For 8 squares to form a single square on the addition of one man, the original squares must have been 35 on a side and included a total of 9800 men. When Harold joined them they would have formed a single square of 9801, 99 on a side. The soldiers were armed with pikes and axes, facing a Norman army of the same size with long bows and cavalry.  Harold's Saxon soldiers were slaughtered. With the Norman Conquest, England shifted from a tribal to a feudal society and the High Middle Ages began.