thane

1. Thane
   thān A dignitary under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in England. Of these there were two orders, the king's thanes, who attended the kings in their courts and held lands immediately of them, and the ordinary thanes, who were lords of manors and who had particular jurisdiction within their limits. After the Conquest, this title was disused, and baron took its place.☞ Among the ancient Scots, thane was a title of honor, which seems gradually to have declined in its significance.

1. (n) thane
   In early English history, a member of a rank above that of the ordinary freeman, and differing from that of the athelings, or hereditary ancient nobility. The distinguishing marks of all thanes were liability to military service and the ownership of land. Of the various classes of thanes the chief was that of king's thanes, whose members were subject to no jurisdiction but that of the king. The rank increased in power about the time of Alfred, and about the reign of Athelstan any freeman who owned five hides of land or had made three sea-voyages was eligible to thanehood. The thanehood corresponded nearly to the knighthood after the Norman Conquest. In the reign of Henry II. the title fell into disuse. In Scotland the thanes were a class of non-military tenants of the crown, and the title was in use till the end of the fifteenth century. The notion derived from Boece, and adopted by Shakspere in “Macbeth,” that the Scotch thanes were all transformed into earls, has no historical foundation. In some recent historical works the Anglo-Saxon thegn is used in its strict Anglo-Saxon sense.

1. (n) Thane
   thān a member of a class in the old English community that stood distinctly below the old nobility (eorlas, &c.), but above the mere landowners or ceorls—a kind of nobility of service rather than blood

lord citizen noble nobleman

thaneship

Altarist Ceorl earnest manor Teinland Thanage thanedom thanehood thaneship Thegn

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