by Paul Hill
It is hoped that the accounts of the ravaging, harrying, sieges and pitched battles throughout the period outlined above have shown the true nature of the Anglo-Saxon experience of warfare. The pain, the injuries and sorrow are also apparent. Often grim and bloody and always an industrious undertaking, the Anglo-Saxon art of war was every bit as energetically pursued by its leaders as those of other nations and cultures, despite Alfred’s moans about the recalcitrance of some his subjects who were tasked to build fortifications. Æthelred II’s desperate but laudable attempt to re-kindle Alfred’s military renaissance in 1008 stands testimony to this energy, regardless of how unlucky in politics the man was. It is clear now that, for the most part, what we know to be true of other Medieval cultures in Western warfare is usually true of the Anglo-Saxons, save for the still hotly debated but misguided notion of the ‘cavalryman’. It is simply a question of continuing to interrogate the evidence until we find the answers.
We have seen how the Anglo-Saxon kings used their financial resources while both under duress and in the planning of campaigns and long-term defences. The usage of mercenaries and the consequent supplementation of the already impressive naval provision are a case in point. On land, the reductions of wide areas of hostile landscapes and grand military strategies have demonstrated that the pitched battle was the exception and not the rule, except in times of extreme crisis such as that which unfolded in Wessex in 871. Moreover, the grand fortification schemes of the late ninth and tenth centuries and their links to a wide-ranging system of beacons in the landscape points to an adoption of a less attritional style of warfare.
How the armies of the day fought is a question that will continue to be asked, if only because the written evidence is so coloured by classical precedent. However, there is just enough material to make observations on likely formations and fighting styles. On a strategic level it should be apparent just how vast the Anglo-Saxon campaigning landscape really was, with expeditions reaching as far as the eastern coast of Scotland and indeed beyond the boundaries of the British Isles.
Some interesting characters have appeared in this volume, too. The seemingly desperate Æthelwold, son of Æthelred I, was only doing what he thought he had to in order to gain his rightful inheritance to the West Saxon throne in the early years of the tenth century, even if it did apparently result in revoking his religion. His story is an example of the power of the familial link in succession crises. Mercenaries such as Thorkell the Tall and traitors such as Eadric Streona provide the narrative with colourful contributions to say the least. All of them were, of course, power hungry in an age when prestige was demonstrated by wealth. At the top of all this stood the king and his household. For the most part, at least until the wars of 1016 and the accession of Cnut, these kings were of the ancient royal line of Cerdic, a line seemingly permanently broken in 1066, but partially restored in the twelfth century. For all we have said about the weapons, the armour and all the other instruments of war used throughout the period, we must not forget that this last point is what it was all about: kin. The year 1066 is important because that link was broken and then much later re-formed in a Norman guise. For many people, then and now, that was not good enough. Centuries of tension between the monarchy and the people followed.
The final word on the subject of Anglo-Saxon warfare might best be attributed to the biographer of the man who made the English nation the power house in Britain that it subsequently became. It is a quote that demonstrates the importance of power being centralised in the monarch of the day. Asser said of Alfred the Great: ‘Once he had taken over the helm of his kingdom, he alone, sustained by divine assistance, struggled like an excellent pilot to guide his ship’. That ship sailed on triumphantly during the tenth century to a point where it became a victim of its own successes. The decline of the later Anglo-Saxon military state is a debatable subject, especially given the sterling efforts under difficult circumstances of Æthelred II and later reforms by the Dane Cnut.
It is still the case that Anglo-Saxon England did not die because of its failure to address a decline in military provision. It died because on the morning of 14 October 1066 the final battle of Anglo-Saxon England was fought by an English king (not, as it happens, of the line of Cerdic) against a man whose kin-based claim to the ancient throne was spurious at best. With the childless Edward the Confessor dead, and his nominated successor slaughtered on the field of Hastings, there was only a young prince of the Old English royal line left to promote the blood line of the English throne. King William’s power and political acumen would prove simply too strong. In the years that followed 1066 Anglo-Saxon England, ancient and renowned, became Anglo-Norman England. The rest, as they say, is history.
Appendix
Rulers of the English, c. 871–1066
Western Mercia
Burgred, c. 852–c. 874. Driven out by the Danes.
Ceolwulf II, c. 874–c. 880. English puppet ruler appointed by the Danes.
Ealdorman Æthelred, the Lord of the Mercians, c. 880–911.
Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, 911–18. In conjunction with Edward the Elder, her brother.
Eastern Mercia
Controlled by the Danes and variously settled between c. 877 and the early tenth century. Incorporated the leading jarls from the Danish Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford, Leicester and Derby.
East Anglia
Edmund (St), 855–69.
Æthelred and Oswald, c. 875. Possibly Danish puppets.
Guthrum (baptised as Athelstan by Alfred the Great), c. 880–90.
Eohric the Dane, c. 890–c. 902. Died at the Battle of the Holme.
Æthelwold, son of Æthelred I of Wessex, c. 902. Died at the Battle of the Holme.
Kingdom taken over by Edward the Elder in 917.
Viking Kingdom of York
Halfdan I, c. 875–c. 877.
Guthfrith I, c. 883–c. 895.
Sigfrith, fl. c. 895.
Cnut, fl. c. 895.
Æthelwold, son of Æthelred I of Wessex, c. 900–c. 902.
Eowils and Halfdan II, c. 902–10. Both killed at the Battle of Tettenhall. Aldred of Bamburh, c. 913–c. 919.
Ragnald I, son of Sihtric, king of Dublin, c. 919–20.
Sihtric II (the ‘one eyed’), 920–7.
Olaf I Cuaraéén, 927.
Guthfrith II, c. 927. Driven out by King Athelstan. d. 934.
King Athelstan, king of the English, 927–39.
Olaf II, 939–41.
Olaf I Cuarán (again), 941–4.
Ragnald II, 943–4.
King Edmund, king of the English, 944–6.
King Eadred, king of the English, 946–7.
Eric Bloodaxe, 947–8.
King Eadred, king of the English (again), 948–50.
Olaf I Cuaraéén (once again), 950–2.
Eric Bloodaxe (again), 952–4. Killed at Stainmore.
Thereafter, in varying degrees, the kingdom of York was absorbed into the Kingdom of the English.
The Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons (c. 880–927)
The combination of Western English Mercia and the ancient Kingdom of
Wessex, this kingdom was the vision of Alfred the Great and the beginning of what would become the kingdom of England.
Alfred the Great, 871–900.
Edward the Elder, 900–24.
Ælfweard, 924. Son of Edward the Elder, recognised in Wessex. d. 924.
Athelstan, 924–39. Son of Edward the Elder, recognised in Mercia and then in the whole kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons after Ælfweard’s death. In 927 the expanded kingdom under Athelstan became known as the Kingdom of the English.
The Kingdom of the English, 927–1066
Athelstan, 927–39.
Edmund I, 939–46.
Eadred, 946–55.
Eadwig, 955–9.
Edgar the Peaceable, 959–75. After ruling north of the Thames as king of the Mercians and Northumbrians from 955.
Edward
the Martyr, 975–9.
Æthelred II Unræd, 979–1016. With brief interlude under Swein Forkbeard the Dane in 1014.
Edmund II Ironside, son of Æthelred II, 1016.
Cnut, 1016–35.
Harold I Harefoot, 1037–40. Having ruled only north of the Thames until 1037.
Harthacnut, 1040–2. After a brief nominal recognition south of the Thames, 1035–7.
Edward the Confessor, 1042–66. Son of Æthelred II and Emma of Normandy.
Harold II Godwinson, 1066.
William I, 1066–87.
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