Bocland (Bookland)
OE bōcland ('land held by written title-deed / bōc')
Land held under the authority of a royal charter (*bōc*), granting the recipient private hereditary ownership with full power of testamentary bequest and alienation, free from customary communal constraints.
Bookland was initially invented for the Church to endow permanent monasteries, but was later extended to secular thegns; its creation required the solemn consent of the witenagemot.
Folcland (Folkland)
OE folcland ('land of the folk / customary land')
Land held according to the traditional unwritten customary law of the folk, subject to heavy royal food-rents (*feorm*), purveyance, and family reversionary claims.
Unlike bookland, folkland could not be freely willed outside the kindred or alienated to ecclesiastical foundations without royal conversion into bookland.
Gaful / Tributum (Tribute & Rent in Kind)
OE gafol ('tribute, rent, payment') / Lat. tributum
Customary tribute, food-rent, or tenant dues payable in livestock, grain, honey, cheese, or silver by peasants and dependent estates to the lord or royal reeve.
Many ninth-century charters specify precise annual renders to be delivered to monastic refectories on major liturgical feasts.
Libertas / Freols (Immunity & Privilege)
Lat. libertas ('freedom, immunity') / OE frēols ('liberty, franchise')
A royal exemption freeing an estate and its tenantry from public fiscal burdens, royal hospitality (*pastus* / *feorm*), secular labor dues, tolls on ships, and entry by royal reeves (*praepositi*).
Great monasteries like Canterbury, Worcester, and Glastonbury treasured these immunities as the financial foundation of their autonomy.
Trinoda Necessitas (Common Burdens)
Lat. trinoda necessitas ('three-knotted necessity') / OE threo neode
The three universal public obligations from which no estate in England, even the most privileged church bookland, was ever exempt: military expedition (*fyrd*), fortress construction (*burhbot*), and bridge repair (*brycggeweorc*).
First codified systematically in eighth-century Mercian charters under Kings Æthelbald and Offa, the common burdens enabled the defence of Insular towns and rivers against Viking incursions.
Wergild (Man-Price / Legal Valuation)
OE wergild < wer ('man') + gild ('payment, value')
The monetary value assigned by Anglo-Saxon law to a person's life according to their social rank, payable to their kin if slain to prevent blood-feud, and determining the judicial weight of their oath at law.
In charter disputes, oaths of king's thegns (worth 1,200 shillings) outweighed oaths of ordinary ceorls (worth 200 shillings).
Witenagemot (Council of the Wise)
OE witena gemōt ('assembly of the wise counsellors / witan')
The national council of Anglo-Saxon kings, composed of the realm's archbishops, diocesan bishops, religious abbots, ealdormen (*duces*), and senior royal thegns (*ministri*).
Royal diplomas were promulgated and sworn in the presence of the witenagemot, with the assembled magnates confirming the grant through their subscriptions.