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Ælfhild 12

Name

Summary

Ælfhild 12 held a tiny estate in north-east Devon TRE, when it was assessed at only half a virgate and valued at just 30d; she continued to hold it in 1086, at which time she was probably regarded as a king’s thegn.

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire	Phil. ref.	Vill	DB Spelling	Holder 1066	Lord 1066	Tenant-in-Chief 1086	1086 Subtenant	Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value	Conf.	Show on Map
Shire Devon	Phil. ref. 52,51	Vill Knowstone	DB Spelling Alfhilla	Holder 1066 Ælfhild 'of Knowstone'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Ælfhild	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.13	1066 Value 0.13	1086 Value 0.13	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Tenant-in-Chief 1086 demesne estates (no subtenants)

Shire	Phil. ref.	Vill	DB Spelling	Holder 1066	Lord 1066	Tenant-in-Chief 1086	1086 Subtenant	Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value	Conf.	Show on Map
Shire Devon	Phil. ref. 52,51	Vill Knowstone	DB Spelling Alfhilla	Holder 1066 Ælfhild 'of Knowstone'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Ælfhild	1086 Subtenant -	Fiscal Value 0.13	1066 Value 0.13	1086 Value 0.13	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

Ælfhild 12’s tiny estate on the edge of Exmoor was the smallest of several called ‘Knowstone’ in DB, although the shared place-name need not imply that there had ever been a tenurial link between these estates.  She was listed among the ‘king’s thegns’ in DB, albeit in a small group of women’s holdings that are separated from the rest of the king’s thegns by a one-line gap; this distinction is not apparent in the Exon order of these entries.  By 1086 her land appears to have a mix of arable and pastoral farming that was undertaken by her eight slaves, there being no other recorded population in DB.

Her estate lay nearly 50 miles from any other estate held TRE by anyone else called Ælfhild and it is highly unlikely that such a small estate would be an outlier of another estate at such a distance.  Furthermore, the only other estate to be held in 1086 by a woman called Ælfhild (Ælfhild 16) was also very small, lay even further away and had been held by her husband rather than in her own right TRE.  Taken together, these factors render it almost certain that Knowstone was Ælfhild 12’s only estate and that she cannot be identified with any other woman of that name recorded in DB.