or THANUS, a name given to the nobility in Britain before the time of William the Conqueror. It signifies a minister or honourable retainer, from the verb thenian, to minister. There were several degrees of nobility among the Anglo-Saxons; but those most commonly mentioned are the king's thanes and the alderman's thanes. The king's thanes seem to have been of three different degrees, according to their different degrees of wealth or favour at court. This title of thane was abolished in England at the Conquest. (See Turner's Anglo-Saxons; and Palgrave's Rise, &c., of the English Commonwealth.)