A system for keeping order in medieval England based on tithings (10 families) and hundreds (10 tithings)?

A system for keeping order in medieval England based on tithings (10 families) and hundreds (10 tithings)?

• A. Frankpledge System
• B. Constable
• C. Nightwatch System
• D. Task Forces

Answer: (A)

The system described is the Frankpledge system, a form of community-based order maintenance in medieval England. It organized people into tithings—groups of ten households—that bound one another to keep the peace. Ten tithings combined into a hundred, creating a larger local framework. Each tithing pledged to present wrongdoers and assist in bringing offenders to justice, with a tythingman or foreman leading the group. This arrangement made the community collectively responsible for policing behavior, using mechanisms like the hue and cry to mobilize when crimes occurred, long before professional police forces existed. The other options refer to roles or modern concepts rather than the whole system itself—while a constable is an officer within the framework, the system is the Frankpledge structure. Nightwatch and task forces describe later or contemporary policing arrangements.

The system described is the Frankpledge system, a form of community-based order maintenance in medieval England. It organized people into tithings—groups of ten households—that bound one another to keep the peace. Ten tithings combined into a hundred, creating a larger local framework. Each tithing pledged to present wrongdoers and assist in bringing offenders to justice, with a tythingman or foreman leading the group. This arrangement made the community collectively responsible for policing behavior, using mechanisms like the hue and cry to mobilize when crimes occurred, long before professional police forces existed. The other options refer to roles or modern concepts rather than the whole system itself—while a constable is an officer within the framework, the system is the Frankpledge structure. Nightwatch and task forces describe later or contemporary policing arrangements.