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The shield wall
Gaius Suetonius Paulinus meant a shield wall to save the Roman Legions at the Battle of Watling street. Suetonius arrayed his forces in a narrow defile (exact location unknown) with a forest behind. This geographical location meant he could form his legionaries into a wall against which Boudica’s army would batter itself into submission. As it happened, the wall was ultimately redundant. When the Romans launched their javelins, the Britons milled about in confusion, allowing Suetonius to drive a wedge into them and the cavalry to attack from the flanks.
But where does the shield wall formation originate?
A shield wall was used by many ancient armies, including the Persian Sparabara, Greek phalanx, and the early Roman army, but its origin is unknown.
In the seventh century BCE, Greek soldiers called hoplites formed a shield wall. Rather than the warrior-to-warrior battles that preceded them, hoplites fought as a single unit with their shields pushing forward against the enemy in front. The shield’s left side covered the unprotected right side of the soldier standing beside them. The second row of warriors attacked their enemy’s exposed legs and faces through and over the shield wall. Inexperienced or poor fighters stood in the middle of the formation at the front, which gave them physical and mental security.
The Romans changed the structure slightly by developing a shield with curved edges. The scutum was a large shield which fit with others to form a shield wall without overlapping. Roman tacticians then created a shield wall called a testudo or tortoise that covered all sides and above, making the legionaries well-protected from missiles. The testudo formation, however, was slow and vulnerable to isolation. Roman legionaries used the gladius in their shield walls, which was much more effective than a longsword in close-quarter combat.
In the late Byzantine armies, locked shield formations with projecting spears were called fulcum. Fulcum were first described in the late 6th-century Strategikon. The Daylamite infantry used solid shield walls while advancing against their enemies. They used two-pronged short spears and battle axes from behind.
The shield wall was used in many parts of Northern Europe. Caesar described the German shield wall in his Comentarii de Bello Gallico. They were also used in England as the old English epic poem Beowulf mentions a shield wall. Some would contest that the Vikings did not use shield walls. However, during battles between the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavians in England, the Saxon army would have been primarily inexperienced fyrd, a militia composed of peasants. Because the fyrd were essentially farmers, the Saxons used a shield wall as it did not require any combat skill.
The first three ranks of the wall comprised select warriors, huscarls and thegns, who carried heavier weapons and wore armour. These warriors were often retainers of ealdormen or noble. However, most combatants in such battles were equipped only with shields and spears, which they used against their opponents’ unprotected legs or faces. Warriors used short swords, such as the seax from which the Saxons name stems. The battle would then be one of attrition, hacking at each other until one army fled.
A shield wall was used at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where the well-armed Saxon army under King Harold ambushed the Norwegian army of King Harald Sigurdsson. The Norwegians only wore helmets because they had left their armour aboard ship. After the battle between two shield walls, the Norse army fled in panic. Stamford Bridge illustrates the drawback of a shield wall that, once breached, the formation tended to buckle. Being shoulder to shoulder with their comrades maintained the morale of warriors.
The Battle of Hastings illustrated the vulnerability of a shield wall. The Bayeux Tapestry shows both sides using shield walls. However, the Normans won the battle using a combination of feigned retreats and cavalry. After the battle, the shield wall became less common, although it was still used in areas unsuited to mounted soldiers.
Modern
police forces use shield walls as a defence against rioting.
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books written by Helen Hollick
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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| 1066 - the events that led to the Battle of Hastings from Amazon Harold the King (UK edition) I Am The Chosen King (US/Canada edition) 1066 Turned Upside Down - an anthology of alternative stories |
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Thank you for hosting Micheál Cladáin today, Helen, and with such an interesting post. xx
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