The Roman officer, splendidly caparisoned – wearing a full-face crested helmet and with his elegant sword sheathed at his waist, sitting astride his horse with 2,000 legionaries arrayed in front of him – was the very model of command.

The Anglo-Saxon warlord was no less splendidly equipped, his helmet just as magnificent. But he would be standing with his sword drawn, its pommel glinting with red garnets and yellow gold, at the centre of a line of fifty warriors, their shields overlapping and their spears outthrust.