Anglo-Saxon Warfare Rachel Kamm Luke Gayle Trevor Hunt Mason McLaren

Introduction The Anglo-Saxons were a group of people who came from the south and east of Great Britain and were descendants of three main Germanic tribes; the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. Anglo-Saxon warfare spanned the fifth to eleven centuries in medieval England. The technology and tactics are very similar to that of the other European countries during the Middle Ages.

Armor & Weaponry The main components that made up an Anglo-Saxon warrior usually contained a helmet, a spear or sword, a seaxe, a sturdy shield, a bow and sling, and protective armor. Early Anglo-Saxon warriors typically did not wear a helmet, those who usually did were the great chiefs or kings, and were ornately decorated. The spear was more common in battle than the sword, as it could be used as a missile or in hand-to-hand combat. Swords were more expensive and was only used by the wealthier of soldiers. A seaxe was a small knife, used mostly as a last resort. A warriors shield was usually constructed of wood banded in leather or metal. The bow and sling were also rare weapons, the Anglo-Saxons prized hand-to-hand combat and did not favor attacks by a far range. The earliest Anglo-Saxons probably did not wear armor, or at most some form of leather jerkin, metal armor would have been extremely expensive.

Important Battles THE BATTLE OF MALDON (Aug. 10, 991 AD)  Fought along the southern shore of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex and in the adjacent wheat fields nearby.  The battle began when a Viking, Olaf Tryggvasson, accompanied by 3000 other men made camp on a Northey Island in the estuary.  Byrhtnoth, a royal official of Essex, led his militia down to the estuary where they lined the banks opposite the island at high-tide.  The two armies arrayed themselves in a nearby wheat field and then closed into melee.  In the resulting battle, the Vikings dispatched Byrhtnoth and overwhelmed his patchwork army.

THE BATTLE OF MONS BADONICUS (A.D. 500)  Thought to have been a dispute between a group of combatants who were either Romano-British, Celtic, or from both groups.  This group inflicted a brutal defeat on an invading Anglo-Saxon army at Mons Badonicus.  Archeological evidence collected from the cemeteries of the pagan Anglo- Saxon suggests a number of their settlements were abandoned and the frontier between the invaders and the native inhabitants pushed back sometime around AD 500.  A warrior named Cuthwulf, an associate of Ceawlin of Wessex, defeated the British at Bedcanford and took their four towns of Limbury, Avlesbury, Benson, and Eynsham later in the 6th century, thus breaking the British wedge between the Anglo-Saxon communities.

Women in Battle Women were not seen as warriors during the Anglo-Saxon period, and a women suited up for battle alongside men was very rare. Some researchers have, though, found evidence that women warriors and fighters do exist: –DNA studies of corpses in an Anglo-Saxon village at Heslerton, North Yorkshire (AD ) found that two bodies buried with spear and knife are women. –The body of an Anglo Saxon woman (circa 500AD) with a dagger and shield was found. –Kahula, an Arabian army commander in the battle of Yermonks (circa 600 AD) joined her forces with those of another female commander, Wafeira. Together they turned back the Greek army.

Bibliography Sources: ages.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_anglosaxon_warrior ages.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_anglosaxon_warrior ons_Badonicus/ ons_Badonicus/