Life in the Eleventh Century

I hope this post finds everyone of my readers feeling merry and bright! This week, we're taking a time warp back into the 11th century. But first, just a reminder to remind your friends and family to consider giving the gift of READING this Christmas! There are so many fantastic books out there, and I encourage you to READ ON!

Author Paula Lofting is taking us back in time this week to world of the Norman invasion of England. You best buckle on your sword, strap on some armor, because this could be quite a journey! I know you'll enjoy Paula's informative and intriguing background to her newest book--The Wolf Banner!
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   Life in the Eleventh Century
                by Paula Lofting


​The people of the middle eleventh century would not have referred to themselves as Anglo-Saxon which was a Victorian ideology. By now, the former kingdoms that made up the Heptarchy had become England so were known as the Englisc. No doubt the ‘English’ themselves probably broke that down into where they came from, starting with their home village or town. Wulfhere, my main character, was Wulfhere, Thegn of Horstede, and he thought of himself as a Sussex man, or a man of the Súþ Seaxa, the South Saxons. A man from Gloucester, might have thought of himself as a Gloucester man, but also as a man of the Hwicce tribe and a Mercian. The world was much smaller then. 

The Confessor’s rule was a relatively peaceful period of twenty-four years, although throughout the fifties there were some problems with the Welsh, ruled by Gruffudd ap Llewelyn, who was allied with a troublesome English earl, Alfgar of Mercia. England was a prosperous country, and many others had their eyes on her lush green meadows and rich fertile lands.
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So what exactly was life like for these Northumbrians, Mercians, Saxons and Anglians? Lets have an overview look.

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                                                                   The English Earldoms of 1066

Royalty
People were divided up into classes. At the top were the royal family, the kings and æðelings whose ancestry was common to previous kings. An atheling meant you were throneworthy. Any man of royal blood could be an atheling, but it did not mean you would succeed to throne, even if you were the king’s heir. Ultimately the witan, the king’s counsellors, decided who was best suited to rule.

Earls and Sheriffs
Under the Royal House were the earls who were the ruling nobility. These men were the king’s representatives in the shires that made up an earldom and under them, the shires each had a sheriff to keep order.  Earls were very important men in the Eleventh century and joined the athelings, bishops and archbishops in making up the witan.
(At left: King Edgar the Peaceful--New Minster Charter, 966)

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​Thegns 
This class of lesser nobles were far more numerous, and in Mercia and Wessex there were around two thousand landowners of the thegnly class. Most thegns were king’s thegns and had to own at least five hides of land. Some were earl’s thegns, and some thegns were wealthy enough to have their own thegns. Thegns were of the warrior class, and were what made up the fyrd but they also had other duties to perform on a rota basis, such as accompanying the king wherever he went, serving at court, mending fences, fortresses and bridges.
There was also some social mobility where a lesser ðegn could gain promotion to a king's ðegn, and a king’s thegn could also gain promotion to an earl.

Ceorls
There were more than one class of ceorls and they were the mainstay of the English rural scene. They were often thought to be free men, however there were varying degrees of freedom. Ceorls were what was known as folcfry (folk-free) as amongst their peers. Anyone could attend the monthly moot and speak their mind there and they were considered fyrdworthy also. But they didn’t have the same freedoms that thegns and earls had. Most worked the land for a lord and in return they were given land of their own to work on days that they didn’t have to work for their lord. They might also have been part-time craftsmen to augment their earnings, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, metal workers, leather workers.

Slaves
The lowest of the social class. There were two ways of becoming a slave, one through destitution and the other through the well organised flourishing slave trade which still existed in the eleventh century. Slaves had basically no rights, but there are rules for what they had to be provided with, such as food and fuel and a small amount of land to plough and harvest. They were allowed to own property and could earn money in their spare time and thus buy their freedom.

             Warriors and the Fyrd

Despite the turbulence of the century, warfare was not necessarily ingrained in everyday life. Most Anglo-Saxon men of fighting age might only have seen major combat once in twenty years and surviving this you would have to be very lucky, for chances of dying in combat were high, either in the battle itself or of wounds inflicted. The idea that the fyrd was made up of peasants who turned up with pitchforks and scythes is a myth. Peasants would not be fielded by the army as they were needed to see in the harvest each year and work the land.

The backbone of the military were the thegns, who owed their lord, their king and whoever they were commended to military service each year for two months, and during this time there may not have been any conflict to worry about so most likely they saw to the training of the younger thegns, their sons etc.  They were well equipped and organised and ready to answer the call to muster at any time of crisis. The army was organised generally on a one man per five hides. It’s likely that the five hide man was a thegn, but it is not unreasonable that this might have been a ceorl whose village was in the five hide catchment area.

(At right, Huscarles and thegns at the battle of Hastings re-enactment 2016 – permission by Matt Bunker.)


Huscarles were bodyguards of kings and earls and were probably chosen from amongst the thegnly class, landless sons etc. They were the warrior elite, highly trained and skilled in warfare most of the year round and also ready to fight at any notice. The idea of a household guard was a longstanding custom among the Anglo-Saxons but the term ‘huscarle’ comes from the Danish which was established when the Cnut was king of England. You can see the huscarles brandishing their great war axes on the Bayeux Tapestry. Many of Harold Godwinson’s huscarles died with him, protecting him as they fought for their lives at Hastings. Such was the ethos amongst the huscarles that even the Normans were prompted to say what a waste it was that such men chose to fight to the death.

Women were not known to have fought alongside their men and although recently much has been made regarding the finds of so-called women warriors, there is no evidence that they ever fought in major battles or were accepted to train alongside men in ‘warrior’ schools. Women and men had very defining roles in the eleventh century and it would have been frowned upon for women to step outside this role. The only woman who has been known to have done this was Æthelflaed and this was due to her position as lady of Mercia. She had to rule for her dying husband and is not likely to have taken part in battle but had a more commanding role than facing men in battle. But this doesn’t mean that there may not have been anomalies, just that we do not know of any in this period.

The Church and Religion

By this time, very few people living in England would have been pagans. The Church was so embedded in everyday life that to hold beliefs other than Christianity would have been very difficult and it’s unlikely that the ordinary peasant living in their little village would have had access to other religions. There was of course folklore which carried over from pre-Christian times, but this was not paganism. There is a popular belief that paganism still existed among English society but if it were, it would not have been tolerated by the church which governed daily life implicitly. 

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Priests were trained in cathedral schools like collegiates and sent out into the countryside and into towns to look after the pastoral welfare of their flocks. Some priests were employed by the nobles to educate their children or look after the spiritual needs of their patrons. Leofgar, the bishop of Hereford, killed in battle against the Welsh, was once Harold Godwinson’s mass priest.

Then there were monasteries where boys and noble girls went to be educated or join the religious life. Monasteries took children from the age of seven to do their training.

At the head of the church and the monasteries were the bishops, abbots and abbesses.


(At left: Bishop Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury)

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Women in a Man’s Society
 
We don’t know much about what life might have been like for peasant women, but like noble women, they had rights. There were laws that protected women of any status from being raped and if they were, they would be compensated, apart from the slave woman whose compensation would have gone to the owner. There was also a law that allowed women to refuse marriage arrangements that were not pleasing to them. Women could divorce their husband if they so wished but there were specifics about what they were entitled to and what they would get if they took the children with them. 

Women were allowed to inherit land and property for their own use, and when married were allowed to keep them. The groom on the morning after the wedding would give their wife a morgengifu to show their appreciation that they were pleased with them! This could be land for their own personal use which they could do with as they wish and leave to anyone they wished in their will.

Women could also inherit their husband’s wealth and afforded the status of ‘thegn’ in place of their dead husband. Edith Swanneck, Earl Harold’s handfasted wife, was a wealthy heiress in and had men commended to her through her own estates.

Women didn’t have to marry if they did not wish and could choose the ecclesiastic life if they preferred and many women did, becoming abbesses in charge of running nunneries.

(Member of Regia Anglorum portraying a middle status lady – photo care of Christopher Doyle.)
 

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Life in an Anglo-Saxon Hall 

As said previously, the thegns were more numerous than the nobles and some lived quite opulently. There were no restrictions on how much land and property you could own but they had to have at least five hides of land. The longhall was the central feature of any thegn’s estate, mostly built from timber and daubed with plaster. The English were building in stone, but this was not widespread. However, we know that large churches were created using masonry.

Longhalls usually had to house as many people as lived in the village and in Horstede, there were roughly around two hundred people, extended families of the sixteen villeins and cottars who lived there. They would need to be able to enter the gates to their lord’s estate which they lived around in their own smaller houses, should there be any danger. Lord Wulfhere would have been expected to give shelter to his tenants in times of trouble in return for their services on his land.

Inside the longhall it would have been quite smoky. Windows would have been a rarity as they needed to keep as much warmth inside as possible. The apertures to let out the smoke were not thought to have been at the top of the roof, this would have been very leaky if they were, but at the sides of the house above high window in the gables. 

There was a dais on either side of the hall on which one side the thegn would sit with his household and on the other side important guests sat across the large hearth where the food was also cooked. There was also room for more people to sit either at benches or trestles with boards across them and the lowest of them would have sat on the floor.

There was plenty of outdoor stuff to be doing during the summer months and they loved to feast (there were many feastdays in the English calendar) swim, and play wrestling games, and hunt. But at night, Anglo-Saxons loved to sit around the hearth and tell bawdy riddles, and sagas such as the one about Beowulf. They also loved to sing and entertain with the harp, dice, and play boardgames such as hnaftafl, brought over by the Vikings. Its not difficult to imagine long winters indoors, with the carcasses of animals hanging in the rafters, being smoked by the hearth, as they made good use of their indoor distractions.

Life might have been hard by today’s standards, but the old English knew how to party, much like today!

(Above: Wychurst, a thegnly residence in the heart of Kent, home to members of Regia Anglorum)

***If you’d like to know more about life in Old England or would like to become a member of Regia Anglorum, go to www.regia.org/join***

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                                            Paula Lofting, Author
 
Paula Lofting is the author of 2 volumes in the Sons of the Wolf series of which she is working on her third instalment. She has been a prolific reader all her life, inspired by authors like Rosemary Sutcliffe, Mary Stewart, and Sharon Penman. She is a psychiatric nurse by day and writes in her spare time whenever she can. Mother of three grown up children and 2 grandchildren, she lives in Sussex and is also a re-enactor of the late Dark Age period. 
 
As a reenactor of the period I can actually say that I have fought and died at the Battle of Hastings at least three times.

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The Wolf Banner: WAR AND BLOODFEUD

"Best battle description ever!"

1056...England lurches towards war as the rebellious Lord Alfgar plots against the indolent King Edward. Sussex thegn, Wulfhere, must defy both his lord, Harold Godwinson, and his bitter enemy, Helghi, to protect his beloved daughter.

As the shadow of war stretches across the land, a more personal battle rages at home, and when it follows him into battle, he knows he must keep his wits about him more than ever, and COURAGE AND FEAR MUST BECOME HIS ARMOUR…

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