Food render or food rent (

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

: ''foster'') was a form of tax in kind (Old English: ''feorm'') levied in

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...

, consisting of essential foodstuffs provided by territories such as '' regiones'', multiple estates or hundreds to kings and other members of royal households at a territory's royal vill. The early medieval

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

lacked the sophisticated trade in essential foodstuffs that had supported the urban economies of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

, and which would be necessary to support large agriculturally unproductive households remaining static in a single location. Kings and their entourages therefore constantly toured the subdivisions of their kingdoms, staying at networks of royal properties where they could expect to be supported by the territory's inhabitants. In the words of historian Thomas Charles-Edwards: "it made much more sense to take a royal household to the food than the food to the royal household". Food renders were distinct from the

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

that Kings extracted from other subjugated kingdoms. Food renders consisted of the varied range of foodstuffs that constituted a balanced diet and were consumed within the donor's territory. If the King or members of his household did not visit, the donor was freed from his obligations for the year. Kings did not routinely travel through subjugated kingdoms, however, and tribute extracted from such areas often took the form of livestock that could easily be transported to the dominant kingdom. The late 7th century laws of

Ine of Wessex Ine or Ini (died in or after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of what is now southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla of Wessex ...

list the food render expected of an estate of ten hides as "10 vats of honey, 300 loaves, 12 ambers of Welsh ale, 30 ambers of clear ale, 2 full-grown cows or 10 wethers, 10 geese, 20 hens, 10 cheeses, a full amber of butter, 5 salmon, 20 pounds in weight of fodder, and 100 eels." Grazing would also have been made available for visitors' mounts. Customary food renders in England declined through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as currency became more readily available. Eel-rents, however, were collected in large numbers at least through the fourteenth century, and in smaller numbers throughout the later Middle Ages. The last active eel rents appear in records from the seventeenth century.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{Citation, last=Lavelle, first=Ryan, year=2013, contribution=Ine 70.1 and Royal Provision in Anglo-Saxon Wessex, contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWTlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA259, editor1-last=Owen-Crocker, editor1-first=Gale R., editor-link=Gale Owen-Crocker, editor2-last=Schneider, editor2-first=Brian W., title=Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England, publication-place=Woodbridge, publisher=Boydell & Brewer, pages=259–274, isbn=978-1843838777, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWTlAgAAQBAJ, accessdate=2014-06-22 History of taxation in the United Kingdom Anglo-Saxon society