Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

=== Kinship ===
Local and extended kin groups were a key aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture. Kinship fueled societal advantages, freedom and the relationships to an elite, that allowed the Anglo-Saxons' culture and language to flourish.{{Sfn|Hamerow|2012|p=166}} The ties of loyalty to a lord were to the person of a lord and not to his station; there was no real concept of patriotism or loyalty to a cause. This explains why dynasties waxed and waned so quickly, since a kingdom was only as strong as its leader-king. There was no underlying administration or bureaucracy to maintain any gains beyond the lifetime of a leader. An example of this was the leadership of [[Rædwald of East Anglia]] and how the East Anglian primacy did not survive his death.<ref>Fisher, Genevieve. "Kingdom and community in early Anglo-Saxon eastern England." Regional approaches to mortuary analysis. Springer US, 1995. 147–166.</ref> Kings could not make new laws barring exceptional circumstances. Their role instead was to uphold and clarify previous custom and to assure his subjects that he would uphold their ancient privileges, laws, and customs. Although the person of the king as a leader could be exalted, the office of kingship was not in any sense so powerful or invested with authority as it was to become. One of the tools kings used was to tie themselves closely to the new Christian church, through the practice of having a church leader anoint and crown the king; God and king were then joined in peoples' minds.<ref>Lynch, Joseph H. Christianizing kinship: ritual sponsorship in Anglo-Saxon England. Cornell University Press, 1998</ref>

The ties of kinship meant that the relatives of a murdered person were obliged to exact vengeance for his or her death. This led to bloody and extensive feuds. As a way out of this deadly and futile custom the system of [[weregild]]s was instituted. The weregild set a monetary value on each person's life according to their wealth and social status. This value could also be used to set the fine payable if a person was injured or offended against. Robbing a thane called for a higher penalty than robbing a ceorl. On the other hand, a thane who thieved could pay a higher fine than a ceorl who did likewise. Men were willing to die for the lord and to support their ''comitatus'' (their warrior band). Evidence of this behavior (though it may be more a literary ideal than an actual social practice) can be observed in the story, made famous in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' entry for 755, of Cynewulf and Cyneheard, in which the followers of a defeated king decided to fight to the death rather than be reconciled after the death of their lord.<ref>Hough, C. "Wergild." (1999): 469–470.</ref>

This emphasis on social standing affected all parts of the Anglo-Saxon world. The courts, for example, did not attempt to discover the facts in a case; instead, in any dispute it was up to each party to get as many people as possible to swear to the rightness of their case, which became known as oath-swearing. The word of a thane counted for that of six ceorls.<ref>Harrison, Mark. Anglo-Saxon Thegn AD 449–1066. Vol. 5. Osprey Publishing, 1993</ref> It was assumed that any person of good character would be able to find enough people to swear to his innocence that his case would prosper.

Anglo-Saxon society was also decidedly patriarchal, but women were in some ways better off than they would be in later times. A woman could own property in her own right. She could and did rule a kingdom if her husband died. She could not be married without her consent, and any personal goods, including lands, that she brought into a marriage remained her own property. If she were injured or abused in her marriage, her relatives were expected to look after her interests.<ref>Fell, Christine E., Cecily Clark, and Elizabeth Williams. Women in Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell, 1987</ref>