Housecarls (Old Norse: húskarlar). The Dane Knut Svensson (‘King Canute’) took the English throne in 1016 following the death of his rival Edmund ‘Ironside’, bringing in the élite of his own Viking troops for his personal protection and as a supplement to the English fyrd. These warriors, known as ‘housecarls’, were heavy infantry armed in the Danish fashion with long, broad-bladed axes requiring the use of both hands to swing them effectively. Since this meant that they could not hold a shield, the housecarls were equipped with stout mail coats and helmets.
Romantic notions surrounded their closed warrior society in later tradition, although these are founded more in fantasy than fact. The housecarls were neither true mercenaries nor feudal vassals, but stipendiary troops fulfilling their military obligations in return for a fixed wage. Subsequent English kings found it useful to retain a similar body of men, and they are clearly depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, illustrating the invasion of 1066, where they are shown in the English shield-wall in full mail armour and with their shields slung over their backs.
Bibliography
- Abels, R, Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1988)
— Stephen Pollington
