Housecarl

In medieval Scandinavia, husmän (Old Norse:húskarlar, singular húskarl; also anglicised as housecarl or huscarl (Old English form) and sometimes spelled huscarle or houscarl) were either non-servile manservants, or household troops in personal service of someone, equivalent to a bodyguard to Scandinavian lords and kings. This institution also existed in Anglo-Saxon England after its conquest by the kingdom of Denmark in the 11th century. In England, the royal housecarls had a number of roles, both military and administrative; they are well known for having fought under Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. The original Old Norse term, húskarl, literally means "house man"; see also the Anglo-Saxon term churl or ceorl, whose root is the same as the Old Norse karl, and which also means "a man, a non-servile peasant". These were well trained men who were paid as they were full-time soldiers. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle uses hiredmenn as a term for all paid warriors and thus is applied to housecarl but it also refers to butsecarls , and lithsmen as well. It is not clear whether these were types of housecarl too or different altogether.