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When so much writing about the Carolingian military concentrates on the era of Charlemagne, this article focuses on the ninth-century armies which fought the Viking invaders, and seeks to discover why the Frankish forces were apparently so ineffectual against them. One conclusion is that this view is incorrect, for the Franks won a string of significant victories. The author looks at the different forms of defense: the coast guard, the host, and the local forces raised under the lantweri, which could be more quickly mobilized and more highly motivated than the regular army. The size of armies, leadership, and the cavalry are all discussed, together with Frankish military strategy. The article concludes that the Franks’ main weaknesses were neither strategic nor military, but political—the internal divisions which left them vulnerable to outside attack—and external—the Vikings’ tactics of avoiding battle and establishing camps where they could not be reached.
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