Hundred (administrative unit)

The emergence of hundreds as the administrative unit of Anglo-Saxon Britain dates back to the 9th century. As English law became more complicated and public administration mechanisms improved, it became necessary to create some kind of intermediate administrative link between the village and the regio tribal region. Since the basic economic and fiscal unit of ancient Wessex was a guide , the territory corresponding to 100 guides became the new administrative unit. In Wessex itself, the area of ​​hundreds could be from 20 to 150 guides , while in Central England (except for Danish law territories ), hundreds were closer in territory.

The main governing body of the Old English hundreds was the judicial board, which initially wore the features of a national assembly. The judicial board of hundreds resolved local litigations, as well as conflicts with the central government, was in charge of collecting taxes and other payments to the king, and organized a set of national militia - fird . The administrative center of every hundred was a royal castle or a village, where grocery rents from peasants living on its territory flocked , and where the residence of the representative of the king- rive , having judicial and fiscal functions, was located.

Since the X century, hundreds began to be grouped into counties . Moreover, the distribution of hundreds by counties differed sharply in different regions of the country: for example, the South English county of Devon was divided into 32 hundreds , while Leicestershire , which arose in the field of Danish law , included 4 hundreds (later - 6). Unlike the county system, which existed with only small changes from the time of the Anglo-Saxons to the present, the hundred as an administrative unit was not stable: the borders of hundreds were periodically changed, new ones were created and old districts were abolished.

The division of counties into hundreds lasted in England until the 19th century, when, instead of hundreds, electoral districts and a number of other narrowly functional territorial entities were introduced.

Wapentake

Place hundreds in the administrative division of the eastern regions of England ( Yorkshire , Derbyshire , Leicestershire , Northamptonshire , Nottinghamshire , Lincolnshire and Rutland ) took Wapentake ( English wapentake ). This is due to the fact that in the X century, when a system of hundreds was formed in the rest of England, the eastern regions were captured by the Danish Vikings and received administrative division according to the Scandinavian model. The name “wapentake” dates back to the Old English “ wæpentac ”, which in turn comes from the Scandinavian “ vápnatak ”, which denoted a symbolic shock by weapons after a decision was made by the Vikings. The first mention of the presence of an administrative unit in the Danish law areas under the name Wepentake dates back to 962. Wapentake later began to perform the same functions as a hundred in other parts of England: resolving local litigation, mediating between communities and central authorities, maintaining order and collecting taxes.

Let and Rape

In Kent, there was another administrative unit, occupying an intermediate position between the hundred and the county: lat ( English lathe ). The Doomsday Book of 1086 mentions seven of the Kent's litas. Obviously, they were relics of the ancient division of the Utah kingdom of Kent into the provinces. Lets were divided into hundreds, as in other areas of England. Kent later later played a significant role in Kent’s tax distribution system and organization and lasted until the 17th century.

Sussex had a similar administrative structure to Kent: here the role of the Kent Lets was played by raps ( English rape ), uniting several hundred. There were six raps in Sussex County: Arundel , Bramber , Hastings , Lewis , Pevensey and Chichester . Although raps had distinct feudal features, being organized as castle districts for organizing defense, their name speaks of a more ancient origin: the ancient Germans had a custom to mark the boundaries of land plots with ropes ( English-Sax .: Rap ; English rope ). Each of the Sussex raps had their own sheriff . There is a version that a special administrative division of Sussex arose during the time of William the Conqueror on the basis of an older structure to protect the route from London to Normandy .

In Svealand , the term hundare was used to denote the corresponding division, but over time it was superseded by the terms härad or Herred , common in the rest of Scandinavia. The term comes from the proto-Scandinavian * harja-raiðōa - military unit or from the proto-German * harja-raiða - military equipment ^[1] . In many ways, such a division corresponds to the term “ skiprade ” to designate coastal areas, whose inhabitants were to enter the Leydang , that is, equip and equip ships.

Norland was not divided into hundreds, as it was rarely populated. In modern Sweden, dividing into hundreds does not have administrative significance.

The term “hundare” is still common in modern Finland. It is not known for certain when the division into hundreds began to be used in western Finland. The name of the province of Satakunta suggests that such a division could take place before the Northern Crusades , Christianization and joining Sweden.

In the 17th century, the American colonies of Delaware , New Jersey , Maryland and Pennsylvania were divided into hundreds according to English tradition. Later, a hundred as an administrative unit was supplanted by the county. Until the 20th century, hundreds existed only in Delaware, where they represented tax and constituencies . In the 1960s, this system was abolished.

• Harad
• Ruslagen

• Typology of Administrative Units of England

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• Korsunsky A.R. Formation of an early feudal state in Western Europe. - M., 1963.
• Savelo K.F. Early feudal England. - L., 1977.
• Stenton, F. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, 1973.