The Lords of Battle: Image and Reality of the Comitatus in Dark Age Britain (Paperback)
by Stephen S. Evans
Anyone read this ...worth a punt ?
Cheers
Conal
Well i bought it & it is indeed interesting, if not a very Roman topic, it certainly bats the ball about a bit for those of you interested in post Roman Britian.
A couple of points it makes rather surprised me;
That the Saxon saex was not a tool ever used for war but a hunting/utility knife only. Apparently someone has tried a saex against both sword and spear and it was found wanting. I have seen pictures of some long saex which looked very weapony to me :?
That cavalry was almost never used in English vs Saxon as Norrthern Europen horses were 8 - 10 hands only. I had read that the Brits had horses but the Saxons et al were not that bothered. I get the impression from the book that the author believes that these ponies were used to get to a battle then everyone waded in on foot. So much for the Arthurian knight
The saxons did't rely on horses i think. When Harold send his army against the Norman invaders he's hasn't any cavalry worth mentioning.
It puzzles me why they did'nt use cavalry. Was is to expensive? Or maybe the Angels and Saxon who did invade Brittany did only use infantry?
And why didn't the Brittons use cavalry?
can't ....nobody wants to play
