Food render or food rent (

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

: ''foster'') was a form of

tax in kind Tax in kind or tax-in-kind usually refers to any taxation that is paid in kind, that is with goods or services rather than money, including: * ''fisc Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc (from Latin ''fiscus,'' whence we derive " ...

(Old English: ''feorm'') levied 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 ...

, consisting of essential foodstuffs provided by territories such as ''

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 ...

'', multiple estates or hundreds to kings and other members of royal households at a territory's

royal vill A royal vill, royal ''tun'' or ''villa regalis'' ( ang, cyneliċ tūn) was the central settlement of a rural territory in Anglo Saxon England, which would be visited by the King and members of the royal household on regular circuits of their kingd ...

. The early medieval

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

lacked the sophisticated trade in essential foodstuffs that had supported the urban economies of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

, and which would be necessary to support large agriculturally unproductive households remaining static in a single location. Kings and their entourages therefore constantly toured the subdivisions of their kingdoms, staying at networks of royal properties where they could expect to be supported by the territory's inhabitants. In the words of historian

Thomas Charles-Edwards Thomas Mowbray Charles-Edwards (born 11 November 1943) is an emeritus academic at the University of Oxford. He formerly held the post of Jesus Professor of Celtic and is a Professorial Fellow at Jesus College. Biography He was educated at ...

: "it made much more sense to take a royal household to the food than the food to the royal household". Food renders were distinct from the

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conq ...

that Kings extracted from other subjugated kingdoms. Food renders consisted of the varied range of foodstuffs that constituted a

balanced diet A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy. A health ...

and were consumed within the donor's territory. If the King or members of his household did not visit, the donor was freed from his obligations for the year. Kings did not routinely travel through subjugated kingdoms, however, and tribute extracted from such areas often took the form of livestock that could easily be transported to the dominant kingdom. The late 7th century laws of

Ine of Wessex Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, ( la, Inus; c. AD 670 – after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecess ...

list the food render expected of an estate of ten hides as "10 vats of honey, 300 loaves, 12 ambers of Welsh ale, 30 ambers of clear ale, 2 full-grown cows or 10 wethers, 10 geese, 20 hens, 10 cheeses, a full amber of butter, 5 salmon, 20 pounds in weight of fodder, and 100 eels." Grazing would also have been made available for visitors' mounts. Customary food renders in England declined through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as currency became more readily available. Eel-rents, however, were collected in large numbers at least through the fourteenth century, and in smaller numbers throughout the later Middle Ages. The last active eel rents appear in records from the seventeenth century.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{Citation, last=Lavelle, first=Ryan, year=2013, contribution=Ine 70.1 and Royal Provision in Anglo-Saxon Wessex, contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWTlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA259, editor1-last=Owen-Crocker, editor1-first=Gale R., editor-link=Gale Owen-Crocker, editor2-last=Schneider, editor2-first=Brian W., title=Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England, publication-place=Woodbridge, publisher=Boydell & Brewer, pages=259–274, isbn=184383877X, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWTlAgAAQBAJ, accessdate=2014-06-22 History of taxation in the United Kingdom Anglo-Saxon society