How was service in the fyrd determined?

• A. One man for every five hides
• B. One man for every ten hides
• C. All freemen served
• D. A fixed quota of ten soldiers per hundred hides

Answer: (A)

In the Anglo-Saxon fyrd, military service was not a universal obligation but a levy tied to land. Land was measured in hides, a unit used to estimate wealth and the number of men a community could supply. The standard rule was that one armed free man was expected for every five hides. This ratio gave local rulers a practical way to size up how many soldiers could be raised from a shire or hundred when a campaign arose, and it scaled with landholding so larger communities contributed more fighters.

So the best answer reflects this: service was determined by a five-hide-per-man quota, not by a universal obligation, not by a different ratio, and not by every freeman serving regardless of land. The other options don’t fit the historical pattern because they imply universal service, a different per-hides ratio, or a fixed per-area quota that doesn’t match how the fyrd was organized.