The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ealderman \Eal"der*man\, Ealdorman \Eal"dor*man\, n. An alderman. [Obs.]
Wiktionary
n. the chief magistrate of a shire in Anglo-Saxon England
Wikipedia
An ealdorman (from Old English ealdorman, lit. "elder man"; plural: "ealdormen") is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut. The term ealdorman was rendered in Latin as dux in early West Saxon charters, and as præfectus (which is also the equivalent of gerefa, modern reeve, from which sheriff or shire reeve is derived). In the Life of King Alfred by the Welsh bishop Asser, the Latin equivalent is comes. As the chief magistrate of a shire or group of shires ( county) in Anglo-Saxon England, he commanded the army of the shire(s) and districts under his control on behalf of the king.
Usage examples of "ealdorman".
She was on her way to see an Ealdorman of doubtful loyalties about a matter of betrayal.
So I wore my nice dress like yours so that the Ealdorman would do what I wanted, too.
Well, he would get nothing from her, not her failure with the Ealdorman, not even the little she had found out about the origins of her thrall.
Everyone thought I was so brave giving orders about what to do with the bodies and sending to the Ealdorman and looking after Gifta.
Selik at her other side, but he was engrossed in the daughter of a Saxon ealdorman beside him.
He rode with many warriors to the English ealdorman Athelstane and asked for his daughter Ailfrida, who was said to be the fairest maiden in the kingdom.
Uwen said, and with a sweep of his arm indicated the way inside for all of them in the center of his circle: the lord viceroy, and the earls and thanes and ealdormen who had joined them.
Dunstan, Ealdormen Byrhtnoth of Essex, Aelfhere of Mercia, Aethelwold of East Anglia, Aelfhead of Hampshire and various other notables.
King Athelstan glanced occasionally to the hundreds of ealdormen, thegns and royal emissaries of many nationalities who came to pledge their loyalty to him at the beginning of his reign.
Teranthirie father was there, and the Bryalt abbot, with the two nuns, the thanes and squires of villages, and the ealdormen, not mentioning their wives, and the guards and servants besides.
He sipped lukewarm wine and his thoughts raced in a hun-dred directions as he considered the prospects of the changing weather, heard the well-wishes of the various ealdormen of the town directed toward the new officers of the court and the province, con-sidered the resources he knew were setting to work with the replace-ment of the Dragons at the riverside… the Ivanim were no great hands at building, but the rangers of Lanfarnesse were skilled at many crafts, and the Olmernmen vowed to bend their considerable skills with ropes and tackle to move the deckings into place—without oxen, so they claimed, which seemed to him half-magical.