The title "thegn" is one that applies to a man who was a minor member of the Anglo-Saxon nobility – below the ranks of ealdormen (who were essentially the king's representatives in the shires) and (in the early Saxon period) gesithcund, lesser nobles who nonetheless possessed estates of their own.

The earliest thegns seem to have been servants of these two classes of Anglo-Saxon 'great men'; they appear in charters as officials who owe personal and military service, and who receive grants of land in return. Over time, the accession of lands converted the wealthiest of them into what amounted to a local aristocracy, though not one that was fully hereditary.

One crucial point that distinguished thegns from ordinary men was that they were members of the "twelve-hundred men", the Saxon elite who were protected by law from physical harm. The term "twelve-hundred men" referred not to the size of the class but to the wergeld, or blood-price, of 1200 shillings that was payable in the event that a member of the class was murdered. This was six times the wergeld payable to the family of a murdered freeman.

Barlow makes the point that there were many different sorts of thegns; they ranged from powerful landowners who had spent generations in royal service, and who would be summoned to participate in witenagamots (councils), down to men of no power or distinction who essentially lived their lives on the level of a land-holding freeman. Charter evidence suggests there was a strict order of precedence among men of this class, and the will of King Eadred (d.955) mentions sub-classes such as discthegns and hrælthegns – apparently commissariat officers and men who served in the royal wardrobe respectively (hrælthegn translates as "raiment-thegn").

So thegns "were not a homogenous class," Barlow says, and they were far more than merely sons and heirs or military officers. It was not possible to tell, merely from the rank itself, what a thegn did or how powerful or respected he was. Says Barlow: "The standing of a servant depends on the importance of his master and on the length and value of his service.... Nor did they form an exclusive circle. Ordinary freemen could still rise to the thegnage in royal service, and even a merchant... could acquire the rank with its privileges."

Sources

Frank Barlow, The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216

HR Loyn, The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England, 500-1087