Lesson video

Hello, welcome to history here at Oak National Academy.

I'm Mr. Newton, and I will be your teacher today guiding you right the way through to the end of the lesson.

Right, let's get started.

We will be thinking about our big inquiry question.

Who had power in Anglo-Saxon England? This is the question we will use to investigate what England was like before the Normans invaded in 1066.

We know that the Anglo-Saxons were a warrior people, but they had a sophisticated culture and had created a wealthy economy.

We've seen that they had a hierarchical social structure with a king, earls, thegns, peasants, and slaves.

At the top of Anglo-Saxon society, the king was the most powerful with powers over the laws, the army, and land ownership.

But how can a king rule over a kingdom of 2 million people? How can he make sure every part of his kingdom are following his laws? How can he ensure the country is governed effectively? By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe how Anglo-Saxon England was governed.

Before we begin, there are a few key words we need to understand.

A shire was the largest unit of administration after an earldom and had its own courts.

In Anglo-Saxon England, a hundred was a unit of land administration within a shire.

A tithing was a group of 10 households.

Together, they administered minor disputes in their communities.

A hide was the basic unit of administration, the measurement of land which could support one household, which carried obligations of tax and military service.

A burh was a fortified town within a shire where most trade would take place.

Today's lesson is split into three parts.

We'll first look at the earldoms before moving on to local government and the legal system.

And in the final part of the lesson, we'll try and tie all of this together to see, how was Anglo-Saxon England governed effectively? Right, let's start with the first part of the lesson, earldoms. Anglo-Saxon monarchs could not be everywhere at the same time, so they relied on others to help rule different parts of England on their behalf.

England was divided into large areas called earldoms. Have a look at the map.

It shows the major earldoms of Anglo-Saxon England.

We can see in Northern England the earldom of Northumbria.

Then, the large section in the middle of England was the earldom of Mercia, then towards the east, the earldom of East Anglia, and finally Wessex and Kent to the south.

You may notice that many of those names are still with us today.

These earldoms were further divided into shires.

Shires were divided into hundreds, and hundreds were divided into tithings.

Earldoms were ruled by powerful earls who would report back to the king in the witan.

The monarch gave the earls wide-ranging powers so that they could help him govern the country.

However, releasing kingly powers was risky, as some earls could get above their station and challenge the king.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

I want you to complete this sentence with the correct word.

Pause the video, choose your correct word, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Well done if you knew that this was the correct sentence, "Anglo-Saxon England was divided into large areas called earldoms, ruled by earls on behalf of the monarch." Okay, let's have a closer look at the earls and the powers that they had.

So earls had the following powers.

Military power, earls commanded an army.

They had control over many hundreds of thegns that lived within their earldom.

Earls also surrounded themselves with housecarls.

These were elite soldiers who guarded important people.

Earls also had lots of land.

The king had granted earls huge areas of land which made them personally very wealthy.

The power of law, the king made the laws, but he needed the earls to help enforce them.

Earls oversaw the justice system, ensuring criminals were punished.

Earls upheld social order.

This gave them great control over their earldom.

Tax and money, earls collected tax in their earldom.

The earls collected the taxes for the king.

They gave two-thirds to the king and kept one-third to spend on making sure their earldom was well defended and well governed.

So we can see that the earls were given great powers to help the king run his kingdom.

To keep control, a king had to carefully manage their relationship with their earls.

A strong king would listen to his earls but also command obedience from them.

When the king needed to defend the kingdom, he could rely on the earls to bring his soldiers from the earldoms. However, earls could take advantage of weak kings.

Many people in the earldoms owed more personal loyalty to their lord, the earl, than the king.

This gave the earls a powerful support base, but just as the king had to carefully manage earls, earls also had to carefully their thegns below them in the hierarchy if they wished to retain their support base.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Why was it risky for a king to give wide-raging powers to their earls? Is it A, that earls could use their power to challenge the king, B, shire reeves were more suited to holding power, C, the king could rule more effectively alone? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was A, the earls could use their power to challenge the king.

This is why the king had to carefully balance their relationship with the earls, sharing power with them to help the king rule the kingdom but not letting them get too powerful.

Okay, let's move on to task A.

What I want you to do here is describe two aspects of earldoms. Discuss with a partner or explain your answer in writing.

You must provide detailed information to support each aspect.

So whether you discuss this with your partner or do this in writing, the key thing here is to identify two aspects of the earldoms but also have some extra piece of information to back up the aspect you're providing.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back.

Now, there's many things you could have discussed or written down, but your answer may include some of the following I have here.

An earl oversaw tax collection in the earldom.

So we can see here right away the aspect identified is tax collection.

So now let's find out what's a supporting piece of information that can be provided here.

Earls collected the taxes for the king, and they kept one-third for themselves, which made them wealthy.

Let's move on to the next aspect, and I'll let you identify the aspects and the supporting information that's been given.

Earls had many thegns who were loyal to them.

This made an earl very powerful, as he had control over many trained warriors.

Okay, great, so we're now on to the second part of the lesson.

We've got a bit of understanding of how the earldoms are run.

Let's now drill down into the lower levels of government, local governments and the legal system.

Earldoms show that having the kingdom subdivided made it easier to rule, to enforce the law, and to collect taxes.

However, the king did not control every aspect of government in every earldom.

Many matters were settled locally with their own local government systems. This saw the establishment of smaller divisions of land, which were more manageable to govern.

Earldoms were further divided into shires, which were divided into hundreds, which were divided into tithings, which were then divided into hides.

Have a look at the diagram.

The shire is the largest unit of land at the top.

Within the shire are many hundreds.

A hundred is approximately 100 households, and within each hundred are many tithings.

A tithing is approximately 10 households.

And finally, the smallest unit of land was the hide.

A hide was the measurement of land which could support one household.

Now, as we've said, earldoms were divided into shires.

Each shire had its own court and burh.

The shire court had a judge.

This was often the earl himself, and this enabled crime and punishments to be dealt with at a shire level.

Each shire also had a burh.

This was a fortified town where most trade would take place as the well defended capital of the shire.

The illustration on the left shows how a burh might look.

These were originally built as fortresses to house a military, which could defend the area, but they also became safe places to house markets and conduct trade.

So as we've seen, the shires were the largest units of land within an earldom, and shires were divided into hundreds.

Now, theoretically, a hundred was enough land to support 100 households.

Each hundred had its own courts, which freemen would attend to hear local disputes.

Each hundred elected a hundredman who helped enforce the law in their hundred.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What was a fortified trading town in a shire called? Is it A, burh, B, hide, C, motte and bailey castle? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back.

Well done if you knew that was A, the burh.

So as we've established, the king could not visit every shire in the kingdom to check that it was obeying his laws.

So the king sent shire reeves, or sheriffs, to oversee law and order in the shire, collect taxes, enforce the laws, and to raise men for the fyrd.

In later times, the role of the sheriff was depicted in the "Robin Hood" stories.

If you remember, the sheriff of Nottingham also oversaw the law and collected taxes.

However, the sheriff in the "Robin Hood" stories did it in a cruel and unfair way.

So hundreds were then divided into tithings, and this was 10 households which were grouped together so that they could deal with minor disputes in their communities.

The men of the tithing were responsible for the behaviour of all the others within their tithing.

The image on the left can give us an idea of what a small tithing settlement might look like.

The final basic units which made up the whole system of local government was the hide.

This was the measurement of land which could support one household.

This was around 120 acres in the 11th and 12th centuries and probably smaller than this around 1060.

The ownership of a hide required the user to pay taxes and provide military service.

So in other words, if you had a single hide, it was great because you could support your household, but it came with the obligation that you had to give something back.

You had to provide service, and you had to pay taxes.

And in the illustration on the left, we can see a household working their hide, and this could provide food for themselves or for their lord.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Which unit was the amount of land that could support one household? Is it A, earldom, B, hide, C, tithing? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back.

Well done if you knew that was hide.

Okay, let's now move on to task B.

What I want you to do here is study each of the statements numbered below, and you can see I've provided four statements.

And then what you need to do is write the number in the relevant part of the diagram to indicate which statement refers to that local government area.

So for example, statement number one reads, "Freeman would attend their local courts." And now, you need to decide where statement number one should be placed on the diagram.

Once you've done that, you can move on to the other three statements and write them into the correct place in the diagram.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back, let's check those answers.

So for statement number one, "Freeman would attend their local court," that should have been placed in the local government area of the hundred.

Statement number two, "Could support one household," and of course, that refers to the hide.

The hide is the units of land which can support one household.

Statement number three, "Had a burh," and that was the shire, the largest local government area.

And the final statement, statement four, "10 households were grouped together," and that was the tithing.

Okay, great, so we've reached the final part of the lesson.

Hopefully, you can see that the Anglo-Saxons had an intricate system of local governments.

But now let's learn a bit more about how that might work in practise.

Let's move on to the last part of the lesson.

How was Anglo-Saxon England governed effectively? Edward the Confessor's local government was very effective.

It made Anglo-Saxon England a centralised state.

This was because the king gave instructions to its various regional areas.

For example, when the king needed the fyrd, he could order the earls across England to provide one soldier from every five hides.

Also, counting all the hides in the shires and hundreds, the king could calculate how much tax was owed in the various regions of England.

Then, all the local shire reeves worked in the shires to enforce these orders, rounding up the soldiers, collecting taxes, and overseeing the law.

When it came to most types of crime, Anglo-Saxons were confident that local people were best placed to administer justice.

Justice was administered by the local community.

For example, if someone stole a sheep or some other property, a hundredsman was empowered to enlist two tithingmen to assist him in finding the thief.

They would then report this back to the shire reeve, the sheriff.

This highlights how Anglo-Saxons believed it was the role of the local community to police each other.

The community took this duty seriously because it was in their interest to create a safe environment for people to work and live in.

If anyone saw a crime, they would hue and cry, shout for help.

Upon hearing this, bystanders had a duty to help catch the suspect.

If you have a look at the image, the illustration shows prisoners captured after a hue and cry.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Complete the sentence with the correct Anglo-Saxon official.

Pause the video, select the correct official, and then come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back, let's check your answer.

The king sent his shire reeves to oversee law and order in the shire, collecting taxes, enforcing the laws, providing men for the fyrd.

Okay, let's have another check.

What was the call given to alert a village to a crime, A, hue and cry, B, hundreds cry, C, tithings cry? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back.

Well done if you knew that was hue and cry.

Okay, let's move on to the final task, task C.

What I want you to do is explain two ways in which Anglo-Saxon local government was effective.

In your answer, include as many of the following words as you can, centre or centralised, shire reeves, hundredsmen, tithingmen, hide, hue and cry.

So I want you to write two paragraphs and pack in as much detailed information as you can to explain the two ways in which Anglo-Saxon local government was effective, and the list of words there should help you to do that.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, great, welcome back.

Now, there are many ways you could have written your paragraphs, but have a look at the two examples I've got here.

"Anglo-Saxon local government was effective because it had a system for carrying out orders from the centre.

For example, when the king needed the fyrd, he could order the earls across England to provide one soldier from every five hides.

The local shire reeves then enforced these orders throughout each shire.

Local government was also effective with law and order.

Laws were made by the king at the centre, with justice being carried out at the local level.

For example, hundredsmen and tithingmen assisted the shire reeve to catch criminals because they were responsible for the people in their hundred or tithing.

If anyone saw someone breaking the king's law, they would hue and cry, shout for help.

Upon hearing this, bystanders had a duty to help catch the suspect." Okay, let's summarise the lesson, earldoms and local government in Anglo-Saxon England.

The earls were very powerful, holding economic, legal, and military control over their earldoms. King Edward relied on the earls for military power and government.

Earldoms covered large areas in Anglo-Saxon England and were divided into shires, hundreds, tithings, and hides.

Every five hides had to provide one man for the fyrd.

Local government carried out the orders of a centralised Anglo-Saxon state with local communities responsible for justice, law, and order.

Well done on a brilliant lesson.

Thank you for joining me in learning about the interesting ways in which the Anglo-Saxons governed England.

Hopefully, you spotted that there are many Anglo-Saxon legacies that still remain with us today.

I'll see you next time when we continue our inquiry into who had power in Anglo-Saxon England.

See you in the next lesson.