Brookes, Stuart; (2023) Assembly practices in 10th-century England: continuities and innovations in military mobilisation. In: Tente, Catarina and Santos Salazar, Igor, (eds.) The 10th Century in Western Europe: Change and Continuity. (pp. 53-63). Archaeopress: Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

This contribution outlines evidence for the development during the tenth century in England of an important local administrative institution known as the ‘hundred’. It argues that the origin of the hundred is related directly to that of regional strongholds—burhs—that were created during the West Saxon kings’ wars with the Vikings. In this development, hundreds together with burhs, can be regarded as superseding earlier systems of administration and military organization, aspects of which can be revealed by archaeological and place-name research. In turn, the emergence of hundreds, as a dense network of local administrative units, represented a significant moment in the territorialisation of royal power. Governance shifted from being an open system comprising a variety of different community forms and processes to one that was fully ordered, regulated, and part of the quotidian experience of local people.

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