Meaning of twelfhyndman | Babel Free

Definitions

A man worth twelve hundred shillings in wergeld.

historical

Examples

“The oath of a twelfhind man was equal to the oaths of ſix ceorles; and if revenge was taken for the murder of a twelfhynd man it might be wrecked on ſix ceorles.”

“The nobility are frequently, and in later records generally, styled Thanes; which honour seems to be a territorial designation. They are also indicated by the fines imposed on them for crimes, and by the composition payable for their lives. And thus we find them divided into Twelfhyndmen and Sixhyndmen; according as 1200 or 600 shillings was the amount of their were or composition.”

“It is remarkable that, though the syxhyndman is named at first, nothing more is said of him; and the twelfhyndman is defined to be a thane.”

“In this computation a twelfhyndman was valued at six ceorls or twyhyndmen, because the weregild of a twelfhyndman was equal to the weregilds of six ceorls.”

“But what was the social rank of these burgesses? Were they thegns—twelfhyndmen?”

“From about the opening of the tenth century, if not from the close of the ninth, frank-tenure and gentle-tenure became identified with the tenure of the Thegn (or Dienstman) throughout English Mercia and the South-country, all who held by it acquiring the position of Twelfhyndmen, though they were not necessarily Gesithcund, or of gentle birth and descent.”

“The twelfhyndmen, the highest grade of eorls, became converted into the king’s thegns, who owned him as their immediate hlaford.”

“The English burgess was probably eorl or ceorl, twelfhyndman or twyhyndman, according to his birth and descent;”

“And on the analogy of the Frankish laws, the Anglo-Saxon twelfhynde men were those who owed special service to the king as his comites, antrustions, or thegns;”

“Both the twelvehyndman and the sixhyndman are gesithcundmen, followers of chiefs, and enjoy their privileged position in regard to were and wite, and in other respects, by reason of the exalted patronage bestowed on them.”

“He remarks on the growth of the pretensions of the invaders since the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum which put the Northern warriors only on the same level as the twelf[-]hyndmen, or ordinary thegns.”

“It was the acquisition of five hides that enabled a warrior to aspire to the rank of king’s thane, and led to the passage into the class of twelvehyndmen for him, or to sixhyndmen in the case of the prosperous wealh.”

“These wealhs, as well as ceorls, appear to have been able to attain to the rank of king’s thane, but it has been suggested that the thane of Welsh extraction (wealh) was only appraised at half the value of the English thane; in fact that the twelvehyndman with his were of 1,200s. was the English thane, and the sixhyndman with the were of 600s. the Welsh thane.”

“They are grouped with the sokemen and liberi homines as twyhyndmen whose wergild was two hundred shillings, as distinct from the thegn class or twelfhyndmen whom to slay involved a penalty of twelve hundred shillings.”

CEFR level