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A fyrd was a type of early Anglo-Saxon army that was mobilised from freemen or paid men to defend their Shire's lords estate, or from selected representatives to join a royal expedition. Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and participants were expected to provide their own arms and provisions.
Militia units were repeatedly raised in England from the Anglo-Saxon period onwards for internal security duties and to defend against external invasions. One of the first militia units in England were the fyrd , which were raised from freemen to defend the estate of their local Shire 's lord or accompany the housecarls on offensive expeditions.
Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and participants were expected to provide their own arms and provisions. The origins of the fyrd can be traced back to at least the seventh century, and it is likely that the obligation of Englishmen to serve in the fyrd dates from before its earliest appearance in written records. [11]
Subjects of an Anglo-Saxon king were required to yield three services: bridge-bote (repairing bridges and roads), burgh-bote (building and maintaining fortifications), and fyrd-bote (serving in the militia, known as the fyrd).
The English Militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, the military force raised from the able-bodied freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriffs.The three Ridings of Yorkshire and adjacent counties provided the bulk of the fyrdmen who fought against Harald Hardrada at the Battles of Fulford and Stamford Bridge in 1066.
The Suffolk Trained Bands were a part-time auxiliary military force in the county of Suffolk on the East Coast of England from 1558 until they were reconstituted as the Suffolk Militia in 1662. They were periodically embodied for home defence, for example in the army mustered at Tilbury during the Armada Campaign of 1588.
The battle of Thetford occurred in 1004. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports Ulfcytel Snillingr raised an East Anglian fyrd to meet Sweyn Forkbeard in battle.. The battle site was located in lands under the control of Ulfcytel Snillingr, then of East Anglia, at a site once thought to be near Wretham, [1] but now thought to be at Rymer in Suffolk. [2]
The fyrd was composed of men who owned their own land, and were equipped by their community to fulfil the king's demands for military forces. For every five hides, [24] or units of land nominally capable of supporting one household, [25] one man was supposed to serve. [24] It appears that the hundred was the main organising unit for the fyrd. [26]