History junk

As we all know, it’s always fun to run around your in country and defend it from invaders and that’s why i’ll tell about Harold of England ( or something like that ) Now Harold was a nice fellow he went around collecting taxes from the poor and he killed people. Like everyone in those days. Well, he got word that William of Normandy was planning an invasion into England. So Harold collected a lot of men from villages and trained them. They weren’t very good fighters since they were villagers but he taught them how to use your shield and sword in battle. Now, after he had trained and recruited a bunch of militias he traveled South of England to meet William’s invasion force. He waited about a month or so, but William never attacked. Then Harold got word that a giant Viking fleet had landed near York ( In northern England ) So he had to run all the way there.

Now, when he arrived he saw that the vikings were chilling in the sun without their chain mail. This was a good time to attack, so he gathered his men and charged at the vikings that were on the other side of the narrow bridge. The larger force was on the opposite side of the bridge, and their armor and everything else was on their ships (except for their weapons and shields). So Harold destroyed the smaller viking force on the other side of the bridge while some of them ran to meet with the bigger group. Now, after they had destroyed the smaller force, Harold moved his men across the bridge to meet the full viking force. Both forces used a tactic called “Shield wall” this was largely used by Vikings, Saxons and Franks in huge battles where you make a giant wall with your shields that’s very hard to destroy. Now Harold had the upper hand had more men, armor and better weapons. and an elite squad called Huscarl.aka Housecarl. These men used a Dane axe, and heavy armor. They were feared but vikings also had their own “Elite” squad. The Berserkers, these guys were crazy they went into battle half naked sometimes or usually wearing a wolfs pelt. They were probably drugged or something like that because they charged at the enemy without fear. They never retreated even if they were outnumbered thousand to one. They used an axe that doesn’t require as much skill as a sword,but it needs more muscles and an axe can crush through shields and even if it doesn’t the impact will hurt the shield wielding guy’s arm.

Anyway, Harold won the battle by making a hole into the viking’s shield wall and then easily pouring most of his men through the hole breaking the viking’s formation.

Now, after the battle Harold got news, William had decided to invade when Harold and his men were in the north. So they had to run all the way back into the south of England to face William the conquer. Now, Harold used the same tactic. Shield wall, but William knew this. And he had his own “Counter” for this tactic. He used horse men with Kite shields, a long shield that was designed to protect the rider from arrows and axes.

He sent his riders near the shield wall and they threw their spear into it. They repeated it many times until there weren’t enough men alive to keep the shield wall up.  Then the Saxons were an easy prey. William took England over.

And I don’t remember the rest. there are a lot of mistakes because i’m writing this from my memory.