Blood of the Vikings

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Blood of the Vikings

Norse activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Mediaeval period, when members of the Norse populations of Scandinavia travelled 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.

In Scandinavia, the 8th century proved to be an age of rapid technological, economic and social development among the North Germanic peoples, leading to a period of widespread dominance that 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. 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.

In the final decade of the 8th century, 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 unprotected targets for attack. Historian Peter Hunter Blair remarked that the Viking raiders would have been astonished "at finding so many communities which housed considerable wealth and whose inhabitants carried no arms."

Both Orkney and Shetland saw a significant influx of Norwegian settlers during the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Vikings made the islands the headquarters of their pirate expeditions carried out against Norway and the coasts of mainland Scotland. In response, Norwegian king Harald Hårfagre annexed the Northern Isles (comprising Orkney and Shetland) in 875. The Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles was created by Godred Crovan in 1079 after the Battle of Skyhill. During Viking times, the islands of this kingdom were called the Súðreyjar or Sudreys ("southern isles") in contrast to the Norðreyjar ("northern isles") of Orkney and Shetland.

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 Great. 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.

Under the reign of Wessex King Edgar the Peaceful, England came to be politically unified, with Edgar recognised as king of all England by both Anglo-Saxon and Norse populations living in the country. However, under the regimes of his son Edward the Martyr, who was murdered in 978, and then Æthelred the Unready, the political stength of the English monarchy waned. 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.