High-reeve
 |
| Cyning (sovereign) |
| Ætheling (prince) |
| Ealdorman (Earl) |
| Hold / High-reeve |
| Thegn |
| Thingmen / housecarl (retainer) |
| Reeve / Verderer (bailiff) |
| Churl (free tenant) |
| Villein (serf) |
| Cottar (cottager) |
| Þēow (slave) |
High-reeve (
rulers of Bamburgh. It was not however only used by rulers of Bamburgh; many other places used the title; e.g. there was an Ordulf "High-Reeve of Dumnonia".[1]
The first reference to a high-reeve was perhaps in the third code of
Edmund I of England, where there is an official known as a summus praepositus.[2] Alfred Smyth thought heah-gerefa was influenced by the Scottish word mormaer, the meaning of which, supposedly great steward, is possibly similar.[3]
In the North People's Law, a high-reeve is given a
wergild of four thousand thrymsas, the same as a hold and half the wergild of an ealdorman.[4] Ann Williams believes that the High-Reeve was originally an urban official whose job was to deputise for an ealdorman, but unlike other such figures could lead provincial armies.[2]
Hogrefe
Hogrefe (
Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Northern Germany. In 1164, a preliminary form of Hogrefe appears first in a document of Medebach. The title remained in use until the 17th century mainly in parts of Electoral Hanover, today's State of Lower Saxony
.
See also
Notes
References
- "The North People's Law", Medieval Sourcebook: The Anglo-Saxon Dooms, 560–975, Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies, retrieved 19 January 2009
- ISBN 0-521-39309-4
- Seebohm, Frederic (1902), Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law: Being an Essay Supplemental to: (1) The English Village Community, (2) The Tribal System in Wales, London: Longmans, Green & Co.
- ISBN 0-7486-0100-7
- Williams, Ann (2003), Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-counselled King, London: Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 1852853824