If there were Churchmen whom it was difficult to restrain from fight and foray, there were, on the other hand, laics who sought to escape the service by donning the cowl or chasuble. A capitulary of Charlemagne was necessary to prevent certain "liberi homines" from becoming either priests or monks, in order to avoid the military duties attached to their station[20]. The matrons of the North appear occasionally to have taken part in the defence of their country. William of Jumièges, describing the resistance of the Normans to the attack of the English in 1000, writes:--"Sed et fœminæ pugnatrices, robustissimos quosque hostium vectibus hydriarum suarum excerebrantes." Wace, noticing the same event, says:-- "Li vieilles i sont corues, O pels, o maches, o machues, Escorciécs è rebraciées[21]: De bien férir apareillées." And the English sailors, on their return after the defeat of their soldiery, themselves describe them as-- "Granz vieilles deschevelées, Ki sembloent fames desvées[22]." As we have before seen, the tactics of the Northern nations were borrowed in a great measure from the Romans. As early as the time of Tacitus, the Germans disposed their troops in the form of the _cuneus_, or wedge: "Acies per cuneos componitur."--(_Germania._) And in the account given by Agathias of the battle of the Casilinus in 553, we are told that the wedge was still the arrangement adopted for the central division of the Frankish army, while the remainder was marshalled in two wings[23]. When a force of infantry had to contend against an army in which many horse were employed, they sought by serried ranks and by a favourable position to obtain the advantage over their enemy. This was the plan of the English at Hastings. A trench was before them,-- "En la champaigne out un fossé"--_Wace, Roman de Rou._ Behind which, says the _Carmen de bello Hastingensi_,-- "Anglorum stat fixa solo densissima turba."--v. 451. And Henry of Huntingdon: "quasi castellum, impenetrabile Normannis." And again, Malmesbury: "All were on foot, armed with battle-axes; and, covering themselves in front by the junction of their shields, they formed an impenetrable body, which would have secured their safety that day, had not the Normans by a feigned flight induced them to open their ranks, which till that time, _according to their custom_, were closely compacted[24]." As early as the middle of the eleventh century, it was sought to familiarize the Anglo-Saxons with the equestrian mode of warfare of their neighbours, the Normans. In 1055 the alien captain of the garrison of Hereford, Raulfe, directed the English to serve on horseback; which, says the chronicler, was contrary to their usage: "Anglos _contra morem_ in equis pugnare jussit[25]."