Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

numerous nobles, gleaming with golden banners, both very terrible and beautiful'.
Some of this will be literary hyperbole, true, but if one considers that pitched battle
saw more men gathered in one place than the population of many towns, certainly
more than most would have seen in their life time. The brightly decorated banners,
surcoats and caparisons, with the sun flashing off the armour and weapons, the visual
effect must indeed have been stunning.
We also get a sense of the noise and confusion of the field, the horses whinnying
and snorting, the drumming of their hooves on the turf. The shouting of battle cries,
each retinue with their own, and the clash ol sword on sword, on shield, or on helm,
was described as being like that of men chopping wood or a thousand blacksmiths at
their anvils. The trumpets and drums could be equally terrifying, particularly those of
the Saracens. Henry of Huntingdon, writing about the crusaders on the road to
Antioch, tells us that they 'were put furiously to the slaughter. For their horses, unable
to endure the strange shouts, the sound ol war trumpets, and the banging of drums,
would not respond to the spurs. Our men, also, shocked by such a great noise, did
not know where they were.' The Count of Jaffa, arriving off Damietta in his galley,
made use of local musical instruments to increase the effect of his arrival: 'What with
the flapping of pennons, the booming of drums and the screech of Saracen horns on
board this vessel you would have thought a thunderbolt was falling from the skies.'
Add to this the anticipation, the inevitable rush of adrenalin, and the sense of
CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE -J*
The death of King Harold
at Hastings may not have
resulted from his receiving
an arrow in the eye, but
was no less devastating for
that. With his death, and
that of his brothers Cyrth
and Leofwine, the English
army was left leaderless.
(Topfoto)
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