Leidang Totally Explained

Everything about Leidang totally explained

The institution known as leiðangr (Old Norse), leidang (Norwegian), leding, (Danish), ledung (Swedish), expeditio (Latin) or sometimes lething (in English language), was a public levy of free farmers typical for the medieval Scandinavians. In Anglo-Saxon England, the same system was called Fyrd.

Origins

The leiðangr has sometimes been theorised as established long before the beginning of the Viking Age. It has been considered the maritime version of the Germanic system of hundreds which was described as early as 98 A.D. by Tacitus as the centeni. Since Tacitus also said that the Suiones had a powerful fleet, it might have been that it was based on the leidang. However, since all our sources on the leidang are medieval (the earliest, the Older Law of the Gulating, is 11th century at the absolute earliest, and might well be 12th century) this is highly uncertain. Before the establishment of the leidang, the defense of the realm was probably based on voluntary contribution to a defence-fleet. With the rise of the monarchies, the contribution became a duty.

Structure

The leiðangr was a system organising a coastal fleet with the aim of defence, coerced trade, plunderings and aggressive wars. Normally, the fleet levy was on expeditions for two or three summer months. All free men, for example the peasants, were obliged to take part in or contribute to the leiðangr. All of the leiðangr was called to arms when invading forces threatened the land. In the expeditions only a fraction of the ships were taking part, but as the expeditions often were profitable many magnates and chieftains tried to join with their people as often as possible.
   The lands were divided into districts, ship's crews, "skipreiða" (Old Norse), "skipæn" (Danish) or "roslag" (Swedish). The farmers of the district had to build and equip a rowed sailing ship. The size of the ships was defined as a standardized number of oars, initially forty oars, later the standardized size of 24 was increased. In Norway, there were 279 such districts in 1277, in Denmark two-three times as many. The head of a district was called "styrimaðr" or "styræsmand", steersman, and he functioned as captain of the ship. The smallest unit was the crew of peasants who had to arm and provide for one oarsman ("hafnæ" in Danish, "manngerð" in Old Norse).
   According to the Law of Uppland, the hundreds of Uppland provided as many as four ships each, those of Västmanland two ships and those of Roslagen one ship.
   The older laws regulating the leiðangr (the Norwegian "Older Law of the Gulating" dates to the 11th or 12th century) require every man to, as a minimum, arm himself with an axe or a sword in addition to spear and shield, and for every rowbench (typically of two men) to have a bow and 24 arrows. Later 12th-13th century changes to this law code list more extensive equipment for the more affluent freemen, with helmet, mail hauberk, shield, spear and sword being what the well-to-do farmer or burgher must bring to war.
   In 12th-13th century sources detailing the 11th century, jarls are mentioned as the chieftain of the leiðangr, in the 12th century the bishop could also be head of the fleet levy, although typically nobles lead levies in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Evolution

In parts of the Scandinavian countries the leiðangr evolved to a tax in the 12th century to 13th century, paid by all (free) farmers until the 19th century, although the ship-levy was frequently called out and used in the 13th-15th centuries, with the Norwegian leiðangr fleet going as far as Scotland in the 1260s. The use of the levy-tax as opposed to the use of maritime forces was more prevalent in Denmark and Sweden than Norway, since the Norwegian kingdom always depended heavily on fleet-based forces rather than land-based ones.

England

In Saxon times, defenses were based upon the fyrd, the Anglo-Saxon version of the Scandinavian leidang. It was a militia of all able-bodied men that was called up from the districts threatened with attack. Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and the participants were obliged to provide their own arms and provisions. The origins of the early militia can be traced back to at least the seventh century. It is likely that the obligation of Englishmen to serve in the fyrd or peoples army is older than our oldest records. Alfred the Great is credited with the development of the fyrd system.
The fyrd was used heavily by Harold Godwinson during the Battle of Hastings against the invading Normans. However, its failure demonstrates one of the major problems with a volunteer army sourced from peasant farmers, as the farmers returned to the land rather than await the invasion, as they found nothing when they arrived, and felt it better to return to the fields.

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