Armies
It's a no brainer that an army marches on its stomach and that also a warlord's population has to feed itself and his warriors. The numbers of warriors that can be supported is proportional to the numbers of people working the land. The Welsh and Saxons both used a system of land management, which was similar in method, if not in size or other details. Land was measured in 'hides' (or trefs in Wales), which was the area of land considered to be sufficient to support an extended family.
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| The Welsh, it's like they have a different bloody word for everything... |
Family in this sense means dad, mom, young children, older children and perhaps their families too. Possibly there were additional people, (slaves perhaps) who worked the land, but who didn't hold it, but in all we might be talking a dozen or so people working each hide. The hide was supposedly a theoretical unit of land, being the area an oxen team could plough in a season. Obviously bigger family groups could work more land, resulting in differences in income, which provided a split between poorer freemen or Ceorles (Churl, or Taog in Wales) and wealthier men, the Thegns (Bonheddig in Wales). Thegns were sometimes considered to hold at least five hides and as service was the same, a Thegn would be required to produce himself and four others for service.
I'm going to make an assumption here, which is that the Thegns either held land as a gift from their king, or because they held so much land, that there were special conditions attached to that, but also that they were cut some slack too. Because of their status, one of the men they were liable for was a servant of some form. If they possessed a horse, then they would be excused one hide's obligation to cover the cost of this, as well as a further servant to look after its welfare and possibly a pack animal too. In battle these servants may also have a military function as skirmishers. Straight off we have a structure, where a single hide can produce a single Ceorl with spear and shield, or five hides produces a Thegn, a skirmishing servant and three Ceorls, or a mounted Thegn, one skirmishing servant and one non-combatant and a single Ceorl.
Hides appear to have been grouped into tens, as Tithes. The Welsh used bigger amounts in their system of cwmwd (commote), with around thirty or so trefs to be correct, but we'll take a little licence here and force them to use the English model for convenience. Each group of ten hides was organised under the control of a Gerefa (reeve, or Arweinydd, or something like that in Welsh). I'll impose two artificial limits here, which is in line with laws of the time restricting who could wear what etc and say that; firstly only the gerefa and Thegns can be mounted and secondly as Thanes are presumed to hold five hides of land, only two Thanes can be fielded per Tithe.
This will give us the option of fielding, for every Tithe either;
a) 10 Ceorls.
b) 2 Thegns on foot with 2 Skirmishers and 6 Ceorls.
c) 1 mounted Thegn, 1 Thegn on foot, 2 skirmishers and 4 Ceorls.
d) 2 mounted Thegns, 2 Skirmishers and 2 Ceorls.
The largest territorial division in common use was the Hundred (or Cantref in Wales), which was unsurprisingly of one hundred hides and led by a higher grade Thegn, the Gesith (Uchelwyr in Wales), the lowest level of nobility at that time. Gesith also appear within a King's household, which I'll touch on later, but these are older men, who have been given land-grants as gifts and who administer the land on behalf of their King. When called, the Gesith summons those liable for service and then commands them in battle as a distinct contingent of the larger host. One of the Tithes must contain at least one Thegn to represent the Gesith.
While the Thegns were expected to serve with no limits, the Ceorls weren't. As they worked the land, they were needed for that and only a dire emergency would result in all of them being called out, which was essentially that they were required to defend their homes. There were provisions for them to serve outside their land, but on a limited time basis, which resulted in only a proportion of them serving at any one time. Estimates of what this was vary, but I'm going to set it at 25% rounded up. On this basis the numbers of Ceorls available to serve outside of their hundred is; 3, 2, or 1, per Tithe, depending on the option chosen. Those who stay behind will need to be led, so either the Gesith and/or Thegns stay behind, at a rate of 1 per 30 Ceorls, or part thereof.
This might sound complicated, so here's an example;
Osric is the Gesith commanding the Hundred of Oisc. For the ten Tithes he commands he selects;
2 Tithes: 2 Mtd Thegns, 2 Skirmishers, 4 Ceorls.
3 Tithes: 2 Thegns, 2 Skirmishers, 6 Ceorls.
5 Tithes: 10 Ceorls.
This gives him a total of: 4 Mtd Thegns, 6 Thegns, 72 Ceorls and 10 Skirmishers.
If Osric is called to serve outside the Hundred, he can take 4 Mtd Thegns, 4 Thegns, 18 Ceorls and 6 skirmishers. Remaining behind are; 2 Thegns, 54 Ceorls and 4 skirmishers.
Osric can of course leave more men behind if he chooses, but he can't increase the force he is taking out of the hundred. Obviously he could decide that his force is wholly composed of the first type of option, or any other mix, which would of course give differing quantities.
Too complicated? It would only have to be done at the start of each year's campaign season and would remain fixed after that and only losses would need tracking. Obviously if your campaign system allows for men to gain experience, then those Ceorls who get to go on Campaign gain experience from it, as do those who stay behind if they are called on to defend their land.
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| Wulfhere's momentary lapse of concentration, as he wondered if he'd left the hearth on, almost cost him dearly. |
Kingdoms were usually made up of several Hundreds or Cantrefs, so potentially large forces could be built. The Wreocensaete (roughly Shropshire as I'm lead to believe) mentioned in the Tribal Hideage had 7,000 hides to draw troops from, although many others are around the 600 hide mark and some a mere 300. Obviously depending on how many figures you have, you can just impose a figure scale adjustment to cater for the larger forces.
Households
Every King had a household, composed of warriors of various types, who lived in his hall, drank his mead/wine/ale and went raiding with him on a whim. They formed the core of his army and in some cases were the only force he took with him to battle. Some particularly grand Kings might have several subordinate kings, Eorls or Tiern, each with their own households, also at his beck and call. The size of households varied, either as a measure of the King's success as a commander, or as a result of the amount of land he controlled. Generally the whole of a household would be mounted, even if it was just to get them to and from the battlefield, although most if not all would be able to fight from horseback.
There were two main types of warrior in a household. The Saxons referred to them as Gedriht and Geoguth, but they had their counterparts in most cultures. The Gedriht were experienced and skilled warriors, essentially the Kings bodyguard. The most trusted Gedriht were called Gesith and assumed command functions within the household, or granted land, from which they commanded the Thegns and Ceorls mentioned above. The Geoguth were literally 'youths', either the sons of those Gesith holding land, the sons of wealthier Thegns, or even the sons of Kings from other lands. They were in the household to learn the trade of warrior and the skills of leadership, while often also acting as hostage for their parent's good behaviour. Some Geoguth would become Gedriht in time, or become Thegns with land of their own, but for now they are wild, unruly and violent.
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| Geoguth. Obnoxious spotty teens with a chip on their shoulder... and spears. |
There are a lot of variables that would determine the size of a household. Some Kings could maintain large ones, despite small amounts of land held, purely by raiding their neighbours. Others appear to be solidly in relation to the amount of land held, or from which they were able to draw tribute. I'm assuming that whatever campaign rules are used, there will be the facility to attract warriors by reputation, so I won't attempt to deal with that.
As a starting point however, if we give each King the equivalent of a 'Hundred' for the land immediately surrounding his 'palace', with which to maintain his household and then take the manpower from it as his starting household, we have a starting point. I'm going to assume that Geoguth are more plentiful than the Gedriht, at a ratio of 2:1 and that there will still be Ceorls present in the surrounding area. As with the Thegns, I'm going to allocate a servant for each Gedriht too.
Starting Household: 10 Gedriht, 20 Geoguth, 60 Ceorls, 10 skirmishers. Again the Ceorls suffer the same 25% restriction for serving outside the Hundred, but assume there is someone from the household available to command them (The Queen?).
For each 'Hundred' forming the Kingdom, or which is added to it, increase the household by 2 Gedriht, 4 Geoguth and 4 skirmishers. I've arrived at this figure by taking 5% of the population as the social elite, deducting the Gesith serving in the hundred already and adding some attracted by reputation. No Ceorls are added, as these already exist in the land already and are covered above in the army section.
Starting Off
As I said before, the quantity of figures available will determine the size of the armies raised, as will any figure scale chosen. I'd suggest that you start off with just a King and his household for each player, with a number of disputed and vacant Hundreds or Cantrefs etc separating them. The death of an over-King might result in just such a situation and the players represent his successors, either as a single ethnic group or a mixture of Britons, Irish, Saxons etc, whatever you want.
Over the course of the campaign as Empires will rise and fall, you can perpetuate the process by assigning 'dead players' to either one of their former and newly vacant hundreds to begin again as a cadet branch of their original family, or allot them a vacant hundred elsewhere. You might decide to also give the player defeating an opponent a bonus representing his looting his opponents palace on his demise, perhaps one campaign season's worth of movable goods, with which to enhance his own household for the next campaign season.
Finishing off
There are of course other options that you could explore in addition to these very basic rules. A spoiling attack late in the campaign season for example, which might reduce the numbers of troops that can be raised in a Hundred the following year, due to the destruction or loss of the harvest and cattle. The hiring of mercenaries is another. I'm going to leave it there though and hope someone finds this useful.
