A royal vill, royal ''tun'' or ''villa regalis'' ( ang, cyneliċ tūn) was the central settlement of a rural territory in

Anglo Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of ...

, which would be visited by the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and members of the royal household on regular circuits of their kingdoms. The royal vill was the centre for the administration of a subdivision of a kingdom, and the location where the subdivision would support the royal household through the provision of

food rent Food render or food rent (Old English: ''foster'') was a form of tax in kind (Old English: ''feorm'') levied in Anglo-Saxon England, consisting of essential foodstuffs provided by territories such as '' regiones'', multiple estates or hundreds to ...

. Royal vills have been identified as the centres of the ''

regiones ''Regiones'' (singular: ''regio'') or ''provinciae'',(singular: ''provincia''), also referred to by historians as small shires or early folk territories, were early territorial divisions of Anglo-Saxon England, referred to in sources such as Anglo ...

'' of the early Anglo-Saxon period, and of the smaller multiple estates into which ''regiones'' were gradually divided by the 8th century. The British Isles during the early Middle Ages lacked the sophisticated long-distance trade in essential foodstuffs required to support agriculturally unproductive households in a single location. Kings and their entourages could therefore only support themselves by constantly moving between territories with an obligation to support them, and they maintained networks of halls and accommodation distributed throughout their kingdoms for this purpose. These royal vills also provided points of contact between royal households and local populations. Substantial Anglo-Saxon royal vills have been excavated at sites including

Yeavering Yeavering () is a hamlet (place), hamlet in the north-east corner of the civil parish of Kirknewton, Northumberland, Kirknewton in the English county of Northumberland. It is located on the River Glen, Northumberland, River Glen at the northern ...

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

and at Cowdery's Down in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

, revealing settlements with large timber halls for feasting purposes and other social venues.

References

Bibliography

* * *{{Citation, last=Yorke, first=Barbara, year=2002, title=Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, publication-place=London, publisher=Routledge, isbn=1134707258, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BC6EAgAAQBAJ, accessdate=2014-06-22 Anglo-Saxon society Anglo-Saxon royal vills