Trinoda necessitas ("three-knotted obligation" in Latin) is a term used to refer to a "threefold tax" in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

times. Subjects of an Anglo-Saxon king were required to yield three services: bridge-bote (repairing bridges and roads), burgh-bote (building and maintaining fortifications), and fyrd-bote (serving in the militia, known as the fyrd). Rulers very rarely exempted subjects from the ''trinoda necessitas'', because these services were the lifeblood of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. After the Norman Conquest, exemptions from the ''trinoda necessitas'' became more common. The term "trinoda necessitas" was rarely used in Anglo-Saxon times: its only known use is in a grant of land near Pagham,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

from King Cædwalla of Wessex to Saint Wilfred. The Wilfred grant used the term ''trimoda'' (Latin for "triple"); ''trinoda'' (Latin for "triple-knotted") was an error introduced by John Selden in 1610. Instead of the term "trinoda necessitas", it was common for Anglo-Saxon land grants to spell out the three obligations individually. For example, the land grant of Æthelberht of Kent to a thegn in 858 was free of obligation, except explicitly for military service, bridge repair, and fortification.

References

Anglo-Saxon law History of taxation in the United Kingdom {{England-hist-stub

See also

References