Sulung ( Anglo-Sax .: Sulung ) - a unit of land in Kent in the Anglo-Saxon period . The Kent Sulung was an analogue of the guide used in the rest of England before the Norman Conquest . However, if the guide reflected the size of the cultivated land, sufficient to support one peasant family, then the size of the sulung was determined differently. One sulung corresponded to the area of the land cultivated by one heavy plow with a team of eight oxen . The name "sulung" comes from the Anglo-Saxon sulh , meaning "plow."
In size, the sulung was significantly larger than the average area of the guide. Based on the text of the Domesday Book [1] of 1086 , modern researchers [2] determine the real size of the sulunga in 200-240 acres . Since initially the Sulung was the land of one free farmer or one family [3] , it is obvious that the economic situation of the Kent peasants in the early period of the existence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was much more favorable than in other parts of England [4] . Unlike the guide, the Kent Sulung corresponded to a compact plot of land with clearly defined borders and, often, with its own name put on.
Like the guide, the sulung also carried a fiscal-administrative function, which over time became decisive. The state, and later feudal, duties of the peasants were determined from the calculation of the Sulungs or their parts belonging to them. According to the sulungs in Kent, the value of the annuity to the king, the volume of military duties and the amount of Danish money paid were estimated. The archaic form of the sulunga as a unit of taxation in Kent persisted for some time after the Norman conquest .
Notes
- ↑ Doomsday book on the website of the National Archives of Great Britain.
- ↑ Stenton, F. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, 1973.
- ↑ Gurevich A.Ya. The English peasantry in the X - early XI centuries. - Middle Ages. - issue. Ix. - M., 1957.
- ↑ This is also evidenced by the fact that the Wergeld of the Kent landowner was twice as many as in other areas of the country.
See also
- Guide
External links
Literature
- Gurevich A. Ya. From the history of the property stratification of community members in the process of feudal development of England. - Middle Ages. - issue. Viii. - M., 1955
- Gurevich A.Ya. The English peasantry in the X - early XI centuries. - Middle Ages. - issue. IX. - M., 1957
- Sokolova M.N. Free community and the process of enslavement of peasants in Kent and Wessex in the 7th-10th centuries - Middle Ages. - issue. Vi. - M., 1955.
- Stenton, F. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, 1973