High-reeve ( ang, hēahgerēfa) was a title taken by some
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
magnates during the 10th and 11th centuries, and is particularly associated with the
rulers of Bamburgh
The Rulers of Bamburgh were significant regional potentates in what is now northern England and south-eastern Scotland during the Viking Age. Sometimes referred to in modern sources as the Earldom of Bamburgh, their polity existed for roughly two ...
. It was not however only used by rulers of Bamburgh; many other places used the title; e.g. there was an Ordulf "High-Reeve of Dumnonia".
The first reference to a ''high-reeve'' was perhaps in the third code of
Edmund I of England
Edmund I or Eadmund I (920/921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. After ...
, where there is an official known as a ''summus praepositus''.
[Williams, ''Æthelred the Unready'', p. 64] Alfred Smyth thought ''heah-gerefa'' was influenced by the Scottish word ''
mormaer
In early Middle Ages, medieval Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, a mormaer was the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic name for a regional or provincial ruler, theoretically second only to the Kings of Scots, King of Scots, and the senior of a ''Toísech'' (chi ...
'', the meaning of which, supposedly ''great steward'', is possibly similar.
In the ''North People's Law'', a high-reeve is given a
wergild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
of four thousand
thrymsa The thrymsa () was a gold coin minted in seventh-century Anglo-Saxon England. It originated as a copy of Merovingian tremisses and earlier Roman coins with a high gold content. Continued debasement between the 630s and the 650s reduced the gold con ...
s, the same as a
hold
Hold may refer to:
Physical spaces
* Hold (ship), interior cargo space
* Baggage hold, cargo space on an airplane
* Stronghold, a castle or other fortified place
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Hold (musical term), a pause, also called a Ferm ...
and half the wergild of an
ealdorman
Ealdorman (, ) was a term in Anglo-Saxon England which originally applied to a man of high status, including some of royal birth, whose authority was independent of the king. It evolved in meaning and in the eighth century was sometimes applied ...
.
[Seebohm, ''Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law'', p. 363]
North People's Law (Halsall)
/ref> Ann Williams believes that the High-Reeve was originally an urban official whose job was to deputise for an ealdorman, but unlike other such figures could lead provincial armies.[
]
Hogrefe
Hogrefe (Low Saxon
Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of th ...
''hoghe greve'', younger forms Hogrebe, Hogrefe, Hogreve, and Hogrewe, also as modern surnames) was a title and function taken by judges presiding over a so-called ''Gogericht The ''Landgericht'' (plural: ''Landgerichte''), also called the ''Landtag'' in Switzerland, was a regional magistracy or court in the Holy Roman Empire that was responsible for high justice within a territory, such as a county (''Grafschaft''), on b ...
'', which was part of the local jurisdiction mainly in the formerly Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
areas in Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
and Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
in Northern Germany
Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...
. In 1164, a preliminary form of Hogrefe appears first in a document of Medebach. The title remained in use until the 17th century mainly in parts of Electoral Hanover, today's State of Lower Saxony.
See also
* Reeve
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:High-Reeve
Anglo-Saxon law
Anglo-Saxon society
Medieval occupations
Feudalism in England