Crossword-Solution: THEGNS 6 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 10

But it might have been hard to enforce such a policy on men whose hearts were stirred by the invasion, and one part of whom, the King’s own thegns and housecarls, were eager to follow up their victory over the Northern with a yet mightier victory over the Norman.

Such was the array of the housecarls and of the thegns who had followed Harold from York or joined him on his march.

The custom of enslaving captives would render pure Teutonic blood among the lower classes of a tribe the exception and not the rule; while the custom of chiefs choosing the 'thegns,' 'gesitha,' or 'comites,' who lived and died as their companions-in-arms, from among the most valiant of the unfree, would tend to produce a mixed blood in the upper classes also, and gradually assimilate the whole mass to the manners and laws of their Teutonic lords.

The few, who were called thegns, served the king, generally by fighting his enemies, while the many worked for themselves and for those who served the king.

Since the King was compelled to call out the whole population to arms, the distinction between the king's thegns from other landholders disappeared.