The Danish forward base in Thanet has, until now, been essentially a smash-and-grab and extortion racket. The Saxons in Kent, for example, get peace but only if they pay protection money and the Danes have no intention of honouring any agreements if they can get away with it. The real action, presenting an existential threat to England, is about to take place a little to the north as organised crime shifts into its political mode, a war of conquest.
In 865 a Danish 'Heathen Army', an invasion force possibly seeking land but certainly seeking tribute, appears under the command of Halfdan Ragnarrson and Ivar the Boneless, said to be sons of the legendary Norse King Ragnar Lodbrok (if he actually existed which is a matter that is up for historical grabs). It moves across England in the following year, taking control of York in 865 and ravaging Mercia and Northumbria. King Aelle of Northumbria and his rival Osberht are both killed in battle (the rivals united to meet a common threat) and replaced by a Viking puppet Egbert I.
Ethelred moves to try and dislodge the Vikings from Nottingham in 868, accompanied by Alfred who had married Elswitha of Mercia in the previous year but little progress is made. The 'Great Heathen Army' moves back down into East Anglia in 869, murdering Edmund King of East Anglia (his successor is Oswald, the last King of East Anglia) in 870 when he declines to play the same role there as Egbert in Northumbria.
The strategy of permanent tribute and conquest seems to be targeted at the whole of England. As winter draws close in 870, the Danes (Danes, Norse, Heathens and Vikings are interchangeable terms in this context) move south into the Thames Valley as far as Reading, right up to the borders of the Wessex heartland. In a major battle at Ashdown in 871, Ethelred and Alfred lead a Saxon army in a major victory over the invaders under Halfdan and Bagsac. Ethelred is severely injured and dies and is succeeded by Alfred. As he comes to the throne, the Danish invaders have been checked by the strongest remaining Anglo-Saxon Kingdom, one about to become England itself, but they are far from defeated. It is down to Alfred to become 'the Great' in containing the threat over the next couple of decades.
Sunday 31 January 2016
Sunday 24 January 2016
849-864: Heathen Depredations & The Catholic Community
The kings of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms come and go but we should note the birth of Alfred in 849, fifth son of Ethelwulf, King of Wessex. Ethelwulf will die in 858 to be succeeded by his son Ethelbald (co-ruler since 855). Ethelbald dies in 860 and is succeeded by his brother Ethelbert but it is Alfred who is eventually going to be seen as the first English hero-king in the struggle against the Danes. The Wessex dynasty passes relatively smoothly from Ethelwulf through a line of brothers that will end up (via Ethelred next) with Alfred, suggesting an essential stability to Wessex that helps ensure its ability to unify the Anglo-Saxons against the Danish threat. Meanwhile, Mercian heirs are still being murdered by their godfathers as Wystan was in 849 and Mercia remains as preoccupied with fighting the Wealhas (Welsh) as the Danes. The marriage of Ethelwulf's daughter to Burgred of Mercia suggests that Wessex was keen to make sure that Mercia remained at least neutral in the struggle with the Heathens.
The next major Danish challenge after their defeat in 845 came in 851 when they overwintered in Southern England with 350 shiploads of men, sailed up the Thames and sacked London. They pillaged Canterbury and defeated King Beorhtwulf of Mercia. From there, they moved into Surrey (Middlesex) where they were met by Ethelwulf supported by Ethelbald who managed, after a major battle, to defeat them. This is followed up with a Saxon naval victory off Sandwich in which the Saxons were led by Athelstan - nine ships were captured and the rest scattered.
Thanet in Kent was a front line part of the county and became the Danes' forward base. There was a further major battle there in 853 in which the men of Kent (under Ealhere) and of Surrey (under Hutha) engagde in a fierce struggle with the Danes in which both Ealdormen are killed. The Danes appear not to have been dislodged and, in 855, they wintered on the Isle of Sheppey and, in 860, attacked Winchester. Whichever way we look at it, the Anglo-Saxons were holding their own by the mid-860s but were not able to dislodge the Danes or stop them from undertaking serious assaults on their major towns. This state of violent equilibrium was not going to last long.
The Saxons are seen by Rome as their front line against Northern Heathenism. Four year old Alfred visits Rome in 853 and is honoured by the Pope. There is another state visit in 855 when he is six, this time with his father Ethelwulf. Alfred stayed a full year. One suspects that, as a fifth son who might not be expected to come to the throne, he was being lined up for a senior Church position although the Church was not generally keen to have Church and State under the control of one family in one location. This mission to save Christendom is to be taken seriously by Alfred much later in our story.
In another dynastic manouevre, Ethelwulf on his return homewards married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bold, King of the Franks, indicating a more adroit diplomacy than that of Offa. Bit by bit Wessex is becoming not merely the dominant indigenous state in England but also part of the 'international community' of the day, one which saw Heathenism much as the modern 'international community' sees Islamism. Interestingly, to maintain this system, Ethelwulf's successor, Ethelbald, his son, will marry Judith, his Frankish step-mother.
The next major Danish challenge after their defeat in 845 came in 851 when they overwintered in Southern England with 350 shiploads of men, sailed up the Thames and sacked London. They pillaged Canterbury and defeated King Beorhtwulf of Mercia. From there, they moved into Surrey (Middlesex) where they were met by Ethelwulf supported by Ethelbald who managed, after a major battle, to defeat them. This is followed up with a Saxon naval victory off Sandwich in which the Saxons were led by Athelstan - nine ships were captured and the rest scattered.
Thanet in Kent was a front line part of the county and became the Danes' forward base. There was a further major battle there in 853 in which the men of Kent (under Ealhere) and of Surrey (under Hutha) engagde in a fierce struggle with the Danes in which both Ealdormen are killed. The Danes appear not to have been dislodged and, in 855, they wintered on the Isle of Sheppey and, in 860, attacked Winchester. Whichever way we look at it, the Anglo-Saxons were holding their own by the mid-860s but were not able to dislodge the Danes or stop them from undertaking serious assaults on their major towns. This state of violent equilibrium was not going to last long.
The Saxons are seen by Rome as their front line against Northern Heathenism. Four year old Alfred visits Rome in 853 and is honoured by the Pope. There is another state visit in 855 when he is six, this time with his father Ethelwulf. Alfred stayed a full year. One suspects that, as a fifth son who might not be expected to come to the throne, he was being lined up for a senior Church position although the Church was not generally keen to have Church and State under the control of one family in one location. This mission to save Christendom is to be taken seriously by Alfred much later in our story.
In another dynastic manouevre, Ethelwulf on his return homewards married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bold, King of the Franks, indicating a more adroit diplomacy than that of Offa. Bit by bit Wessex is becoming not merely the dominant indigenous state in England but also part of the 'international community' of the day, one which saw Heathenism much as the modern 'international community' sees Islamism. Interestingly, to maintain this system, Ethelwulf's successor, Ethelbald, his son, will marry Judith, his Frankish step-mother.
Tuesday 12 January 2016
835-848: The Arrival of the Danes
After the initial raids on Northumbria and Iona in the 790s, there were a further set of raids (three in all) on Iona in 800, with 68 monks killed on one occasion alone. This severely undermined its position as a Northern cultural centre. The Vikings appeared again in 825 at Iona, killing the Bishop and several monks and setting the settlement alight. By 850, the important treasures of Iona are being brought inland to
Dunkeld by the Picts - other items were transferred to Ireland. Scotland may be on the edge of English and
European affairs but is equally plagued by the Viking threat. The Pictish King is,
for example, killed by the Danes in 839. In Ireland, the Danes found Dublin as their premier trading station and power base in 841. All this intense pressure may have had something to do with the increased unity of Scotland: in 844, Kenneth MacAlpin, a Pictish King, began the process of creating the Kingdom of Alba, merging the Picts and the Scots into one proto-nation.
The Southern British may have been horrified as Christian men by events in Northumbria and Iona but they may also have been complacent. That complacency ended in 835 when the Danes began to raid the Kentish coast. The Danish threat to England crystallised in the following year when Egbert of Wessex was defeated by an army made up of the men of 25 Danish ships at the Battle of Carhampton in Somerset, in the very heart of Wessex. The Danes appeared again in 838, this time in alliance with the Cymri of Cornwall, but Egbert (who died in the following year after a long 37 year reign) defeated both at Hingston Down so that the Danes and Cornish were forced to withdraw. Egbert was succeeded by Athelstan, a son, as sub-King of the small Kingdoms (Kent, Sussex, Essex and Middlesex) and by another son, Ethelwulf, as King of Wessex, indicating once again a tendency of the Anglo-Saxons to divide before they unify.
The Danes reappeared in 840, not merely to raid and to leave but to survive through the winter on English soil. The armies are increasing in size as well. In that year, Ealdorman Wulfheard has to beat off 37 shiploads of raiders at Southampton. Another Ealdorman, Aethelhun, has to fight them off at Portland but is defeated and killed while there is a slaughter of Saxons in the Romney Marshes with the killing of Ealdorman Herebryht in the following year. This force then undertook a programme of murder, rape and plunder along the Kentish, Essex and Lincolnsire coasts throughout 841 and down the Thames estuary in 842, killing many in Rochester and London. The outcome of this particular set of raids was only resolved (temporarily) with a Saxon defeat (led by Ealdorman Earnulf of Somerset and Ealdorman Osric of Dorset) of a Danish army at the River Parrett in 845. There will be more raids to come but Wessex appeared to have had sufficient resilience to mount a military challenge to the raiders when necessary. Whether it could sustain this costly resistance as the Danish armies grew in size, tactical ability and sheer greed would be the issue that would dominate the ninth century.
The Southern British may have been horrified as Christian men by events in Northumbria and Iona but they may also have been complacent. That complacency ended in 835 when the Danes began to raid the Kentish coast. The Danish threat to England crystallised in the following year when Egbert of Wessex was defeated by an army made up of the men of 25 Danish ships at the Battle of Carhampton in Somerset, in the very heart of Wessex. The Danes appeared again in 838, this time in alliance with the Cymri of Cornwall, but Egbert (who died in the following year after a long 37 year reign) defeated both at Hingston Down so that the Danes and Cornish were forced to withdraw. Egbert was succeeded by Athelstan, a son, as sub-King of the small Kingdoms (Kent, Sussex, Essex and Middlesex) and by another son, Ethelwulf, as King of Wessex, indicating once again a tendency of the Anglo-Saxons to divide before they unify.
The Danes reappeared in 840, not merely to raid and to leave but to survive through the winter on English soil. The armies are increasing in size as well. In that year, Ealdorman Wulfheard has to beat off 37 shiploads of raiders at Southampton. Another Ealdorman, Aethelhun, has to fight them off at Portland but is defeated and killed while there is a slaughter of Saxons in the Romney Marshes with the killing of Ealdorman Herebryht in the following year. This force then undertook a programme of murder, rape and plunder along the Kentish, Essex and Lincolnsire coasts throughout 841 and down the Thames estuary in 842, killing many in Rochester and London. The outcome of this particular set of raids was only resolved (temporarily) with a Saxon defeat (led by Ealdorman Earnulf of Somerset and Ealdorman Osric of Dorset) of a Danish army at the River Parrett in 845. There will be more raids to come but Wessex appeared to have had sufficient resilience to mount a military challenge to the raiders when necessary. Whether it could sustain this costly resistance as the Danish armies grew in size, tactical ability and sheer greed would be the issue that would dominate the ninth century.
Saturday 9 January 2016
797-834: Avoiding the Mistakes of the British
In the last posting we saw the arrival of the 'Heathen Men' (the Vikings) in raids on Lindisfarne, Jarrow and Iona in the mid-790s. We have classed these raiders, like the Saxons of the 360s and later, as a form of hungry organised crime. The Roman Empire had been able to hold the Saxons at bay for a while because it was a unified and relatively efficient structure that could command the necessary resources. Britain only became England because the Romans left and because what remained was a set of petty Kingdoms quarrelling with themselves as much as seeking to resist interlopers. We recall that the English invasion started in earnest when the nearest thing to a British 'bretwalda' [Vortigern] invited one set of invaders [the Saxons] in to deal with another [the Picts]. So, before looking at the progress of the Viking raids and how Wessex managed to avert the fate of Vortigern's Britain, we have to look at just how divided and so potentially vulnerable the Anglo-Saxons were to this new incursion, an incursion that might be regarded as a form of poetic justice from the point of view of the Cymry.
At the opening of the period, the dominant petty state is still Mercia. Perhaps Mercia (as we have suggested) could have become strong enough to be the 'Wessex' of the later period. While the Vikings were threatening the North, Mercian ambitions were largely directed at rival Kingdoms. Kent, for example, was laid waste by Cenwulf of Mercia in 798 when it attempted to recover its independence. The Kentish King Eadbert was taken to Mercia, blinded and had his hands cut off. The Kingdom was not made into a tributary but was effectively destroyed, with Cenwulf's brother, Cuthred, acting as Governor (though titled King of Kent). Anglo-Saxon campaigning (noting the laying waste of Cornwall by Egbert of Wessex in 815) and violent court politics continues but without a final resolution until Egbert of Wessex appears. When Cenwulf of Mercia dies in 821 and is succeeded by Ceolwulf, it seems almost normal for Cenwulf's seven year old son to be murdered. Ceolwulf is deposed two years later and succeeded by Beornwulf and so on and so forth.
The two great players by the mid-820s are the chaotic Mercia and the more disciplined Wessex. They eventually came to blows at the Battle of Ellandun (825) in Wiltshire. Egbert of Wessex defeated the Mercians, gaining overlordship over the minor Kingdoms of Kent, Sussex and Essex. Beornwulf is was killed that year by the East Anglians, the fourth of the small South Eastern Kingdoms, but the main change is that Kent, Sussex and Essex are now to be ruled over directly by the Kings of the West Saxons. This unites all Southern England under one dynastic house capable of undertaking some resistance to the Vikings who have not yet emerged as a major force in Southern Britain.
In 827, the possibility of a unified approach is enhanced by Egbert of Wessex's conquest of Mercia, thoroughly weakened by another round of dynastic blood-letting. Egbert of Wessex is now the eighth King or 'bretwalda' to control all England south of the Humber. The early bretwaldas were simply the dominant minor kings of their day (Aelle of Sussex, Ceawlin of a much smaller Wessex, Aethenbryht of Kent, Redwald of East Anglia) but this is the first serious unification of the majority of the English since the age of the Northumbrian Kings Edwin, Oswald and Oswy. Not even Offa had achieved so much.
An acquisition of power in Early English history is never simple or complete. The Mercians make a brief come-back in 830 but the successes of Egbert of Wessex mean that, when the Danes do arrive in force in 835/836, we have one centre of power that can 'roll with the punches' and command greater resources, backed by the power of a Church with a clear interest in defeating the 'heathens' if they cannot be converted. The more divided (internally and externally) Mercian world would be unlikely to be able to do this so the rise of Wessex does seem to presage the survival of England - a territory that might otherwise now be speaking a version of Danish. A severely weakened Northumbria and the smaller Southern Kingdoms would never have been able to command the necessary resources in themselves. The question is simply whether Wessex was internally stable enough and administratively competent enough not only to do what Ambrosius Aurelianus is said to have done to check the Saxon raids after Vortigern but to have sustained that defence and built on it to expel the raider in a way that Ambrosius Aurelianus's successors could not.
At the opening of the period, the dominant petty state is still Mercia. Perhaps Mercia (as we have suggested) could have become strong enough to be the 'Wessex' of the later period. While the Vikings were threatening the North, Mercian ambitions were largely directed at rival Kingdoms. Kent, for example, was laid waste by Cenwulf of Mercia in 798 when it attempted to recover its independence. The Kentish King Eadbert was taken to Mercia, blinded and had his hands cut off. The Kingdom was not made into a tributary but was effectively destroyed, with Cenwulf's brother, Cuthred, acting as Governor (though titled King of Kent). Anglo-Saxon campaigning (noting the laying waste of Cornwall by Egbert of Wessex in 815) and violent court politics continues but without a final resolution until Egbert of Wessex appears. When Cenwulf of Mercia dies in 821 and is succeeded by Ceolwulf, it seems almost normal for Cenwulf's seven year old son to be murdered. Ceolwulf is deposed two years later and succeeded by Beornwulf and so on and so forth.
The two great players by the mid-820s are the chaotic Mercia and the more disciplined Wessex. They eventually came to blows at the Battle of Ellandun (825) in Wiltshire. Egbert of Wessex defeated the Mercians, gaining overlordship over the minor Kingdoms of Kent, Sussex and Essex. Beornwulf is was killed that year by the East Anglians, the fourth of the small South Eastern Kingdoms, but the main change is that Kent, Sussex and Essex are now to be ruled over directly by the Kings of the West Saxons. This unites all Southern England under one dynastic house capable of undertaking some resistance to the Vikings who have not yet emerged as a major force in Southern Britain.
In 827, the possibility of a unified approach is enhanced by Egbert of Wessex's conquest of Mercia, thoroughly weakened by another round of dynastic blood-letting. Egbert of Wessex is now the eighth King or 'bretwalda' to control all England south of the Humber. The early bretwaldas were simply the dominant minor kings of their day (Aelle of Sussex, Ceawlin of a much smaller Wessex, Aethenbryht of Kent, Redwald of East Anglia) but this is the first serious unification of the majority of the English since the age of the Northumbrian Kings Edwin, Oswald and Oswy. Not even Offa had achieved so much.
An acquisition of power in Early English history is never simple or complete. The Mercians make a brief come-back in 830 but the successes of Egbert of Wessex mean that, when the Danes do arrive in force in 835/836, we have one centre of power that can 'roll with the punches' and command greater resources, backed by the power of a Church with a clear interest in defeating the 'heathens' if they cannot be converted. The more divided (internally and externally) Mercian world would be unlikely to be able to do this so the rise of Wessex does seem to presage the survival of England - a territory that might otherwise now be speaking a version of Danish. A severely weakened Northumbria and the smaller Southern Kingdoms would never have been able to command the necessary resources in themselves. The question is simply whether Wessex was internally stable enough and administratively competent enough not only to do what Ambrosius Aurelianus is said to have done to check the Saxon raids after Vortigern but to have sustained that defence and built on it to expel the raider in a way that Ambrosius Aurelianus's successors could not.
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