The Army and Warfare
in Anglo-Saxon Times
The Anglo-Saxon
period was violent,
and warfare dominated its history and shaped its nature. Kings engaged
in an
almost endless struggle against foreign enemies and rival kinsmen for
authority, power and tribute. Even after Christianity gave them a new
understanding of kingship, which did not rely on success in battle,
regional
conflicts continued until the Viking invasions. The Old English
word “fyrd” is used
to describe the Anglo-Saxon army. There may have been not one but two
types of
fyrd. There had been a “select fyrd,” a force of professional, noble
land-owning warriors, and a second levy, the “great fyrd”-the nation in
arms.
The Anglo-Saxon fyrd was constantly developing, and its nature changed
through
the Anglo-Saxon period. As the kingdoms
developed peasants gained a more important position, but did not
replace the
noblemen in the king’s army. The peasant, as a freeman, had the right
to bear
arms, but he would rarely have joined the king’s fyrd. In the kingdoms
of sixth through
eighth centuries an Anglo-Saxon ruler was a warlord. His primary duty
was to
protect his people from their neighbors and to lead them on expeditions
(fyrds)
of plunder and conquest. A good king was lord of a mighty war-band that
profited from his leadership. As long as he lived, his people were safe
and he
enjoyed tribute from the surrounding tribes. The early Anglo-Saxon
monks, when
writing about the Anglo-Saxon kings, show that this was not an heroic
ideal,
but the way a king ruled. When a warrior
followed the king
into combat, he did not speak of his duty to “king and country,” but of
the
responsibility of a retainer to serve and protect his lord. The
nobleman who
was chosen for the office of king was only the member of the royal line
who
could command the largest war-band. Therefore many wars took place and
a king
who gained his position by force was accepted by his subjects. It is clear that
the king’s retinue
were from aristocratic warrior families, and the gift-giving, in
addition to
war-gear, was gifts of valuable items or land. A gift was not given
freely, and
a gift was expected in return in the form of service. The gift and
counter-gift
were not complete by themselves . Although it
was customary for a warrior to receive an estate for
life (either his
own life or his lord’s), it was not a certainty. If a warrior failed in
his
duty to the king the royal grant could be lost. Thus the king’s gift
was as
open-ended as his retainer’s counter-gift of service; the one was
continually
confirmed by the other. To receive a
lord’s gift of land
was a sign of special favor. Its possession signified a new, higher
status for
the warrior within the king’s retinue. By the seventh century there
were two
classes of warrior noble- the “youth warrior” and the “proven warrior.”
The
former were young, unmarried warriors, who resided with their lord,
attending
and accompanying him as he progressed through his estates. When a youth
warrior
proved himself, he received an endowment of land. He no longer lived in
his
lord’s household, but attended his councils, married, raised a family,
and
maintained his estate. In order to improve his standing this proven
warrior
would often raise military retainers of his own, probably from among
the more
prosperous peasants on his estate. These estates were set up as shires
in the
early records of King Egbert’s time. The king’s military following was
called
the lord’s household troops When King Egbert
assembled his
army, the proven warriors were expected to answer his summons at the
head of
their retinues, much as they would attend his court in time of peace.
The fyrd
would then have been the king’s household warriors and the followings
of his
landed retainers. If a warrior did not answer the king’s summons, he
could be
penalized, with a payment to the king. When an Anglo-Saxon king went to
war,
his retainers would follow him into battle, not out of duty to defend
the “nation,”
but because he was their lord. Similarly, their own men, also obliged
by the
bond of lordship, fought under them. Victory meant tribute and land,
and these
in turn meant that a king could attract more warriors into his service. Christianity
brought about a change
in the fyrd by the middle of the ninth century. The monasteries needed
land,
and needed a more secure arrangement than just the hope that the king’s
successor would maintain the land grant. They got that security by the introduction of bookland.
Under this system the king gave the
land to the Church in eternity, and the grant was recorded in writing
and
witnessed by important noblemen and churchmen. A Christian king gave a
free
gift to God in hope of receiving from Him an eternal gift, salvation. As time went by more land was booked to the Church, and many
noblemen became upset. Some of the noblemen offered to build abbeys and
become
the abbot on their land in return for the book-right, and this was
often
granted. The holders of these early books enjoyed their tenures free
from all
service, including military service. Gradually the terms were changed
to be
more supportive, requiring these booklands to help “where none ought to
be
excused.” About King Egbert’s time these common burdens were being
demanded in
all the kingdoms from all booklands. The concept of
military service as
a condition of land tenure was a result of book-right. A holder of land
on loan
from the king was a king’s man, and his acceptance of an estate obliged
him to
fidelity and service to his royal lord. Book-land tenure, a hereditary
possession, did not assure that future generations who owned the
property would
recognize the king as their lord. By imposing the “common burdens,” the
king
guaranteed military service from book-land and tied the holders of the
book
securely to the ruler. King Egbert, and
the kings of his
dynasty, found that their survival depended on reorganization, both
administratively and militarily. Egbert’s military establishment seems
to have
consisted of three general types of fyrd: the national army with the
personal
leadership of the king, shire forces led by individual ealdormen
(landholding
noble and local authority), and the war bands of individual thanes
(retainers).
Therefore the realm’s strength would
consist of the king with his own personal war-band, or fyrd, aided by
the fyrds
of his ealdormen and thanes. However, each of
these territorial
units was an army in itself. An eighth or ninth century ealdorman could
wage
war on his own initiative and was expected to do so in defense of his
estates.
Just as the national forces were made up of shire forces, so the shire
forces
were made up of the followings of individual local thanes. These
thanes, in
turn could mount raids of their own. None of these forces
was the “nation in arms.” All were war-bands
led by chieftains, whose troops were bound to them by personal ties as
well as
by the common burdens imposed upon their land by the king. Essentially
they
still remained the chief’s following arrayed for battle. The levy of
kings’ men
and their retinues into a standing force was sporadic, since they would
be
disbanded after a crisis had passed. Some king’s thanes and their
retainers
would remain behind to guard their lands, and those of their neighbors
on
campaign, against sudden raids. The same men who led the king’s hosts,
his
thanes, and ealdormen, also did justice. There was a thin line between
posse
and army. Even the Viking invasions did not stop ordinary crime, in
fact there
is some evidence to suggest it may have increased. The basic makeup
of the fyrd was
composed of nobles and their lesser-born followers. Some peasants
fought
alongside the nobility when the king summoned his army. These ceorls
were the
peasants in the service of the king, or in the service of one of his
warriors.
Ordinary ceorls would generally be
unable to afford the equipment needed for fyrd service. The summoning
of the
fyrd left ordinary agricultural activities such as harvest unaffected.
Clergymen prayed, warriors fought and workmen labored, each a
necessary,
distinct class. The fyrdmen were
a professional
warrior class, drawn from among the wealthiest men in the country,
expected to
have a well-equipped, professional army, and would
have been equipped with at least helm and sword in
addition to
their spear, shield and possibly horse. Spears
and shield made up the basic war-gear of an
Anglo-Saxon warrior.
Armor and helmets, while not unknown were rare. The kings and more
important
noblemen would possess a coat of mail and a crested helmet, a sword,
shield,
and spear. Noblemen of middling rank may have possessed a helm, perhaps
a
sword, and a shield and spear. The lowest ranking warriors would have
been
equipped with just a shield and spear, and perhaps an axe. An Anglo-Saxon
burial dated to the
late sixth century was discovered in which a warrior was excavated with
his
horse. Burials of warriors with their horses are rare in Only a few people
in early
Anglo-Saxon England had horses and they were considered a kingly gift.
The
Anglo-Saxon attitude to horses was different from the continental one.
In |
details
taken from frieze in wall of a
church in Leicestershire, 8th century A Phrygian Hat was worn by common soldiers A king with his witan Sutton Hoo helmet Anglo-Saxon helmet Segment of Battle of Hastings tapestry showing Anglo-Saxon horseman with kite shield Saxon Kite shield and banner with lion rampant and cross fluery said to be used by King Egbert |
Historical Time Line The Making of Kings- Kingship, The Army and Warfare Events before King Egbert's Time- Beginning in Europe, The 7 Kingdoms and the Church, Lineage, Ancestors and Parentage The Life of King Egbert- The Early Years (775-802) The Kingship- Chronicle Excerpts, 802-824, 825-829, 830-839, Reasons for Success The People and Places Important to King Egbert - The People, The Places Society in King Egbert's Time- Part 1 (Government, Household, Allegiance, Finances) Part 2 (Great Hall, Cooking & Eating, Food, Feasts, Christmas) Part 3 (Crafts & Trade, Clothing and Appearance, Hygiene, Medicine) Part 4 (Peasants, Farming, Gardens & Plants, Common Tasks, Home, Village) Part 5 (Art) Sources and References |