Anglo-Saxon status

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)

v t e

Hold (or Hauld) was a title of nobility, used in early medieval Scandinavia and the English Danelaw.

History

Holds were described as "noblemen of exalted rank" in Viking Northumbria by Frank Stenton, with a wergild of 4000 thrymsas, equivalent to a king's high-reeve.^[1] Hold is described as a title just below the earl in Oxford Dictionary of Surnames.