What is a FYRD in the Battle of Hastings?

What is a FYRD in the Battle of Hastings?

Battle of Hasting: Outline. (1) King Harold's army was made up of housecarls and the fyrd. Housecarls were well-trained, full-time soldiers who were paid for their services. The fyrd were working men who were called up to fight for the king in times of danger.

What were the two types of FYRD?

Hollister proposed an ingenious solution: there had been not one but two types of fyrd. There had been a "select fyrd", a force of professional, noble land-owning warriors, and a second levy, the "great fyrd" – the nation in arms.

What weapons did the FYRD use?

The Fyrd. The fyrd were working men who were called up to fight for Anglo-Saxon kings in times of danger. The leaders of the fyrd, the thegns, had sword and spears but the rest of the men were inexperienced fighters and carried weapons such as iron clubs, slings, axes, scythes, sickles and haymaking forks.

What Anglo Saxon means?

Anglo-Saxon, term used historically to describe any member of the Germanic peoples who, from the 5th century ce to the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), inhabited and ruled territories that are today part of England and Wales. Anglo-Saxon. Quick Facts. key people.