THE VIKINGS IN ENGLAND
By Tim Lambert
In 787 three Danish ships landed at Dorset. A royal official called a reeve went to meet them. He assumed the strangers had come to trade. Instead they killed him and sailed away.
Then in 793 when Norsemen raided a monastery at Lindisfarne. There followed a respite until 835 when the Danes descended on the Isle of Sheppey.
However although the Viking raiders were fearsome they were not invincible. In 836 the Danes joined forces with the Celts of Cornwall. However they were defeated by Egbert, king of Wessex, at Hingston Down.
Nevertheless the Danes continued raiding England. In 840 a force of Saxons from Hampshire crushed a Danish force at Southampton. However the same year Saxons from Dorset were defeated by the Danes at Portland.
In 841 the Danes ravaged Kent, East Anglia and what is now Lincolnshire. In 842 they sacked Southampton. Further Viking raids occurred in 843 and 845. In the latter year the Saxons defeated the Danes in a battle at the mouth of the River Parret in Somerset.
Then in 850-51 the Vikings spent the winter of the Isle of Thanet. In the spring they attacked the Mercians and defeated them in battle. However they were later defeated by an army from Wessex.
In 854 another Danish force wintered on the Isle of Sheppey before raiding England.
There then followed a relatively peaceful period in which the Vikings raided England only once.
The Viking Invasion of England
However the Danes eventually stopped raiding and turned to conquest. In the autumn of 865 an army of Danes landed in East Anglia. In the following year, 866, they captured York. The Northumbrians attacked the Vikings occupying York in 867 but they were defeated. The Danes then installed a man named Egbert as puppet ruler of Northumbria.
The Danes then marched south and they spent the winter of 867 in Nottingham. In 869 they marched to Thetford in East Anglia. In the spring of 870 they crushed an army of East Anglians.
The Danes were now in control of Northumbria, part of Mercia and East Anglia. They then turned their attention of Wessex. At the end of 870 they captured Reading. The men of Wessex won a victory at Ashdown. However the Danes then won two battles, at Basing and at an unidentified location.
Then in the spring of 871 Alfred became king of Wessex. He became known as Alfred the Great. The Saxons and the Danes fought several battles during 871 but the Danes were unable to break Saxon resistance so they made a peace treaty and the Danes turned their attention to the other parts of England.
In 873 they attacked the unoccupied part of Mercia. The Mercian king fled and was replaced by a puppet ruler. Afterwards Wessex remained the only independent Saxon kingdom.
In 875 a Danish army invaded Wessex again. However they were unable to conquer Wessex so in 877 they withdrew to Gloucester. In 878 they launched a surprise attack on Chippenham. King Alfred was forced to flee and hide in the marshes of Atheleney. Alfred fought a guerrilla war for some months then took on the Danes in battle. The Danes were routed at the battle of Edington. Afterwards Guthrum, the Danish leader, and his men were baptised and made a treaty with Alfred. They split southern and central England between them. Guthrum took London, East Anglia and all the territory east of the old Roman road, Watling Street. Later this Danish kingdom became known as the Danelaw. Alfred took the land west of Watling street and southern England. However in 886 Alfred's men captured London.
The Danes Return
Moreover the wars with the Danes were not over. In 892 some Danes who had been attacking France turned their attention to Kent. In 893 the Saxons defeated them and they withdrew into Essex (part of the Danelaw). Meanwhile in 893 another group of Danes sailed to Devon and laid siege to Exeter. They withdrew in 894. They sailed to Sussex and landed near Chichester. This time the local Saxons marched out and utterly defeated them in battle.
War with the Danes continued in 895-896. Danes from the Danelaw marched into what is now Shropshire but they were forced to withdraw.
There then followed a few years of peace.
Then in 980 the Danes returned. They attacked Thanet, Southampton and Cheshire. In 981 they raided Devon and Cornwall and in 983 they attacked Dorset.
The Danes continued to raid England. They returned in 991, 992, 993 and 994. In 997 a Danish army came and systematically raided southern England over a period of 3 years. The Danes sailed to Normandy in 1001 but they returned to England in 1002.
In 1003 they raided the southwest and in 1004 they plundered East Anglia. In 1006 they raided southeast England. In 1009-1012 they ravaged eastern England.The Saxons paid the Danes to stop raiding and return home. However the amount the Danes demanded increased each time. In 991 they were paid 10,000 pounds to go home. In 1002 they were paid 24,000 pounds in 1007 they were paid 36,000 pounds. England was drained of its resources by paying these huge sums of money called Danegeld (Dane gold).
England finally gained peace in 1016 when a Dane called Canute became king.