MACHTIERNS (Noble Chiefs in Early Brittany)

Although Machtierns (noble chiefs) were an aristocratic group, they were also very closely concerned with the business of the plebes, involving itself in local affairs, often witnessing peasant transactions and sometimes taking a greater role. Machtierns were active go-betweeners between aristocratic and non-noble free strata and really do seem to have moved between the two. Each plebs had its own machtiern (for example; Jarncolin appears to have been Machtiern of Anast c. 830s, and his godson Anowareth was machtiern of the adjacent parish of Piriac around the same time). However, any one individual might serve as machtiern in more than one plebs at a time.

SOURCE – Small Worlds: The Village Community in Early Medieval Britanny,  By Wendy Davies.