thane (than)

[ vant, soldier, disciple, MHG. degen, a soldier, = Icel. thegn, a soldier, warrior, freeman, = Goth. #thigns (not recorded); perhaps = Gr. τέκνον, child, hence in Teut. boy, attendant, soldier, servant (cf. AS. mago, child, boy, servant, man: see may2); with formative -n (-no-), orig. pp., from the root seen in Gr. τίκτειν, τεκεῖν, beget, bring forth, τόκος, birth, Skt. toka, child. Oth erwise akin to AS. theów = OHG. diu = Goth. thius ( thiwa-, orig. thigwa- ): see thew1. The proper modern form would be * thain, parallel with rain, main1, sain, rail, sail, tail, etc.] In early Eng. hist., 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 cla es 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 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 cla 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. The fully qualified freeman who has an estate of land may be of various degrees of wealth and dignity, from the ceorl with a single hide to the thegn with five hides. Stubbs , Const. Hist., § 37. With the rise of kingship a new social distinction began to grow up, on the ground, not of hereditary rank in the community, but of service done to the king. The king's thegns were his body-guard, the one force ever ready to carry out his will. They were his nearest and most constant counsellors. As the gathering of petty tribes into larger kingdoms swelled the number of eorls in each realm, and in a corresponding degree diminished their social importance, it raised in equal measure the rank of the king's thegns. A post among them was soon coveted and won by the greatest and noblest. J. R. Green, Making of Eng., p. 179. thanedom (than'dum), n. [ thane + -dom .] 1. The district held or administered by a thane. thank Now, from the mountain's misty throne, Sees, in thanedom once his own, His ashes undistinguished lie, His place, his power, his memory die. Scott, L. of L. M., v. 2. 2. The power, and especially the judicial functions, of a thane: as, the thanedom of Macbeth. thanehood (than'hud), n. [ That later nobility of the thegn hood , which, as we have seen, supplanted the ancient nobility of the eorls. E. A. Freeman , Amer. Lects., p. 367.