Note 46 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

Let it also be clearly understood what Mr Freeman meant by that 'array of the shield-wall', of which the disputed passage in Wace was, he held, a description. He shows us the whole English army 'ranged so closely together in the thick array of the shield-wall, that while they only kept their ground the success of an assailant was hopeless'.46 He describes them as, 'a strong line, or rather wedge, of infantry, forming a wall with their shields',47 and he ascribes their defeat to their 'breaking the line of the shield-wall'.48