Hlaford

The King was considered as the hlaford of the nation; and in consequence of that supposition, the security given to inferior hlafords against their particular retainers was in his case extended to all his subjects.

The Eorls constituted the nobility of the land, and were subdivided into two orders, the Hlafords or land-owners, and the Sithcundmen, who were nobles by birth, but less wealthy than the hlafords. To this class, too, belonged the Thanes, who originally were those to whom land was granted, as a feudal tenure; this title, however, in due time became equivalent to Earl, the King’s thane ranking with the hlafords, and the lesser thane with the sithcundmen.

In the light of these ecclesiastical donations, the assignment of hides to secular thanes mentioned in the enactments of Ine almost looks like the institution of hlafords over districts rated at a certain number of hides: these hlafords were answerable for a certain proportion of actual settlers on the land they had received, and there is nothing to show that only new colonists were meant:[…]