Viking activity in the British Isles

7 languages
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 Edit
 View history
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coin of King Cnut

Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to
the 11th centuries AD, when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid,
conquer, settle and trade. They are generally referred to as Vikings,[1][2] but some
scholars debate whether the term Viking[a] represented all Scandinavian settlers or
just those who used violence.[4][b]
At the start of the Early Medieval period, Scandinavian kingdoms had developed
trade links reaching as far as southern Europe and the Mediterranean, giving them
access to foreign imports, such as silver, gold, bronze, and spices. These trade links
also extended westwards into Ireland and Britain.[5][6]
In the last decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders sacked several Christian
monasteries in northern Britain, and over the next three centuries they launched
increasingly large scale invasions and settled in many areas, especially in eastern
Britain and Ireland, the islands north and west of Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Background[edit]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please
help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Viking activity in the British
Isles" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2020) (Learn how and
when to remove this template message)
During the Early Medieval period, the islands of Ireland and Britain were each
culturally, linguistically, and religiously divided among various peoples. The
languages of the Celtic Britons and of the Gaels descended from the Celtic
languages spoken by Iron Age inhabitants of Europe. In Ireland and parts of
western Scotland, as well as in the Isle of Man, people spoke an early form of
Celtic Gaelic known as Old Irish. In Cornwall, Cumbria, Wales, and south-west
Scotland, the Celtic Brythonic languages were spoken (their modern descendants
include Welsh and Cornish). The Picts, who spoke the Pictish language, lived in the
area north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, which now constitutes a large portion of
modern-day Scotland. Due to the scarcity of writing in Pictish, which survives only
in Ogham, views differ as to whether Pictish was a Celtic language like those spoken
further south, or perhaps even a non-Indo-European language like Basque. However,
most inscriptions and place-names hint towards the Picts being Celtic in language
and culture. Most peoples of Britain and Ireland had already predominantly converted
to Christianity from their older, pre-Christian polytheistic religions. In contrast to the
rest of the isles though, much of southern Britain had become the various kingdoms
of Anglo-Saxon England, where Anglo-Saxon migrants from continental Europe had
settled during the fifth century CE, bringing with them their own Germanic
language (known as Old English), a polytheistic religion (Anglo-Saxon paganism) and
their own distinct cultural practices. By the time of the Viking incursions though,
Anglo-Saxon England too had become mostly Christian.
In northern Britain, in the area roughly corresponding to modern-day Scotland, lived
three distinct ethnic groups in their own respective kingdoms: the Picts, Scots,
and Britons.[7] The Pictish cultural group dominated the majority of Scotland, with
major populations concentrated between the Firth of Forth and the River Dee, as well
as in Sutherland, Caithness, and Orkney.[8] The Scots, according to written sources,
constituted a tribal group which had crossed to Britain from Dalriada in the north of
Ireland during the late-fifth century. Archaeologists have not been able to identify
anything that was unique to the kingdom of the Scots, noting similarities with the
Picts in most forms of material culture.[9] The northern Britons lived in the Old North, in
parts of what have become southern Scotland and northern England, and, by the
seventh or eighth centuries, these had apparently come under the political control of
Anglo-Saxons.[10]
By the mid-ninth century, Anglo-Saxon England comprised four separate and
independent kingdoms: East Anglia, Wessex, Northumbria, and Mercia, the last of
which was the strongest military power.[11] Between half a million and a million people
lived in England at this time, with society being rigidly hierarchical. The class system
had a king and his ealdormen at the top, under whom ranked the thegns (or
landholders), and then the various categories of agricultural workers below them.
Beneath all of these was a class of slaves, who may have made up as much as a
quarter of the population.[11] The majority of the populace lived in the countryside,
although a few large towns had developed, notably London and York, which became
centres of royal and ecclesiastical administration. There were also a number of
trading ports, such as Hamwic and Ipswich, which engaged in foreign trade.[11]

Viking raids: 780s–850[edit]

In the final decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders attacked a series of Christian
monasteries in the British Isles. Here, these monasteries had often been positioned
on small islands and in other remote coastal areas so that the monks could live in
seclusion, devoting themselves to worship without the interference of other elements
of society. At the same time, it made them isolated and unprotected targets for
attack.[12]
Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never
before has such a terror appeared as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought
that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with
the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments.
Archbishop Alcuin of York on the sacking of Lindisfarne.[13]

The first known account of a Viking raid in Anglo-Saxon England comes from 789,
when three ships from Hordaland (in modern Norway) landed in the Isle of
Portland on the southern coast of Wessex. They were approached by Beaduheard,
the royal reeve from Dorchester, whose job it was to identify all foreign merchants
entering the kingdom, and they proceeded to kill him.[13] There were almost certainly
unrecorded earlier raids. In a document dating to 792, King Offa of Mercia set out
privileges granted to monasteries and churches in Kent, but he excluded military
service "against seaborne pirates with migrating fleets", showing that Viking raids
were already an established problem. In a letter of 790–92 to King Æthelred I of
Northumbria, Alcuin berated English people for copying the fashions of pagans who
menaced them with terror. This shows that there were already close contacts
between the two peoples, and the Vikings would have been well informed about their
targets.[14]
The next recorded attack against the Anglo-Saxons came the following year, in 793,
when the monastery at Lindisfarne, an island off England's eastern coast, was
sacked by a Viking raiding party on 8 June.[13] The following year, they sacked the
nearby Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey.[15] In 795, they once again attacked, this time
raiding Iona Abbey off Scotland's west coast.[15] This monastery was attacked again in
802 and 806, when 68 people living there were killed. After this devastation, the
monastic community at Iona abandoned the site and fled to Kells in Ireland.[16] In the
first decade of the ninth century, Viking raiders began to attack coastal districts of
Ireland.[17] In 835, the first major Viking raid in southern England took place and was
directed against the Isle of Sheppey.[18][19][20]
England runestones[edit]
Oslo

Copenhagen
 Stockholm

class=notpageimage|
Map of the geographic distribution of the England Runestones in southern Scandinavia and northernmost
Germany (modern administrative borders and cities are shown)

The England runestones (Swedish: Englandsstenarna) is a group of about

30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England.[21] They
constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other
countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece
Runestones and the 26 Ingvar Runestones,[22] of which the latter refer to a Viking
expedition to the Middle East. They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger
Futhark.[citation needed]
The Anglo-Saxon rulers paid large sums, Danegelds, to Vikings, who mostly came
from Denmark and Sweden who arrived to the English shores during the 990s and
the first decades of the 11th century. Some runestones relate of these Danegelds,
such as the Yttergärde runestone, U 344, which tells of Ulf of Borresta who received
the danegeld three times, and the last one he received from Canute the Great.
Canute sent home most of the Vikings who had helped him conquer England, but he
kept a strong bodyguard, the Þingalið, and its members are also mentioned on
several runestones.[23]
The vast majority of the runestones, 27, were raised in modern-day Sweden and 17
in the oldest Swedish provinces around lake Mälaren. In contrast, modern-
day Denmark has no such runestones, but there is a runestone in Scania which
mentions London. There is also a runestone in Norway and a Swedish one
in Schleswig, Germany.[citation needed]
Some Vikings, such as Guðvér, did not only attack England, but also Saxony, as
reported by the Grinda Runestone Sö 166 in Södermanland:[21]
Grjótgarðr (and) Einriði, the sons
made (the stone) in memory of (their) able father.
Guðvér was in the west;
divided (up) payment in England;
manfully attacked
townships in Saxony.[21][24]

Treasure hoards[edit]
Various hoards of treasure were buried in England at this time. Some of these may
have been deposited by Anglo-Saxons attempting to hide their wealth from Viking
raiders, and others by the Viking raiders as a way of protecting their looted treasure.
[13]

One of these hoards, discovered in Croydon (historically part of Surrey, now

in Greater London) in 1862, contained 250 coins, three silver ingots, and part of a
fourth as well as four pieces of hack silver in a linen bag. Archaeologists interpret this
as loot collected by a member of the Viking army. By dating the artefacts,
archaeologists estimated that this hoard had been buried in 872, when the army
wintered in London.[13] The coins themselves came from a wide range of different
kingdoms, with Wessex, Mercian, and East Anglian examples found alongside
foreign imports from Carolingian-dynasty Francia and from the Arab world.[13] Not all
such Viking hoards in England contain coins, however: for example, at Bowes
Moor, Durham, 19 silver ingots were discovered, whilst at Orton Scar, Cumbria, a
silver neck-ring and penannular brooch were uncovered.[25]
The historian Peter Hunter Blair believed that the success of the Viking raids and the
"complete unpreparedness of Britain to meet such attacks" became major factors in
the subsequent Viking invasions and colonisation of large parts of the British Isles. [12]

Invasion and Danelaw: 865–896[edit]

From 865, the Viking attitude towards the British Isles changed, as they began to see
it as a place for potential colonisation rather than simply a place to raid. As a result of
this, larger armies began arriving on Britain's shores, with the intention of conquering
land and constructing settlements there.[26] The early Viking settlers would have
appeared visibly different from the Anglo-Saxon populace, wearing Scandinavian
styles of jewellery, and probably also wearing their own peculiar styles of clothing.
Viking and Anglo-Saxon men also had different hairstyles: Viking men's hair was
shaved at the back and left shaggy on the front, whilst the Anglo-Saxons typically
wore their hair long.[27]
England[edit]
Main article: Danelaw

show
 v

 t

 e
Norse invasions of England

Viking armies captured York, the major city in the Kingdom of Northumbria, in 866.
[26]
Counterattacks concluded in a decisive defeat for Anglo-Saxon forces at York on
21 March 867, and the deaths of Northumbrian leaders Ælla and Osberht.
Other Anglo-Saxon kings began to capitulate to the Viking demands and surrendered
land to Viking settlers.[28] In addition, many areas in eastern and northern England—
including all but the northernmost parts of Northumbria—came under the direct rule
of Viking leaders or their puppet kings.
King Æthelred of Wessex, who had been leading the conflict against the Vikings,
died in 871 and was succeeded on the throne of Wessex by his younger
brother, Alfred.[26] The Viking king of Northumbria, Halfdan Ragnarrson (Old
English: Healfdene)—one of the leaders of the Viking Great Army (known to the
Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army)—surrendered his lands to a second wave
of Viking invaders in 876. In the next four years, Vikings gained further land in the
kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia as well.[26] King Alfred continued his conflict with
the invading forces but was driven back into Somerset in the south-west of his
kingdom in 878, where he was forced to take refuge in the marshes of Athelney.[26]
Alfred regrouped his military forces and defeated the armies of the Viking monarch of
East Anglia, Guthrum, at the Battle of Edington (May 878). Sometime after the Battle
of Edington, a treaty was agreed that set out the lasting peace terms between the
two kings that included the boundaries of each of their kingdoms. It is known as
the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum. The treaty is one of the few existing documents[c] of
Alfred's reign and survives in Old English in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
Manuscript 383, and in a Latin compilation, known as Quadripartitus.[30][31] The areas to
the north and east became known as the Danelaw because it was under Viking
political influence, whilst those areas to the south and west remained under Anglo-
Saxon dominance.[26] Alfred's government set about constructing a series of defended
towns or burhs, began the construction of a navy, and organised a militia system
(the fyrd), whereby half of his peasant army remained on active service at any one
time.[26] To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation and
conscription system known as the Burghal Hidage.[32]
In 892 a new Viking army, with 250 ships, established itself in Appledore, Kent and
another army of 80 ships soon afterwards in Milton Regis.[33] The army then launched
a continuous series of attacks on Wessex. However, due in part to the efforts of
Alfred and his army, the kingdom's new defences proved to be a success, and the
Viking invaders were met with a determined resistance and made less of an impact
than they had hoped. By 896, the invaders dispersed—instead settling in East Anglia
and Northumbria, with some instead sailing to Normandy.[26][33]
Alfred's policy of opposing the Viking settlers continued under his
daughter Æthelflæd, who married Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia, and also under
her brother, King Edward the Elder (reigned 899–924). When Edward died in July
924, his son Æthelstan became king. In 927, he conquered the last remaining Viking
kingdom, York, making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In
934, he invaded Scotland and forced Constantine II to submit to him, but Æthelstan's
rule was resented by the Scots and Vikings, and, in 937, they invaded England.
Æthelstan defeated them at the Battle of Brunanburh, a victory which gave him great
prestige both in the British Isles and on the Continent and led to the collapse of
Viking power in northern Britain. After his death in 939, the Vikings seized back
control of York, and it was not finally reconquered until 954.[34]
Edward's son Edmund became king of the English in 939. However, when Edmund
was killed in a brawl, his younger brother, Eadred of Wessex took over as king. Then
in 947 the Northumbrians rejected Eadred and made the Norwegian Eric
Bloodaxe (Eirik Haraldsson) their king. Eadred responded by invading and ravaging
Northumbria. When the Saxons headed back south, Eric Bloodaxe's army caught up
with some them at Castleford and made 'great slaughter[d]'. Eadred threatened to
destroy Northumbria in revenge, so the Northumbrians turned their back on Eric and
acknowledged Eadred as their king. The Northumbrians then had another change of
heart and accepted Olaf Sihtricsson as their ruler, only to have Eric Bloodaxe remove
him and become king of the Northumbrians again. Then, in 954, Eric Bloodaxe was
expelled[e] for the second and final time by Eadred. Bloodaxe was the last Norse king
of Northumbria.[36]

Second invasion: 980–1012[edit]

Cnut the Great's domains, in red

England[edit]
Under the reign of Wessex King Edgar the Peaceful, England came to be further
politically unified, with Edgar coming to be recognised as the king of all England by
both Anglo-Saxon and Viking populations living in the country.[37] However, in the
reigns of his son Edward the Martyr, who was murdered in 978, and then Æthelred
the Unready, the political strength of the English monarchy waned, and, in 980,
Viking raiders from Scandinavia resumed attacks against England.[37] The English
government decided that the only way of dealing with these attackers was to pay
them protection money, and so, in 991, they gave them £10,000. This fee did not
prove to be enough, and, over the next decade, the English kingdom was forced to
pay the Viking attackers increasingly large sums of money.[37] Many English began to
demand that a more hostile approach be taken against the Vikings, and so, on St
Brice's Day in 1002, King Æthelred proclaimed that all Danes living in England would
be executed. It would come to be known as the St. Brice's Day massacre.[37]
The news of the massacre reached King Sweyn Forkbeard in Denmark. It is believed
that Sweyn's sister Gunhilde could have been among the victims, which prompted
Sweyn to raid England the following year, when Exeter was burned down.
Hampshire, Wiltshire, Wilton, and Salisbury also fell victim to the Viking revenge
attack.[38][39] Sweyn continued his raid in England and in 1004 his Viking army looted
East Anglia, plundered Thetford and sacked Norwich, before he once again returned
to Denmark.[40]
Further raids took place in 1006–1007, and, in 1009–1012, Thorkell the Tall led a
Viking invasion into England.[citation needed]
In 1013, Sweyn Forkbeard returned to invade England with a large army, and
Æthelred fled to Normandy, leading Sweyn to take the English throne. Sweyn died
within a year, however, and so Æthelred returned, but, in 1016, another Viking army
invaded, this time under the control of the Danish King Cnut, Sweyn's son.[41] After
defeating Anglo-Saxon forces at the Battle of Assandun, Cnut became king of
England, subsequently ruling over both the Danish and English kingdoms.
[41]
Following Cnut's death in 1035, the two kingdoms were once more declared
independent and remained so, apart from a short period from 1040 to 1042 when
Cnut's son Harthacnut ascended the English throne.[41]

Stamford Bridge: 1066[edit]

The Battle of Stamford Bridge (1870), Peter Nicolai Arbo

Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, led an invasion of England in 1066 with 300
longships and 10,000 soldiers, attempting to seize the English throne during the
succession dispute following the death of Edward the Confessor. He met initial
success, defeating the outnumbered forces mustered by the earldoms of
Northumbria and Mercia at the Battle of Fulford. Whilst basking in his victory and
occupying Northumbria in preparation for the advance south, Harald's army was
surprised by a similarly sized force led by King Harold Godwinson, which had
managed to force march all the way there from London in a week. The invasion was
repulsed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and Hardrada was killed along with most of
his men. Whilst the Viking attempt was unsuccessful, the near simultaneous Norman
invasion was successful in the south at the Battle of Hastings. Hardrada's invasion
and defeat has been described as the end of the Viking Age in Britain.[42]

Written records[edit]
Archaeologists James Graham-Campbell and Colleen E. Batey noted that there was
a lack of historical sources discussing the earliest Viking encounters with the British
Isles, which would have most probably been amongst the northern island groups,
those closest to Scandinavia.[43]
The Irish Annals provide us with accounts of much Viking activity during the 9th and
10th centuries.[44]
The England Runestones, concentrated in Sweden, give accounts of the voyages
from the Viking perspective.
The Viking raids that affected Anglo-Saxon England were primarily documented in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals initially written in the late ninth
century, most probably in the Kingdom of Wessex during the reign of Alfred the
Great. The Chronicle is, however, a biased source, acting as a piece of "wartime
propaganda" written on behalf of the Anglo-Saxon forces against their Viking
opponents, and, in many cases, greatly exaggerates the size of the Viking fleets and
armies, thereby making any Anglo-Saxon victories against them seem more heroic.[45]

Archaeological evidence[edit]
The Viking settlers in the British Isles left remains of their material culture behind,
which archaeologists have been able to excavate and interpret during the 20th and
21st centuries. Such Viking evidence in Britain consists primarily of Viking burials
undertaken in Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and the
north-west of England.[44] Archaeologists James Graham-Campbell and Colleen E.
Batey remarked that it was on the Isle of Man where Norse archaeology was
"remarkably rich in quality and quantity".[4]
However, as archaeologist Julian D. Richards commented, Scandinavians in Anglo-
Saxon England "can be elusive to the archaeologist" because many of their houses
and graves are indistinguishable from those of the other populations living in the
country.[2] For this reason, historian Peter Hunter Blair noted that, in Britain, the
archaeological evidence for Viking invasion and settlement was "very slight
compared with the corresponding evidence for the Anglo-Saxon invasions" of the fifth
century.[44]

See also[edit]
 Kingdom of the Isles
 Scandinavian Scotland
 Orkney
 Earldom of Orkney
 History of Shetland
 Orkneyinga saga
 Viking Age
 Category:Scandinavian Scotland
 Norman conquest of England

References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
1. ^ The word Viking is a historical revival; it was not used in Middle English, but it was revived
from Old Norse vikingr "freebooter, sea-rover, pirate, Viking", which usually is explained as
meaning properly "one who came from the fjords" from vik "creek, inlet, small bay" (cf. Old
English wic, Middle High German wich "bay", and the second element in Reykjavik). But Old
English wicing and Old Frisian wizing are almost 300 years older, and probably derive
from wic "village, camp" (temporary camps were a feature of the Viking raids), related to
Latin vicus "village, habitation".[3]
2. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey suggest that "true Vikings [are] those who took part in Viking raids
[...]. A Viking base, is thus a base from which Vikings went raiding, but a Norse settlement in
Scotland is a settlement occupied by people of Scandinavian origin".[4]
3. ^ There are only three surviving documents from the Anglo-Saxon period that can be described as
peace treaties.[29]
4. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Worcester MSS D for 948 CE says: "And when the king [Eadred]
was on his way home, the raiding army [Eric Bloodaxe], which was in York, overtook the king's
army at Castleford and a great slaughter was made there."
5. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Bloodaxe was 'driven out' from Northumbria; however,
other sources claim that he was also killed.[35]

Citations[edit]
1. ^ Keynes 1999. p. 460.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Richards 1991. p. 9.
3. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 12 January 2020.Archived 7 September 2014 at
the Wayback Machine
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. p. 3.
5. ^ Blair 2003. pp. 56–57.
6. ^ Blair, Peter Hunter (2003). An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon studies
(revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780521537773. Retrieved 30
April 2019. A variety of evidence, among which some of the objects from Sutton Hoo hold a
prominent place, indicates that England lay well within the range of Scandinavia's foreign contacts
before the Viking attacks began.
7. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. p. 5.
8. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. pp. 5–7.
9. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. pp. 14–16.
10. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. p. 18.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c Richards 1991. p. 13.
12. ^ Jump up to:a b Blair 2003. p. 63.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Richards 1991. p. 16.
14. ^ Jarman 2021, pp. 93-96 (S 134).
15. ^ Jump up to:a b Blair 2003. p. 55.
16. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. p. 24.
17. ^ Blair 2003. p. 66.
18. ^ Blair 2003. p. 68.
 19. ^ Christopher Wright (1975). Kent through the years. p. 54. ISBN 0-7134-2881-3.
20. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
21. ^ Jump up to:a b c Harrison & Svensson 2007:199
22. ^ Jansson 1980:34.
23. ^ Harrison & Svensson 2007:198.
24. ^ Entry Sö 166 in Rundata 2.0 for Windows.
25. ^ Richards 1991. p. 17.
26. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Richards 1991. p. 20.
27. ^ Richards 1991. pp. 11–12.
28. ^ Starkey 2004. p.51
29. ^ Lavelle 2010, p. 325.
30. ^ Whitelock 1996, pp. 417–418.
31. ^ Asser 1983, p. 311.
32. ^ Horspool 2006. p. 102
33. ^ Jump up to:a b Peter Sawyer (2001). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. pp. 58–
59. ISBN 978-0-19-285434-6.
34. ^ Richards 1991 p. 22
35. ^ Pearson 2012. p. 131
36. ^ Panton 2011. p. 135.
37. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Richards 1991. p. 24.
38. ^ "The St Brice's Day Massacre". Historic UK. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
39. ^ Howard 2003, pp. 64–65.
40. ^ Howard 2003, pp. 66–67.
41. ^ Jump up to:a b c Richards 1991. p. 28.
42. ^ "Last of the Vikings - Stamford Bridge, 1066". 26 August 2008.
43. ^ Graham-Campbell and Batey 1998. p. 2.
44. ^ Jump up to:a b c Blair 2003. p. 64.
45. ^ Richards 1991. p. 15.

Bibliography[edit]
 Asser (1983). "Life of King Alfred". In Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael (eds.). Alfred the Great:
Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-044409-
4.
 Blair, Peter Hunter (2003). An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK and
New York City, USA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53777-3.
 Crawford, Barbara E. (1987). Scandinavian Scotland. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Leicester
University Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-1282-8.
 Graham-Campbell, James & Batey, Colleen E. (1998). Vikings in Scotland: An Archaeological Survey.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0641-2.
 Horspool, David (2006). Why Alfred Burned the Cakes. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-
786-1.
 Howard, Ian (2003). Swein Forkbeard's Invasions and the Danish Conquest of England, 991-
1017 (illustrated ed.). Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851159287.
 Jarman, Cat (2021). River Kings: The Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads. London, UK: William
Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-835311-7.
 Richards, Julian D. (1991). Viking Age England. London: B. T. Batsford and English
Heritage. ISBN 978-0-7134-6520-4.
 Keynes, Simon (1999). Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.).
"Vikings". The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 460–61.
 Lavelle, Ryan (2010). Alfred's Wars Sources and Interpretations of Anglo-Saxon Warfare in the Viking
Age. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydel Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-569-1.
 Panton, Kenneth J. (2011). Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy. Plymouth: Scarecrow
Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5779-7.
 Pearson, William (2012). Erik Bloodaxe: His Life and Times: A Royal Viking in His Historical and
Geographical Settings. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4685-8330-4.
 Starkey, David (2004). The Monarchy of England. Vol. I. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0-7011-
7678-4.
 Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. (1996). The treaty between Alfred and Guthrum. English Historical Documents.
Vol. 1 (2 ed.). Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-43950-3.

https://www.lifeinnorway.net/danelaw-explained/

Danelaw Explained: When the

Vikings Ruled in England
October 22, 2022 by David Nikel

Home » Viking Blog » Danelaw Explained: When the Vikings

Ruled in England
For almost 100 years, parts of north, east and
central England were ruled by Norsemen. The area
retains a strong Viking legacy to this day.

If you've looked into the Viking Age in the past, you've

likely come across the term Danelaw. This was used to
refer to the areas of England occupied by Vikings from the
late 8th century.
Danelaw was created by treaties signed between Alfred the
Great of Wessex, and the Viking warlord Guthrum, following
Alfred's victory at the Battle of Edington in 878. Let's take a
look at what led up to this point.

The Viking Age was a period of time during which traders

and raiders from Scandinavia changed the face of northern
and western Europe. This was especially true in the British
Isles.

From raids to settlement

Although the beginning of the Viking Age was a gradual
shift, most people take the Lindisfarne attack as the start
date.

Although it wasn't the first attack on the Britain, the raid on

Lindisfarne was by far the most significant. We also have
written sources, thanks to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and a
letter from the monk Alcuin to Bishop Higbald.
Lindisfarne today.

The vicious, surprise changed the way the northmen were

perceived not just in Britain, but throughout Europe.

However, the Norse weren't just bloodthirsty warriors. Back

home, they were simple farmers and fishermen, who
struggled with the relative lack of arable land in
Scandinavia.

After 72 years, what the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle deemed the

‘Great Heathen Army' invaded England. Unlike on previous
visits, they were not there to loot but rather to settle the
farmland.

To do that, they had to conquer the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

of Mercia, Wessex, Northumbria and East Anglia.

Silver hoard from the Viking Age discovered in Lancashire.

Ten years after the invasion, the Norse had toppled the
leadership of two of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. A third
was under heavy influence, while only Wessex remained
truly independent.
That was because the Wessex king Alfred had paid a
substantial amount to Viking King Halfdan to turn around
and return to York. However, another Viking leader,
Guthrum, craved a kingdom of his own and had made no
such deal with Alfred.

Invasions of Wessex
In the middle of winter, Guthrum's army left their
Cambridge base and marched to Wareham in Wessex.
Without warning, Wareham was Norse.

However, Alfred was able to raise enough opposition from

across Wessex to lay siege to Wareham and prevent
supplies reaching the settlement.
Statue of King Alfred the Great of Wessex, in Winchester,
England.
Tiring of the stalemate, Alfred offered to negotiate. Alfred
offered a similar deal to the one offered to Halfdan, which
he accepted. However, Guthrum didn't give up.

After a few more failed attempts at invasion, Guthrum

launched a surprise attack on Alfred and his court during
Christmas celebrations in Chippenham.

Guthrum's attack succeeded and although Alfred fled, some

Wessex noblemen began to recognise Guthrum's power.
Conflict continued, until Guthrum's and Alfred's armies met
at Eddington. Wessex came out on top, and Alfred once
again offered terms.

Creation of Danelaw
After being christened, Guthrum would rule East Anglia as a
friend of Wessex. Guthrum opted out of future attempts to
conquer Wessex and even minted coins with the Christian
name given to him by Alfred.
Map of Danelaw around the year 886.

The agreement eventually led to a treaty between Alfred

and Guthrum, which outlined the political boundary
between Wessex and the Scandinavian held territory.

For the first time, there was now a written agreement of an

area where Viking laws and customs held sway. The area
became known as Danelaw.

The treaty also provided avenues aimed at reducing conflict

and increasing trade between the two peoples.

Settlement of Danelaw
Roughly speaking, Danelaw covered the area of England
that is today comprised of these 15 shire counties:
Leicester, York, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Essex,
Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northampton, Huntingdon,
Bedford, Hertford, Middlesex, and Buckingham.
Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England. Photo: Wozzie /
Shutterstock.com.
Although the Norsemen did not intensively settle all of
Danelaw, there were five important settlements in addition
to the centre of power in Jorvik (York): Derby, Leicester,
Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford.

These five towns became known as the five boroughs, each

ruled by a different Viking Jarl. Each had a lot of
independence, although the elite of Jorvik held overall
control. For the next 80 years, the Norse and Anglo-Saxons
lived side-by-side.

Everyday life in Danelaw

We often hear about Danelaw in a historical and political
context. But what about everyday life for people living
under the Scandinavian rule?
While the era is associated with violence, everyday life for
most people probably wouldn't have changed a great deal.
People lived with their families, tended crops and livestock
or made items to trade.

Stamford in what is today Lincolnshire was a centre of

power in the Danelaw.
That being said, there would certainly have been a lot of
cultural mixing. People from Scandinavia moved in large
numbers to the Danelaw, in many cases marrying into
families.

Viking rulers began to mint their own coins, and make

changes to the social structures that reflected how things
worked in Scandinavia.

In fact, some scholars suggest that Danelaw provided

better rights and more freedoms. Many legal concepts were
compatible with the previous ones, while the poorest
farmers tended to have more autonomy.

The end of Danelaw

As generations passed, conflicts began to escalate between
the Danelaw and Wessex once again.

Settlers moved from Scandinavia during The Danelaw.

During peacetime, Alfred had built up both his forces and

defensive forts. His eldest daughter and grandson went on
to play key roles in the conquest of Danelaw.

The five boroughs of Danelaw eventually fell. Jorvik

changed hands several times. Danelaw came to an end in
the year 954, when Eric Bloodaxe was driven out of
Northumbria.
After the restoration of Anglo-Saxon power, many of the
laws and customs from Danelaw were retained. Its legacy
can still be clearly seen today in the place names
throughout the region.

That being said, although Danelaw was no more, the story

of the Vikings in Britain was far from over. They returned in
the early 11th century, but that's a story for another time.

https://englishhistory.net/vikings/the-viking-invasions-of-england/

The Viking Invasions of England

The Age of the Vikings
After the anglo-saxons had established their kingdoms this
is another interesting part of English history, a period in
which England went from a people divided, to a people
united under one King, a period in which the English would
become the worlds first known Nation State.

And the Norsemen were, without a doubt a big part and

reason for that future political State, and Nation Statehood,
but we will also learn that the Norsemen are as much apart
of the English nation, as a people and as much apart of
England’s identity as the early Anglo-Saxon ancestors are.

The term Norsemen was used, and is used to mean

the Vikings of Denmark, of which the early Angli ancestors
originated from, i.e. Anglen in southern Denmark and the
Islands of the Jutland Peninsula. But also the Vikings of
Norway, Sweden and perhaps other Nordic tribes in that
part of Northern Europe, and as we shall find, the Angles
and Saxons were in many ways no different from the
Vikings who first came to England in 793 AD as raiders like
the Anglo-Saxons some four hundred years before.

Both the early English and the Norsemen worshiped more

or less the same Gods, fought in more or less the same
fashion, and more or less had the same cultural identity,
poems, songs and lived more or less by the same codes,
the same warrior codes, fought in the same sort of war
bands and loyally serving and dying in battle for the same
sort of voted for war leader, or warlord.

So we can see that the English and the Norse were of the
same roots, and from more or less the same lands, in North
Western Europe. One of the reasons why genetically it is
difficult to separate Danes from English.

The Norsemen – why did they invade England?

Measure for measure, what the Englisc had given the
Britons in the early 400’s AD was meted out to their English
descendants after a lapse of four hundred years. In the
eighth century a vehement manifestation of conquering
energy appeared in Scandinavia. Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark threw up war bands of formidable fighting men,
much akin to the early Englisc war bands that ravaged
southern Britain, who, in addition to all their martial
qualities, were the hardy rovers of the sea.

Arguably there still is much similarity between these Sea

Nations today. Heavily tattooed, a Viking warrior would
have looked very similar to an English Huscarl, who copied
the Danish fighting arts, especially the use of the Dane Axe.
The causes, which led to this racial ebullition, were
spontaneous growth of their strength and population, the
thirst for adventure, and the complications of dynastic
quarrels. There was here no question of Danes or
Norsemen being driven Westward by new pressures from
the steppes of Asia, that put the early Englisc on their sea
roving adventure to Britain. They moved of their own
accord.

The Viking Warrior

Famous for their ‘spectacle’ helmet visors, Dane Axes and
wolf skins. Their prowess was amazing. One current of
marauding vigour struck southwards from Sweden, and not
only reached Constantinople, but left behind it a potent
memory which across the centuries made their mark upon
European Russia. The word ‘Rus’ (as in Russia – ‘state of
the Vikings’), is another term for Viking or ‘sea pirate.’

Another contingent sailed in their long boats from Norway

to the Mediterranean, harried all the shores of the inland
sea, and were with difficulty repulsed by the Arab kingdoms
of Spain and the north coast of Africa. They attacked
Majorca and Menorca.

The third far ranging impulse carried the Scandinavian

buccaneers to the British Isles, to Normandy, to Iceland,
presently across the Atlantic Ocean to the North American
coast. Mexico has been theorised as a destination.

Viking Warrior

The relations between the Danes and the Norwegians were

tangled and varying. Sometimes they would raid together;
sometimes they fought each other in desperate battles; but
to the English they presented themselves in the common
guise of a merciless scourge.

They were incredibly cruel. Though not cannibals, they

were accustomed to cook their feasts of victory in
cauldrons placed upon, or spits stuck in, the bodies of their
vanquished enemies. When, after a battle in Ireland
between Northmen and Danes, the local Irish inhabitants
expressed horror at this disgusting habit, and, being
neutral, asked them why they did it, they received the
answer, “Why Not? They would do it to us if they won.” It
was said of these Scandinavian hunters that they never
wept for their sins, nor for the death of their friends.

The Viking Longships

The soul of the Vikings, like their earlier English kin (and
their Cyuls,) lay in the Viking long-ship. They like their early
English kin, had evolved, and now, in the eighth and ninth
centuries, carried to perfection, a vessel which by its
shallow draught could sail far up rivers, or anchor in
innumerable creeks and bays, and which its beautiful lines
and suppleness of construction could ride out the fiercest
storms of the Atlantic Ocean.

We are singularly well informed about these ships. Half a

dozen were dug up almost intact. The most famous being
the Gokstad ship in Norway, in 1880, from a tumulus. It is
almost complete, even to the cooking-pots and draught
boards of the sailors. It was re-measured with precision in
1944.

This ship was of the medium size, 76 feet 9 inches from

stem to stern, 17 feet 6 inches beam, and drawing only 2
feet 9 inches amidships. She was clinker-built of sixteen
strakes a side of solid oak planks, fastened with tree-nails
and iron bolts, and caulked with cord of plaited animal-hair.
Her planks fastened to the ribs with bast ties gave the
frame-work great elasticity.

She had a deck of loose un-nailed boards, but no doubt her

stores were contained in lockers which have perished. Her
mast was stepped in a huge solid block, was so cunningly
supported “that while the mast stands steady and firm
there is no strain on the light elastic frame of the ship”.*

She had sixteen oars a side, varying in length between 17

and 19 feet; the longer oars were used at the prow and
stern, where the gun-wale was higher above the water-line;
they were all beautifully shaped, and passed through cir-
cular rowlocks cut in the main strake, which were neatly
fitted with shutters that closed when oars were shipped.

Her rudder, stepped to the starboard quarter, was a large,

short oar of a cricket-bat shape, fitted with movable tiller,
and fastened to the ship by an ingenious contrivance which
gave the blade full play. The mast, 40 feet high, had a long,
heavy yard with a square sail. She could carry a smaller
boat or din-ghy, three of which were discovered with her.

The Gokstad ship would carry a crew of fifty, and if

necessary another thirty warriors or captives, in all
weathers, for a month.

*Description by a Professor Collingwood, who did a detailed

study of the ship.

Such was the vessel which, in many different sizes, bore

the Vikings to the plunder of the civilised world – to the
assault of Constantinople, to the siege of Paris, to the
foundation of Dublin, and the discovery of North America.
It’s picture rises before us vivid and bright: the finely
carved, dragon-shaped prow; the high, curving stern; the
long row of shields, black and yellow alternatively, ranged
along the sides; the gleam of steel; the scent of murder.

The long-ships in which the great ocean voyages were

made were somewhat stouter build, with higher freeboard;
but the Gokstad model was reproduced in 1892 and
navigated by a Norwegian crew across the Atlantic in four
weeks.

Yet this superb instrument of sea-power would have been

useless without the men who handled it. Like there early
English kin, all were volunteers. Parties were formed under
leaders of marked ability. In the sagas we read of crews of
“champions, or merry men”: a ships company picked no
doubt from many applicants, “as good at the helm or oar as
they were with the sword”.

There were strict regulations, or early “Ar-ticles of War”,

governing these crews once they had joined. Men were
taken between the ages of sixteen and sixty, but none
without a trial of his strength and fighting prowess. No feud
or old quarrel must be taken up while afloat or on service.
No woman was allowed on board. News was to be reported
to the captain alone.

All taken in war was to be brought to the pile or stake, and

there sold and divided according to rule. This war booty
was personal; that is to say, it was not part of the property
which passed by Scandinavian law to a man’s kindred. He
was entitled to have it buried with him.

“With anything like equal numbers,” says Oman, “the

Vikings were always able to hold their own, but when the
whole countryside had been raised, and the men of the
shires came swarming up against the raiders, they had to
beware lest they might be crushed by numbers.”
It was only when a fleet of large numbers had come
together that the Norsemen could dare to offer their
opponents battle in the open field. Fighting was after all not
so much their object as plunder, and when the land was
rallied in overwhelming force did the invaders take to their
ships again and sailed off to renew their ravages in some
yet intact province.

Like the opportunists they were, they would look for more,
weaker targets to attack. The Norsemen soon learned
moreover to secure for them-selves the power of rapped
locomotion on land. When they came to shore they would
sweep together all the horses of the neighbourhood and
move themselves and their plunder by horseback across
the land.

It was with no intention of fighting as cavalry that they

collected the horses, but only for swift marching. The first
mention of this practice in England comes in the year 866
AD, when “a great heathen army came to the land of the
East Angles, and there was the army a-horse”.*

When we reflect upon the brutal vices of these salt water

bandits, pirates as shameful as any whom the sea has
borne, or recoil from their villainous destruction and cruel
deeds, we must also remember that our and their early
English kin, came in much the same way as they did, when
the English war-bands crossed the North sea to plunder,
raid and burn the lands of the Romanic-Britons before
coming as conquerors.

We must also remember that even as late as the 1500’s our

English Privateers, plundered and raided the lands and
colonies of the Spanish King, the same sea-fearing blood of
our early Englisc and Nordic kin flows through the English.
We should also remember the discipline, the fortitude, the
comradeship and fighting prowess which made the
Norsemen and their English kin, at this period and after,
beyond all challenge the most formidable and daring race
in the world. The English are them. Anglo-Nordic. *(Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle)

The Vikings arrive

In the summer of the year 789 AD, while “the Innocent
English people, spread through their plains, were enjoying
themselves in tranquillity and yoking their oxen to the
plough”, new was carried to the King’s officer, the Reeve of
Dorchester, that three ships had arrived on the coast.

The Reeve “leapt onto his horse and rode with a few men to
the harbour [probably Portland] thinking that they were
merchants and not enemies. Giving his commands as one
who had authority, he ordered them to be sent to the King’s
town; but they slew him on the spot and all who were with
him.”

This was a foretaste of the murderous struggle which, with

many changes of fortune, was to harry and devastate
England for two hundred and fifty years. It was to be
beginning of the Anglo Viking Wars. But these Wars were
also to be, the foundation of a combined English effort, to
stop and finally re-conquer the English lands taken by the
Norsemen, but it would also lead to England becoming one
Nation, one Country, and the first Nation State in the world
under one King.

Slaughter at the Lindisfarne Monastry

In the year 793 AD, on a January morning, the wealthy
monastic settlement of Lindisfarne (or Holy Island), off the
Northumbrian coast, was suddenly attacked by a powerful
fleet of Danish Vikings. They sacked the place, devoured
the cattle, killed many of the monks, and sailed away with
rich booty in gold, jewels, and sacred emblems, and all the
monks who were likely to fetch a good price in the
European slave-market.
This raid had been planned with care and knowledge. It was
executed with complete surprise in the dead of winter
before any aid from the shore could reach the island.

The news of the atrocity travelled far and wide, not only in
England but throughout Europe, and the loud cry of the
Church sounded a general alarm. Alcuin, the Northumbrian,
wrote home from the Court of Charlemagne to condole with
his countrymen:“Lo, it is almost three hundred and fifty
years that we and our forefathers have dwelt in this fair
land, and never has such a horror before appeared in
Englaland, such as we have just suffered from the heathen.

It was not thought possible that they cloud have made such
a voyage. Behold the church of St Cuthbert sprinkled with
the blood of the priests of Christ, robbed of all its
ornaments….In that place where, after the departure of
Paulinus from York, the Christian faith had its beginning
among us, there is the beginning of woe and
calamity…..Portents of this woe came before it…..What
signifies that rain of blood during Lent in the town of York?”

When the next year 794 AD, the raiders returned and
landed near Jarrow they were stoutly attacked while
harassed by bad weather. Many were killed. Their “King”
was captured and put to a cruel death, and the fugitives
carried so grim a tale back to Denmark that for forty years
the English coasts were un-ravaged.

It was not till 835 AD that the storm broke in fury, and
fleets, sometimes numbering three to four hundred ships,
rowed up the rivers of England, France, and Russia in
predatory enterprises on the greatest scale. For thirty years
England was constantly attacked. Paris was more than once
besieged. Constantinople was assaulted.
The har-bour towns in Ireland were captured and held.
Dublin was founded by Vikings under Olaf. In many cases
now the raiders settled upon the conquered territory. The
Swedish element penetrated into the heart of Russia, ruling
the river towns and holding the trade to ransom. The
Norwegian Vikings, coming from a still more severe climate,
found the Scottish islands good for settlement. They
colonised the Shetlands, the Faroes, and Ireland.

They reached Greenland and Stoneland (Labrador). They

sailed up the St Lawrence River (Canada). They discovered
North America; but having found it they put little store by
the achievement.

For a long time no permanent foothold was gained in

England or France. It was not until the year 865 AD, when
resistance stiffened on the Continent that the great Dan-ish
invasion of Northumbria and Eastern England began.

England was at this time ripe for the sickle. The invaders
broke in upon the whole Eastern seaboard. On all sides
were abbeys and monasteries, churches, and even ca-
thedrals, possessed in that starving age of treasures of gold
and silver, of jewels, and also large stores of food, wine,
and such luxuries as were known.

The pious English had accepted far too literally the idea of
the absolution of sins as the consequence of monetary
payment to the church. The church had told the English,
that their sins were many, their repentances frequent, and
the Church had thrived and got fat, while the English
People suffered. But the Church itself became an easy prize
for sharp willing swords to win.

To an undue subservience to the Roman Church the English

at this time added mili-tary mismanagement. Their system
of defence was adapted to keeping the survivors of the
Romano-Britons in their barren mountain-lands to the West
or guarding the frontier against an incursion by one of their
own neighbours. The local noble, upon the summons of his
chief or king, could call upon the able-bodied cultivators of
the soil to serve in their own district for perhaps forty days.

This service, in the “fyrd”, was grudgingly given, and when

it was over the army dispersed without paying regard to the
enemies who might be afoot or the purposes for which the
campaign had been undertaken. Now the English were
confronted with a different type of enemy.

The Danes and other Norsemen had not only the

advantages of surprise which sea-power so long imparted,
but they showed both mobility and skill on land. They
adopted the habit of fortifying their camps with almost
Roman thoroughness. Their stratagems also have been
highly praised. Among these “feigned flights”* was
foremost.

Again and again we read that the English put the heathen
army to rout, but at the end of the day the Danes held the
field. On one occasion their leader, who was besieging a
town, declared him self to be dying and begged the bishop
of the town to give him Christian burial.

The worthy Churchman rejoiced in the conversion and

acceded to the request, but when the body of the deceased
Viking was brought into the town for Christian burial it
suddenly appeared that the attendants were armed
warriors of proved quality, disguised in mourning, who
without more ado set to work on sack, rape, burning and
slaughter.

There are many informing sidelights of this kind upon the

manners and cus-toms of the Vikings. They were, in fact,
the most audacious and treacherous type of pirate and
shark that had ever yet appeared, and, owing to the very
defective organisation, and the very weakness of the
Roman/Christian dogma, that taught the converted English
of the Viking era, of turning the other cheek, meekness
before might, which turned them from their old warrior
virtues and prowess of arms, for which the Norsemen took
for weakness, the Norsemen achieved a fuller realisation of
their desires than any of those who have emulated their
proficiency – and there have been many. *”feigned flights”
– sounds familiar, it should.

The Normans used the same tactics at Hastings, against

the English, Norsemen/Normans/English, same blood kin.

The Viking Ragnar Lodbrok and the first Viking War

In Norse legend at this period none was more famous
than Ragnar Lodbrok, or “Hairy-Breeches”. He was born in
Norway, but was connected with the ruling family of
Denmark. He was a raider from his youth. “West over the
Seas” was his motto. His prow had ranged from the
Orkneys to the White Sea. In 845 AD he led a Viking fleet
up the Seine and attacked Paris.

The onslaught was repulsed, and plague took an

unforeseeable revenge upon the Norsemen. He turned his
mobile arms against Northumbria. Here again the fates
were adverse. According to a Scandinavian story, he was
captured by King Ella of Northumbria, and cast into a snake
pit to die. Amid the coiling mass of loathsome adders he
sang to the end his death-song.*

Ragnar had four sons, and as he lay among the venomous

reptiles he uttered a potent threat: “The little pigs would
grunt now if they knew how it fares with the old boar.” The
skalds tell us how his sons received the news.

Bjorn “Iron-side” gripped his spear shaft so hard that the

print of his fingers remained stamped upon it. Hvitserk was
playing chess, but he clenched his fingers upon a pawn so
tightly that blood started from under his nails. Sigurd
“Snake-eye” was trimming his nails with a knife, and kept
on paring until he cut into the bone. But the fourth son was
the one who counted. Ivar, “the Boneless”, demanded the
precise details of his father’s execution, and his face
“became red, blue, and pale by turns, and his skin was
swollen with anger.”*

Viking fury
A form of vengeance was prescribed by which sons should
requite the killer of their fathers. It was known as the
“Blood-Red-Eagle”. The flesh and ribs of the killer must be
cut and sawn out in an aquiline pattern, and then the
dutiful son with his own hands would tear out the
palpitating lungs. This was the doom which in legend
overtook King Ella. But the actual consequences to England
were serious. Ivar “the Boneless” was a warrior of
command and guile.

He was the master-mind behind the Scandinavian invasion

of England in the last quarter of the ninth century. He it was
who planned the great campaigns by which East Anglia,
Deira in Northumbria, and Mercia was conquered.

Hitherto he had been fighting in Ireland, but he now

appeared in 865 AD in East Anglia. In the spring of 866 AD
his powerful army, organised on the basis of ships
companies, but now all mounted not for fighting but for
locomotion, rode north along the old Roman road and was
ferried across the Humber.

He laid siege to York. And now – too late – the

Northumbrians, who had been divided in their loyalties
between two rival kings, forgot their feuds and united in
one final effort. They attacked the Danish army before York.
At first they were successful; the Norsemen were driven
back upon the city walls. The defenders sallied out, and in
the confusion the Norsemen defeated them all with
grievous slaughter, killing both the kings and destroying
completely their power of resistance. This was the end of
Northumbria. The North of England never recovered its
ascendancy.

As Hodgkin has put it:”The schools and monasteries

dwindled into obscurity or nothingness; and the king-dom
which had produced Bede and Alcuin, which had left the
great stone crosses as masterpieces of Anglian art, and as
evidences of Anglian poetry the poems of Caed-mon and
the Vision of the Rood, in the generation following the
defeat of the year 867 AD sank back into the old life of
obscure barbarism….A dynasty was broken, a religion was
half smothered, and a culture was barbarised.”

Simeon of Durham, writing a hundred and fifty years after

this disastrous battle at York, underlines these
lamentations:”The army raided here and there and filled
every place with bloodshed and sorrow. Far and wide it
destroyed the churches and monasteries with fire and
sword. When it departed from a place it left nothing
standing but roofless walls. So great was the de-struction
that at the present day one can scarcely see anything left
of those places, nor any sign of their former greatness.

But Ivar’s object was nothing less than the conquest of

Mercia, which, as all men know, had for nearly a hundred
years represented the strength of England. Ivar lay before
Nottingham. The King of Mercia called for help from
Wessex. The old King of Wessex was dead, but his two
sons, Ethelred and Alfred,* answered the appeal.

They marched to his aid, and offered to join him in his

attack upon the besiegers lines; but the Mercians flinched,
and preferred a parley.* Ivar warred with policy as well as
arms. He had not harmed churches at York and Ripon. He
was content to set up a vas-sal king, one Egbert, in
Northumbria, and after ending the campaign of 868 AD by
a treaty which left him master of Nottingham he spent the
winter fortifying himself at York in North East England.

While the Danes in their formidable attempt at conquest

spread out from East Anglia, subdued Mercia, and ravaged
Northumbria, the King of Wessex and his brother Al-fred
quietly built their strength. Their fortunes turned on
balances so delicate and pre-carious that even with the
slightest addition to their burdens must have been fatal.

It was therefore a deliverance when Ivar, after breaking the

Treaty of Nottingham when he subjected King Edmund of
East Anglia to martyrdom, suddenly quitted England for
ever. Perhaps out of fear, for England would have become
to hot for him to stay, who knows, but he quit England
never to return.

The Annals of Ulster explain that Olaf and Ivar, the two
Kings of the Norsemen, came again to Dublin in 870 AD
from Scotland, and “a vary great spoil of captives, English,
British, and Pictish, was carried away to Ireland”. But then
there is the final entry: “872. Ivar, King of the Norsemen of
all Ireland and Britain, ended his life.” He had conquered
Mercia and East Anglia.

He had captured the major stronghold of the Kingdom of

Brythonic Strathclyde, Dumbarton. Laden with loot and
seemingly invincible, he settled in Dublin, and died there
peacefully two years later. The pious chroniclers report that
he “slept in Christ”. Thus it may be that he had the best of
both worlds.

The Vikings begin to settle

The Danish raiders now stayed longer every year. In the
summer the fleets came over to plunder and destroy, but
each year the tendency was to dally in more genial and
more verdant land. At last the warrior’s absence on the
raids became long enough and the conditions of his
conquest sure enough for him to bring over his wife and
family.

Thus again, like their early English predecessors who came

first as raiders, then con-querors and finally as settlers, the
Norsemen lay aside their killing and rapine and there grew
the process of settlement.

But these settlements of the Danes differed from those of

the English; they were the encampment of armies, and
their boundaries were the fighting fronts sustained by a
series of fortified towns. Stamford, Nottingham, Lincoln,
Derby, and Leicester were the bases of the new invading
force. Behind their frontier lines the warriors of one decade
were to become the colonists and landowners of the next.

The Danish settlement in England was essentially military.

They cut their way with their swords, and then planted
themselves deeply in the soil, as did their English
predecessors. The war-rior type of farmer asserted from the
first, a status different from ordinary agriculturist.

Without any coherent national organisation to repel from

the land on which they had settled the ever-unknowable
descents from the seas, the English, now for four centuries
entitled to be deemed the owners of the soil, very nearly
succumbed com-pletely to the Danish inroads.

That they did not was due – partly to their own stubborn
refusal to be driven from their homeland, in the way they
had forced the Romanic-Britons to do, partly their own
stubborn refusal to be cowered or whipped out all together,
and partly, as in almost every critical turn in our long
eventful historic fortune has been due – to the sudden
coming of one figure in an era of confusion and decay, one
figure who would turn the tide, and lead the English from
sudden disaster to victory, or – “Cometh the day, Cometh
the Man”, and one of the greatest figures in our long history
would come, to turn back the tide of decay and disaster.

A man who wouldn’t only change the fortunes of the

English, but he, and his descendents would go on, not only
to re-conquer the lost English lands, but also to build a new
united English Nation, a United English Nation-state, the
first Nation-State in the worlds History, and who’s grand-
son and his descendents would be known as Kings of all the
English – Alfred the Great of England.

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work,
please use the code below to cite this page as the source of
the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "The Viking Invasions of

England" https://englishhistory.net/vikings/the-viking-invasions-of-
england/, February 17, 2022

https://www.history.org.uk/primary/resource/3867/the-vikings-in-britain-a-brief-history

The Vikings in Britain: a brief

history
Reference guide for primary
Published: 13th January 2011

Add to My HA

Viking Age | In Britain: background | Short history | King

Alfred | Later raids & rulers | Key concepts

<

This resource is free for everyone

For access to hundreds of other high-quality resources
by primary history experts along with free or
discounted CPD and membership of a thriving
community of teachers and subject leaders, join the
Historical Association today
The Viking Age
The Vikings' homeland was Scandinavia: modern Norway, Sweden
and Denmark. From here they travelled great distances, mainly by
sea and river – as far as North America to the west, Russia to the
east, Lapland to the north and the Mediterranean World
(Constantinople) and Iraq (Baghdad) to the south.

We know about them through archaeology, poetry, sagas and

proverbs, treaties, and the writings of people in Europe and Asia
whom they encountered. They left very little written evidence
themselves. As well as warriors, they were skilled craftsmen and
boat-builders, adventurous explorers and wide-ranging traders.
See Viking trade and Viking travel.

What we call the Viking Age, and their relationship with England,
lasted from approximately 800 to 1150 AD – though Scandinavian
adventurers, merchants and mercenaries were of course active
before and after this period. Their expansion during the Viking Age
took the form of warfare, exploration, settlement and trade.

During this period, around 200,000 people left Scandinavia to

settle in other lands, mainly Newfoundland (Canada), Greenland,
Iceland, Ireland, England, Scotland, the islands around Britain,
France (where they became the Normans), Russia and Sicily. They
traded extensively with the Muslim world and fought as
mercenaries for the Byzantine emperors of Constantinople
(Istanbul). However, by the end of the 11th century the great days
of Viking expansion were over.

Vikings in Britain: background and

legacy
Historians disagree about the origin of the word Viking. In Old
Norse the word means a pirate raid, from either vikja (to move
swiftly) or vik (an inlet). This captures the essence of the Vikings,
fast-moving sailors who used the water as their highway to take
them across the northern Atlantic, around the coasts of Europe
and up its rivers to trade, raid or settle. In their poetry they call
the sea 'the whale road'.

Anglo-Saxon writers called them Danes, Norsemen, Northmen, the

Great Army, sea rovers, sea wolves, or the heathen.

From around 860AD onwards, Vikings stayed, settled and

prospered in Britain, becoming part of the mix of people who
today make up the British nation. Our names for days of the week
come mainly from Norse gods – Tuesday from Tiw or Týr,
Wednesday from Woden (Odin), Thursday from Thor and so on.
Many of their other words have also become part of English, for
example egg, steak, law, die, bread, down, fog, muck, lump and
scrawny.

To see questions children have asked about the Vikings, see

our Viking starter lesson.

A short history of the Vikings in Britain

In 793 came the first recorded Viking raid, where 'on the Ides of
June the harrying of the heathen destroyed God's church on
Lindisfarne, bringing ruin and slaughter' (The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle).

These ruthless pirates continued to make regular raids around the

coasts of England, looting treasure and other goods, and
capturing people as slaves. Monasteries were often targeted, for
their precious silver or gold chalices, plates, bowls and crucifixes.

Gradually, the Viking raiders began to stay, first in winter camps,

then settling in land they had seized, mainly in the east and north
of England. See The Vikings settle down.
Outside Anglo-Saxon England, to the north of Britain, the Vikings
took over and settled Iceland, the Faroes and Orkney, becoming
farmers and fishermen, and sometimes going on summer trading
or raiding voyages. Orkney became powerful, and from there the
Earls of Orkney ruled most of Scotland. To this day, especially on
the north-east coast, many Scots still bear Viking names.

To the west of Britain, the Isle of Man became a Viking kingdom.

The island still has its Tynwald, or ting-vollr (assembly field), a
reminder of Viking rule. In Ireland, the Vikings raided around the
coasts and up the rivers. They founded the cities of Dublin, Cork
and Limerick as Viking strongholds.

Meanwhile, back in England, the Vikings took over Northumbria,

East Anglia and parts of Mercia. In 866 they captured modern York
(Viking name: Jorvik) and made it their capital. They continued to
press south and west. The kings of Mercia and Wessex resisted as
best they could, but with little success until the time of Alfred of
Wessex, the only king of England to be called ‘the Great'.

King Alfred and the Danes

King Alfred ruled from 871-899 and after many trials and
tribulations (including the famous story of the burning of the
cakes!) he defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington in 878.
After the battle the Viking leader Guthrum converted to
Christianity. In 886 Alfred took London from the Vikings and
fortified it. The same year he signed a treaty with Guthrum. The
treaty partitioned England between Vikings and English. The
Viking territory became known as the Danelaw. It comprised the
north-west, the north-east and east of England. Here, people
would be subject to Danish laws. Alfred became king of the rest.

Alfred's grandson, Athelstan, became the first true King of

England. He led an English victory over the Vikings at the Battle of
Brunaburh in 937, and his kingdom for the first time included the
Danelaw. In 954, Eirik Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of York, was
killed and his kingdom was taken over by English earls. See Egils
Saga.

Later Viking raids and rulers

However, the Viking raiding did not stop – different Viking bands
made regular raiding voyages around the coasts of Britain for over
300 years after 793. In 991, during the reign of Æthelred 'the
Unready' ('ill-advised'), Olaf Tryggvason's Viking raiding
party defeated the Anglo-Saxon defenders (recorded in the
poem The Battle of Maldon), with Æthelred responding by paying
'Danegeld' in an attempt to buy off the Vikings.

So the Vikings were not permanently defeated – England was to

have four Viking kings between 1013 and 1042. The greatest of
these was King Cnut, who was king of Denmark as well as of
England. A Christian, he did not force the English to obey Danish
law; instead he recognised Anglo-Saxon law and customs. He
worked to create a north Atlantic empire that united Scandinavia
and Britain. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 39, and his sons
had short, troubled reigns.

The final Viking invasion of England came in 1066, when Harald

Hardrada sailed up the River Humber and marched to Stamford
Bridge with his men. His battle banner was called Land-waster.
The English king, Harold Godwinson, marched north with his army
and defeated Hardrada in a long and bloody battle. The English
had repelled the last invasion from Scandinavia.

However, immediately after the battle, King Harold heard that

William of Normandy had landed in Kent with yet another invading
army. With no time to rest, Harold's army marched swiftly back
south to meet this new threat. The exhausted English army fought
the Normans at the Battle of Hastings on 14th October, 1066. At
the end of a long day's fighting the Normans had won, King Harold
was dead, and William was the new king of England.

The irony is that William was of Viking descent: his great-great-

great-grandfather Rollo was a Viking who in 911 had invaded
Normandy in northern France. His people had become French over
time, but in one sense this final successful invasion of England
was another Viking one.

Dating to the 9th Century AD in The ''Kingdom of England'' – The Magnum Concilium (''Great Council'') was a
Governing Administrative Body (mostly Noble), who had leave to discuss matters of State with The King or Queen
– as it related to The Church. The Concilium would (in time) evolve into The House of Parliament (the current
Political Body of Government in The United Kingdom).

Matters of State and Church were often codified into Law (secular), as a result of The Concilium. Although
disbanded in the late 12th Century AD, a form would be resurrected by King Charles I in 1640 AD, as a result of
His dissolving Parliament (English Civil War). The King planned on using the ''sworn loyalty'' to The Crown –
given to by The Concilium to their Liege. As early as 2008, several British Politicians tried to establish a form of
Concilium (however, this was heretofore banned by an act of The House of Lords in 1999).