A royal vill, royal ''tun'' or ''villa regalis'' () was the central settlement of a rural territory 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 ...

, which would be visited by the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and members of the royal household on regular circuits of their kingdoms. The royal vill was the centre for the administration of a subdivision of a kingdom, and the location where the subdivision would support the royal household through the provision of food rent. Royal vills have been identified as the centres of the '' regiones'' of the early Anglo-Saxon period, and of the smaller multiple estates into which ''regiones'' were gradually divided by the 8th century. The British Isles during the early Middle Ages lacked the sophisticated long-distance trade in essential foodstuffs required to support agriculturally unproductive households in a single location. Kings and their entourages could therefore only support themselves by constantly moving between territories with an obligation to support them, and they maintained networks of halls and accommodation distributed throughout their kingdoms for this purpose. These royal vills also provided points of contact between royal households and local populations. Substantial Anglo-Saxon royal vills have been excavated at sites including Yeavering in

Northumbria Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

and at Cowdery's Down in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, revealing settlements with large timber halls for feasting purposes and other social venues.

References

Bibliography

* * *{{Citation, last=Yorke, first=Barbara, year=2002, title=Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, publication-place=London, publisher=Routledge, isbn=1134707258, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BC6EAgAAQBAJ, accessdate=2014-06-22 Anglo-Saxon society Anglo-Saxon royal vills