Demesne Exemption from Royal Taxation in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England

The dominant model for the interpretation of the Anglo-Saxon rural economy was advanced by Rosamond Faith in 1997. Central to Faith’s study is the distinction which she makes between the conditions of ‘inland’, the land held in direct management by the landholder, and the conditions of what she identifies as ‘warland’, land occupied by peasant tenants.1 This distinction forms the basis of Faith’s view of later Anglo-Saxon lordship.2 Lightly burdened peasants are interpreted as the occupants of ‘warland’; peasants with heavier labour services are interpreted as relating to ‘inland’—manorialised areas under more intensive lordship.3 The distinction is not quite the classic ‘bipartite’ division of the manor, but something close to this. Moreover, the Old English term inland certainly denoted land in direct management, and appears in sources with this meaning from the ninth century onwards.4 Of central importance for this article is the fact that the distinction posited by Faith is ultimately fiscal, relating to the operation of royal taxation and other royal obligations. Faith’s position effectively revives the view of Vinogradoff, who regarded ‘inland’ as an area exempt from taxation and military service.5 The privileged nature of demesne land is contrasted by her with ‘warland’, tenanted land, liable to taxation and on which the burden of military service is seen to have fallen.6 This view has many consequences for Faith’s overall interpretation of the Anglo-Saxon rural economy. For example, the privileged nature of demesne land is seen to have brought the peasants working on it under firmer seigneurial control.7 Thus, the distinction is accorded a considerable role in the ‘privatisation’ of former public obligations into forms of economic power controlled by the landholder, through the protection afforded to occupants of inland from taxation and the obligation to perform military service.8 The distinction is, additionally, regarded as having very long-term origins, through a possible connection with the law-code of the West Saxon king, Ine (688–726).9

Ancient history · Anglo saxon · Political science · Corporate Taxation and Avoidance · Historical Economic and Legal Thought · History · Law · Legal principles and applications

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