Thane

Thane (A.S. thegn), a member of a class in the old English community that stood distinctly below the old nobility (eorlas, &c.), but above the mere landowners or ceorls. The word thegn seems to have meant first soldier, then attendant, servant of the king, royal official; and gradually the thanes came to constitute a kind of nobility of service as distinguished from nobility of blood. Finally, however, the ordinary thane was simply a landholder on a larger scale than the ceorl—one who had five hides or more of land—and the dignity was hereditary, the 'king's thane' being a superior class. The thanes nearly corresponded to the Norman knights; and after the conquest they were mostly absorbed into the knighthood. After the reign of Henry II. the name of thane fell into disuse in England. In Scotland, on the other hand, where the title is occasionally used as late as the 15th century, the thane was a hereditary non-military tenant of the crown; and there is no foundation for the notion derived by Shakespeare from Boece, that the Scottish thanes all became earls.