ABSTRACT
So far, we have been concerned with the raising of troops from within a kingdom. Foreign mercenaries might also be hired, although this does not seem to have been as common between 450 and 900 as it was in the period immediately afterwards.1 It only appears to have become frequent during the ninth century, with the appearance, in the north, of Viking bands and, in the south, of Saracen forces often willing to hire themselves out.
