The Coming of the Vikings

In the year 793AD, on the 8th of June, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle relates that, “fierce foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria, and wretchedly terrified the people. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery dragons were seen in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and shortly after in the same year, on January the 8th, the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne through brutal robbery and slaughter”. Thus ran the first record of a new terror visited upon the war torn islands.

The slaughter was carried out by a raiding party of Vikings who had already settled in the Orkneys and the Hebrides. There is an earlier reference to a landing, thought to be by Vikings in Portland Bay in Dorset in 787AD, but this seems not to have been a raid. Having been mistaken for merchants by a royal official, they killed him when he demanded trade taxes on their goods. An early example of a “jobsworth” perhaps?

Vikings These were the first recorded instances of raiding by Vikings,( from the Old Norse “Viking”, one who comes from the fjords) The word was also later used for any raider from the north, the act of raiding also being called viking. The Chronicles make no distinction of Dane, Swede or Norwegian, they simply refer to “the force”or “shipmen”. The Irish Annals however. Refer to the fair haired Vikings as “gentiles” and the later Danes as “dark gentiles”.

The Norsemen were called Ascomanni by the Germanic people, Lochlanach by the Irish, Varangarians by the Slavs, and Danes by the Angles; the word Viking eventually being used for all northern raiders, although later and more often, referred to as Danes by the Anglo Saxons.  This warlike race that inhabited what is now Norway, Sweden and Denmark crossed the North Sea in their longships with their dragon and snake figureheads striking fear into all who saw them. Driven by 30 oars and carrying up to 90 warriors, they would appear from out of the sea mist to rob, rape, plunder and burn, their very name would become a byword for terror.

The typical Viking warrior would be armed with spear, sword or axe; his protection would be a round shield. If wealthy he would wear a chainmail shirt known as a Byrnie and a conical metal helmet. Contrary to popular belief these helmets were not horned although it was common for some to fix eagle or raven’s wings on them and this probably gave rise to the myth. Their standard formation was the shieldwall from which they would hurl spears and axes at the enemy line before attacking in a wedge formation known as a “svinfylking” or boar formation to break an enemy line. Others would whip themselves up into battle frenzy, believing that Odin would make them invincible. These “berserkers” wore no armour and, it is said, became so crazed that they bit on the edge of their shield and could even ignore the pain of wounds.

These attacks were part of a major expansion that took the Vikings as far as Constantinople and deep into the lands bordering the Volga River in the east as well as southward to the Mediterranean. These raiders were later to range west to Greenland and on to the New World where they found Baffin Island, named by them as Helluland, (Land of Stones), Labrador, named as Markland (Land of Forest) and Vinland, (Land of Vines) believed to be the modern Newfoundland.

As previously noted, the term Viking described any and all raiders from the north, but the early raids were principally made by those from Norway and Sweden. It is later when these two peoples had spread far and wide that the raiders from Denmark began to ravage our islands in a more concerted manner. They were referred to still as Vikings or Norsemen by the Britons, but began to be known by their origin as Danes.

The fact that all these attacks began around the time of what is now called the Medieval Warm Period would indicate that the corresponding melting of the ice packs made the sea crossings easier for the raiders in their narrow boats and also coincided with a growth in population throughout Scandinavia putting pressure on land resources.

A later explanation of this explosion of sea raiding blames the Norse King Harald Harfagri (Harald Fairhair) who, upon becoming king, issued proclamations demanding tax from all ranks of people, taking over farm lands and estates, even the sea and the lakes became his property and thus taxable. It was said that “every forester and every farmer became his tenant, every salt maker and every hunter on land or sea had to pay taxes to him”. He gave all men the choice of three things, either swear loyalty, leave the country, or choose the third way which meant certain death. Many warriors chose the first option and left to settle in Orkney, Shetland or Scotland from where they could mount their raids. The truth is probably a mixture of all these factors.

These “Northmen” had traded with Britain and the Continent for years, but often received a very poor deal from merchants who saw them as heathen and operated a two tier system of pricing that effectively penalised them (this bias also operated against Muslims for the same reason). It is not unreasonable to suppose that a race that traditionally would war with neighbours over slights or impugned honour could very easily interpret this commercial cheating as an insult to their pride and provide yet further reasons for their raiding.

The next year they raided Jarrow and Monkswearmouth, but things did not go entirely their way. The Chronicle relates how “some of their war leaders were killed and some of their ships were broken up in bad weather and many drowned. Some came alive to the shore and were quickly killed at the river’s mouth”. These incursions were clearly not yet thought important enough to distract the larger Saxon kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria from their endless wars with each other and to continue their domination of the weaker states.  

In 794AD, Offa of Mercia beheaded the subject king Aethelberht of East Anglia for rebellion against Mercian rule, having first secured his western border by marrying off his daughter Eadberh to the Wessex King Beorhtic, a move that brought a temporary peace treaty between the two kingdoms. Offa himself died in 796AD and was succeeded by his son Ecgfrith who reigned for just five months before being usurped by Coenwulf, a descendant of the brother of the mighty Penda.  Ecgfrith of Wessex also returned from exile to reclaim the Wessex throne from Mercia, who at that time was the most powerful kingdom in the land with sovereignty from Wessex to Northumbria.

Coenwulf then faced an uprising in Kent which was under Mercian control and whose king, Praen, was in exile in the court of Charlemagne. When Praen returned to Kent to claim his throne, Coenwulf wrote to Pope Leo requesting papal support for his invasion, citing the fact that Praen had, at one stage, been a priest and, as such, had given up any right to the throne. He also asked the Pope to move the Archbishopric of Canterbury to London which would seem to suggest that he did not feel that he would ever regain complete control in Kent.

The Pope refused the move but did agree that Praen’s previous ordination made him inadmissible as king. Armed with this moral authority, Coenwulf ravaged Kent, the Kentish King Praen was taken back to Mercia and had his eyes put out and his hands cut off.

Pope Leo himself had led a life every bit as turbulent as the times. He being a Roman was not trusted by the powerful Franks and had allied himself with Charlemagne for protection. The monies and gifts he received from the Emperor enabled him to be a great benefactor to the church and to his friends. On the 25th April 799AD while in procession to the Flaminian Gate, he was attacked by his enemies and reportedly had his eyes and tongue cut out, but amazingly was said to have made a full recovery and regained the powers of sight and speech. He fled to Charlemagne who had him escorted back to Rome and reinstalled him as Pope.

By 801AD, Coenwulf had placed his brother Cuthred on the Kentish throne. Cuthred ruled for seven years and when he died, Coenwulf took control of the kingdom in name as well as fact.

Mercian control over Essex was continued under Coenwulf and the Chronicle notes that the Essex King Cigeric abdicated in favour of his son Cigered and went, like so many other Saxon kings, to Rome. King Sigered’s name appears in records of the time, but was later referred to as Subregulus or subking and thereafter as Dux or Ealdorman, this demotion indicating the contemporary trend of consolidating kingdoms under one ruler.

Coenwulf also had more trouble brewing in East Anglia. With his attentions on the Kentish problem the East Anglians broke away from Mercian domination and, for a while, regained their independence, going so far as to issue their own coinage bearing the head of their new king  Eadwald. By 805AD however, Coenwulf had obviously retrieved the situation and his own image again appeared on the Anglian coinage.

In Northumbria, Aethelred was murdered by his own nobles and was succeeded by Osbald who only lasted twenty seven days before he was exiled. He in turn, was replaced by Eardwulf, a much tougher character.

This then was how the various mini states, increasingly being referred to as Angles or English by others, had coalesced into the three main kingdoms when the Viking raids began.  England or Angloland was a geographic term rather than a state and it was to be another hundred years before the country was united under a Wessex king. Viking raids, first in small groups of two or three ships and later with fleets more than fifty, raiding and looting coastal towns and settlements, but soon realising that much more loot was available in the churches and monasteries, causing much outrage in the land at the desecration of God’s property.

The raid on Lindisfarne was followed by further attacks on the Irish coast and the establishment of bases from which sorties could be made to Britain. They sacked the monastery of Iona in 794AD and returned to attack it again in 802AD, this time burning it to the ground.

Despite these rich pickings, the Vikings did not make any further raids on Britain for some thirty years, concentrating their efforts on Ireland and the European mainland and creating bases from which they could extend their raiding.

In 799AD, Vikings started a series of attacks on the towns of South West France and nine years later, in the east, the Viking Gudfred destroyed the Slav town of Reric, taking all the tradespeople and craftsmen from the town and forcibly removing them to Hedeby in Denmark where a major trading centre was being established. Two years later there are reports of the same Gudfred ravaging the Frisian coast. Raids increased in number and intensity throughout Ireland and Europe with Britain being spared the worst of them until 835AD when the Chronicle notes that “heathen men ravaged Sheppey” and heralds the start of further Viking raids on the island and one year later a force of thirty five longships is recorded as landing in Devon.

The Wessex king Egbert (or Ecgbyrht) fought with them at Carhampton, but was defeated “with great slaughter”. It is ironic that with the growing incursions of the Vikings, the English continued to squabble and fight among themselves instead of joining forces to repel the invaders. In 820AD, Ecgfrith fought the Mercian Ceolwulf at Cherrenhul and at Ellandun and also attacked the Celts of Cornwall, ravaging it from “east to west” in retaliation for their raiding.

The Vikings again came to Devon in 838AD, this time supported by Celtic warriors from Cornwall who were always happy to cause damage to the Saxons.

King Egbert hid his troops in thick woodland in the Teign Valley and surprised his enemies on the march “putting them to flight” Egbert is noted in the Chronicles as “Bretwalda” or ruler of Britain and it was during his reign that  the centre of power shifted from Mercia to Wessex.

By 840AD, Vikings had established Dublin as a base for raiding the west coast and northwest France, but the increasing strength of the Frankish kings made raids on England more profitable. In 851AD the Vikings again raided Devon, landing at Wembury near Plymouth. They were met by the new Wessex king Aethelwulf, son of Egbert who drove them off.

The Wessex kings were by now a very powerful dynasty. Aethelwulf wielded power over all of southern England and reckoned himself king of Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Cornwall and Kent. There followed a sea battle of the Kentish coast, where the Vikings were again defeated, this time by Aethelwulf’s son Athelstan. Further landings were made along the Thames from where raids were made throughout the south. This fleet was said to number three hundred and fifty ships. The raiders ravaged Canterbury and saw off an attack by the Mercians led by King Burhred.  They were then met by a Wessex army led by Aethelwulf and his son Aethelbald who defeated the invaders “and there made the greatest carnage of a heathen army that we ever heard of” with not even enough left alive to bury the dead.

The Britains, or English, were clearly learning the lessons of sea power and later that year Aethelstan led a sea battle against a Viking fleet and in the words of the Chronicle “destroyed a great force at Sandwich, they took nine ships and put the others to flight”. For the first time that winter, some Viking raiders did not return home as usual for the winter but stayed on in England, making camp on the Isle of Thanet.

The Vikings, however, were not having things all their own way. Their southern neighbours from Denmark now began to make an appearance, raiding both English and Viking settlements. In 851AD these “dark haired heathen”, according to the Annals, raided Ath Cliath, (the Norse name for Dublin) where the Vikings had built a fortified base and “and made a great slaughter of the fair haired foreigners and plundered the encampment”.

In 853AD, Aethelwulf, together with his son in law Burhred, King of Mercia attacked the Welsh king Cyngen Ap Cadell and made the Welsh subject to him. In the same year he gave his daughter in marriage to Burhred. A year later he travelled to Rome on pilgrimage to ask God’s help in his fight against the ever increasing raids by an enemy “so agile, numerous and profane”. His Eoldermen in Kent and Surrey fought the invaders on Thanet where the Chronicle relates that “many were killed on both sides”. Viking raids in Europe became bolder and that year Paris was attacked.

Raids continued along the south and western coast and in 855AD, the Vikings again over wintered, this time on Sheppey. Aethelwulf in a bout of religious fervour chartered a tenth of all his land to the church and to “God’s Glory”. He then travelled to Rome with his fifth son Alfred, where he lived for the next year. On his homeward journey he married Judith, the daughter of the Frankish King Charles, a move which did not please his existing family, notwithstanding that his first wife Osburga had died some years earlier, the family felt that marriage to a Frankish princess could weaken their right of succession.

His eldest son Aethelstan had died and the next eldest, Ethelbald, formed an alliance with the Ealdormen of Somerset and the Bishop of Sherborne to deny Aethelwulf’s resumption of the kingship. There was enough support for both sides and the king, fearing civil war, divided up the kingdom, giving Ethelbald the western half. In “The History of the Anglo Saxons”, Hodgkin writes, “That the king should have consented to treat with his rebellious son and to resign his rule over the more important half of the kingdom testifies to the fact that Aethelwulf’s Christian spirit did not exhaust itself in the giving of lavish charities to the church, but availed to reconcile him to the sacrifice of prestige and power in the cause of national peace”.

Aethelwulf reigned for a further two years and, on his death; the kingdom was divided between his two eldest sons. Ethelbald held Wessex and Aethelbert held Kent, Essex Surrey and Sussex. It is interesting to note that Aethelbert then married his stepmother Judith. Ethelbald only lived a further five years and, on his death, his brother received the kingdom. That year a great ship force of Vikings raided Winchester and was met in battle by Aethelbert leading an army of men from Berkshire and Hampshire who defeated the invaders and drove them off.

Aethelbert died in 865AD, his brother Ethelred became king and appointed his younger brother Alfred (later known as The Great) as his deputy. Alfred was to become the catalyst that united the Anglo Saxons against the Northmen. Things were not going entirely the Norsemen’s way however and in 866AD the Irish High King Aed Finliath succeeded in driving the Viking invaders from the north of the island.  It was this defeat that is believed to be the cause of the next phase of Viking attacks on England and Scotland as they looked for new territories to settle. Later that year a “Great Army” of Vikings, led by the ex King of Dublin, Ivor the Boneless, or Bone Loose, so called due to his extreme thinness or perhaps his being double jointed, plus his brother Halfdan, self styled King of the Danes, landed in East Anglia, not for the usual summer raids, but this time as an army of occupation.

Strangely no attempt was made to repel the invaders. They spent some months gathering supplies and horses from their defeated hosts moving north to attack York and Northumbria, reportedly seeking revenge for the death of their father Ragnar Lodbrok who had been captured by King Aelle of Northumbria in an earlier raid and thrown in to a pit of snakes. The film “The Vikings” gives a version of this event. In the Norse chronicle Ragnarsson Battr, “The story of Ragnar’s Sons” it is said that the invaders had sworn to subject Aelle to the Blood Eagle, a particularly nasty death which entails breaking the victim’s ribs, separating the lungs and pulling them out of his back spread like wings. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle states however, that in the forthcoming battle, “both kings were slain on the spot” Aelle, thought to be an Irish prince, had usurped both the throne and the wife of the Northumbriam King Osberht who had been deposed by his Eoldermen, but when both men learned of the Viking invasion, they joined forces and marched to York which had been captured by the invaders on 21st November 866AD.

The Histora Regia Angloram records the battle that ensued on the 21st of March, “they fought upon each side with much ferocity and both kings fell. The rest who escaped made peace with the Danes”. Later accounts claim that Aelle was captured and sacrificed to Odin in the Blood Eagle ritual. This is referred to in a lament, written for Canute in 1035AD, which relates that, “Ivar, who ruled at Jorvik, cut an eagle on the back of Aella”. The invaders installed a puppet king called Ecgberht in Northumbria after ravaging the countryside and destroying churches, farms and towns in a great radius around York including the library and school in the city. The cultural life of the north was obliterated and the province devastated for the remainder of the century.

Matters were going no better in the south where the raiders had established a base on Thanet. They agreed a truce with the Kentish in return for money, but, as the Chronicle records, “the army stole up by night and ravaged all of eastern Kent”.

The Vikings moved south and captured Nottingham causing the Mercian king Burhred to ask for help from the Wessex king Aethelred and his brother Alfred. The Wessex force duly arrived and besieged Nottingham, but it is recorded that there was no heavy fighting and the Mercians made peace with the invaders. The invaders, led by Hingwar and the fearsome Ubba Ragnarrson, clearly being able to roam almost at will, moved next against East Anglia, robbing and destroying the churches and monasteries before being met by Edmund, king of the Anglians. He was captured and killed in the ensuing battle of Hoxne on the 20th November 869AD.

However, according to one of Edmund’s earliest biographers, the Abbe of Fleury, he was captured alive and offered the choice of death, or renouncing his Christian faith and serving as a vassal king under the heathens. This version was gleaned from St Dunstan, who reportedly heard it from Edmund’s own sword bearer. The Abbe wrote, “The heathens then became brutally angry because of his beliefs and because he called Christ himself to help. They shot then with missiles as if to amuse themselves until he was all covered as with bristles on a hedgehog. Then Hingwar the dishonourable Viking saw that the noble king did not renounce Christ.  Hingwar then commanded to behead the king and the heathens thus did”. Thus dying a martyr for his faith, Edmund is now venerated as a saint. His body lies in Bury St Edmund’s.

In the north, Olaf the White, “the greatest warrior king of the western seas”, sailed from Dublin and mounted a campaign in Scotland, “and plundered all the territories of the Picts”. In 870AD, Ivar joined him in a siege of the fortified Alt Cluith, the stronghold of the northern Britons. The fortress held out for four months until the wells ran dry, following which, it was plundered and then destroyed.    

In the south the Vikings reached Reading and were met by a force led by two Wessex Eoldermen, Aethelwulf and Sidrac. The Wessex force defeated the invaders, but Sidrac and many warriors were killed. Four days later king Aethelred and Alfred arrived in Reading “with a great force”. Despite large Viking losses, the invaders won the battle. One can only imagine the pace of events during this time when after a further four days, another great battle takes place at Ashdown (old English Aescdun) in Berkshire on the 8th of January 871AD. The exact site is not known, but Compton near East Illesley is a popular contender. It is recorded that the Vikings had split their forces in two, one led by Halfdan and Basecg, described in the Chronicle as “a heathen king” and the other by led by Danish Eoldermen.  Aethelred split his own force to oppose them with Alfred facing the Eoldermen and Aethelred the two kings.

The battle lasted until it was too dark to see, but without any clear winner, but with great losses on both sides. Two weeks later the brothers again fought the invaders, this time at Basing, again without either side winning. Two months later they met at a place called Macredun where the northmen were victorious. There were a further nine skirmishes or mini battles in the year and the war might have continued but for the death of Aethelred at the Battle of Mereton on 23rd April 871AD. His son, Aethelwold, although the rightful heir, did not succeed to the throne, being considered too young at a time when the land needed a strong leader.

It was Alfred who succeeded and, following his defeat at the Battle of Wilton, finally made peace with the invaders by striking a truce and the payment of Danegeld, a bribe to save the land from being ravaged. This form of payment was not new; a similar bribe had been paid some thirty years earlier by the Franks when a Viking army was threatening to destroy Paris. It is said that six tons of silver and gold was paid by the Franks.

In 872AD, Ivor the Boneless died in a fruitless attempt to reinvade Ireland and Halfdan succeeded his brother. He moved his army north to attack the Picts in Strathclyde. The Norsemen divided Northumbria in two, keeping York for themselves and creating an area soon to be known as The Danelaw, a term which illustrates the ever increasing use of the word Dane to describe the Norse invaders and meaning where their laws held sway, effectively dividing the country in two and encompassing all of Northumbria, the Midlands and East Anglia.

The Northumbrian people were not happy with the puppet king Egbert and that summer they revolted against the invaders. The Norse king then installed one Ricsige as puppet ruler.  Halfdan then attacked Mercia, overrunning the country and forcing king Burhred into exile. The “Great Heathen Army” captured Repton and spent the winter there. As in Northumbria, he installed a puppet king, this time one Ceolwulf, described in the Chronicle as “an unwise Thane”.

One year later, Halfdan led his army north to attack the Picts and the Strathclyde Welsh, while the Vikings Guthrum, Oscetel and Anund led their forces south to Cambridge where they planned to attack Wessex.

Alfred meanwhile, had used this respite to build a small navy in an attempt to prevent Viking landings. He had them built to his own design, being larger than those of the invaders and hired Frisians, known for their seamanship, to crew them.  Guthrum moved his army to Wareham where he was joined by reinforcements arriving by sea and landing at Poole. Alfred’s army trapped the invaders and demanded hostages in return for a peaceful settlement. The Vikings swore oaths of peace on a holy ring, which, as the Chronicle says, “they had not done for any nation before” and promised to leave the kingdom quickly. Under cover of night however, they divided, one part to Exeter where they besieged the town and the other part by sea where they encountered heavy seas and the fleet, noted in the Chronicle as one hundred and twenty ships, was destroyed. It is reckoned that up to 5000 men were lost in this disaster although this figure does seem excessive. Alfred forced the surrender of the Exeter besiegers who then retreated to Gloucester.

That same year, Halfdan divided Mercian lands between his nobles who began ploughing and providing for themselves, marking the start of an Anglo Danish England and a surprisingly peaceful mingling of former enemies.

In 876AD, the invaders attacked Wareham and Alfred was once again forced to buy them off. In that year, the puppet Ricsige died and Halfdan formally establishes the Kingdom of York with himself as monarch and the Viking settlement begins. He also took part of Mercia under direct rule and decreed that Viking and Saxon subjects are to be treated equally under him.

The next year, Halfdan took an army to Ireland in an attempt to retake his brother’s kingdom, and was reportedly killed in the fighting although other sources state that he was killed a year later while fighting Alfred at Countisbury Hill. Even in these troubled times we still see some Saxons attempting to carve out their own kingdoms with Eadulf of Bamburgh, a relative of the old king of Northumbria declaring Bernicia his own. His isolated mini kingdom is not recognised by anyone and he allies himself to Alfred for protection.

The invaders, led by Guthrum were clearly here to stay and although they were comfortable enough in Mercia and Northumbria, they recognised that Wessex remained a threat to them. In January 878AD, they attacked Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas and, as recorded in the Chronicle, “most of the people they reduced except the King Alfred and he, with a little band, made his way by wood and swamp and after Easter he made a fort at Athelney and from that fort kept fighting against the foe”. Guthrum used the town as a secure base from where he could raid at will throughout Wessex. Local people either surrendered or fled, some to the Isle of Wight.

 It was during this period of Alfred hiding from the invaders that some of the many fables about him were started. The story of him being given shelter by a peasant woman and asked to watch the cakes began here when he, dreaming of success in his battles with the invaders, allowed them to burn. Another story tells of him entering the Norse camp disguised as a minstrel and learning of their battle plans. All these are probably fables, but what is known that from his hideout on the Somerset levels he was able to harass the enemy and to keep alive some hope of victory.

He raised sufficient forces from the areas of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset that he was able to inflict much damage on the Vikings and at the Battle of Countisbury Hill it is recorded that eight hundred Norsemen were killed, plus forty of the Danish King’s retinue.

Later in the same year, Alfred consolidated his position by defeating the invaders at the Battle of Edington (or Ethandun) near Westbury in Wiltshire. The Vikings were led by kings (more properly warleaders) Hingwar and Ubba, the elder brother of Ivor the Boneless and Halfdan. The Norsemen suffered a major setback when, crossing the River Kennet in sight of the enemy, Hingwar’s horse stumbled and the Danish leader drowned. The place was given the name, Hingwars Ford, now known as Hungerford.

The white horse, carved in the chalk at Westbury is said to commemorate the battle. It is said that Alfred’s forces stood behind a shield wall much as the Romans once did and absorbed the shock of the enemy charge before moving forward in line to rout them. The result was a decisive victory for Alfred and the Welsh monk Asser, later to become the Bishop of Sherborne, writes “Alfred attacked the whole pagan army fighting ferociously in dense order and by divine will eventually won the victory”. Ethandun was a turning point for Alfred in his war against the invaders, yet the Chronicle records merely that “he went from these camps to Lilly Oak and one day later to Ethandun and there he fought against the entire host and put it to flight”.

More importantly, the victory was so thorough that Alfred was able to pursue the enemy back to their stronghold at Chipenham and lay siege to it. He had already captured their cattle and horses and after a fortnight, the northmen surrendered, “and in the end, by despair, sought peace”.

Later that year, a party of invaders landed on the English coast at Combwitch and the Saxon defenders, under their leader Eolferman Odda, retreated to a fort at Cynuit. The raiders besieged the fort expecting the defenders to surrender through lack of water.  The Saxons charged from the fort at dawn, surprising the Danes and defeated them, killing Ubba in the process.

Asser also told of the Danish leader Guthrum, plus thirty of his followers accepting Christianity and being baptised following the Treaty of Wedmore. This treaty formalised the division of the country into two parts, the southern part being ruled by the Wessex Saxons and the north eastern part, (the Danelaw) including London, by the Danes. Guthrum kept his part of the treaty inasmuch as he left the boundary unmolested, but the treaty also legitimised his authority and rule in the north. He was also smart enough to change his name to Aethelstan, the name of Alfred’s elder brother, thereby reassuring his subjects that they would continue to be ruled by a Christian rather than a heathen chieftain.

By 879AD, all of Wessex and Mercia west of Watling Street were cleared of the invaders. Later that year another raiding party occupied Fulham. The Chronicle records “the sun darkened for one hour of the day” Guthrum took his forces to Cirencester for the winter and in the New Year he took over the land of the East Anglians installing himself as king. The Fulham raiders went over the sea to Frankland, but were clearly no more welcome there than in England. In 881AD they fought and won a major battle with the Franks, re-equipping themselves with the spoils into the bargain, the Chronicle stating “and there the force was horsed”.

Despite the treaty, there was little peace in England with Alfred forever on the move to hold back the invaders. In 882, Alfred’s ships met with a group of four raiders, killing the crew of the first two before the others surrendered, this incident showing the growing proficiency of his navy.

In Europe the Norsemen were roaming and raiding as they had in England, using the Meuse, the Scheldt and the Somne to travel inland which did reduce pressure on England, but in 885AD a Danish force of sixteen ships landed at Plucks Gutter, a village on the mouth of the River Stour in Kent. Alfred’s forces repelled them, the Chronicle reporting that “They seized all the ships and killed all the men”, but returning home with the spoils, Alfred’s force met another fleet of raiders and were defeated in the ensuing battle.

The Stour raid and this last victory did however encourage the East Anglian Danes to rise up Alfred moved against them and recaptured London in the process. The resulting treaty, known as The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum did give a little respite to the hard pressed English. He set his Eolderman Aethere of Mercia in charge of the city. Under Alfred’s guidance, London, in its unique position being on the borders of Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia, was rebuilt, fortified and repopulated. The city was to become the centre of trade and defence for the whole of England.

Alfred was tireless in his efforts to expel the invaders, creating alliances by marrying his daughter Aethelflaed to Aethere; he himself had married the Mercian noblewoman Ealhswith. He also married his other daughter Aelfthrith to the Count of Flanders who had a strong navy at a time when the Danes were settling in eastern England.

In addition to building up his sea power, he regularised the duties of the Fyrd, the Old Saxon levy system of military service, ensuring that all shared equally in the defence of the country as well as being released for harvesting etc. He started a programme of building a series of fortified towns or Burghs throughout southern England, in which settlers received plots in return for manning the defences in time of war. When completed, no part of Wessex was more than 20 miles from the refuge of one of these settlements.

Such plots in London under Alfred’s rule shaped the street plan which still exists today between Cheapside and the Thames. Alfred’s skills were not just confined to fighting however, he was a devout and pragmatic man who learned Latin in his thirties from his biographer, the monk Asser and was concerned at the general deterioration in learning and religion following the destruction of so many churches and monasteries. He gathered learned men from Mercia and Wessex to help translate a handful of books from Latin into Anglo Saxon that he thought “most needful for men to know and to bring it to pass…if we have the peace that all the youth now in England…may be devoted to learning”.

He established a legal code for the country by assembling all the laws of Offa and the kingdoms of Wessex and Kent adding his own administrative regulations to form a definitive body of Anglo Saxon law.

The raiders in Europe continued their trail of destruction along the towns of the Seine and the Marne and were aided by the internecine battles that broke out among the Franks following the death of Charles, their king. The country was divided up into five parts, each ruled by a pretender “they ravaged the land, then repeated it, each driving the other out again”. This fighting enabled the invaders to more or less go where they would, but in 891AD, Earnulf, the only Frankish leader with some kinship to the old king, gathered a force of Franks, Saxons and Bavarians and defeated the Danes in a number of running battles.

The Danes, realising that things were not going their way, decided to return to what they considered the easier option of England and in 892AD landed their entire force, including women and children in two hundred and fifty ships in the mouth of the River Lympne in Kent, clearly intending to take and settle the land. They took their ships four miles up the river which runs through the great forest of Andreadsweald and attacked and overran a fort being erected by Alfred’s forces and as yet, only half built near Appledore. Shortly afterwards, another force of eighty ships, led by Haesten, arrived at the mouth of the Thames and built himself a fort at Milton.

Notwithstanding the treaties and oaths given by the Danes in Northumbria and East Anglia not to enter Alfred’s territory, frequent raids were made by the them and the newcomers soon joined in, sometimes by themselves and sometimes with the aid of the occupiers of the Danelaw. Alfred again gathered his forces and moved to a position to watch the two groups in Milton and Appledore, rotating his troops so that half his men were at home and half on duty with the Fyrd. Despite these measures the Danes did make a number of sorties into the surrounding area and in 893AD, started north to meet up with a Danish ship force in Essex.

Alfred’s force pursued them and halted them at Farnham with the Danes being put to flight and losing much of their plunder. They fled across the Thames, then up the Colne onto an island where they were besieged by their pursuers. Alfred’s army were by now short of provisions and much of the force had done their term of service. They lifted the siege and began the long march home, not knowing that Alfred was on his way to join the fight with the men of the shires.

The Danes could have now made their escape, but their king was wounded and could not be moved.

The Danes in East Anglia and Northumbria raised a fleet of some one hundred ships and took the opportunity to attack Wessex while Alfred was marching east. Half the fleet raided the coast of North Devon and the other half besieged Exeter. Alfred was now in trouble, he had his enemies making two attacks in Wessex and a large enemy force still at large in Essex. The Danes on the Colne were finally able to move their leader and marched to a fort they had built at Benfleet.

Alfred marched west, but sent a force under his son Edmund the Elder and his son in law Aethelred of Mercia to face the Danish leader Haesten and his forces at Benfleet. The English put the force to flight and broke into the fort. They captured the women, children and all the plunder that had been collected there. They also captured the invader’s ships, destroying some and taking the rest to London and Rochester. Haesten’s wife and two children were brought to Alfred as hostages, but Alfred chivalrously sent them back to Haesten because one of the children was Alfred’s godson and the other Ealdorman Aethelred’s, both children having been accepted by the Saxons at the time of Haesten’s baptism.

Alfred now marched west to raise the siege of Exeter. While he was thus engaged, two other groups of raiders gathered at Shoebury and built forts there. They were joined by reinforcements from Essex and Northumbria and began raiding up the Thames estuary while another force travelled up the Severn, leaving their wives and families in the relative safety of East Anglia. Alfred’s system of regional command and fortified towns now proved its worth. The Ealdormen in charge of the region, named as Aethelred, Aethelhelm, Aethelnoth, plus the king’s thanes, gathered their forces and moved to besiege the invaders who had built themselves a fort at Buttington on the mouth of the River Wye. The Saxons laid siege to fort for many weeks until lack of food forced the defenders to attempt a break out, but the Saxon line held and they were defeated.

Those able to escape fled to their friends at Shoebury and together they marched to Chester and occupied the town behind its ruined Roman walls. The English did not attempt to besiege them but instead destroyed all available supplies in the surrounding area. The Chronicle records, “they seized all the cattle that were outside, killed the men they cut off from outside the fort and burnt the corn”.

The Danes, without food, could not stay in Chester. They moved west into North Wales, burning and plundering and gradually crossed into the Danelaw territory of Northumbria to shake off their pursuers and thence to Essex and camped on Mersea Island.

Meanwhile, the other raiders that had besieged Exeter, having been driven off by Alfred, made another landing in Sussex and ravaged northwards to Chichester. Once again Alfred’s planned mobilisation of the Fyrd and the fortifying of towns enabled the local people to rally quickly and drive the invaders out, “killing many hundreds of them and seizing some of their ships. It must have started to dawn on the Danes that their days of easy plunder were coming to an end.

In 894AD, the Danes on Mersea pulled their ships up the Thames and then some miles up the River Lea where they built a fort. In the following summer a great force described as “city dwellers and other people” composed of Fyrdmen and Shire levies attacked the Danish camp. The attack was driven off, but local troops were left to watch the fort and ensure that there was no breakout. That autumn, Alfred brought a force to the area to protect the local population as they brought in the harvest and to ensure that the Danes did not intervene.

During this time, Alfred noted a part of the river that could be blocked and thus prevent the Danes from escaping. He began the building of forts on both sides of the river, but before their completion the Danes, seeing that escape by water was impossible, broke camp and moved west to Bridgnorth where they built yet another fort. As soon as they were seen to have left, the men of London grabbed the Danish ships, taking them to London and breaking up those that were damaged.

The Danes wintered in Bridgnorth and in 896AD began to drift back to Northumbria and East Anglia. Those without family ties left for easier spoils in Frankland.

The Chronicle laments the loss of life and property over these terrible years of invasion. Many of Alfred’s senior Eoldermen and commanders were killed and much of the land wasted. Despite their losses and setbacks, the Danes were still not finished. From their bases in Northumbria and East Anglia they harassed the Wessex coast with raids. Alfred commanded the building of more ships to prevent these landings, once again using his own design being nearly twice as long as those of the invaders. They were swifter and stronger, but being correspondingly heavier, were more likely to run aground in shallower waters. This became evident later in the year when, as the Chronicle records, “six ships came to the Isle of White and did much evil there, both in Devon and all along the sea coast”.

Alfred sent nine of his new ships to fight them and found three of the invader’s ships beached in an estuary and a further three out in the open sea. The English attacked these three, killing the crews of two and the third escaping with only five crew left alive to sail her. The English ships then ran aground on the ebb tide and the Danes from the beached ships charged out across the mud and fought with them. Sixty two English and one hundred and twenty Danes died in these battles according to the Chronicle. The three beached Danish ships managed to row out to sea on the turn of the tide, but they were so damaged that two of them were “thrown up on the land” and the crews captured. They were taken to Winchester where the king commanded them to be hanged. The third ship made it back to East Anglia.

Alfred died, worn out by his years of fighting, died on the 26th of October 899 or possibly 900 AD and was buried in the Old Minster in Winchester. The cause of his death is unknown but he was thought to have suffered throughout his life from a painful and debilitating illness, possibly Chrohns Disease. He had come to the throne when the whole country was being torn apart by the savage incursions of the Northmen and had spent his reign in constant struggle with them. His aggression and tactics had won him many friends and allies throughout England as well as pacts with the Welsh kings, all of whom were now beginning to realise that the only way to defeat the invaders was by uniting against them.

His far seeing plans in creating Burghs (boroughs) for defence, his gifts of space within them in exchange for military service as witnessed in the Burghal Hidage, his regular rotation of the Fyrd, his assembling of a Legal Code based on the laws of Offa and other predecessors, his introduction of the concept of Shires and his work on the translation of Latin books into Anglo Saxon all stand testament to his wide ranging mind and leadership. His words come down through history to us when he writes of his legal codes, “I collected these together and ordered to be written many of them which our forefathers observed, those which I liked and many which I did not like I rejected with the advice of my councillors, for I dared not presume to set in writing at all many of my own, because it was unknown to me what would please those who should come after us”.

By the time of his death Alfred could call himself the first true King of England, his charters and coinage naming him as such. His body was later moved to New Minster (possibly built to receive his body) and, later still in 1100 when the monks moved to Hyde Abbey, he was again moved. In 1788 the grave was excavated during the building of a prison and his bones were scattered. However, bones found on the site in the 1860s were deemed to be his and were reburied in Hyde churchyard.