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A fyrd () was a type of early
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
that was mobilised from freemen or paid men to defend their
Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...
's lords estate, or from selected representatives to join a royal expedition. Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and participants were expected to provide their own arms and provisions. The composition of the fyrd evolved over the years, particularly as a reaction to raids and invasions by the
Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
. The system of defence and conscription was reorganised during the reign of
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who b ...
, who set up 33 fortified towns (or
burh A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...
s) in his
kingdom of Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...
. The amount of taxation required to maintain each town was laid down in a document known as the Burghal Hidage. Each lord had his individual holding of land assessed in hides. Based on his land holding, he had to contribute men and arms to maintain and defend the burhs. Non-compliance with this requirement could lead to severe penalties. Ultimately the fyrd consisted of a nucleus of experienced soldiers that would be supplemented by ordinary villagers and farmers from the shires who would accompany their lords.


Definitions

The Germanic rulers in early medieval Britain relied upon the
infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine ...
supplied by a regional levy, or fyrd and it was upon this system that the military power of the several kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England depended. In Anglo-Saxon documents military service might be expressed as fyrd-faru, fyrd-færeld, fyrd-socn, or simply fyrd. The fyrd was a local
militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
in the Anglo-Saxon shire, in which all freemen had to serve. Those who refused military service were subject to fines or loss of their land. According to the laws of Ine: It was the responsibility of the shire fyrd to deal with local raids. The king could call up the national militia to defend the kingdom, however in the case of hit and run raids, particularly by Vikings, problems with communication and raising supplies meant that the national militia could not be mustered quickly enough, so it was rarely summoned. Historians are divided on whether or not the fyrd included
thegns In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there ...
and mercenaries. Initially the force probably would have been entirely infantry. However, from Alfred's time there would have been a force of
mounted infantry Mounted infantry were infantry who rode horses instead of marching. The original dragoons were essentially mounted infantry. According to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "Mounted rifles are half cavalry, mounted infantry merely specially m ...
, who could gallop swiftly to any trouble spot, dismount, and drive off any raiding force.Preston et al. History of Warfare. p. 70Hollister.Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions. p. 3 Also, after Alfred's reorganisation there were two elements to his army. The first known as the ''select-fyrd'' was, most likely, a strictly royal force of mounted infantry consisting mainly of thegns and their retainers supported by earls and reeves. The second would be the local militia or ''general-fyrd'' responsible for the defence of the shire and borough district and would consist of freemen, such as small tenant farmers and their local thegns and reeves. In the 11th century the infantry was strengthened by the addition of an elite force of
housecarl A housecarl ( on, húskarl; oe, huscarl) was a non- servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Danish co ...
s.Powicke. Military Obligation. Ch. 1Lavelle. Alfred's Wars. p. xvi — The names ''select~'' and ''general~'' are attributed to the historian C. Warren Hollister. See ''American Historical Review'' 73 (1968). pp. 713-714. More recent research, however, suggests that there was only a ''select-fyrd'', in which the mounted element was provided by Wessex. The
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
term that the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' uses for the
Danish Army The Royal Danish Army ( da, Hæren, fo, Herurin, kl, Sakkutuut) is the land-based branch of the Danish Defence, together with the Danish Home Guard. For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structur ...
is ''"here"''; Ine of Wessex in his
law code A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...
, issued in about 694, provides a definition of ''"here"'' as "an invading army or raiding party containing more than thirty-five men", yet the terms ''"here"'' and ''"fyrd"'' are used interchangeably in later sources in respect of the English militia.Attenborough
The laws of the earliest English kings. pp. 40-41
- ''We use the term thieves if the number of men does not exceed seven. A band of marauders for a number between seven and thirty five. Anything beyond that is a raid'.''
Tenants in Anglo-Saxon England had a threefold obligation based on their landholding; the so-called ‘common burdens' of military service, fortress work, and bridge repair. Even when a landholder was granted exemptions from other royal services, these three duties were reserved. An example of this is in a charter of 858 where
Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ang, Æðelberht ; 550 – 24 February 616) was King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his '' Ecclesiastical History of the Engl ...
made an exchange of land with his thegn Wulflaf. It stipulates that Wulflaf's land should be free of all royal services and secular burdens except military service, the building of bridges, and fortress work.Hollister. Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions. pp. 59-60 Wulflaf's land should be free of all royal services and secular burdens except ''military service, the building of bridges, and fortress work — absque expeditione sola pontium structura et arcium munitionbus...''.Lavelle. Alfred's Wars. pp. 70-71 According to Cnut's laws: England had suffered raids by the Vikings from the late 8th century onwards, initially mainly on monasteries.Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of Vikings. pp. 2-3 The first monastery to be raided was in 793 at
Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...
, off the north east coast, with the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' describing the Vikings as ''heathen men''.ASC 793 - English translation a
project Gutenberg
Retrieved 1 May 2013
The raiding continued on and off until the 860s, when instead of raiding the Vikings changed their tactics and sent a great army to invade England. This army was described by the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as a "
Great Heathen Army The Great Heathen Army,; da, Store Hedenske Hær also known as the Viking Great Army,Hadley. "The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire", ''Antiquaries Journal''. 96, pp. 23–67 was a coalition of Scandin ...
".ASC 865 - English translation a
project Gutenberg
Retrieved 1 May 2013
The Danes were eventually defeated by Alfred the Great at the Battle of Edington in 878. This was followed closely by the
Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum is a 9th-century peace agreement between Alfred of Wessex and Guthrum, the Viking ruler of East Anglia. It sets out the boundaries between Alfred and Guthrum's territories as well as agreements on peaceful trade, ...
, under which England was divided up between the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex and the Vikings.Attenborough
The laws of the earliest English kings: Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum. pp. 96-101
/ref> However, there continued to be a threat by another Danish army that was active on the continent. The rampaging Viking army on the continent encouraged Alfred to protect his Kingdom of Wessex. He built a navy, reorganised the army, established a cavalry, and set up a system of fortified towns known as
burh A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...
s.Sawyer. Illustrated History of Viking. p. 57Starkey. Monarchy. p.63 Each element of the system was meant to remedy defects in the West Saxon military establishment exposed by Viking raids and invasions. If under the existing system he could not assemble forces quickly enough to intercept mobile Viking raiders, the obvious answer was to have a standing field force. If this entailed transforming the West Saxon fyrd from a sporadic levy of king's men and their retinues into a mounted standing army, so be it. If his kingdom lacked strongpoints to impede the progress of an enemy army, he would build them. If the enemy struck from the sea, he would counter them with his own naval power. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a system of taxation and
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
that is recorded in a document, now known as the Burghal Hidage; thirty three fortified towns are listed along with their taxable value (known as hides). Characteristically, all of Alfred's innovations were firmly rooted in traditional West Saxon practice, drawing as they did upon the three ‘common burdens' that all holders of bookland and royal loanland owed the Crown. Where Alfred revealed his genius was in designing the field force and burhs to be parts of a coherent military system.Horspool. Why Alfred Burnt the Cakes. p.102 The ''fyrd'' was used heavily by King Harold in 1066, for example in resisting invasion by
Harald Hardrada Harald Sigurdsson (; – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet ''Hardrada'' (; modern no, Hardråde, roughly translated as "stern counsel" or "hard ruler") in the sagas, was King of Norway from 1046 ...
and
William of Normandy William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
.
Henry I of England Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death ...
, the Anglo-Norman king who promised at his coronation to restore the laws of
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æthe ...
and who married a Scottish princess with West Saxon royal forebears, called up the ''fyrd'' to supplement his feudal levies, as an army of all England, as
Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern histori ...
reports, to counter the abortive invasions of his brother
Robert Curthose Robert Curthose, or Robert II of Normandy ( 1051 – 3 February 1134, french: Robert Courteheuse / Robert II de Normandie), was the eldest son of William the Conqueror and succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy in 1087, reigning until 1106. ...
, both in the summer of 1101 and in autumn 1102. A view of early American military organization, considered the ''fyrd'' the abstract principle for the defense of colonial Virginia.William L. Shea. (1983). ''The Virginia militia in the Seventeenth century.'' Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780807111062.


See also

* Anglo-Saxon warfare *
Housecarl A housecarl ( on, húskarl; oe, huscarl) was a non- servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Danish co ...
- household troops who were paid full-time soldiers. *
Leidang The institution known as ''leiðangr'' (Old Norse), ''leidang'' ( Norwegian), ''leding'' ( Danish), ''ledung'' ( Swedish), ''expeditio'' (Latin) or sometimes lething (English), was a form of conscription ( mass levy) to organize coastal fleets for s ...
for a Scandinavian equivalent of the shipfyrd. *
Thegn In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, ther ...
* Trinoda necessitas, the obligation of
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
thegn In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, ther ...
s, one of which is to raise the fyrd.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * {{Cite book, last=Starkey, first=David, title=''The Monarchy of England Volume I'', location=London, year=2004, publisher= Chatto & Windus, isbn=0-7011-7678-4


External links


The Anglo-Saxon Fyrd c.400 - 878A.D.
Warfare of the Middle Ages Early Germanic warfare