CHAPTER IV
SAXONS AND DANES
The military equipment of our Saxon and Danish forefathers is of much interest to us as a nation, inasmuch as we are curious to ascertain with what weapons and with what personal defences our ancestors were able, apart from personal courage, to overcome the fierce opposition of the Romanised Britons. That this resistance was of a formidable character we may judge from the extended time occupied in the conquest of England, running into hundreds of years and necessitating waves of invasion. They won the country bit by bit, and the conquered were effectually displaced by the invaders; so thorough was this that practically the Britons disappeared before the warlike Teutons, whereby all their traces of occupation were wiped out and only the great works of engineering or building skill of those “who built for eternity, and not for time,” resisted their devastating march. It is probable that during the many centuries of Roman occupation many of the Britons had learned the method of warfare and the use of the weapons of their conquerors; and we know that British recruits for the Roman armies were in considerable demand. Consequently we may fairly assume that the Saxons were opposed by Roman swords, spears, and javelins, and that a certain amount of Roman armour protected the defenders. To this equipment we may ascribe the fierce and prolonged resistance offered to the invaders, who were only able to found their first petty kingdom, that of Kent, after a struggle of nearly forty years’ duration.
PLATE V*
Italian Rondache, Sixteenth Century
A. F. Calvert
The Saxon Spear.—The chief weapon of offence among the Saxons was undoubtedly the spear, which was of two kinds—the longer, used by the cavalry, or in certain cases to be employed against them, and the shorter, which partook of the dual nature of a spear and of a javelin.