uncements. The Old
English "fyrd," or militia, was the nation in arms. The obligation to
serve was a personal one. It had no relation to the possession of land;
in fact it dated back to an age in which the folk was still migratory
and without a fixed territory at all. It was incumbent upon all
able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and sixty. Failure to obey
the summons was punished by a heavy fine known as "fyrdwite."[7]

There is another point of prime significance. Universal service was, it
is true, an obligation. But it was more: it was the _mark of freedom_.
Not to be summoned stamped a man as a slave, a serf, or an alien. The
famous "Assize of Arms" ends with the words: "_Et praecepit rex quod
nullus reciperetur ad sacramentum armorum nisi liber homo._"[8] A
summons was a right quite as much as a duty. The English were a brave
and martial race, proud of their ancestral liberty. Not to be called to
defend it when it was endangered, not to be allowed to carry arms to
maintain the integrity of the fatherland, was a degradation which
branded a man as unfree.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This chapter has been issued as a pamphlet by the National Service
League, 72, Victoria Street, S.W.

[2] Gneist, R. _Englische Verfassungsgeschichte_, p. 4.

[3] Cf. the Frankish Edict of A.D. 864: "Ad defensionem patriae omnes
sine ulla excusatione veniant." (Let all without any excuse come for the
defence of the fatherland.)

[4] Grose, F. _Military Antiquities_, vol. i, p. 1.

[5] Freeman, E. _Norman Conquest_, vol. iv, p. 681.

[6] Stubbs, W. _Const. Hist._, vol. i, pp. 208, 212.

[7] Oman, C. W. C. _Art of War in the Middle Ages_, p. 67.

[8] Stubbs, W. _Select Charters_, p. 156. (The King orders that no one
except a freeman shall be admitted to the oath of arms.)

II. THE OLD ENGLISH MILITIA

This primitive national militia was not, it must be admitted, a very
efficient force. It lacked coherence and training; it was deficient both
in arms and in discipline; it could not be kept together for long
campaigns. The Kings, therefore, from the first supplemented it by means
of a band of personal followers, a bodyguard of professional warriors,
well and uniformly armed, and practised in the art of war. Nevertheless,
the main defence of the country rested with the "fyrd." The Danish
invasions put it to the severest test and revealed its military defects.
It was one of the most notable achievements of Alfred to reorganiz