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The Anglo-Saxon Social Structure

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The Anglo-Saxon social structure was divided into several social classes, which might vary from place to place. At the top was always the king.We know that the King is always ruling over the order of society and that if there any crime against him he essentially has the power to grant what he sees a fit punishment. In the Laws of King Alfred it states that “ If any one fight in the king’s hall, or draw his weapon, and he be taken; be it in the king’s doom, either death, or life, as he may be willing to grant him.” (Alfred, line 7) Whereas the rest of the crime typically have an exact punishment. The King was essentially a war leader. He was expected to provide opportunities for plunder and glory for his followers. The king who did not provide land, slaves, or plunder might wake up dead one fine morning. Below the king there were two levels of freemen, the upper class thanes and the lower class ceorls (churls). The division between the two was strictly in terms of land owned. A man could only be a thane if he owned at least five hides of land (a hide was defined as the amount of land necessary to provide a living for one family). Aside from the ownership of land, a ceorl could actually be a richer man than the thane. Below the thanes and ceorls …show more content…

You could have the bad luck to be born a slave, of course. Beyond that, war was the most frequent source of slaves. Many conquered Celtic Britons would have become slaves. People could also become slaves if they were unable to pay a fine. In some cases a family would sell a child into slavery in time of famine to ensure the child's survival. There, in some cases, was a way out of being a slave.Slavery was not necessarily a lifetime sentence, however. A slave could be ransomed by his or her relatives or granted freedom in an owner's will. If a person became a slave because they were unable to pay a debt, they might be freed when the value of their labour reached the value of the original

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