Housecarl - in England

In England

The term entered the English language when Svein Forkbeard and Canute the Great conquered and occupied Anglo-Saxon England; the housecarls of Canute were highly disciplined bodyguards. It is unclear, however, whether Canute's housecarls were all Scandinavians ; according to Susan Reynolds, it is likely that some of them were, or became, or were thought of as English.

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