The thegn became a member of a territorial nobility, and the dignity of thegnhood was attainable by those who fulfilled certain conditions.
In addition to the thegns there were others who were thegns on account of their birth, and thus thegnhood was partly inherited and partly acquired.
But it would seem that the king paid even more attention to another military reformthe increase of the number of the professional fighting class, the thegnhood as it was now called.
The ranks of his thegnhood and house-carles had, been thinned by the slaughter of Stamford Bridge, and their place was but indifferently supplied by the hasty levies of London, \Vessex and the Home Counties.
William could only provide it by a wholesale confiscation of the estates of all the thegnhood who had followed the house of Godwine.