Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Samuel objected to the idea of a monarchy fearing that it might result in despotism. However, he eventually yielded to God and public opinion. . . . So, Saul of the tribe of Benjamin was anointed becoming King and leaving Samuel to retire from his leadership and return to Rameh. Samuel became prominent again when he rejected Saul for disobeying God and secretly anointed David as king in secrecy. . . . He had the mammoth task of defining a strategy with which to outwit the better armed and disciplined Philistines who had iron weapons and chariots." [Historical Atlas of Judaism, p. 51-2] Finally, fed up, the Israelites demanded a king so that they could be like “other countries.” Presumably they had Egypt in mind, the one country whose king had beaten the Philistines off. They wanted to make an impressively tall Benjamite named Saul their king and general, so that he could lead them to military victory. [Bauer; Ancient World, p. 318] "Saul holed up at Gilgal, north of Jericho, with only six hundred men left. For the remainder of his reign, the Israelite push against Philistine strength consisted of guerilla raids and inconclusive battles." [Bauer: Ancient World, p. 319]