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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:37 am
danegeld • DAYN-gheld • noun
: often captitalized an annual tax believed to have been imposed originally to buy off Danish invaders in England or to maintain forces to oppose them but continued as a land tax
Example Sentence: Today's lecture will be on the Danegeld and taxation in the Middle Ages.
Did you know? The subjects of King Ethelred II, who ruled England from 978-1016, didn't think much of the ruler the dubbed "the Unready." They suspected him of murdering his brother to gain the throne, so it isn't surprising that they didn't rally around him to defend the country against the Danish invaders who attempted to unseat him. Ethelred tried a payoff tax called the Danegeld as a last ditch effort to keep his kingdom intact. The "Dane" part of the name refers to the Danish invaders who received the money. The "geld" part comes from an Old English word meaning "payment" or "tribute."
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:06 pm
in OT times, the nation of Judah tried to buy off the Babylonian invaders with gifts of gold from the palace and temple. (it's in Isaiah, II Kings, and Jeremiah).
this worked for a few years but eventually Babylon came back and took everything else, and killed or made captive all the citizens.
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:12 am
Interesting, especially considering the major bailouts the govenments have been giving out to major corps
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