The Anglo Saxons at War 800-1066

by Paul Hill

  First published in Great Britain in 2012 by

  Pen & Sword Military

  an imprint of

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd

  47 Church Street

  Barnsley

  South Yorkshire

  S70 2AS

  Copyright © Paul Hill 2012

  9781844685431

  The right of Paul Hill to be identified as Author of this

  Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

  Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is

  available from the British Library.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

  Typeset in 11/13 Ehrhardt by Concept, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

  Printed and bound in England by

  CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.

  For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

  PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

  47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

  E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk

  Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Plates, Figures, Maps and Tables

  Preface

  Prologue

  Introduction–A Survey of the Evidence

  Chapter 1 - Warfare, Violence and Society

  Chapter 2 - Military Organisation

  Chapter 3 - Strategy and Tactics

  Chapter 4 - Fortifications and Earthworks

  Chapter 5 - Campaigns, Battles and Sieges

  Chapter 6 - Weapons, Armour and Accessories

  Conclusion

  Appendix - Rulers of the English, c. 871–1066

  Bibliography

  Index

  Plates, Figures, Maps and Tables

  Plates

  Offa’s Dyke.

  Ashdown Field.

  Maldon Causeway.

  The Maldon battlefield from the Viking perspective.

  The Maldon battlefield from the English lines.

  Byrhtnoth Statue at All Saints Church, Maldon.

  Byrhtnoth Statue on Promenade Walk, Maldon.

  The battlefield at Hastings.

  Wallingford.

  Mailcoat being taken off.

  The Malfosse?

  Old Sarum.

  Wayland’s Smithy.

  The Coppergate Helmet.

  Replica conical nasal helm.

  Fabric hood or coif.

  Replica seax and scabbard.

  Tothill Street, London.

  A Viking burial pit at Weymouth.

  The Gilling Sword.

  Figures

  The robbing of the dead on the Bayeux Tapestry.

  Harold swears English history’s most notorious oath at Bonneville, Bayeux Tapestry.

  Abraham’s Army in pursuit of Lot’s captors, from the eleventh-century Old English Hexateuch.

  A fragment of commemorative plaque celebrating Alfred’s instigation of the burh of Shaftesbury.

  Silver penny of Edward the Elder, Tower Type.

  Viking and Anglo-Saxon spearheads.

  ‘Winged’ spearheads from London.

  Housecarls with reserve javelins at the ready, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  Later Anglo-Saxon period hilt types.

  Seax examples from Wheeler’s typology.

  The ‘Repton Rider’ showing seax and possible scale armour.

  Dane-Axes, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  The lone English bowman on the Bayeux Tapestry.

  English warrior from c. 1000 showing enigmatic jerkin, or mailshirt.

  A fragment of eleventh-century Winchester sculpture showing either a split mailcoat or the more controversial ‘trousered’ mailcoat.

  Possible fabric coif of a Norman cavalryman and possible independent mail coif worn by King Harold, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  Harold receiving Norman armour, showing square chest patch, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  Convex shields from eleventh-century English manuscripts.

  The mysterious rectangular shield on the Bayeux Tapestry.

  A selection of English banners, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  A tent depiction from a contemporary manuscript.

  Maps

  Map of the burhs of the Burghal Hidage showing hidage values.

  Forts involved in the re-conquest of Danish-held territories, c. 910–18.

  Places mentioned in Harold Godwinson’s campaigns in Wales.

  The Battle of Maldon, 991.

  The Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066.

  The aftermath of Hastings, 1066.

  Tables

  Where were battles fought (800–1066)?

  Anglo-Saxon heriots at the time of King Cnut, 1020–3.

  Spear types in later Anglo-Saxon England.

  Preface

  This book represents an opportunity to explore some of the theories concerning the ways in which the leaders of England and their armies in later Anglo-Saxon times fought their battles and waged war in general. It has also provided me with an opportunity to bring together material gathered over the years during the course of my own enquiries. The period covered in this book ranges from the rise of the House of Wessex in the decades preceding the arrival of the Danish Great Heathen Army in 865 to the traditional finishing point of 1066. There is, of course, room for discussion on either side of these chosen dates given that nothing–not even the Norman Conquest–can change everything overnight.

  Between the eighth and eleventh centuries warfare changed considerably in England as a response to external and internal threats. In particular, there was a great shift in the organisational capabilities of the king during the ninth century, resulting in grand strategic fortification schemes and a very well-organised naval force, which by the middle of the tenth century was allegedly patrolling the whole island of Britain in squadrons. Set against these remarkable advancements and achievements in defence provision must be placed the old traditional mechanism by which a man arrived at the battlefield. The lordship bond, ancient and rooted in the cultures of the Germanic Migration period, the giving and receiving of arms and the fostering of young warriors by high-ranking men–all these things meant that the people who fought the titanic battle against the Normans at Hastings in 1066 had come to the battlefield through a series of obligations which would not have been unrecognisable to their ancestors of five-hundred years past.

  It must also be borne in mind that by the time of the second Viking invasions of the 990s much of what had been achieved in terms of military organisation and structure during the years of the reigns of Alfred the Great (871–900), Edward the Elder (900–24), Athelstan (924–39), Edmund I (939–6) and Edred (946–56) had experienced the complications of urban and social development. The reign of King Edgar (959–79) was a period often regarded as a Golden Age in Anglo-Saxon history. Edgar was given the name ‘the peaceable’ not because he was a pacifist, but because the armies and navies of Anglo-Saxon England were so well organised that potential foreign enemies chose to look elsewhere for spoils. The
resulting peace in England during the tenth century, however, led to a rise in the independence of regional leaders. Through the influence of political factions competing against each other the Kingdom of the English became a victim of its own extraordinary success. Peace bred instability. By the time of the reign of Æthelred II (979–1016) the grand schemes of previous rulers such as the fortifications, the standing armies and the patrolling navies had changed in their nature. England’s defences were left in the hands of brave, but sometimes unpredictable regional leaders. The period between c. 990 and 1066 was in some ways quite different than what had gone before.

  There are some myths to explode and other reputations both good and bad to uphold. The question of how the Anglo-Saxons used their horses throughout this period is an argument that has raged for centuries. The mere existence of a true ‘cavalry’ in pre-Conquest England is still hotly debated. This subject forms a key part of the book. The ways in which leaders fought wars of psychology and bound their agreements with hostages are also examined closely.

  Each section of the book covers an individual topic in detail. The subsections can be read independently or the whole work from start to finish. I have approached each topic in a broadly chronological way where the evidence allows for such an approach. For example, where there is enough material to examine the way certain things changed over time, this is brought out in these sections. The complex and sometimes unfathomable matter of army recruitment is such a case. Similarly, changes in the use of weapons and armour are dealt with by the same chronological approach. Where it is not possible to draw such a broad picture from the limited evidence, I have concentrated on what the available material can tell us.

  I have tried to set out every method of warfare, every tactic employed, every weapon used and link it to the direct literary, archaeological and pictorial evidence throughout the period. The battles, sieges and campaigns I have chosen have been selected for a reason. Each individual case highlights something either typical or unique about Anglo-Saxon warfare, or serves as a good example of one or more of the mechanisms of warfare outlined in Chapters 1 to 4 of the book. Each example brings to light the Old English approach to such concepts as strategic awareness, naval capabilities, set-piece battles, long-term campaigns in the landscape, wars of attrition and the seldom-approached subject of Anglo-Saxon siege warfare.

  The weapons and armour of the Anglo-Saxon world have fascinated me for years. I have set out as much as I can find on each subject area. However, with a book that covers such a wide variety of research over a long chronological period I can in most cases only refer the reader to the labours of many scholars. I urge readers to turn to the bibliography as often as they can. It is upon these sources and interpretations that a great deal of this present volume is inevitably based.

  Throughout the book nothing is discussed without some recourse to the evidence in whichever form it takes. Readers will forgive me then, where the evidence is scant, if I very occasionally, after many years of looking into the subject of Anglo-Saxon warfare, make a few guesses to which I feel entitled.

  Prologue

  But he shoved with his shield–so that the shaft burst,

  And the spear broke, and it sprang away.

  Wroth was the chieftain, he pierced with his spear

  That proud Viking who gave him that wound.

  Yet prudent was the chieftain; he aimed his shaft to go

  Through the man’s neck–his hand guided it

  So that he reached his sudden enemy’s life.

  Then he a second swiftly sent

  That the breastplate burst–in the heart was he wounded

  Through the ring-harness–and at his heart stood

  The poisoned point; the earl was the blither:-

  Laughed then that high-heart–made thanks to God

  For his day’s work–that his Saviour granted him.

  This vivid description belongs to the famous poem The Battle of Maldon, an engagement that took place near the Blackwater Estuary in Essex in 991. Because it contains one of the few portrayals of an Anglo-Saxon army in battle, the poem is referred to many times in this book. But what does it tell us about what it was like to be involved in warfare during the Anglo-Saxon period? The answers are nearly all there provided we know what we are dealing with. It is often assumed that the surviving literary evidence for warfare is of limited value due to its colourful and formulaic language. But to argue this is akin to staring the evidence in the face and ignoring it. Things were spoken or written for a reason. All we have to do is understand the reasons for the works being written in the first place, and their references to weapons and warfare can be taken in context and conclusions can be drawn from them. But of course, it is not always easy to reach this understanding.

  Some scholars have sought to look at warfare from the participant’s point of view, most notably John Keegan in his The Face of Battle. This is a useful exercise that gets the reader closer to the true horrors of war, but for periods of history where the literary evidence is not so direct or at best enigmatic, the approach becomes harder. The poem The Battle of Maldon, quoted from above, is a literary device before it is anything else. It was written in a certain style for a certain political purpose. It does, however, mention things that simply must have been true, however dramatic they may appear. The pushing and shoving of a shield wall line was a reality. The snapping and breaking of a spear shaft as a warrior pressed his shield against it was also a reality. So too was the bloody end to a life brought about by a brutal thrust of a weapon into the body’s unprotected parts, the result of a struggle fought at close quarters with a deadly result.

  The brutality of Anglo-Saxon warfare has been evidenced by recent archaeology. One can only imagine the scene on the ridgeway in Weymouth on the southern coast of England, played out sometime in the late tenth or early eleventh century (Plate 19). The discovery by archaeologists of fifty-one decapitated Scandinavian male bodies in a huge pit in 2009 shows such brutality in an unambiguous way. Clearly beheaded while still alive, these young men had also been stripped naked and when they were placed in the pit, their heads were neatly stacked to one side. Archaeologists have established their Scandinavian origins through isotope analysis of the males’ teeth, concluding a wide-ranging yet truly Scandinavian origin for each of the men. One of them is thought to have come from north of the Arctic Circle. Radiocarbon dates established that this horrific event took place sometime between the years 910 and 1034. Here in a dark pit on the south coast of England is evidence that the Anglo-Saxons were perfectly capable of unequivocal demonstrations of their own power at a time when historians have often put them on the back foot. Were these victims hostages whose leader had defaulted on an agreement with the Anglo-Saxon king or ealdorman? Had they just been one ship’s company of marauding Vikings who had come ashore in Wessex at a time when it was strongly defended? It is too early to say. We may never know the answer. Whoever they were, they met their death at a weapon’s edge in the most dramatic of ways.

  Throughout this book there are countless references to the reality of warfare in the Anglo-Saxon period. This is not to say that these grim examples are included at the expense of sensible objective discussion. They are there to provide us with a realistic idea of why things happened the way they did. It is hoped that by the end of this volume the reader will be closer to understanding the answer to the crucial question, what was it really like fighting a war in Anglo-Saxon England?

  Introduction–A Survey of the Evidence

  We should of course, only draw conclusions from evidence. But the evidence is not always what it appears to be. Let us take, for example, the literary material. There are many works relied upon by modern historians that are at best only near contemporary to the events they are describing. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (for the most part) is but one. It is relied upon heavily in this volume, so it is necessary to explain its nature. It has its own complex history and comprises many manuscripts.

 
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle forms an admirable basic narrative for events in this period, notwithstanding a curious reluctance to expand upon some significant events in the early part of the tenth century, a period of great importance to the military investigators of Anglo-Saxon England. We should bear in mind that generally we get a rather Anglo-centric view of British history from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, despite the fact that its scribes clearly drew upon a number of sources. That the chronicle began on the order of Alfred the Great (871–99) should not be forgotten. History shows that his dynasty would rise from the ashes of Viking devastation to a position of ultimate power in England. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents the earliest attempt in any society in Western Europe to construct a version of events in the vernacular tongue. Without it we would struggle for scraps of information from dubious sources for a huge period of the early history of Britain.

  There are some sequences of entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that look like they were compiled at the time of the events taking place, but most are the interpretation of other sources. This is particularly true for the scribe who shows an almost paranoid interest in the progress of the huge Danish army that left England to campaign in France in the 880s. Clearly, he follows a Continental source for this material. For the period with which we are concerned, there is some confusion over dates and many simple entries were placed in the chronicle where we might have expected something more detailed. Manuscript A, the Winchester, or Parker Chronicle, is the oldest of the manuscripts and in the tenth century a number of scribes pick up the entries to 924 with another writing simple entries from the reign of Athelstan (924–39) to Æthelred II (979–1016). Despite the paucity of information for the period, the Parker Chronicle does at least have the famous poems celebrating the English victory at the Battle of Brunanburh (937) and King Edmund’s recapture of the five Danish boroughs (942), along with fine poetry in praise of King Edgar (975).