SAXON WARRIORS

The Sasi (English: Saxons, German: Sachsen) is a Germanic tribe that in the late antiquity and early medieval period inhabited the territory of today's northern Germany at the mouth of the Elbe, and which in the 5th and 6th centuries, along with the tribes of Angola and Jutes, invaded Britain, establishing three kingdoms there: Wessex, Sussex and Essex. Probably at the same time, already in Britain, the tribes of the Saxons and Angles came into close interaction with each other, creating the Anglo-Saxons. In the early phase of their history, the Saxons were primarily foot units, whose warriors were armed with spears, shields, helmets, and the Saxon-specific one-handed and single-edged swords (sometimes classified as knives) called saks. It is worth adding that there are often two types of saxes: skramasaks (with a blade length of 30 to 70 cm) and langsax (with a blade length of up to 1 meter). In the Anglo-Saxon period (from the 5th-6th centuries), the military evolved in Great Britain. When King Harald joined the Battle of Hastings in 1066 in his army, one can indicate both selected units of huscarls, recruited mainly from the Scandinavians, as well as from the fyrd, i.e. soldiers of the mass movement of much less combat value.