Norse activity in the British Isles
Encyclopedia
Norse activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Mediaeval period, when members of the Norse
populations of Scandinavia
traveled to the British Isles for trade, raiding and settlement. The Norse peoples that came to the British Isles have often been referred to in modern scholarship as Vikings; however, there is a dispute among scholars as to whether the term Vikings should be used to apply to all Norse settlers or simply the Norse raiders.
At the start of the Early Medieaval period, the Norse kingdoms in Scandinavia had developed trade links stretching all the way into southern Europe and the Mediterranean that gave them access to imports such as gold. Such trade links also extended westward into the British Isles.
In the final decade of the 8th century CE, Norse raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries located in the British Isles. This started in 793, with an attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne
off of England
's eastern coast, and the following year they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
. In 795 they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey
on Scotland
's west coast.
and had already been predominantly converted to Christianity
from their older, pre-Christian polytheistic
religions. In contrast to this, across much of southern Britain, in what is considered to be Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon
migrants from continental Europe had settled in the 5th century CE, bringing with them their own Germanic language
(known as Old English), as well as their own polytheistic religion (Anglo-Saxon paganism) and their own distinct cultural practices.
At this time, the Isle of Man
supported an agrarian population of Celtic-language speakers who were also Christian. The island had not yet developed any towns, and little had changed in Manx society since the Iron Age.
In northern Britain (the area that is the rough equivalent of the modern nation of Scotland), three distinct ethnic groups lived in their own respective kingdoms, all of whom Christians and who were speakers of Celtic-languages: the Picts
, Scots
and Britons
. 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. The Scots were, according to written sources, a tribal group who had crossed to Britain from Dalriada
in northern Ireland during the late 5th century. Archaeologists have not been able to identify anything that was particularly unique to the kingdom of the Scots, noting similarities with the Picts in most forms of material culture. The Britons were held to dwell in southern Scotland, and by the 7th or 8th centuries had apparently come under the political control of the Anglo-Saxons.
By the mid-9th century, Anglo-Saxon England was divided into four separate and independent kingdoms; East Anglia, Wessex
, Northumbria
and Mercia
, the latter of which was the strongest military power. Between half a million and a million people lived in England at this time, with society being rigidly hierarchical. This class system had a king and his ealdormen at the top, under whom were the thegns, or landholders and then the various forms 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. The majority of the populace lived in the countryside, although a few large towns had developed, namely London
and York
, which were centres of royal and ecclesiastical administration, although there was also a number of trading ports, such as Hamwic and Ipswich
, that were involved in foreign trade.
Society in 8th century Scandinavia was (unlike the British Isles) still pre-literate, existing in the final state of European prehistory
, in a period known by archaeologists as the Iron Age
. In Scandinavia, the 8th century proved to be "a period of rapid technological, economic and social development" which would lead the region out of the Iron Age and into what has come to be known as the Viking Age
.
At the start of the Early Mediaeval period, the Norse populations saw themselves primarily as inhabitants of specific regions such as Jutland
, Vestfold
and Hordaland
. It would only be by the later centuries of this period that national identities developed amongst the Scandinavians, dividing them up into Danes, Swedes and Norwegians.
The Late Iron Age peoples of Scandinavia had not yet been converted to Christianity as the peoples of the British Isles had, and they instead followed Norse paganism
, a polytheistic set of beliefs that revered such deities as Odin
, Thor
, Frey and Freyja.
Scandinavian society was heavily sea-faring, allowing Norse sailors to navigate around much of Europe during the Early Mediaeval period.
The Norse populations of Scandinavia had developed trade links with many other areas of Europe, obtaining large quantities of gold in the late 5th century, most of which was found in Sweden, and to a lesser degree Norway.
remarked that the Viking raiders would have been astonished "at finding so many communities which housed considerable wealth and whose inhabitants carried no arms." These raids would have been the first contact many Norsemen had with Christianity, but such attacks were not specifically anti-Christian in nature, rather the monasteries were simply seen as 'easy targets' for raiders.
The first known account of a Viking raid taking place 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 the royal reeve from Dorchester, whose job it was to identify all foreign merchants entering the kingdom, and they proceeded to kill him. It is likely that other raids (the records for which have since been lost) occurred soon after, for in 792 King Offa of Mercia
began to make arrangements for the defence of Kent from raids perpetrated by "pagan peoples".
The next recorded attack against the English came the following year, in 793, when the monastery at Lindisfarne
, an island off of England's eastern coast, was sacked by a Viking raiding party on 8 June. The following year they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
.
In 795 they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey
on Scotland's west coast. This monastery would be attacked again in 802 and 806, when 68 people dwelling there were killed. Following such devastation, the monastic community at Iona abandoned the site and fled instead to Kells
in Ireland.
In the first decade of the 9th century CE, Viking raiders began to attack coastal districts along Ireland. In 835, the first major Viking raid in southern England took place and was directed against the Isle of Sheppey
.
One such of these hoards was discovered in Croydon
, Surrey
in 1862. Containing 250 coins, three silver ingots and part of a fourth as well as four pieces of hack silver in a linen bag, it was believed by archaeologists that this was the loot collected by a member of the Viking army. By dating the artefacts, archaeologists came to believe that it was likely that this hoard had been buried in 872, when the army wintered in London. The coins themselves came from a wide range of different kingdoms, with Wessex, Mercian and East Anglian examples being found alongside foreign imports from Carolingian dynasty Francia and the Arab world. Not all such Viking hoards in England contained 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.
The historian Peter Hunter Blair believed that it was the success of the Viking raids and the "complete unpreparedness of Britain to meet such attacks" which was the major factor in the subsequent Norse invasions and colonisations of large parts of the British Isles.
. Meanwhile, many Anglo-Saxon kings began to capitulate to the Viking demands, and handed over land to the invading Norse settlers. In 876, the Northumbrian monarch Healfdene gave up his lands to them, and in the next four years they gained further land in the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia as well. 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
.
Alfred regrouped his military forces and defeated the armies of the Norse monarch of East Anglia, Guthrum
, at the Battle of Ethandun. Following Guthrum's defeat, in 886 the Treaty of Wedmore
was signed between the (Norse-controlled) East Anglian and Wessex governments that established a boundary between the two kingdoms. The area to the north and east of this boundary became known as the Danelaw
because it was under the control of Norse political influence, whilst those areas south and west of it remained under Anglo-Saxon dominance. Alfred's government set about constructing a series of defended towns or burhs, began the construction of a navy and organised a militia system whereby half of his peasant army remained on active service. Although there were continuous attacks on Wessex by new Viking armies, the kingdom's new defenses proved a success and in 896 the invaders dispersed, instead settling in East Anglia and Northumbria, with some instead sailing to Normandy
.
Alfred's policy of opposing the Viking settlers was continued under the regime of his daughter Æthelflæd, who married Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia, and also under the regime of her son Edward the Elder
. In 920 the Northumbrian government and the Scots governments both submitted to the military power of Wessex, and in 937 the Battle of Brunanburh
led to the collapse of Norse power in northern Britain. In 954 Erik Bloodaxe, the last Norse King of York, was expelled from the city.
, who was murdered in 978, and then Æthelred the Unready, the political stength of the English monarchy wained, and in 980 Viking raiders from Scandinavia once more started making attacks against England. The English government decided that the only way of dealing with these attackers as 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. 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.
In 1013 King Sveinn Hákonarson
of Denmark invaded England with a large army, and Æthelred fled to Normandy, leading Sveinn to take the English throne. Sveinn died within a year however, and so Æthelred returned, but in 1016 another Norse army invaded, this time under the control of the Danish King Cnut. After defeating Anglo-Saxon forces at the Battle of Assandun, Cnut became king of England, subsequently ruling over both the Danish and English kingdoms. Following Cnut's death in 1035, the two kingdoms were once more declared independent, and remained so apart from a short period when from 1040-42 Cnut's son Harthacnut ascended the English throne.
The Irish Annals
provide us with accounts of much Norse activity during the 9th and 10th centuries.
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 9th 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 Norse opponents, and in many cases greatly exaggerates the size of the Norse fleets and armies, thereby making any Anglo-Saxon victories against them seem more heroic.
behind, which archaeologists
have been able to excavate and interpret during the 20th and 21st centuries. Such Norse evidence in Britain consists primarily of Norse burials undertaken in Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, the Isle of Man, Ireland and the north-west of England. 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".
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. For this reason, historian Peter Hunter Blair noted that in Britain, the archaeological evidence for Norse invasion and settlement was "very slight compared with the corresponding evidence for the Anglo-Saxon invasions" of the 5th century.
Norse
Norse may refer to:In history:* Norsemen, the Scandinavian people before the Christianization of Scandinavia** Norse mythology** Norse paganism** Norse art** Norse activity in the British IslesIn language:...
populations of Scandinavia
History of Scandinavia
The history of Scandinavia is the history of the region of northern Europe known in English as Scandinavia, particularly in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.- Pre-historic age :...
traveled to the British Isles for trade, raiding and settlement. The Norse peoples that came to the British Isles have often been referred to in modern scholarship as Vikings; however, there is a dispute among scholars as to whether the term Vikings should be used to apply to all Norse settlers or simply the Norse raiders.
At the start of the Early Medieaval period, the Norse kingdoms in Scandinavia had developed trade links stretching all the way into southern Europe and the Mediterranean that gave them access to imports such as gold. Such trade links also extended westward into the British Isles.
In the final decade of the 8th century CE, Norse raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries located in the British Isles. This started in 793, with an attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
off of England
England in the Middle Ages
England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...
's eastern coast, and the following year they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Wearmouth-Jarrow is a twin-foundation English monastery, located on the River Wear in Sunderland and the River Tyne at Jarrow respectively, in the Kingdom of Northumbria . Its formal name is The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Wearmouth-Jarrow...
. In 795 they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey
Iona Abbey
Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic...
on Scotland
Scotland in the Early Middle Ages
Scotland in the early Middle Ages, between the end of Roman authority in southern and central Britain from around 400 and the rise of the kingdom of Alba in 900, was divided into a series of petty kingdoms. Of these the four most important to emerge were the Picts, the Scots of Dál Riata, the...
's west coast.
British Isles
During the Early Mediaeval period, the British Isles were culturally, linguistically and religiously divided into various groups. In Ireland, Western Britain (modern Cornwall and Wales) and Northern Britain (modern Scotland), the populations, who were the descendents of the earlier Iron Age peoples, spoke Celtic languagesCeltic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
and had already been predominantly converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
from their older, pre-Christian polytheistic
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
religions. In contrast to this, across much of southern Britain, in what is considered to be Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
migrants from continental Europe had settled in the 5th century CE, bringing with them their own Germanic language
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
(known as Old English), as well as their own polytheistic religion (Anglo-Saxon paganism) and their own distinct cultural practices.
At this time, the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
supported an agrarian population of Celtic-language speakers who were also Christian. The island had not yet developed any towns, and little had changed in Manx society since the Iron Age.
In northern Britain (the area that is the rough equivalent of the modern nation of Scotland), three distinct ethnic groups lived in their own respective kingdoms, all of whom Christians and who were speakers of Celtic-languages: the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, Scots
Scots
Scots may refer to:*The Scottish people, the inhabitants of Scotland*Scots language *Scotch-Irish*Scottish English*Scots pine, a Scottish tree*Short for Pound Scots...
and Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
. The Pictish cultural group dominated the majority of Scotland, with major populations concentrated between the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
and the River Dee
River Dee, Aberdeenshire
The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Strathdee to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen...
, as well as in Sutherland
Sutherland
Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
, Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
and Orkney. The Scots were, according to written sources, a tribal group who had crossed to Britain from Dalriada
Dalriada
Dalriada can refer to:* Dál Riata, a Gaelic kingdom in western Scotland and north-east Ireland in the Early Middle Ages* Dalriada School, a co-educational, voluntary grammar school in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland* Dalriada , Hungarian folk metal band...
in northern Ireland during the late 5th century. Archaeologists have not been able to identify anything that was particularly unique to the kingdom of the Scots, noting similarities with the Picts in most forms of material culture. The Britons were held to dwell in southern Scotland, and by the 7th or 8th centuries had apparently come under the political control of the Anglo-Saxons.
By the mid-9th century, Anglo-Saxon England was divided into four separate and independent kingdoms; East Anglia, Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
and Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, the latter of which was the strongest military power. Between half a million and a million people lived in England at this time, with society being rigidly hierarchical. This class system had a king and his ealdormen at the top, under whom were the thegns, or landholders and then the various forms 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. The majority of the populace lived in the countryside, although a few large towns had developed, namely London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, which were centres of royal and ecclesiastical administration, although there was also a number of trading ports, such as Hamwic and Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
, that were involved in foreign trade.
Scandinavia
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
, in a period known by archaeologists as the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. In Scandinavia, the 8th century proved to be "a period of rapid technological, economic and social development" which would lead the region out of the Iron Age and into what has come to be known as the Viking Age
Viking Age
Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
.
At the start of the Early Mediaeval period, the Norse populations saw themselves primarily as inhabitants of specific regions such as Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
, Vestfold
Vestfold
is a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg.Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates. It includes many smaller, but well-known towns in Norway, such as Larvik, Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Horten. The river Numedalslågen runs...
and Hordaland
Hordaland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...
. It would only be by the later centuries of this period that national identities developed amongst the Scandinavians, dividing them up into Danes, Swedes and Norwegians.
The Late Iron Age peoples of Scandinavia had not yet been converted to Christianity as the peoples of the British Isles had, and they instead followed Norse paganism
Norse paganism
Norse paganism is the religious traditions of the Norsemen, a Germanic people living in the Nordic countries. Norse paganism is therefore a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age...
, a polytheistic set of beliefs that revered such deities as Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
, Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...
, Frey and Freyja.
Scandinavian society was heavily sea-faring, allowing Norse sailors to navigate around much of Europe during the Early Mediaeval period.
The Norse populations of Scandinavia had developed trade links with many other areas of Europe, obtaining large quantities of gold in the late 5th century, most of which was found in Sweden, and to a lesser degree Norway.
Viking raids: 793-850
In the final decade of the 8th century CE, Norse raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries located in the British Isles. In the British Isles, Christian monasteries had often been positioned on small islands and in other remote coastal areas so that the monks could dwell there in seclusion, devoting themselves to worship without the interference of other elements of society. At the same time, it made them isolated and un-protected targets for attack. Historian Peter Hunter BlairPeter Hunter Blair
Peter Hunter Blair was an English academic and historian specializing in the Anglo-Saxon period. In 1969 he married Pauline Clarke. She edited his Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in 1984....
remarked that the Viking raiders would have been astonished "at finding so many communities which housed considerable wealth and whose inhabitants carried no arms." These raids would have been the first contact many Norsemen had with Christianity, but such attacks were not specifically anti-Christian in nature, rather the monasteries were simply seen as 'easy targets' for raiders.
The first known account of a Viking raid taking place in Anglo-Saxon England comes from 789, when three ships from Hordaland
Hordaland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...
(in modern Norway) landed in the Isle of Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...
on the southern coast of Wessex. They were approached by the royal reeve from Dorchester, whose job it was to identify all foreign merchants entering the kingdom, and they proceeded to kill him. It is likely that other raids (the records for which have since been lost) occurred soon after, for in 792 King Offa of Mercia
Offa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
began to make arrangements for the defence of Kent from raids perpetrated by "pagan peoples".
The next recorded attack against the English came the following year, in 793, when the monastery at Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
, an island off of England's eastern coast, was sacked by a Viking raiding party on 8 June. The following year they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Wearmouth-Jarrow is a twin-foundation English monastery, located on the River Wear in Sunderland and the River Tyne at Jarrow respectively, in the Kingdom of Northumbria . Its formal name is The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Wearmouth-Jarrow...
.
In 795 they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey
Iona Abbey
Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic...
on Scotland's west coast. This monastery would be attacked again in 802 and 806, when 68 people dwelling there were killed. Following such devastation, the monastic community at Iona abandoned the site and fled instead to Kells
Kells, County Meath
Kells is a town in County Meath, Ireland. The town lies off the M3 motorway, from Navan and from Dublin. In recent years Kells has grown greatly with many Dublin commuters moving to the town....
in Ireland.
In the first decade of the 9th century CE, Viking raiders began to attack coastal districts along Ireland. In 835, the first major Viking raid in southern England took place and was directed against the Isle of Sheppey
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...
.
Treasure hoards
Various hoards of treasure were buried in England at this time, some of which may have been deposited by Anglo-Saxons attempting to hide their wealth from Viking raiders, and some of which may have instead been buried by the Viking raiders themselves as a way of protecting their looted treasure.One such of these hoards was discovered in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
in 1862. Containing 250 coins, three silver ingots and part of a fourth as well as four pieces of hack silver in a linen bag, it was believed by archaeologists that this was the loot collected by a member of the Viking army. By dating the artefacts, archaeologists came to believe that it was likely that this hoard had been buried in 872, when the army wintered in London. The coins themselves came from a wide range of different kingdoms, with Wessex, Mercian and East Anglian examples being found alongside foreign imports from Carolingian dynasty Francia and the Arab world. Not all such Viking hoards in England contained coins however, for example at Bowes Moor
Bowes Moor
Bowes Moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Teesdale district in south-west County Durham, England. It is an extensive area of moorland, most of it covered by blanket bog, which supports significant breeding populations of a number of wading birds.The Pennine Way National Trail...
, Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, 19 silver ingots were discovered, whilst at Orton Scar, Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, a silver neck ring and penannular brooch were uncovered.
The historian Peter Hunter Blair believed that it was the success of the Viking raids and the "complete unpreparedness of Britain to meet such attacks" which was the major factor in the subsequent Norse invasions and colonisations of large parts of the British Isles.
Invasion and Danelaw: 865-896
From 865 the Norse 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.England
In 866, Norse armies captured York, one of the two major cities in Anglo-Saxon England. In 871, King Æthelred of Wessex, who had been leading the conflict against the Vikings, died, and was succeeded to the throne by his younger brother, Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
. Meanwhile, many Anglo-Saxon kings began to capitulate to the Viking demands, and handed over land to the invading Norse settlers. In 876, the Northumbrian monarch Healfdene gave up his lands to them, and in the next four years they gained further land in the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia as well. King Alfred continued his conflict with the invading forces, but was driven back into Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
in the south-west of his kingdom in 878, where he was forced to take refuge in the marshes of Athelney
Athelney
Athelney is located between the villages of Burrowbridge and East Lyng in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The area is known as the Isle of Athelney, because it was once a very low isolated island in the 'very great swampy and impassable marshes' of the Somerset Levels. Much of the...
.
Alfred regrouped his military forces and defeated the armies of the Norse monarch of East Anglia, Guthrum
Guthrum
The name Guthrum corresponds to Norwegian Guttom and to Danish Gorm.The name Guthrum may refer to these kings:* Guthrum, who fought against Alfred the Great* Gorm the Old of Denmark and Norway* Guthrum II, a king of doubtful historicity...
, at the Battle of Ethandun. Following Guthrum's defeat, in 886 the Treaty of Wedmore
Treaty of Wedmore
The Peace of Wedmore is a term used by historians for an event referred to by the monk Asser in his Life of Alfred, outlining how in 878 the Viking leader Guthrum was baptised and accepted Alfred as his adoptive father. Guthrum agreed to leave Wessex and a "Treaty of Wedmore" is often assumed by...
was signed between the (Norse-controlled) East Anglian and Wessex governments that established a boundary between the two kingdoms. The area to the north and east of this boundary became known as the Danelaw
Danelaw
The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...
because it was under the control of Norse political influence, whilst those areas south and west of it remained under Anglo-Saxon dominance. Alfred's government set about constructing a series of defended towns or burhs, began the construction of a navy and organised a militia system whereby half of his peasant army remained on active service. Although there were continuous attacks on Wessex by new Viking armies, the kingdom's new defenses proved a success and in 896 the invaders dispersed, instead settling in East Anglia and Northumbria, with some instead sailing to Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
.
Alfred's policy of opposing the Viking settlers was continued under the regime of his daughter Æthelflæd, who married Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia, and also under the regime of her son Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...
. In 920 the Northumbrian government and the Scots governments both submitted to the military power of Wessex, and in 937 the Battle of Brunanburh
Battle of Brunanburh
The Battle of Brunanburh was an English victory in 937 by the army of Æthelstan, King of England, and his brother Edmund over the combined armies of Olaf III Guthfrithson, the Norse-Gael King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scots, and Owen I, King of Strathclyde...
led to the collapse of Norse power in northern Britain. In 954 Erik Bloodaxe, the last Norse King of York, was expelled from the city.
Norse settlement in the British Isles
The early Norse settlers in Anglo-Saxon England would have appeared visibly different from the Anglo-Saxon populace, wearing specifically Scandinavian styles of jewellery, and likely also wearing their own peculiar styles of clothing as well. There was also a difference in the style of hair worn by Norse and Anglo-Saxon men, with the former typically wearing a hair style that was shaved at the back and left shaggy on the front, whilst in contrast to this the latter typically wore their hair long.Second invasion: 980-1012
England
Under the reign of Wessex King Edgar the Peaceful, England came to be further politically unified, with Edgar coming to be recognized as the king of all England by both Anglo-Saxon and Norse populations living in the country. However, under the regimes of his son Edward the MartyrEdward the Martyr
Edward the Martyr was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir...
, who was murdered in 978, and then Æthelred the Unready, the political stength of the English monarchy wained, and in 980 Viking raiders from Scandinavia once more started making attacks against England. The English government decided that the only way of dealing with these attackers as 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. 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.
In 1013 King Sveinn Hákonarson
Sveinn Hákonarson
Sveinn Hákonarson was an earl of the house of Hlaðir and co-ruler of Norway from 1000 to c. 1015. He was the son of earl Hákon Sigurðarson. He is first mentioned in connection with the battle of Hjörungavágr, where the Heimskringla says he commanded 60 ships...
of Denmark invaded England with a large army, and Æthelred fled to Normandy, leading Sveinn to take the English throne. Sveinn died within a year however, and so Æthelred returned, but in 1016 another Norse army invaded, this time under the control of the Danish King Cnut. After defeating Anglo-Saxon forces at the Battle of Assandun, Cnut became king of England, subsequently ruling over both the Danish and English kingdoms. Following Cnut's death in 1035, the two kingdoms were once more declared independent, and remained so apart from a short period when from 1040-42 Cnut's son Harthacnut ascended the English throne.
Written records
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 isles of Britain, which are closest to Scandinavia.The Irish Annals
Irish annals
A number of Irish annals were compiled up to and shortly after the end of Gaelic Ireland in the 17th century.Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days...
provide us with accounts of much Norse activity during the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Viking raids that affected Anglo-Saxon England were primarily documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
, a collection of annals initially written in the late 9th century, most probably in the Kingdom of Wessex during the reign of Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
. The Chronicle is however a biased source, acting as a piece of "wartime propaganda" written on behalf of the Anglo-Saxon forces against their Norse opponents, and in many cases greatly exaggerates the size of the Norse fleets and armies, thereby making any Anglo-Saxon victories against them seem more heroic.
Archaeological evidence
The Norse settlers in the British Isles left remains of their material cultureMaterial culture
In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Studying a culture's relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed...
behind, which archaeologists
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
have been able to excavate and interpret during the 20th and 21st centuries. Such Norse evidence in Britain consists primarily of Norse burials undertaken in Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, the Isle of Man, Ireland and the north-west of England. 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".
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. For this reason, historian Peter Hunter Blair noted that in Britain, the archaeological evidence for Norse invasion and settlement was "very slight compared with the corresponding evidence for the Anglo-Saxon invasions" of the 5th century.
See also
- Kingdom of the IslesKingdom of the IslesThe Kingdom of the Isles comprised the Hebrides, the islands of the Firth of Clyde and the Isle of Man from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the Suðreyjar, or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the Norðreyjar or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland...
- Scandinavian ScotlandScandinavian ScotlandScandinavian Scotland refers to the period from the 8th to the 15th centuries during which Vikings and Norse settlers and their descendents colonised parts of what is now modern Scotland...
- Orkney
- Earldom of OrkneyEarldom of OrkneyThe Earldom of Orkney was a Norwegian dignity in Scotland which had its origins in the Viking period. The title of Earl of Orkney was passed down the same family line through to the Middle Ages....
- History of ShetlandHistory of ShetlandThe History of Shetland concerns the subarctic archipelago of Shetland in Scotland. The early history of the islands is dominated by the influence of the Vikings and from the 14th century on by the relationship with the Kingdom of Scotland, and then latterly as part of the United...
- Orkneyinga sagaOrkneyinga sagaThe Orkneyinga saga is a historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200...
- Viking AgeViking AgeViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...