Whenever you see large scale sword battles in popular culture, more than likely the King (or whatever high status leader) who is in command of that army, has usually just given a very stirring, very motivational speech. He then follows up by running first in into the opposing army...

by PringleWallet

Screaming... My best guess is this is not accurant, for several reasons. Primarly because he has a massive of chance of dying very quickly due to his location in the battle (no doubt many footsoldiers of the opposing force would be directly targetting this fellow also).

Where would such an individual really be positioned? Not in the vanguard surely. However if there were such warriors, with an accurate account of them leading, litterally, their armies into battle... who were they?

BRIStoneman

Hello, I recently wrote an answer here that looked at the importance of leadership from the front in Early Medieval kingship.