1066 - campaign finale .. William vs Harald in MeG

[Erpingham]

although the Olaf's Saga account of Stiklestad does not seem to have anyone in the lineup armed with Danish axes.

There are a few mentioned but not as many as you might anticipate e.g.

Thorstein Knarrarsmid struck at King Olaf
with his axe, and the blow hit his left leg above the knee.  Fin
Arnason instantly killed Thorstein.  The king after the wound
staggered towards a stone, threw down his sword, and prayed God
to help him.  Then Thorer Hund struck at him with his spear, and
the stroke went in under his mail-coat and into his belly.  Then
Kalf struck at him on the left side of the neck.

[Duncan Head]

Look up 'huscarls' on the internet and the figure of 3,000 to 4,000 appears almost everywhere.

The later Danish chroniclers Sven Aggeson and Saxo Grammaticus record the strength of the huscarls as 3,000 and 6,000 men respectively, Saxo stating that they were distributed among 60 ships, presumably at 100 men per ship. However, Sven's figure is more convincing, particularly since it can be tied in with the 30 ships retained by Cnut in 1018 if an average of 75 men per ship is assumed.

[Patrick Waterson]

If Sven Aggeson and Saxo Grammaticus were each giving us only part of the story, it may be possible to reconcile their figures on the basis of 3,000 men to guard the king's person, capital, etc. and 3,000 to serve on the ships of his fleet.

3,000 men distributed among 60 ships would be a reasonable 50 men per ship.

Wikipedia (Housecarl article) notes that:

"During the reign of Edward the Confessor, a number of sailors and soldiers, the lithsmen, were paid wages and possibly based in London"

These men may have been 'fleet huscarls' serving in the king's navy, or what was left of it by this time.  'Lithsman', like 'butsecarl' ('boatscarl'), apparently denotes a man who is a warrior with maritime connections.  When Harold's fleet gave up waiting for William after its four month stint on duty, it did not disperse to different ports but returned to London.  We can thus conclude that the lithsmen were based on London, which leaves us with the possibility that Harold may have scooped them up into his army en route to Hastings.

Hence, if we can take Sven Aggeson to mean that there were 3,000 land-based huscarls and Saxo Grammaticus to indicate that there were 3,000 land-based plus 3,000 ship-based huscarls, we can reconcile the two.  We would probably also need to revise upwards our strength estimates for both armies at Hastings.

[dwkay57]

Did anyone watch the recent BBC4 series (I think) on "1066 - A year to conquer England"?

Had some interesting perspectives and points. In particular the role the weather played in delaying William's invasion which may have lead to his ultimate success, which ought to form a critical element in any campaign rules for this period.

[Mark G]

It was quite entertaining, wasn't it.

I liked the idea of getting historians to role play the key participants and describe their thinking at key moments.

And the use if sources to bring in perspectives was good too.