BBC - Weapons that made Britain - Shield

shields this is a fourteenth-century type sort of shield that a knight would use you see it with its
characteristic heraldic display but what is actually for on the battlefield well that's one reason and
that's another and another but I can also use the shield as an attack weapon in its own right shields
have been a key defensive weapon for at least 4,000 years but their greatest heyday on the
battlefield was in anglo-saxon England over a thousand years ago for shield warfare it was a golden
age warriors would lop shield in a shield wall at the Battle of Eddington in 878 the fate of England
rested on the strength of the shield wall shields played a critical role in driving back the Viking
invaders but just what could they stand up to I'm going to train my own shield wall and see how
shields developed from the beautiful to the bazaar even today they remain a first line of defense
1100 years ago England was under brutal occupation much of it was controlled by the Danes the
Vikings but there was an army of resistance local legend has it that the white horse above the village
of Eddington was cut to mark the decisive battle leading the Saxon army was Alfred the Great rather
sad that history so often remembers him only for a trivial cooking accident the burning of the cakes
but Alfred was more than that much more not least of which he was a great military leader and he
brought his army to this hillside in Wiltshire and he faced down the Viking threat and he faced it with
his shield wall shoulder to shoulder with their shields surely that can never have been a more real
testing ground for the Saxon shield the Battle of Eddington was pivotal in the foundation of England
as a nation everything depended on a clash of shield walls but what were shields like in the age of
Alfred the Great down the centuries shields developed into many different forms some became
extremely large designed to be strong and resilient perfect for fighting in the shield wall others grew
smaller designed for mobility perfect for single combat the very smallest were known as bottlers and
from the 13th century were often made of steel in Tudor England they became fashionable as part of
the kit for the new craze of dueling buckler's he used really in quite a different way to regular shields
that they're not really suitable to blocking a blow directly rather they're used to deflectable they can
also be used as a steel fist to strike with so they're also good offensive weapons fighting with a sword
and buckler was popular and young men would make a racket as they swaggered in the streets with
their buckler's clashing against their swords hence the term swashbuckling when you're defending
against a buckler strike there's a couple of things I need to bear in mind not really suited to blocking
head-on because the energy transfers through the steel it's much better if I deflected use the energy
and send it away from me one of the earliest fight manual shows people sword and buckler fighting
and they're using the butler and the sword together so the buckler is actually shielding the sword
hand I think that's less to do with protecting the hand and more to do with hiding the hand so that if
I'm like this my opponent can't really read what I'm going to do he can't see what angle the sword
strikes come it can deceive you it can come underneath or it can come from above or it can come as
a thrust in contrast to the fluid mobility of these small buckler's the shields that made up Alfred
shield wall here at ellington would have been much bigger but how were these ancient shields made
the most famous to have survived is in the British Museum 1300 years old it was unearthed in one of
Britain's greatest archaeological discoveries the Sutton Hoo ship burial who was this full we think it's
the barrel of King Redwald who died about six to five six to six and he was the king of the kingdom of
the east angles which is quite a powerful Kingdom in the seventh century you've got this big warrior
coat or you get guys buried with spears and shield and then of course the very top men get buried
with helmet but the shield was regarded an esteemed bit of the war gear you were a true warrior if
you carried a shield from quite small buckler's to something like the Sutton Hoo shield which is one

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of the biggest it's push the 90 centimeters it's huge the shield is adorned with images in bronze
copper and gold the dragon in particular is a piece of the metal smiths art but also of course I mean
dragons guardian of treasure guarding the body that you're protecting and the bird of prey that's an
amazingly strong image obviously this is a replica well we know that this one from tiny tiny fragment
was made of lime lime of course being linden yes it is amiss what is some about absolutely so
absolutely there it is in Beowulf the lindenshield and so it this gives us what I like to see as a direct
link into that world if not single layer yes India yes this is one of the great mysteries I think of shield
construction that the ones that have been found in bog finds do seem to be just glued together
there's no evidence of tongue and grooving for example but of course the leather which is can be
shrunk on to it gives it that extra structure as well to discover what punishment these shields could
take I'm going to have a replica built on it to destruction here on the battlefield of Eddington 1100
years ago the future of England hung in the balance as Vikings ravaged the last independent Kingdom
Wessex Alfred the Great mustard an army for a final showdown this was the last chance to halt the
threat of total Danish hegemony to not only claim an England for the English but to maintain an
England that was Christian the Danes were pagans and their leader Guthrum had specifically
threatened to spread eagle Alfred if he should lose the battle we use the term spread eagle in very
casually today but actually it was a ritual humiliation a ritual torture inflicted on a defeated enemy
they would split open the ribcage and open out the ribs lifting out the still-living lungs spreading
them on the ground like the wings of an eagle to be devoured by the crows this was a very personal
threat to Alfred and a dark reminder of the extent of the pagan menace everything depended on the
strength of Alfred shield wall but it had a lot to contend with the shield on the battlefield came under
attack from a variety of different weapons at medium to long range there were bows then at slightly
closer range they used javelins light throwing spears perhaps my favorite of the close-range shock
weapons was this the Francesca the little Frankish throwing axe with its delightful sweeping curves
it's very pleasing to the eye and it was a popular weapon with Saxons and Vikings generally a warrior
would have two of these a pair and he would get to really quite close range and then trying to catch
the shield men off guard he would hurl his francesca's and then drawing the sword rushing hoping to
catch the enemy off guard but the sword was a relatively high status and rare weapon much more
commonly used was the spear and this was the main weapon that was used in shield war fighting but
most devastating of all was the day knacks this giant two-handed axe which had a dreadful power so
how strong were anglo-saxon shields how much punishment could they take to find out I've turned
for help to a specialist who's been making shield for the past 15 years Steve Etheridge this is my
shield room an Aladdin's Cave of shields it's got a few in the air what you're looking for in a shield
you're looking for two qualities first of all obviously you're looking for strength but also you want
lightness as well if you're if you're fighting in a battle for longer than a few minutes yeah your left
arm is going to get really tired so that might indicate that what they were doing was using two
materials which they could combine together to get those properties a composite a key element will
be rawhide untreated cow skin 1 10th century law even stipulated no shield maker shall cover a
shield with a sheepskin it's a great material it is very good indeed you can see it doesn't actually hold
a shape very well at the moment so this is why you have the wood to actually shape it with moving
the wood sandwich between the two layers of wrong to make a shield steve is going to use the wood
celebrated by the anglo-saxons lindenwood lime it is an extraordinarily light wood is very light for
bending it don't really feel the spring and yes it's really quite flexible and bends in both legs alley yet
but the big question is we've got very thin boards yes how are you fixing them together only one way
it can be blue laid for cheese steve is following an ancient recipe based on a protein called casein that

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can be extracted from dairy products a Benedictine monk Theophilus wrote it down 900 years ago
and recommended it specifically making shields next ingredient is vinegar this will sort to knock out
casing it's about instant chemical reaction you really can see it separate yet Theophilus says put back
into the mortar and pound it carefully with the pestle and water mixed with quick line it will react
with the protein to actually make it a little bit stickier and this is a trial and error quantity yes you just
keep on gently adding this stuff until you've got what you hope of what proportions now we can try
Steve's cheese glue in the workshop it is sticky yep sir and it then it feels rubbery it feels like a latex
tingling all together I swear over the top and I know this is going to be covered front and back with
raw here but it still looks terribly flimsy to me well we're just gonna have to see if it holds on hours of
work still lie ahead soaking the rawhide then cutting and stitching it together a clue to the durability
of anglo-saxon shields comes from a Viking text describing a ritual duel the home Ghana it was an
ancient rite of law amongst the Vikings that they could settle private disputes by means of a duel
there are two forms of dual there was a I'm VG very informal affair and the Hong gana rule to the
home Ganga are very elaborate the two people in dispute would go out to an island where no one
could interfere in their private dispute and there they would stake out a cloak on the ground about
10 foot square then they would cut strips of hazel and set that as a perimeter around the cloak this
was then called the hazeled ground it was formalized it had legal authority they would fight with
Spears swords and most often relaxes but it was a stipulation that each man had with him three
shields and this tells us among other things that the shield would not be expected to last for the full
combat a man might expect his shield to fail in battle each man shall have three shields and when
these are destroyed he must stand upon the cloak and defend himself only with his weapons Thorgils
held the shield of his brother percy struck a mighty blow and cleft cormac shield each of them
smashed all three of the others shields but how well will the shields I've commissioned stand up to
the weapons of King Alfred's day they'll be tested at the Royal Military College of Science at
shrivenham shield maker Steve Etheridge has specially made to shields using only anglo-saxon
materials this is a lime shield glued together with cheese cloak feather-light isn't it yes yeah she's sick
smell of lime glued together this is a little dinky one this rawhide back in front row I back in front
something was of lime in there so he's relatively heavy you wouldn't have thought it but they actually
adds an awful lot of white to it Steve's also brought along an old favorite of his Allen's shaped or
lenticular shield now it's made of plywood in canvas but it's the right shape tists lenticular so and
that has hope yeah yeah that has got that's it that's got structural strength that's what we want to
test on this the first test is in the long ranges a high-speed camera will record how the shield's
respond to attack when you want to be standing behind our backs I did not expect it broke like that I
thought it might punch a hole through but split I'd expected Devon very fast you can see that if he's
going to go through it happens in the first couple of milliseconds I thought you can see the actually
springs open yeah and then shuts up on your entrancing do all that distortion is actually post event
yes it's after everything's finished by then but how will it stand up to the throwing axe it's actually
gone in just follow the news in the point and the point actually held it all their noses split and then
the weightier things coming through and crashing it yeah plain wooden shield no absolutely we need
to do is try with our line would shield destroyed it's time to put rawhide to the test that side of July
and clearly that rawhides done the job yeah it's happening I dare that would just falls out so the
composite effect is working all this resistor but will the rawhide be proof against the Francesca but
wrong I'll look at the amount of bounce there well and the amount of distortion is always so much
anything just sucking the white out of the blow you're getting no penetration yeah all the energy is
just going to burning the shield now our rawhide shield faces a heavy weapon the Dane axe that's

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not something interesting that has slipped the edge bonding an anglo-saxon text describes such an
event in the midst of battle the rim of the shield shattered and the body armor sang one of the songs
of terror I think the word is failed that's actually split the rent basically the rawhide isn't able to
spread the way to the boat quick enough so that it's all being transferred try to the wood underneath
yeah once the rawhides gone is there nothing to stop royal Bobby sloths rims got ya lost the thing
Tiger but how will Steve's lenticular shield stand up to the day max that something special now that
is justifying lenticular shapers and how'd that being a flat shield I think it would just mean chopped in
half brother so that's doing the business isn't it Thanks taking all of the energy out of the most
powerful hand weapon of its time to find the breaking point of the lenticular shield we need to
deliver a blow mechanically the head of the day nax has been mounted in a drop tower the shatter
the shield requires a strike almost four times more powerful than my own science can tell us the
material strength of a shield but it's effective power depended on the skill of the man behind it so
who were the Warriors that made our Alfred the Great shield wall at Eddington how did Alfred who
had been hiding in disguise in the Somerset marshes muster an army to learn more I've come to
winchester Alfred's capital city at King Alfred's college I'm meeting with an expert in anglo-saxon
history rhyanne lavelle alfred sees the the English people the Christian English people as under threat
by the Vikings he's a man with a mission manish a man of Destiny and they seized his role is he has
got to put a stop to this so Eddington is a crucial turning point he needs a militia basically he needs a
Fiat and a fear it is an old English word which means journey it means that all the free man meant to
come to a central point and fight for the kingdom he would be somebody who was well-trained well-
armed there is this notion that you meant have go into service for 40 days and 40 nights and training
with their comrades the people who are going to be fighting alongside them in the shield wall or in
the thick of battle we don't really know to what extent they were armed but what we might assume
is that they did at least have a weapon probably a sphere and almost certainly a shield the mark of a
man is to be a warrior in this society and so that you would expect the people in the the feared that
Alfred is bringing to Eddington to actually have a shield as well as a spiracy and they are not going to
survive in the bathroom without at least a shield but how did Alfred shield wall work at Eddington we
can get a good idea by looking at modern shield wall maneuvers this is the riot police training center
at Gravesend these are the Mexican police water shield the long shows that you have there are made
with polycarbonate material made Mackrell on the strength of it is in its flexibility i'll touch on that in
a few seconds time the energy of any thrown missile or handheld weapon is absorbed really by the
flexibility to shield pretty effective I don't really it is very flexible over the top that's why they wear
protective gel way yeah that's right but otherwise it's you've got quite a lot of protection behind it
once you start moving to my captain once you start to trust the equipment indeed and that's what
this trainer ties back into a garden trafico police are using tactics that wouldn't have been out of
place in an anglo-saxon battle we have seen the police drill with snatch scorp so that with people
with a round shields are coming through the front line of people with their square shield going out to
get troublemakers we think that's something that would have been down with a Saxon shield wall
sending SWAT squads out so the shields being used in very similar ways during the miners strike
police shield tactics were instrumental in breaking the picket cordon such tactics of solid defense and
rapid sorties must have been used eleven hundred years ago by Alfred here at Eddington as the
Vikings advanced from chippenham in the north Alfred marched his army out to meet them head-on
led by Guthrum the Vikings probably stationed themselves here at Bratton camp it's an ancient hell
fault above the village of Eddington where I met local military historian Robin Wilson before the
battle how far away is Alfred about five miles and therefore he would have started the dawn so once

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they click off its gonna happen he would have been up here probably for her in the first couple of
hours in the morning that's right and whereabouts do you think that goutham has gopher would
have taken his I would have suggest would have his son outposts set on here Burton camp on
Eddington hill and long ridge here because the panel was spectacular isn't it me no real and see all
around that would have made sure but he wasn't going to be encircled by alpha compared with
modern forces the armies that faced up to each other at Eddington were relatively small perhaps
3,000 warriors on each side Alfred assembled his troops to the west and approached out of sight
from the enemy the Vikings challenged him here in open battle lining up their own shield wall on the
high ground so we've got good from holding the ridge it's up to Alfred to bring the battle up to go
through him Alfred will be looking for a space to get through but he would have had to come and
concentrate his forces somewhere fairly close by now in amongst those valleys they've heard them
coming wouldn't I but they wouldn't quite know where because the sound would distort in all these
little Riley's having got into position they would have formed up in their line abreast with their
shields interlocked and they would then move forward bashing their shields so he would be
advanced keys went up the slope and they know in their hearts as they flooded up there and they
would always standing steadfast they'd have to get that and then smash through that was the job
that had to be done this frontline training gives an insight into the courage needed in the heat of
battle if your main protection is a shield here the police training to stand against own massage this
post petrol for missiles were a major threat against the shield walk showers of arrows Spears thrown
axes and exercises like this habituate the warrior stand against substance and I'm sure that young
boys and Saxon villages would have been made to stand and face an arrow coming up the shield we
made to place a spear my investigation into shields has taken me from duels to modern-day riots
now to explore the manoeuvrability of a shield wall I've summoned a hundred raw recruits for a 21st
century feared militia I think we're supposed to be being trained to use shields really we gonna be
doing Saxon when shield positions whatever that involves I shields are very thick they're very flimsy
I'm very concerned electrician or just pass him before the Battle of Eddington Alfred the Great had to
assemble his militia from the local population in great haste so how quickly can a group of volunteers
be forged into a cohesive unit good morning everybody thank you very much for coming now what
we're going to do is some shield-wall training the shield-wall was the principal military tactic in anglo-
saxon England and what it requires is disciplined cohesive troops so we've assembled you brave
volunteers to see how quickly we can train people to do that a reenactment group the Vikings of
middle England are going to be my expert left tenants when you've got the basic maneuvers we will
try and put you all together and see if the thing falls apart or holds strong the militia is split up into
groups for basic drilling seventh in get back in line stop wiggling forward thank you right jailed whoa
Jill oh good start excellent the basic wall is proving straightforward they've got to cope with attacks
from all directions yeah about turn if I try to pull out the cutting and if I could the whole line would
move cuz you're locked yes but if one of you fail you're all failed cuz you got a hole and once a whole
people can get in and win the ring they can walk down the line to kill you all good we know their
potentials are not the real thing but behind their do you do feel a security makes you feel braver than
you would do otherwise yeah so if I were to charge you you'd hold for ya doesn't matter where I
come in the ranks if i try to burst through you know resist me would you I'm sure you can resist me
yeah that's very good I just boy you're shivering that's exactly right if you've got a SWAT squad
coming in or something you need to brace that and use your body Luther real strength of the shield
wall is its ability to form debts particularly against shock attacks from cavalry if they're only too deep
then I can get the horse to punch through them and really gets into those shields get on and get

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behind them now they're in disarray and I really can get in amongst them here the cavalry have the
advantage I think what you need to do guys is I think you need to form up much deeper than that
perhaps four five or even more deep a denser formation should stand a much better chance of
holding firm now the shield walls denser the horse loses momentum and I'm trapped and I have to
fight my way out so clearly against well-formed well disciplined infantry the cavalry are at a
disadvantage but such discipline needs good battle field communications unit dressing left oh
nothing cohesion is coming it's definitely getting that's slowly units about turn shouted orders are
almost impossible to hear once battle begins in the clamor of war one solution is military music
Romans used a trumpet four horsemen and a large blowing horn call a bachina for the infantry
because milites usually goes through the 80s it goes on and on yes yes I mean there is even a
trumpet call for crash landing in the Royal Air Force this is one of the earliest surviving instruments
the Winchester moot hall so it's an annulment 11 8 and five field wait I got 13 pounds they wouldn't
have run around a battle fitted it a real home much lighter she so it's just a simple thing on the way
to oh yeah right Wow sure well the big command for this exercise is formed shield hall that's an easy
one I think they'll be able to pick that up that's extremely impressive though you know with the
washout you need to be very sparing as a Roman Rite of audacious and he said that men who scream
out before they're in contact with the enemy are cowards and they're wasting a lot of energy so I
think it's good that raises your spirits to go in there but I think you shouldn't do too much shouting
until you're in actual contact with the enemy but of course the enemy could have maneuvered and
be coming round your sides they could be up flanking you so what are they going to do about that
unit about time look very good are you gonna turn back turn oh that wasn't so good was it I think
they ought to get it right that's before we give them some lunch about dad that's better isn't it yes I
think we might feed them now 200 years after the battle of Eddington the shield-wall still dominated
English battlefields but then in 1066 the Saxon shield-wall faced its ultimate challenge the threat of
full-scale invasion William of Normandy had sailed with a state-of-the-art army and landed at
Hastings his aim the total conquest of England you see here on the Bayeux Tapestry he not only
brought a host of men but also horses horses for cavalry and they carried with them a revolution and
shield design the kite shield the most distinctive feature of the kite shield is that it has this very long
tail now clearly it does protect the lower leg and certainly that was its function for infantry for men
on the ground but that's not how it was used by the cavalry if you had it in front as a cav or anyone it
acts like a sail its aerodynamically very inefficient that it gets in the way of your horse control the
Bayeux Tapestry shows us kite shields held at a 45-degree angle and that's because their tactic was
to ride up the shield wall throw their spears and it's then as they wheel away but they're at their
most vulnerable now this is the beauty of the kite shield it's protecting both me and the horses flank
from the barrage of missiles as we turn away these hit-and-run tactics were exactly those used by the
Norman cavalry when they confronted the Saxon shield wall at the Battle of Hastings the nine hours
King Harold warriors stood firm behind their shields soaking up wave upon wave of thrown Spears
prometes claimed the shield wall was locked so tight that any dead could not fall to the ground late
in the day they broke ranks and chased down hill after the Norman cavalry once their formation was
broken they were easy prey England Saxons shield wall was annihilated Williams victory ushered in a
new order and the arrival of the medieval knight on the battlefield with him came a new way of
fighting impact warfare this needed full face guards for protection but a knight's principle motivation
was to win fame and glory through martial prowess he needed to be recognized and so heraldry was
born shields became a colorful canvas for chivalric display as armor technology improved the shield's
days were numbered in the 15th century it became possible to inque Sam and completely in

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hardened steel and the shield became all but obsolete on the battlefield yet right through the
Renaissance shield retained their significance as the mark of a warrior they became status symbols
fashioned for parade and clearly this is not a shield for fighting with if it weren't for the curvature it is
essentially a panel painting its oils builded and you might expect to see it hanging in the National
Gallery so but shields like this came in I mean losers had this whole fashion in in 16th century for
parade armor and parade shields what's that all about speakers display it's a nice large surface really
beautiful and therefore any large surface lends itself to decoration lends itself to showing how rich
and tasteful and when educated you are to have something like this emblazoned on your shield
despite their disappearance from the battlefield shield remains center stage in the joust Knight
scored points for breaking a lance on their opponent and so shields evolved into targets just keep
your eyes on my opponents shield one of the most extraordinary was seen in the extravagant jousts
held at the court of Henry the eighth's great Ally the Emperor Maximilian it was spring loaded to
explode on impact in a grand display of skill and theater such elaborate designs were far removed
from the brutal reality of survival on the battlefields of anglo-saxon England but 600 years after the
battle of Eddington the shield evolved again into something even more bizarre shields took on a new
role on the continent as an instrument in ritualized judicial combat it's a natural tendency for us to
think of shields as defensive objects which they are most of the time but there are certain types of
shields so that are distinctly offensive in their very conception and certainly by the middle of the 15th
century you see these very strange giant sharp shields called a Dueling shield used specifically for the
judicial combats in Germany the essence of their law was at the wrongdoer owed compensation to
the victims have you killed my brother you'd owe me twenty thousand pounds or whatever the fee
may be but if you denied it then the law would ensure that i could get satisfaction from you in the
judicial you and then forces to fight we can see it's wonderful the court officials are forcing these
people to find yes the judicial dueling shield is this strange weapon that you would never use for
anything unique weapon is not used in war specifically for this funky so they would have to arrange
so that click on is starting it added as equals because nobody's used it before and that he'll be
fighting to the death these fields are got great shot iron shot spikes on them if the loser wasn't killed
outright he would be taken out and haunting in any case so it was deadly serious and it was left
ultimately to the judgment of God but the manuscripts can only tell us so much I've had some
replicas built in order to experiment why didn't you attack me with a couple of sort of staff type
moves I see what I deal with it that's what that feels it was fairly organic and natural now here we've
got leverage but you again is something they talk about so there's quite a little leverage and they met
and they talked about involving about binding it and Bend and the manuscript says so if i bind you Oh
what an thrust now if you're there I can see immediately I can't have it I've got you it's in there and I
can bring you down from their end game so yeah that one seems to work quite well I mean I think
this one is particularly interesting look how this character is resting the spike on the ground because
that's hiding behind it is yeah I can't read where that attack is going to come what the manual says is
that from this position both are strong guards and both parties can charge each other with their
shield so if you were going to charge me with your shield and I would get in there we've got those
yields locked and the other thing that text says here it says I'm from this position you can do
handsome work with the shields oops shut our bites it says in the text and the hoops you are right
that occurs to me as Michael is near your leg and you're down it really is a useful weapon isn't it I
mean a lot of it is like staff work the way that one's using one's hands with it but you've got so many
other things you can do you can charge with it you can use the spikes to thrust with use those hooks
to hook with it really is a most versatile weapon down the ages shield evolved in many different ways

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but it was as a weapon in anglo-saxon England that it played its greatest role so how hard was it for
Alfred to train his shield wall and once we start battlefield maneuvers with our volunteers stand oh
I've taken a hundred volunteers and in just one day try to mold them into a shield wall like Alfred the
Great at the Battle of Eddington after basic training it's now time for the key test can we get the
groups to act as one cohesive unit well there it they seemed to have had their lunch and rested that's
if we can bring this army together as one unit call to arms please truly magnificent let's hear your
washout all together excellent now you can imagine the din of battle people shouting you've got
helmets on the clash of your weapons it's going to be very difficult now for you to hear the
commands and what's happening so now we're going to bring in Dave Edwards with his bugle and
the first command is going to blow is for you to go into open order come on look lively takes place
makes place on the end there the next command will be for you to fall into two ranks now into four
ranks come on look lively right now we've got you looking like an army what we need to do is see if
you can move our raggle taggle militia is starting to look something like alfred the great army double
time stop that's pretty damned impressive about turn very good and advance the men double time
start them daily form shield wall if you're wondering what happens next well obviously with our
volunteers we can't actually show you that without shedding some of their blood but if I were the
enemy commander I only have a limited number of options if I've got superior forces vastly superior
forces then I can attempt to outflank them I could make horns a fourth it type movement coming
round both their flanks if I don't have superior numbers then I've somehow got to smash through the
shield wall I could do this by sending out SWAT squads some of my gravest my guest men with their
great two-handed access to force their way chop their way through the wall or I could for my whole
army into a formation into a boars snout at the front would be the full-on hope they would surely die
but they would be pushed up by the men behind and relentlessly it would march until it bursts into
the shield-wall writer recorded what happened at the Battle of Eddington with a closed shield wall
Alfred fought fiercely against the army of the pagans his attack was long and spirited finally by divine
aid he overthrew the pagans with very great slaughter it's been a hugely interesting day and I'm
really impressed at how well the volunteers have done they pick those drills up incredibly quickly
totally different than I thought it would it just shows that you know different people from different
walks of life with little or no experience can get along and producer really good team it's been a
market experience actually lightning to what was happening then and how these guys must have felt
to have the horses and stuff charge must have been terrifying I mean yeah you've got a screen back
as loud you can to get the fear out yourself and when the two groups first came together and formed
that great long line really fed my imagination to see how a massive army arrayed on the hills just like
Alfred's army and Eddington really would have looked like and then they went into multiple ranks
really deep and looking through them you could see how impenetrable the war was and it's a really
good tactic for an army of disparate people so for a militia are me where you're taking the free man
from the county's men who are not full-time soldiers and we had that today we had people of
different shapes different sizes different backgrounds and yet when they were all together you just
simply had the impression of the whole and that I think is a really important factor about the Saxon
shield wall it was a military force that enabled the people of the villages to come together and look
like a full-time military army shields have played an important role in British history since ancient
times from works of art to swashbuckling tournament targets to riot police shield of the 21st century
but it was in anglo-saxon times that they had their heyday and none more so than at the Battle of
Eddington Alfred's victory halted the Viking advance laying the ground for the unification of England

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for his valiant defense of his land and culture Alfred alone of all the English kings and queens is
known as the great you