The Vikings (793 – 1066)

793 - King Offa II of Mercia experienced the first recorded Vikings raids on England from Norway. They attacked
the Monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. The next year (794 AD) they attacked northern Britain in what we
call today Scotland.

866 - The Vikings invade Britain once it was clear that the quarrelling AS couldn’t keep them out. Vikings capture
the city of York and made it their capital. They continued to press south and west. The kings of Mercia and Wessex
repulsed the invaders on several occasions but when the Viking’s annual raids changed to settlement, the English
couldn’t withstand them until the time of Alfred of Wessex.

871 - Alfred the Greta becomes king of Wessex. He stopped the invading Vikings from the south and a temporary
truce was concluded. Alfred finally allows them to settle in the east and north of England.

876 - After repeated attacks the Vikings had permanently settled in England, overran Wessex and forced Alfred
into hiding

878 - Alfred defeats the Vikings at the battle of Ethandune (Edington) in Wiltshire and 8 years later he captures
London. London was important because it was the gate through which attackers (Danes) invaded the territory.
Alfred had the city walled so that the raiders couldn’t come into Wessex. The fact that London was walled was the
clearest antecedent of Feudalism in AS England.

886 - Alfred took London from the Vikings and fortified it. Alfred forced the Viking king Guthrum sign a peace
treaty known as the “treaty of Chippenham” (also known as the “treaty of Wedmore”), which imposed two
demands on the Vikings: Guthrum must accept baptism as a Christian and the Danes must retire from Wessex.
Guthrum finally accepts and settle in East Anglia.
Later that year Alfred signed another treaty which divided England into two between Danes and the AS. The
northern, central, and eastern region of England was the territory known as the Danelaw (the land where the
Danes ruled). In the rest of the country Alfred was recognised as king.

900 –The Vikings establish rule over Scotland

937 - King Athelstan led an English victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Brunaburh in 937, and his kingdom for
the first time included the Danelaw.

939- Vikings invade England and take back the north.

944 – The Danes under Sweyn sail up river Thames and besiege London. Again, Ethelred bought the Danes off.

950 - England seemed rich and peaceful again after the troubles of the Viking invasion. But soon afterwards the
Danish Vikings started raiding westwards.

954 - Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of York, was killed and his kingdom was taken over by English earls.

991 – Battle of Maldon. The Danes defeated the AS and Aethelred bought off the Danes. He decided to pay/bribe
the Vikings with 10,000 pounds of silver to stay away. To raise money he set a tax on all his people called
“Danegeld” or “Danish money”.

1003- “Massacre of St. Brice”. He ordered a massacre of all the Danes in his kingdom which, in turn, brought
bloody retribution by the Danish king, Sweyn. A great number of Danes were killed, including Sweyn’s sister.

1013- King Sweyn Forkbeard lands in England and is proclaimed king. Aethelred flees to Normandy without even
fighting.

1014 – Sweyn dies. Aethelred was called again to become the new king (only for 5 weeks).

1015 – King Canute II of Denmark and Norway again invades England.

1016 - Edmund Ironside becomes king. At the battle of Abingdon, in Essex, King Canute of Denmark defeats
Edmund. They meet on the isle of Alney in the Severn and agree to divide the kingdom into two. Canute takes the
land north of the Thames and Edmund the south.The same year Edmund is assassinated a few months later and
the English were left without a leader. Having no other choice, the Witan selected Canute, son of Sweyn, as king of
England.

1016 - Ironside is murdered and Canute is left the sole ruler of England.

1017 - In an attempt at reconciliation with the English he had conquered he married Emma of Normandy, the
widow of Ethelred. She was the daughter of the Duke of Normandy, himself the descendant of Vikings or
Northmen (Normans). Emma of Normandy decided to marry Canute to secure friendship with Normandy and to
show people in England that there was some continuity in the royal family. She bore Canute a son, Harthacnut,
but she also had had a son by Ethelred, who succeeded Harthacnut as Edward, the Confessor (chosen by the
Witan).

1019 - Canute names Godwinson Earl of Wessex. He was one of the most powerful earls in England under the
Danish king Canute. Godwinson had 3 sons: Edith (who later on would marry Edward the Confessor), Harold and
Tostig.

1028 – Canute is proclaimed king of the whole England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden

1035 - Canute dies and so he decided to leave England to Harold. There followed a struggle for the throne
between Harold I and Harthacnute, who were half-brothers.

1036 - Harold was responsible for the brutal murder of another royal claimant, Alfred the Aetheling, younger son
of king Ethelred the Unready. Harold then proclaimed himself king and banished Harthacnute’s mother.

1037 - Harold Harefoot was crowned king Harold I of England in 1037. Naturally there was a struggle between the
two brothers that only ended on the death of Harold (17 June 1040). Harthacnut sailed to England with a large
fleet and was immediately accepted as the whole king of England. But he only lasted 2 years. Harthacnut dies
leaving no heirs.

1066 - The last AS king, King Harold is defeated by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings and Norman
Britain begins.