THEGN or THANE, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning an at tendant, servant, retainer or official. From the first, however, it had a military significance, and its usual Latin translation was miles, although minister was often used. The word is used only once in the laws before the time of Aethelstan (c. 895-940), but more frequently in the charters.
The thegn became a member of a territorial nobility, and the dignity of thegnhood was attainable by those who fulfilled certain conditions. In like manner a successful thegn might hope to become an earl. There were others who were thegns on account of their birth, and thus thegnhood was partly inherited and partly acquired. The thegn was inferior to the aethel, the member of a kingly family; but he was superior to the ceorl. The status of the thegn is shown by his wergild. Over a large part of England the amount of this was fixed at 1,200 shillings, or six times that of the ceorl. He was the twelfhynde man of the laws.
The increase in the number of thegns produced in time a sub division of the order. There arose a class of king's thegns, cor
responding to the earlier thegns, and a larger class of inferior thegns, some of them the thegns of bishops or of other thegns. A king's thegn was a person of great importance, the contemporary idea being shown by the Latin translation of the word as comes. He had certain special privileges. No one save the king had the right of jurisdiction over him, while by a law of Canute we learn that he paid a larger heriot than an ordinary thegn.
The 12 senior thegns of the hundred play a part, the nature of which is rather doubtful, in the development of the English sys tem of justice. By a law of Aethelred they "seem to have acted as the judicial committee of the court for the purposes of accusa tion" (Holdsworth, Hist. Eng. Law, vol. i., 1921), and thus they have some connection with the grand jury of modern times.
The word thane was used in Scotland until the 15th century to describe an hereditary non-military tenant of the Crown.