And just as in Norman times the barons and their Norman followers (_Francigenæ eorum_) were marked off from the population in villenage as companions or associates of the king or some great earl, or as they might now be called 'county men,' so the Saxon thanes 400 years before the Norman Conquest were 'Gesithcundmen,' in respect of their obligation to 'do fyrd-færeld,' _i.e._ to accompany the king in his royal expeditions. But this association with the king did not break the bond of _service_. By the laws of King Ine[161] the _gesithcundmen_ were fined and forfeited their land if they neglected their 'fyrd:'-- LI. Gif gesiðcund mon land-agende forsitte fyrde geselle .c.xx. scill. ⁊ þolie his landes. 51. If a gesithcund man owning land neglect the _fyrd_, let him pay cxx. shillings and forfeit his land. «As a landlord.» But the 'gesithcund' thanes were landlords as well as soldiers. And King Ine found it needful to enact laws to secure that they performed their landlord's duties. They must not absent themselves from their manors without provision for the cultivation of the land. When he _færes_, _i.e._ goes on long expeditions, a gesithcundman may take with him on his journey his reeve, his smith to forge his weapons, and his child's fosterer, or nurse.[162] But if he have xx. hides of land, he must show xii. hides at least of [p137] gesettes land on his manor; if he have x. hides, vi. hides of gesettes land; and if he have iii. hides, one and a half hides of gesettes land before he absents himself from his manor.[163] «The _geneat_, _geset_, or _gafol_ land.» That 'geset land' was a general and rather loose term meaning the same thing as 'geneat land' is clear from a charter of A.D. 950, which will be referred to hereafter, wherein a manor is described as containing xxx. hides, ix. of inland and xxi. of 'gesettes land,' and the latter is said to contain so many yard-lands ('gyrda gafol-landes'). This instance also helps us to understand how _gafol land_, and _gesettes land_, and _geneat land_ were all interchangeable terms--all, in fact, meaning 'land in villenage,' to the tenants on which we must now turn our attention. IV. THE GENEATS AND THEIR SERVICES. «_Geneat_ land was land in villenage.» It has been shown that the Saxon thane's estate or manor was divided into _thane's inland_ or demesne land, and _geneat land_ or _gesettes land_, answering to the land in villenage of the Domesday Survey. Let us now examine into the nature of the villenage on the geneat land under Saxon rule. 'Gesettes land' etymologically seems to mean simply land set or let out to tenants. In the parable of the vineyard, the Saxon translation makes the '_wíngeardes hlaford[164] gesette_' it out to husbandmen (gesette þone myd eorð-tylion) before he takes his journey into a far country, and the husbandmen are to pay him as tribute a portion of the annual fruits. [p138] «Need of husbandmen.»