institutions quickly died out, and the conquerors of the new kingdoms
developed fresh systems from the simple tribal levy. The men of the
plains were horsemen, those of marsh and moor were foot, and the four
greater peoples retained these original characteristics long after the
conquest had been completed. In organization the Lombards and Franks,
Visigoths and English scarcely differed. The whole military population
formed the mass of the army, the chiefs and their personal retainers the
_elite_. The Lombards and the Visigoths were naturally cavalry; the
Franks and the English were, equally naturally, infantry, and the armies
of the Merovingian kings differed but little from the English _fyrd_
with which Offa and Penda fought their battles. But in these nations the
use of horses and armour, at first confined to kings and great chiefs,
gradually spread downwards to the ever-growing classes of _thegns,
comites_, &c. Finally, under Charlemagne were developed the general
lines of the military organization which eventually became feudalism.
For his distant wars he required an efficient and mobile army. Hence
successive "capitularies" were issued dealing with matters of
recruiting, organization, discipline and field service work. Very
noticeable are his system of forts (_burgi_) with garrisons, his
military train of artillery and supplies, and the reappearance of the
ancient principle that three or four men should equip and maintain one
of themselves as a warrior. These and other measures taken by him tended
to produce a strong veteran army, very different in efficiency from the
tumultuary levy, to which recourse was had only in the last resort.
While war (as a whole) was not yet an art, fighting (from the
individual's point of view) had certainly become a special function;
after Charlemagne's time the typical feudal army, composed of
well-equipped cavalry and ill-armed peasantry serving on foot, rapidly
developed. Enemies such as Danes and Magyars could only be dealt with by
mounted men who could ride round them, compel them to fight, and
annihilate them by the shock of the charge; consequently the practice of
leaving the infantry in rear, and even at home, grew up almost as a part
of the feudal system of warfare. England, however, sought a different
remedy, and thus diverged from the continental methods. This remedy was
the creation of a fleet, and, the later Danish wars being there carried
out, not by bands of mounted raiders, but by large armies of military
settlers, infantry retained its premier position in England up to the
day of Hastings. Even the _thegns_, who there, as abroad, were the
mainstay of the army, were heavy-armed infantry. The only contribution
made by Canute to the military organization of England was the retention
of a picked force of _hus carles_ (household troops) when the rest of
the army with which he had conquered his realm was sent back to
Scandinavia. At Hastings, the forces of Harold consisted wholly of
infantry. The English array was composed of the king and his personal
friends, the _hus carles_, and the contingents of the _fyrd_ under the
local _thegns_; though better armed, they were organized after the
manner of their forefathers. On that field there perished the best
infantry in Europe, and henceforward for three centuries there was no
serious rival to challenge the predominance of the heavy cavalry.