Huscarl(Housecarls)the Saxon military elite fighting for King Harold

Norman Knight

Battle of Hastings 1066AD Observations - 4 The Huscarls

The Huscarl

A Huscarl re-enactor from the Spears of Andred

The Huscarls, also known as Housecarls, were the paid professional warriors at the core of the Saxon military system. The name comes from the Norse húscarl meaning houseman, but by 1066 the term had come to mean bodyguard — the personal household troops of the King or an Earl. Payment could be in gold or in land, and in return the Huscarl owed his lord permanent military service.

They were among the best-equipped soldiers in northern Europe at the time. A Huscarl wore chain mail — either a shorter corselet covering the upper body or the longer version reaching to the knee to protect the upper leg — together with an iron helmet and a shield. Their primary weapon was the long-handled Dane axe, a two-handed weapon approximately 1.8 metres in length and weighing around 1.5kg. Chronicles record these axes as capable of cutting through helmets and ring mail and severing both men and horses in a single blow. Henry of Huntingdon's account of the Battle of Stamford Bridge gives a vivid illustration of what a single skilled axeman could achieve — a lone Norwegian held a bridge against the entire English army, cutting down more than forty men before he was finally killed.

The Huscarls rode to battle on horseback but dismounted to fight on foot, using the two-handed axe in open combat and reverting to sword and shield in close quarters where the axe's reach became a disadvantage. Their shields were either the early rounded wooden type or the kite-shaped Norman design, which many Huscarls appear to have adopted for the protection it gave to the left side and back when fighting two-handed. The Bayeux Tapestry shows Huscarls swinging their axes from the left specifically to strike the unshielded right sides of Norman horsemen — suggesting a deliberate and practised counter to cavalry attack.

A contemporary axe head believed to date from the battle period, together with a modern reproduction, can be seen at Battle Museum of Local History in Battle High Street. The museum is open April to October, Monday to Friday 10:00 to 16:30 — please check online before visiting.

In this photo to the right the Huscarl is wearing an early chain mail tunic generally described as a corselet, but the later manufactured chain mail was worn down to the knees to protect the upper leg The Huscarls would have used either form depending on their wealth and personal preferences.

Their shields could either be the early rounded wooden shield, or the kite shaped one that the Normans designed for protecting their horsemen's left side while their weapons were used in the right hand. The Huscarls tended to attach their shields to their backs to protect themselves when using their two handed axe, as this would have been a very vulnerable area and a kite shaped shield would have protected more of their body.

The long handled axes also known as Dane Axes were reported to have been capable of cutting off both men and horses heads, and of cleaving helmets and chain mail, but were light enough to have been held one handed for close fighting.

These fighting axes weighed about 1.5Kg(3lb) and were about 1.8 metres(6 ft) long, so were extremely effective weapons if there was space around a wielder. In close quarters these axes would have been less useful so the Huscarls would have used swords.

https://spearsofandred.com

A contemporary axe possibly from the Battle together with a modern reproduction can be seen at 'Battle Museum' in Battle High Street - please check the opening times before visiting.

An account from the battle of Stamford Bridge by Henry of Huntingdon gives you some idea of its effectiveness in the right hands:-
Here a single Norwegian, whose name ought to have been preserved, took post on a bridge, and hewing down more than forty of the English with a battleaxe, his country's weapon, stayed the advance of the whole English army till the ninth horn

The bayeux tapestry appears to show Huscarls wielding their axes from the left to hit the unshielded sides of the Norman horsemen.

http://battlelocalhistory.com

Battle Museum of Local History has the only example of a contemporary battle axe head in the UK.

They also have a modern reproduction of the axe, together with video's showing its manufacture using smithing skills from the period, and how it was used in warfare.

If you click on the picture a pop up window showing the museum web site will be opened.

The Museum is open to the public from April to the end of October from 10:00 until 16:30 Monday to Friday, but please check online for the times before visiting.


Conclusion
The Huscarls were the backbone of Harold's army but they were a finite resource. Estimates suggest Harold had around one thousand at Hastings, spread along a defensive line of several hundred metres. They provided the fighting expertise and the physical presence to hold the line at critical points, but they could not be everywhere at once. Their vulnerability was the crossbow. Ring mail that could deflect a sword cut or turn an arrow offered little resistance to a crossbow quarrel at close range. As the Page on Bows and Crossbows describes, the Norman strategy of eliminating Saxon archers first was partly designed to allow crossbows to advance within effective range — and at that range the quarrels could punch straight through the armour the Huscarls depended on. Every Huscarl lost to crossbow fire was an irreplaceable loss of the experienced core holding Harold's line together. Their greatest asset was space to swing. The long Dane axe was devastating in open ground but unwieldy in a press of men. The wattle fence and ditch described in the Malfosse page served the Huscarls as much as the Fyrd — it kept the Normans at arm's length, gave the axemen room to work, and prevented the kind of close-order melee where the axe lost its advantage and the Huscarls had to fight with swords against heavily armoured knights. That the line held for seven hours is in large part a measure of what a thousand professional soldiers fighting behind an engineered obstacle could achieve. There is a strong case that the crossbowmen William recruited from Apulia, Calabria and Sicily were brought specifically with the Huscarls in mind. William had access to detailed intelligence about the Saxon army through the Fécamp Abbey network, and would have known that the Huscarls were armoured professionals that conventional cavalry and infantry could not easily kill. The crossbow was the specific tactical answer to that specific problem — a weapon that could penetrate ring mail at close range where nothing else reliably could. The recruitment of specialist crossbowmen before the invasion, their shipment to Normandy and their integration into the force was not improvised. It was planned, and the Huscarls were almost certainly the primary target. The secondary effect — quarrels punching through the armour of the men in front of the Fyrd, visibly killing soldiers the farmers behind them believed to be near-invulnerable — would have been as damaging to Saxon morale as to Saxon bodies.

Conclusion

The Huscarls were the backbone of Harold's army but they were a finite resource. Estimates suggest Harold had around one thousand at Hastings, spread along a defensive line of several hundred metres. They provided the fighting expertise and the physical presence to hold the line at critical points, but they could not be everywhere at once.

Their vulnerability was the crossbow. Ring mail that could deflect a sword cut or turn an arrow offered little resistance to a crossbow quarrel at close range. As the Page on Bows and Crossbows describes, the Norman strategy of eliminating Saxon archers first was partly designed to allow crossbows to advance within effective range — and at that range the quarrels could punch straight through the armour the Huscarls depended on. Every Huscarl lost to crossbow fire was an irreplaceable loss of the experienced core holding Harold's line together.

Their greatest asset was space to swing. The long Dane axe was devastating in open ground but unwieldy in a press of men. The wattle fence and ditch described in the Malfosse page served the Huscarls as much as the Fyrd — it kept the Normans at arm's length, gave the axemen room to work, and prevented the kind of close-order melee where the axe lost its advantage and the Huscarls had to fight with swords against heavily armoured knights. That the line held for seven hours is in large part a measure of what a thousand professional soldiers fighting behind an engineered obstacle could achieve.

There is a strong case that the crossbowmen William recruited from Apulia, Calabria and Sicily were brought specifically with the Huscarls in mind. William had access to detailed intelligence about the Saxon army through the Fécamp Abbey network, and would have known that the Huscarls were armoured professionals that conventional cavalry and infantry could not easily kill. The crossbow was the specific tactical answer to that specific problem — a weapon that could penetrate ring mail at close range where nothing else reliably could. The recruitment of specialist crossbowmen before the invasion, their shipment to Normandy and their integration into the force was not improvised. It was planned, and the Huscarls were almost certainly the primary target. The secondary effect — quarrels punching through the armour of the men in front of the Fyrd, visibly killing soldiers the farmers behind them believed to be near-invulnerable — would have been as damaging to Saxon morale as to Saxon bodies.

Battle of Hastings 1066AD Observations - 4 The Huscarls

The Huscarl

Conclusion