 |
| Cyning(sovereign) |
| Ætheling(prince) |
| Ealdorman(Earl) |
| Hold /High-reeve |
| Thegn |
| Thingmen /housecarl(retainer) |
| Reeve /Verderer(bailiff) |
| Churl(free tenant) |
| Villein(serf) |
| Cottar(cottager) |
| Þēow(slave) |
Ætheling (/ˈæθəlɪŋ/; also speltaetheling,atheling oretheling) was anOld English term (æþeling) used inAnglo-Saxon England to designate princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible for the kingship.
The term is anOld English andOld Saxon compound ofaethele,æþele or(a)ethel, meaning "noble family", and-ing, which means "belonging to".[1] It was usually rendered in Latin asfilius regis (king's son) or the Anglo-Latin neologismclito.
Ætheling can be found in the Suffolktoponym ofAthelington.
During the earliest years of the Anglo-Saxon rule in England, the wordætheling was probably used to denote any person of noble birth. Its use was soon restricted to members of a royal family. The prefixæþel- formed part of the name of severalAnglo-Saxon kings, for instanceÆthelberht of Kent,Æthelwulf of Wessex andÆthelred of Wessex, and was used to indicate their noble birth. According to a document which probably dates from the 10th century, theweregild of an ætheling was fixed at 15,000thrymsas, or 11,250 shillings, which was equal to that of anarchbishop and one-half of that of a king.[2]
The annal for 728 in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle referred to a certain Oswald as an ætheling, due to his great-great-grandfather having been King ofWessex. From the 9th century, the term was used in a much narrower context and came to refer exclusively to members of the house ofCerdic of Wessex, theruling dynasty of Wessex, most particularly the sons or brothers of the reigning king. According to historianRichard Abels, "King Alfred transformed the very principle of royal succession. Before Alfred, any nobleman who could claim royal descent, no matter how distant, could strive for the throne. After him, throne-worthiness would be limited to the sons and brothers of the reigning king."[3] In the reign ofEdward the Confessor,Edgar the Ætheling received the appellation as the grandson ofEdmund Ironside, but that was at a time when for the first time in 250 years there was no living ætheling according to the strict definition.
"Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ðaæþelingas ellen fremedon."
Ætheling was also used in a poetic sense to mean "a good and noble man". Old English verse often usedætheling to describeChrist, as well as various prophets and saints. The hero of the 8th centuryBeowulf is introduced as anætheling, possibly in the sense of a relative of the King of theGeats, though some translators renderætheling as "retainer". Since many earlyScandinavian kings were chosen by competition orelection, rather thanprimogeniture, the term may have been reserved for a person qualified to compete for the kingship.
The term was occasionally used after theNorman conquest of England and then only to designate members of the royal family. The Latinised Germanic form,Adelin(us) was used in the name of the only legitimate son and heir ofHenry I of England,William Adelin, who drowned in theWhite Ship disaster of 1120.
It was also sometimes translated into Latin asclito, as in the name ofWilliam Clito. It may have been derived from the Latininclitus/inclutus, "celebrated".[4]
The historianDáibhí Ó Cróinín has proposed that the idea of therígdomna in early medievalIreland was adopted from the Anglo-Saxon, specificallyNorthumbrian, concept of theætheling.[5] The earliest use oftanaíste ríg was in reference to an Anglo-Saxon prince in about 628. Many subsequent uses related to non-Irish rulers, before the term was attached to Irish kings-in-waiting.
In Wales, the variantedling was used to signify the son chosen to be theheir apparent.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ætheling".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 290.