- related:: [[Taxing Times in 2013 and 1013 The Anglo-Saxon State We're In by James Pennock#id242084439 the medieval English taxation system was unusually efficient]] > [!quote] [How was the Anglo-Saxon state able to levy the tax that paid the Danegeld?](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u3txnc/how_was_the_anglosaxon_state_able_to_levy_the_tax/) by [[cazador5]] (flaired user: Medieval Britain) via [[rAskHistorians|AskHistorians]] around 2022-04-06 > > when Danish raids and military campaigns came roaring back in the early 11th century and Aethelred the Unready (a great example of medieval pun humour) proved incapable of fending them off militarily, he had at his disposal a superbly organized (for the time) system with which to assess and tax his population that would have been the envy of any of his counterparts on the continent (besides as you mentioned Muslim controlled Spain or the Byzantines). The English King could rely on a network of reeves who could circulate the shires and their constituent hundreds (already hypothetically made up of relatively uniform units of land) and collect the necessary taxes to pay off the Danes. All this was overseen by Earls who were less independent of the King’s oversight than say a Norman Duke or Angevin Count, and could be relatively trusted to make sure the right amount of geld got to the right place. > > In fact, especially after repeated payments of Danegeld proved to just be incentivising _more_ raids and invasions by the Danes, English Kings would turn to spending this geld instead on hiring their own forces of North Sea mercenaries - groups that Edward the Confessor would notably finally disperse in the lead up to the Norman Conquest > > What’s more, the Normans themselves would continue to collect geld taxes long after William shattered the English forces at Hastings. English taxes would form a crucial part of English King’s revenue throughout Norman and Angevin periods, and would allow them to compete (quite successfully) with the Capetian kings of France. But it should also be noted that the Normans brought with them very different forms of land tenure built around the manor and honour that would partially dismember the Anglo Saxon system - though elements of it are still visible today.