Thingmen The Thingmen ( also known as Þingalið ( pronounced , literally " assembly retinue " ) was a standing army in the service of the Kings of England during the period 1013 - 51 , financed by direct taxation which had its origins in the tribute known as Danegeld . It consisted mostly of men of Scandinavian descent and it had an initial strength of 3 , 000 housecarl s and a fleet of 40 ships , which was subsequently reduced . Its last remnant was disbanded by Edward the Confessor in 1051 . In the 11th century , three courts outside Scandinavia were particularly prominent in recruiting Scandinavian troops : Novgorod - Kiev ( Kievan Rus ' ) c . 980 - 1060 , Constantinople ( the Varangian Guard ) 988 - 1204 , and England 1018 - 1051 . Scandinavia was however also a recruiting area for attacks against England and this is why a defence needed to be organized by the Danish king Cnut the Great . The Thingmen attracted Swedish mercenaries , and probably some Norwegian as well . History . Formation and structure . In 1012 King Æthelred the Unready of England ended several years of devastating attacks by a Danish army led by Thorkell the Tall by making a huge payment of Danegeld . Most of the raiders dispersed , but Thorkell himself entered English service with 45 ships and their crews . This force , based at Greenwich , was paid with money collected through the tax system established to raise Danegeld . They remained loyal to Æthelred during the Danish invasion led by King Swein Forkbeard in 1013 , which eventually drove Æthelred to flee the country . When he was restored to power in England in 1014 , after the death of Swein , Æthelred retained or regained the services of Thorkell and his men , who continued to receive large sums of money . However , in 1015 Thorkell , accompanied by 9 ships , joined the fresh invasion of England being prepared by Swein ' s son Cnut . According to a later saga tradition this defection was due to the massacre of a separate force of Danish troops brought to England by Swein and commanded by Thorkell ' s brother Hemming . The chronicle of Florence of Worcester claims that the 40 ships which deserted Æthelred to join Canute ' s invasion force after its arrival in England , under the leadership of Ealdorman Eadric Streona of Mercia , were manned by Danish crews . If so , these may have been the residue of Thorkell ' s former followers who had remained in Æthelred ' s service when their leader left . While the upheavals of 1015 thus ended this experiment in the maintenance of a standing tax - funded force of Scandinavian mercenaries in England , it set a precedent which was followed by Cnut after his conquest of England , completed in 1016 . Most of his invasion army was dismissed and returned home , but 40 ships and their crews were retained in the king ' s service . The 12th century Danish chronicler Sven Aggesen told a story of how these men were selected . According to this tale , Cnut had attracted a large number of men and many had not had the opportunity to distinguish themselves in battle . Consequently , he decided to select those that were the most prominent in origin or wealth in order to form a royal bodyguard . Therefore , he had a herald proclaim that only those who had especially valuable weapons would have the distinction of counting themselves among the king ' s housecarls . After this proclamation , those who were less affluent retired while the successful warriors , who had gathered considerable amounts of spoils of war , used their wealth to embellish their weaponry with gold and silver . He selected 3 , 000 men who were thenceforth " The Thingmen " . The Thingmen had their own laws , which enforced quality within the unit , even going so far as to make the men equal to the king . Later development and dissolution . Under Cnut the system of direct taxation in silver , based on an assessment of land value , which had been used as an occasional expedient by Æthelred to raise individual lump sums of Danegeld , became a regular annual levy to support this standing force , a payment now known as heregeld ( army - tax ) . Each man was paid 8 marks of silver , 12 marks for the helmsman who commanded each ship . As the new Danish dynasty consolidated its position the number of troops employed was considerably diminished . By the reign of Cnut ' s son Harold Harefoot , who came to power in 1035 , only 16 ships were kept in service . Harold ' s half - brother Harthacnut , who succeeded him in 1040 and arrived with a fleet from Denmark , dramatically increased the tax burden to pay for 60 or 62 ships in the first year of his rule in England , but reduced this force to 32 ships in 1041 . This tax increase provoked violent unrest . Under Edward the Confessor , who came to the throne in 1042 , the standing force was further reduced and by 1050 he was employing only 14 ships . In that year 9 of these were dismissed and in 1051 the remaining force was disbanded and the heregeld was abolished . Runestones . Several of its members are commemorated on runestone s , such as the Viking Runestones and the England Runestones . One example is the Komstad Runestone which was raised in memory the marshall Vrái , who had served in England with his brother Gunni , something that Vrái reported himself on the Sävsjö Runestone . Other examples are the Kålsta Runestone , where two sons report that their father was a member of the Assembly Retinue , and the Gåsinge Runestone which was raised in memory of a warrior who served Canute the Great .