THE VIKINGS
POLITICAL ORGANISATION
BACKGROUND
• Vikings is the modern name given to seafaring people who lived from the 8th
century to the 11th century in Scandinavia. They came from what today is Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden. During the Viking Age, they sailed around most of Europe,
raiding, pirating, trading, and spreading their influence.
•
They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East,
and North America. In some of the countries they raided and settled in, and the term
"Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as
a collective whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history
of Scandinavia, The British Isles, France, Estonia, and Kievan Rus.
• Raiding trading, and searching for new and fertile land to settle on
was probably the three most important reasons they had before they
decided to jump into one of their longships and set sail.
• The Vikings loved to sail and explore so much, that they would
eventually discover new lands such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and
Greenland. They would, in fact, even sail so far west as to the coast of
Canada, and what today is known as Newfoundland.
POLITICAL ORGANISATION
• The political and law system of the Vikings was known as the Thing System.
This system comprised of both legislative and judiciary powers. In this
system, every free man had certain duties which they needed to attend to.
THE KING
• The King was the highest member of the Viking political system and had the
maximum number of powers. The King and his men had many rights and
privileges which not all other classes of the system enjoyed. He was a clever
hunter and also was believed to have magical abilities. The king appointed
his/her staff and made laws that were to be followed by the rest of the people
of the kingdom.
THE CHIEFTAIN
• The Chieftain was second in power and position as far as the Viking political
system was concerned. He lived his life in luxury and was very wealthy as
well. The Chieftain was very skilled in many areas of work such as war,
farming, fishing, riding horses etc.
HAULD
• A hauld was a freeholder who owned farms and was involved in farming
THE LEIDING
• The Leiding or the tenant was a person who rented or leased a farm from a
hauld and gave the payment in the form of food. Anyone could be a Leiding
from the chieftain to a former farm worker.
FARMERS
• This was the next hierarchy position in the Viking political system and was a
free man who had all the rights and privileges in the society. The farmers
tended to the farms and made a number of goods such as spun thread, looms,
built houses, ploughed fields and made carts and fences as well.
THE LOYSING & THE LOYSING’S SON
• The loysing or the bondsman was a slave who had been freed by his/her
owner. They came at the lowermost point in the political system of the
Vikings and were still dependent on the owner in some ways. A loysing was
allowed to win his/her freedom by displaying hardwork.
• These people represented a different or distinct class and were also among
the lowest members of the society.