Huscarls

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Professional soldiers or bodyguards who served Scandinavian and English nobles, forming elite retinues during the medieval period
2. Armed retainers who belonged to the household of a Scandinavian or English lord and fought as his personal warriors
3. Elite household troops recruited by Norse and Anglo-Saxon lords to serve as sworn fighters and defenders of their estates

Etymology: "Huscarls" is the plural of "huscarl", a term for the household troops of Scandinavian and English kings. The singular comes from Old Norse "húskarl", literally "house man" or "household man", combining "hús" (house) with "karl" (man, freeman), a word that also gave English "churl", which once simply meant a free man of the lower ranks rather than a rude person. In Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia, huscarls were the professional bodyguards and core fighting force of a king or powerful lord, paid and housed at his court. They were loyal to the ruler personally, which made them both formidable in battle and politically significant. Cnut the Great relied on them after 1016, and Harold Godwinson's huscarls were among the elite troops who fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Synonyms: housecarl, bodyguard, retainer