THANE, or Thanus, a name given to the nobility in Britain before the time of William the Conqueror. It signifies a minister or honourable retainer, from the verb thenian, to minister. There were several degrees of nobility among the Anglo-Saxons; but those most commonly mentioned are the king’s thanes and the alderman’s thanes. The king’s thanes seem to have been of three different degrees, according to their different degrees of wealth or favour at court. The alderman’s thanes seem to have been of the lowest degree of nobility, and next to them those who were promoted to that dignity from their advancement in the church, from their valour, success in agriculture, or commerce; for if a ceorl or farmer applied to learning, and attained to priest’s orders; if he acquitted himself so well as to obtain from a nobleman five hythes of land, or a gilt sword, helmet, and breast-plate, the reward of his valour; or if by his industry he had acquired the property of five hythes of land; or if he applied to trade, and made three voyages beyond sea in a ship of his own, and a cargo belonging to himself, he was denominated a thane.

The thanes, who were the only nobility among the Anglo-Saxons, were a very numerous body of men, comprehending all the considerable landholders in England, and filling up that space in society between the ceorls or yeomanry on the one hand, and the royal family on the other; a space which is now occupied both by the nobility and gentry. In times of war, they constituted the flower of the armies, and in times of peace they swelled the trains of the kings, and added greatly to the splendour of their courts, especially at the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. From this body all the chief officers, both civil and military, as aldermen, greeves, earls, hereto-gens, &c. were taken; and to obtain some of these offices was the great object of their ambition. Before they obtained an office, their lands were their only support; and they lived in greater or less affluence, according to the extent of their estates. These they divided into two parts; one of which they called their inlands, and the other their outlands. Their inlands they kept in their own immediate possession, and cultivated them by the hands of their slaves and villains, in order to raise provisions for their families; their outlands they granted to ceorls or farmers, either for one year, or for a term of years, for which they received a certain stipulated proportion of their produce annually. These customs had long prevailed among their ancestors in Germany, and were adhered to by their posterity in England till the conquest. The thanes were under no obligations on account of their lands, except the three following, which were indispensably necessary to the defence and improvement of their country; to attend the king with their followers in military expeditions, to assist in building and defending the royal castles, and in keeping the bridges and highways in proper repair. To these obligations all proprietors of land (even the churchmen for a long time not excepted) were subjected; and these services were considered as due to their country, rather than to the persons of their kings, and were agreed to by all as being necessary to their own preservation and convenience. This title of thane was abolished in England at the conquest.