871. "Great Heathen Army" invades Wessex
Battles of Reading,
Ashdown, Basing, MeretunThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes this invasion
in much more detail than the attacks on Mercia or Northumbria, which shows quite
clearly its origins as a West Saxon document. The army came first to Reading,
and three days later two Danish earls rode farther inland, where they were met
by Ealdorman ?thelwulf at Englefield, and one of the Danes was killed. Four days
after that King ?thelred and Alfred led a great army to Reading and there was
a pitched battle with great slaughter in which Ealdorman ?thelwulf was killed,
and the Vikings were victorious.
Four days after that, Athelred and Alfred
had rallied their troops and fought against the Vikings at Ashdown: this fight
continued until nightfall and this time the English put the Vikings to flight.
The chronicler adds that the Vikings forces were in two halves: King Athelred
faced the one led by the heathen kings, Bagsecg and Halfdan, and Bagsecg was slain,
and Alfred faced the one led by the earls, several of whom (Sidroc the Old, Sidroc the Younger, Osbearn, Frana and Harold) were slain.
A fortnight later Athelred
and Alfred fought the Vikings at Basing, and this time the Vikings won.
Two
months later Athelred and Alfred fought the Vikings at Meretun (unidentified),
and the Vikings won, though only after a long battle and great slaughter; the
chronicler notes that the English put the Vikings to flight and were victorious
far into the day.
871. "Great Summer Army" comes to Reading
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts this arrival in 871, before ?thelred's death in April.
The "Great Summer Army" came to Reading, and presumably joined there
the "Great Heathen Army" of 865, which had successfully beaten off an
English attack on its camp at Reading earlier in the year. The armies probably
campaigned together until 874, when Halfdan (the surviving king from the "Great
Heathen Army" noted at the Battle of Ashdown in 871) led part of the army
up to Northumbria.
late April, 871. Athelred of Wessex dies
Alfred,
Athelred's brother, succeeds to Wessex
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes
that ?thelred died after Easter (April 15 in 871). John of Worcester in his 12th-century
chronicle gives the date as April 23, but Stevenson points out that this cannot
be trusted, since another and a more famous King ?thelred died on April 23 (1016),
and the 12th-century chronicler may have found that date in a calendar, without
a year or an identification of which King ?thelred was meant (in the form "9
kal. May [23 April]: rex ?thelredus obiit") and applied it to the wrong king
(Stevenson, pp.240-1).
W. Stevenson, ed., Asser's Life of King Alfred
together with the Annals of Saint Neots Erroneously Ascribed to Asser (Oxford:
1904)
871. Alfred fights the Vikings at Wilton, and elsewhere
The
West Saxons make peace with the Vikings
A month after his accession
(so presumably in late May, 871), Alfred led a small force against the Viking
army at Wilton, and the Vikings won (though, as in the discussion of the battle
at Meretun in 870/1, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts a brave face on it, saying
that the English were victorious far into the day, though the Danes won in the
end).
Summing up the year 871, the chronicler notes that there were nine
large battles (variant figures range from eight to fifteen) against the Danes
that year, not counting smaller engagements, that nine Danish earls and one king
(Bagsecg, at the Battle of Ashdown) were killed, and only after this does he admit
that the West Saxons "made peace" with the Vikings.
871/2.
Vikings take winter quarters in London
The Mercians make peace with the Vikings
872/3.
Vikings go up to Northumbria; take winter quarters at Torksey in Lindsey
The
Mercians make peace with the Vikings
Roger of Wendover, writing in the
13th century, explains the Viking raid on Northumbria by noting that the Northumbrians
had expelled King Ecgberht and Archbishop Wulfhere. This is quite in character
for the Northumbrians, in view of the civil war they were having in 866/7 and
the fluidity of the political situation in the 8th and mid-10th centuries, but
it is not recorded by any earlier historians. Simeon of Durham notes only that
Ecgberht died in 873.
873/4. Vikings take winter quarters at Repton in
Mercia
Burgred of Mercia driven over the sea
Ceolwulf succeeds to Mercia
In
the winter of 873/4, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that the Viking army moved
from Lindsey to Repton (in the heart of Mercia), and took up winter quarters there,
and drove Burgred of Mercia across the sea, and that he ended up in Rome where
he died and was buried. The Chronicle then notes that the army gave the kingdom
of the Mercians to Ceolwulf, "a foolish king's thegn", who swore oaths
to deliver Mercia up to them whenever they asked.
It should be remembered
though that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle here is a West Saxon account written some
twenty years later at the West Saxon court, and painting a fair and accurate picture
of a defeated ruler of another kingdom was probably not a priority. Such contemporary
evidence as exists shows Ceolwulf acting independently as king of the Mercians:
he issues charters as king, witnessed by Mercian bishops and nobles; he also issues
coins, one type of which, the Cross and Lozenge type, looks like the result of
a reform of the coinage carried out by Alfred and Ceolwulf together. So it seems
that at the time, Ceolwulf was recognized as the Mercian king by Mercians and
West Saxons alike. He was probably also the leader of the English force which
killed Rhodri Mawr of Gwynedd in 878, a battle mentioned only in Welsh and Irish
annals. The fact that Ceolwulf kept the western parts of Mercia after the partition
with the Vikings in 877 -- unlike the other occupied English nations which were
completely taken over -- may even suggest that Ceolwulf was a shrewder negotiator
than the West Saxon chronicler cared to remember.
874/5. Army leaves
Repton
Halfdan takes part of it to Northumbria and takes winter quarters by
the river Tyne
Guthrum, Oscetel and Anwend lead the rest to Cambridge, stay
for a year
Alfred wins a naval battle against the Vikings
Since Halfdan
was one of the kings leading the "Great Heathen Army" in 871, it may
be that this division sees the remnants of the "Great Heathen Army"
of 865 and the "Great Summer Army" of 871 going their separate ways.
875.
Lindisfarne abandoned
c.875. Alfred's first coinage reform
876.
Vikings (Guthrum's army) move from Cambridge into Wareham
Alfred makes peace
with the Vikings
Halfdan shares out the land of the Northumbrians among his
army
876/7. Vikings (Guthrum's army) to Exeter
Alfred pursues
Vikings to Exeter, and they make peace there
Autumn, 877. Vikings
(Guthrum's army) take over eastern Mercia, leaving Ceolwulf in the west
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that in the harvest season the army went into Mercia
and shared out part of it, and left the rest for Ceolwulf. (Asser seems to give
the month as August, but this chapter in Asser is probably an interpolation; see
Keynes and Lapidge, pp.246-7 n.94.) ?thelweard in his version of the Chronicle
adds that the Vikings set up camp in Gloucester.
S. Keynes and M.
Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary
Sources (Harmondsworth: 1983)
January 878. Vikings (Guthrum's army)
to Chippenham, occupy the land of the West Saxons
Alfred reduced to hiding
in the marshes
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that in midwinter, after
twelfth night (i.e., January 878), the Vikings came stealthily to Chippenham,
and occupied the land of the West Saxons and settled there, driving most of the
English across the sea and conquering many of the rest, and that the people submitted,
except for King Alfred, who continued the resistance with a small force in the
woods and the fens.
In the same winter, the chronicler notes that the brother
of Ivar and Halfdan was in Devon with a naval force, and was killed there with
most of his men, and the "Raven" banner was captured. Asser adds the
details that the Viking leader came with twenty-three ships from Dyfed in Wales,
and that he was slain at the fortress at Countisbury (Life of King Alfred, chapter
23). We do not know this brother's name, though Geffrei Gaimar in the 12th century
asserts that it was Ubba, and the legend of St Edmund of East Anglia names Ubba
and Ivar as the Viking leaders who martyred King Edmund in 869 (see ?lfric's Life
of St Edmund).
March 23 (Easter), 878. Alfred makes a stronghold at Athelney
in Somerset
May 878. Battle of Edington: Alfred defeats Guthrum's army
June
878. Guthrum baptized at Aller near Athelney
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
reports that at Easter (23 March), King Alfred with a small troop made a stronghold
at Athelney, from which he and the nearby people of Somerset fought against the
enemy. In the seventh week after Easter (mid-May) he rode to Ecgberht's Stone
(unidentified) east of Selwood, and was there met by the people of Somerset and
Wiltshire and Hampshire. The next day he went to Iley, and then to Edington, where
he fought the whole army and put it to flight. He pursued them as far as their
fortress, and besieged them there for a fortnight. This time it was the Vikings
who had to give in and sue for peace. They gave him hostages and swore great oaths
to leave the kingdom, and also that their king should receive baptism. They kept
both promises: three weeks later (early June?) Guthrum and 30 of his chief men
were baptized at Aller, near Athelney, and King Alfred stood sponsor to Guthrum
there. Guthrum stayed with Alfred for twelve days, and greatly honoured him and
his companions with gifts.
878. English force (led by Ceolwulf?) kills
Rhodri Mawr of Gwynedd
This battle is mentioned in the Annales Cambriae,
which note under 877 (for 878) that Rhodri and his son Gwriad were killed by the
Saxons. There is no indication of who led the English force, but it was probably
Ceolwulf of Mercia, both because Mercia was the neighbouring English kingdom (perhaps
looking to expand westwards after the partition with the Vikings in 877) and because
the West Saxons were coping with a major Viking invasion and near-conquest in
878. Besides which, if Alfred had won a victory over the Welsh in 878 on top of
his defeat of the Vikings, one might expect the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to make
a note of it, and no English sources mention this battle.
878/9. Guthrum's
army goes from Chippenham to Cirencester, where it stays for a year
Another
band of Vikings camps at Fulham by the Thames
879/80. Guthrum's army
goes from Cirencester to East Anglia, and shares out the land
The army at Fulham
goes overseas to the Frankish empire (until 892)
c.880. End of Ceolwulf's
authority in Mercia
(Ealdorman) ?thelred succeeds to Mercia, under Alfred of
Wessex
The length of Ceolwulf's reign is uncertain. A regnal list kept
at Worcester (in the western half of Mercia, and so unaffected by the partition
of 877) gives him a reign of five years, which would take it to 879. By 883 (according
to S 218), Ealdorman ?thelred was in charge of Mercia, under the overall authority
of King Alfred of Wessex. No contemporary sources explain how this came about,
though the Viking army which settled in Cirencester in western Mercia for a year
in 878/9 might have finally extinguished Ceolwulf's independent Mercian kingdom.
c.880.
Alfred's second coinage reform
880. Army from Cirencester to East
Anglia
Army settles in East Anglia and shares out the land
882.
Alfred wins a naval battle against the Vikings
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
in the 880s follows the career of the Viking army on the Continent, until its
return in 892. The entry for 882 also notes that Alfred went out to sea and fought
against four Viking ships, and he captured two of them and killed all who were
on board, and the other two surrendered. A charter of 882 (S 345) notes that Alfred
was also in this year on campaign (in expeditione) at Epsom in Surrey, quite possibly
against another Viking incursion, but there are no further details.
883.
English encamped against the enemy army at London
885. Viking army
arrives, besieges Rochester
Alfred arrives and the Vikings flee (some overseas,
some to Viking East Anglia)
East Anglians and new arrivals raid Benfleet in
Essex
Alfred raids East Anglia
A part of the army that had gone to
the Continent in 880 seems to have returned to England in this year and besieged
Rochester. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that the city held out until Alfred
came with his army, at which point the Vikings fled to their ships. The Chronicle
implies they then went back over the sea, but ?thelweard's version of the Chronicle
suggests that the army split again, and some went back over the sea and some stayed
on, joining up with Guthrum's East Anglians, and the East Anglians and the newly-arrived
Vikings attacked Benfleet in Essex. (The main Chronicle confirms that in this
year the Viking army in East Anglia broke their truce with King Alfred.) ?thelweard
goes on to say that then the new Vikings and the East Anglian Vikings fell out,
and some (presumably the newcomers) went back over the sea. ?thelweard and the
main Chronicle then agree that Alfred sent a fleet into East Anglia, which was
defeated by the Vikings.
886. Alfred occupies London
All the English
not under Viking control submit to him (Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons?)
Alfred
entrusts London to Ealdorman Athelred of Mercia
890. Guthrum of Viking
East Anglia dies
892. "Great Danish Army" returns from
the Continent, in 250 ships
Hasteinn comes with 80 ships
Both armies make
fortresses in Kent
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that the "Great
Danish Army" arrived with 250 ships in the estuary of the Lympne, and rowed
four miles inland to the Weald, where they found and occupied a half-built fortress
at Appledore. In the same year Hasteinn came with 80 ships up the Thames estuary
and made a fortress at Milton. (This Hasteinn is perhaps identical with the Viking
chief who was on the Loire in the late 860s and in 882.)
893-6. Northumbrians
and East Anglians break truces and join forces with newly-arrived Vikings
Viking
raids on remaining English areas
After three years of fighting, the English
see off the new arrivals
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives a quite detailed
account of the attacks and counter-attacks of these years, and it emerges clearly
from this that the England faced by the Vikings in the 890s was very different
from the walkover they faced in the 860s. They face well-organized resistance
and armies gathered on at least one occasion from large parts of England and Wales,
they are chased up and down the country and holed up in sieges, and so it is no
surprise that in the summer of 896 they split up, some of them retreating into
Viking-held Northumbria and East Anglia, and the others returning to the Continent.
The
Chronicle starts by condemning the Northumbrians and East Anglians for siding
with the Vikings, even though they had sworn oaths to King Alfred and the East
Anglians at least had given hostages. Given that the Northumbrians and East Anglians
concerned are presumably the remnants or the descendants of Halfdan's "Great
Heathen Army" (which settled Northumbria in 876) and Guthrum's "Great
Summer Army" (which settled East Anglia in 880), their loyalty to the newly-arrived
Vikings is not surprising.
In 893, after the Vikings had occupied their
fortresses in Kent (see 892), Alfred gathered his army and took up a position
between the enemy forces, so that he could reach either army if they left their
fortresses. What the chronicler only relates later in the annal is that Alfred
seems also to have come to an agreement with Hasteinn at this point, by which
Alfred gave Hasteinn rich gifts of money, and Hasteinn gave Alfred oaths and hostages,
and Hasteinn's two sons were baptized with the sponsorship of Alfred and Ealdorman
?thelred. This was presumably done to make peace with Hasteinn's forces, but Hasteinn
then took his army from Milton to Benfleet and ravaged the province. The Vikings
at Appledore went on a long raid inland, as far as Wessex, and ravaged Hampshire
and Berkshire. They returned, loaded with booty, which they wanted to take back
to their ships, but they were cut off at Farnham in Surrey by an army led by Alfred's
son, Edward the Elder. Edward's army recovered the spoils and put the Vikings
to flight, and eventually caught up with them and besieged them.
Meanwhile,
the Vikings of Northumbria and East Anglia gathered a fleet together and besieged
Exeter and a fortress on the north coast of Devon. Alfred, who had been going
to help besiege the Vikings cut off by his son, turned instead and took most of
his army to Exeter, where he attacked the Vikings. Alfred sent part of his army
on to London, where they gathered reinforcements and stormed and took Hasteinn's
camp at Benfleet, and destroyed or captured all of the ships there. (Hasteinn
was away on a raid.)
While Alfred was in Exeter, the other Viking armies
assembled at Shoebury in Essex, and built a fortress there, and went up along
the Thames, where they received reinforcements from the Northumbrians and East
Anglians, and then continued along the Severn. At Buttington by the Severn they
were met by the English, led by the ealdormen ?thelred (of Mercia) and ?thelhelm
(of Wiltshire) and ?thelnoth (of Somerset), and comprising men from Wessex and
Mercia and Wales (the Chronicle notes king's thegns from every fortress east of
the Parret, and both west and east of Selwood, and also north of the Thames and
west of the Severn). This combined English/Welsh force besieged the Vikings at
Buttington for several weeks, starving them out until finally the Vikings had
to emerge and they were defeated there by the English and the Welsh: the surviving
Vikings fled back to Essex.
The Vikings regrouped in Essex, again collected
a large army from Northumbria and East Anglia, placed their women and ships and
property in Viking-held East Anglia, and travelled to the deserted city of Chester.
The English army could not overtake them before they reached the fortress, but
they did besiege the fortress and seize all the cattle outside and burn or consume
all the corn in the surrounding districts, so that, as at Buttington, the Vikings
were starved out and had to leave the fortification.
The annal for 894 begins
with the Viking army leaving Chester and raiding Wales, and then returning from
Wales through Northumbria and East Anglia (where the English army could not reach
them) to eastern Essex. These Vikings then rowed up the Thames and up the Lea,
where they built a fortress, 20 miles above London, and stayed the winter there.
The
other Viking army, which had gathered from Northumbria and East Anglia and attacked
Exeter and then been besieged by Alfred in 893, also went home this year. Though
they stopped and tried to ravage in Sussex near Chichester on the way, the locals
put them to flight and killed hundreds of them and captured some of their ships.
In
the summer of 895 the English from London and elsewhere marched on the fortress
of the Vikings by the Lea, but they were put to flight. In the autumn, though,
Alfred camped his army nearby to contain the Vikings, and built two fortresses
lower down the river Lea so that the Vikings could not get their ships back out.
When the Vikings discovered this, they abandoned their ships and went overland
to Bridgnorth on the Severn where they built a fortress. The English army rode
after the Vikings, and the men of London (as before with Hasteinn's fleet at Benfleet
in Essex) fetched the ships from the camp by the Lea, and destroyed the ones they
could not bring away. The Vikings stayed the winter at Bridgnorth.
In the
summer of 896, as noted at the beginning of this entry, the Vikings gave up their
assaults, and some of them went into East Anglia and some into Northumbria, and
the rest went south across the sea to the Seine.
896. Wessex raided from
Viking East Anglia and Northumbria
Alfred orders the building of English "long
ships"
Though the summer of 896 saw the departure of the Vikings
who had come in 892, East Anglia and Northumbria were still Viking-held areas
and marauding bands continued to harrass the south coast of Wessex. The Chronicle
notes that they were still doing damage, mostly with the warships which they had
built many years before, so Alfred ordered the building of bigger ships (almost
twice as long as the Viking ships) to defeat them. These new ships were tested
when a force of six Viking ships were harrying around the Isle of Wight, and Alfred
sent nine of his new ships to contain them. The account of this local skirmish
in the Chronicle is interesting because of the significant proportion of Frisians
in the English force: casualty figures for one pitched battle record 62 "Frisians
and English" and 120 Danes. Asser, in chapter 76 of his Life of King Alfred,
mentions the Frisians among several other races who received a warm welcome at
Alfred's court.
October 26, 899. Death of King Alfred
Succession of
King Edward (the Elder)
Revolt of Athelwold, son of Alfred's brother Athelred
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that Alfred died on October 26, and that his son Edward
succeeded to the kingdom. However, the ?theling ?thelwold, son of Alfred's elder
brother Athelred (king of the West Saxons 865-71), refused to accept Edward's
lordship and rode instead and seized royal residences at Wimborne (Dorset) and
at Christchurch (Hants), against the will of the king. Edward took his army to
Badbury near Wimborne, and ?thelwold barricaded himself within Wimborne with his
men and a nun he had kidnapped, saying that he would live there or die there.
The stage seems set for another set-piece of loyalty and heroism like the fights
of Cynewulf and Cyneheard (see entry for 786), but instead ?thelwold fled by night
and went to the Viking army in Northumbria, who accepted him as king and swore
allegiance to him.
The earliest record of King Edward being called senior
("the Elder") is near the beginning of a Life of St Athelwold from the
end of the 10th century, presumably to distinguish him from the more recent King
Edward (the Martyr, of 975-8).
M. Lapidge and M. Winterbottom (edd.),
Wulfstan of Winchester: Life of St Athelwold (Oxford: 1991), pp.2-3