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The Burghal Hidage is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance.〔Hill/ Rumble. The Defence of Wessex. p. 5〕 The document, so named by Frederic William Maitland in 1897, survives in two versions of medieval and early modern date.〔〔Maitland. Domesday Book and Beyond. pp. 502 – 503〕 Version A, Cotton Otho B.xi was badly damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731 but the body of the text survives in a transcript made by the antiquary Laurence Nowell in 1562.〔 Version B survives as a composite part of seven further manuscripts, usually given the title ''De numero hydarum Anglie in Britannia''.〔Hill/ Rumble. The Defence of Wessex. p. 14〕 There are several discrepancies in the lists recorded in the two versions of the document: Version A includes references to Burpham, Wareham and Bridport but omits Shaftesbury and Barnstaple which are listed in Version B. Version B also names Worcester and Warwick in an appended list.〔 The Burghal Hidage offers an unusually detailed picture of the network of burhs that Alfred the Great designed to defend his kingdom from the predations of Viking invaders.〔〔Stenton, F. (1971). ''Anglo-Saxon England''. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.〕 ==Burhs and hides== After his victory over the Danes at the Battle of Edington (878) and the departure of another Viking army from Fulham in 880, Alfred the Great set about building a system of fortified towns or forts, known as ''burhs'' in response to the Viking threat.〔Lapidge. Anglo-Saxon England p.76〕 These ''burhs'' included former Roman towns (whose stone walls were repaired and perimeter ditches sometimes added), temporary forts and substantial new towns.〔Welch. Anglo-Saxon England. pp. 127 – 129〕 In the first half of the 10th century Alfred's son Edward the Elder and his successors made this type of construction a key element in their campaigns against the Vikings, who had been in control of much of Danelaw. This culminated in the eventual creation of a unified Kingdom of England.〔 In the event of Danish attacks, the provision of fortified towns, was a place of refuge for the Anglo-Saxon rural population who lived within a 24 km(15 mile) radius of each town. They also provided secure regional market centres and from around 973 the coinage was reminted every six or seven years by moneyers in about sixty of the burhs.〔 In early Anglo-Saxon England the hide was used as the basis for assessing the amount of food rent due from an area (known as ''feorm''). Initially the size of the hide varied according to value and resources of the land itself.〔Rosamond Faith. Hide ''in'' Lapidge's. Anglo-Saxon England. pp. 238-239〕 Over time the hide became the unit on what all public obligation was assessed. So as well as food rent the manning and maintenance of the walls of a burh and the amount of geld payable was based on the hide. Tenants had a threefold obligation related to their landholding; the so-called ‘common burdens' of military service, fortress work, and bridge repair.〔〔Hollister. Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions. pp. 59-60〕 And over time the hide was given a set acreage, in the Domesday book the most common size, in use was .〔〔Maitland. Essay III. The Hide ''in'' Domesday Book and Beyond. pp. 490-520〕 However some areas such as Dorset and Wiltshire used units based on to .〔Dennis Haselgrove. The Domesday Record of Sussex ''in'' Brandons ''South Saxons'' pp. 194-195〕 In wartime, five hides were expected to provide one fully armed soldier in the kings service,〔Powicke. Military Obligation in Medieval England. pp.18-21〕 and one man from every hide was to provide garrison duty for the burhs and to help in their initial construction and upkeep.〔 The continued maintenance of the burhs, as well as ongoing garrison duty, was also probably supplied by those inhabitants of the new burhs which were planned by the king as new towns. In this way the economic and military functions of the larger burhs were closely interlinked.〔Maitland. Essay III. The Hide ''in'' Domesday Book and Beyond.〕 The hide also served as a unit of fiscal assessment for the collection of a tax, known as Danegeld, that's original purpose was to raise money to buyoff raiding Vikings; however after that threat had retreated it was retained as a permanent land-tax.〔E. Lipson, The Economic History of England, 12th ed., vol. 1 p. 16〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Burghal Hidage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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