At Poictiers “the Franks fought, as they had done two hundred years before at Casilinum, in one solid mass,”[77] for their tactics were “to advance in a deep column or wedge.”[78] We have seen that the “column” of English axemen similarly fought, according to Mr. Oman, “arranged in a compact mass.”

Where the agreement is so complete, I need not labour the point further. In my ‘Feudal England’ (pp. 354–8), I showed that Mr. Archer’s views on the subject could not stand for a moment against those of Mr. Freeman and Mr. Oman, to which they were directly opposed.

In ‘Social England’—just as Mr. Freeman had written that both the English and the Danes stood as a “wedge of infantry forming a wall with their shields”[79]—Mr. Oman writes of their “wedge or column.” It is only in his later work that he suddenly shifts his ground, and flatly contradicts his own words:

1894.1898.
When Dane had fought Englishman, the battle had always been between serried bodies[80] of foot soldiery, meeting fairly face to face in the wedge or column, with its shield wall of warriors standing elbow to elbow, etc. (‘Social England,’ p. 299).The Danes ... formed their shield wall.... The shield wall (testudo, as Asser pedantically calls it) is of course not a wedged mass,[80] but only a line of shielded warriors[81] (History of the Art of War,’ p. 99).

The writer’s “of course” is delightful.

This contradiction of himself, however, is as nothing compared with that to which we are now coming.

In his first work Mr. Oman wrote under Mr. Freeman’s influence. The Normans, he held, at the Battle of Hastings, were confronted by “impregnable palisades.” Nine years later, in his second description of the battle, he substituted for these “impregnable palisades” an “impenetrable shield wall.”

1885.1894.
The Norman knights, if unsupported by their light infantry, might have surged for ever around the IMPREGNABLE PALISADES. The archers, if unsupported by the knights, could easily have been driven off the field by a general charge. United, however, by the skilled tactics of William, the two divisions of the invading army won the day (‘Art of War,’ p. 25).His archers, if unsupported by cavalry, might have been driven off the field by a single charge; his cavalry, if unsupported by archers, might have surged for ever around the IMPENETRABLE SHIELD WALL of the English. But by combining the two armies (sic) with perfect skill, he won his crowning victory (‘Social England,’ p. 299).

The faithful réchauffé of his former narrative only renders the more significant Mr. Oman’s change of “impregnable palisades” to “impenetrable shield wall.” For what had happened in the meanwhile to account for this change being made? In July, 1892, there had appeared in the ‘Quarterly Review’ my well-known article on “Professor Freeman,” in which I had maintained that the English defence consisted, not of impregnable “palisades,” but only of an impenetrable “shield wall.” On the furious and famous controversy upon this topic which followed, it is quite unnecessary to dwell. Mr. Oman, we have seen himself adopted the view I had advanced, and not, I hasten to add, on this point alone, for with his whole description of the battle, as given in ‘Social England,’ I am in complete agreement. The “shield wall” he mentions twice.[82] Of “palisades,” intrenchments, or breastworks there is not a word.