in short, the best phase of the old feudal baron, or rather of the Saxon eorl, exercising a paternal and beneficient supervision over all who reside within the limits of his authority. The Aldermen. Among the Anglo-Saxons the title of alderman was regarded as one of the most honourable distinctions to which a freeman could aspire.
The eorl was distinguished from his fellow villagers by his wealth and his nobler blood; he was held by them in an hereditary reverence; and it was from him and his fellow æthelings that host-leaders, whether of the village or the tribe, were chosen in times of war. But this claim to precedence rested simply on the free recognition of his fellow villagers.
Already in Æthelberht's legislation we find characteristic fines inflicted for breach of the peace of householders of different ranks the ceorl, the eorl, and the king himself appearing as the most exalted among them.
Its social centre was the homestead where the ætheling or eorl, a descendant of the first English settlers in the waste, still handed down the blood and traditions of his fathers.
What ground was actually occupied may have been assigned to each group and each family in the group by lot, and Eorl and Ceorl gathered round them their læt and slave as in their homeland by the Rhine or the Elbe. And with the English people passed to the shores of Britain all that was to make Englishmen what they are.
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