The Cambridge Medieval History - Book XII: The Viking Invasions, the Kingdom of England, and the Western Caliphate

By Allen Mawer, Rafael Altamira and William Corbett

THE term Viking is a derivative of the Old Norse Vik, a creek, bay or fiord, and means one who haunts such an opening and uses it as a base whence raids may be made on the surrounding country. The word is now commonly applied to those Norsemen, Danes and Swedes who harried Europe from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in such phrases as ‘the Viking age’, ‘Viking civilization’, is used in a still wider sense as a convenient term for Scandinavian civilization at a particular stage in its development. It is in this larger sense that the term is used in the present chapter, covering the activities of the Northmen in peace as well as in war. The term Viking in its narrower sense is no more descriptive of this age than ‘Buccaneering’ would be of the age of Elizabeth.
Except along the narrow line of the Eider, Scandinavia has no land-boundaries of importance and is naturally severed from the rest of Europe. Though known to Greek and Roman geographers and historians, it was almost entirely unaffected by Roman civilization. It was not till the Scandinavian peoples were driven by stress of circumstance to find fresh homes, that they found that the sea instead of dividing them from the rest of Europe really furnished them with a ready and easy path of attack against those nations of North-West Europe who had either neglected or forgotten the art of seamanship.
The history of the Teutonic North from the middle of the sixth to the end of the eighth century is almost a blank, at least in so far as history concerns itself with the record of definite events. During the first half of the sixth century there had been considerable activity in Denmark and Southern Sweden. About the year 520 Chocilaicus, King of the Danes, or, according to another authority, of the Getae (i.e. Götar) in South Sweden, made a raid on the territory of the Franks on the Lower Rhine, but was defeated and slain by Theudibert, son of the Frankish king Theodoric, as he was withdrawing from Frisia with extensive plunder. This expedition finds poetic record in the exploits of Hygelac, King of the Geats, in Beowulf. Some forty years later there is mention of them in Venantius Fortunatus’s eulogy of Duke Lupus of Champagne. They were now in union with the Saxons and made a raid on Western Frisia, but were soon driven back by the Franks. From this time until the first landing of Vikings near Dorchester (c.787), the earliest attacks on the coast of France against which Charles the Great made defence in 800, and the first encounter between the Danes and Franks on the borders of Southern Denmark in 808, we know almost nothing of the history of Scandinavia, at least in so far as we look for information in the annals or histories of the time...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Perennial Press
• Release date: Feb 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781531235062

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THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY - BOOK XII

The Viking Invasions, the Kingdom of England, and the Western Caliphate

Allen Mawer, William Corbett, and Rafael Altamira

PERENNIAL PRESS

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Copyright © 2016 by Allen Mawer, William Corbett, and Rafael Altamira

Published by Perennial Press

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

ISBN: 9781531235062

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE VIKINGS, by Allen Mawer

Early raids on England and Ireland

St. Anskar

The Vikings in Spain

Olaf the White

Ragnarr Lodbrók

The Vikings in France, Spain and Italy

The Vikings in France and England

Scandinavian kings in Northumbria

King Svein and King Knut

The Jómsvikings

The Swedes in Russia

Viking civilization

Ships

Influence in Ireland Scotland, Man and the Isles

Influence in Northumbria, the Five Boroughs and East Anglia

Influence on law and society

THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND, by William Corbett

Wales in the eighth century.Nennius

Coenwulf and ArchbishopWulfred.Beornwulf

Ecgbert of Wessex. Conquest of Cornwall

Battle ofEllandun. Ecgbert conquers Kent

Character of the struggle with the Vikings

Wales under Rhodri. Scotland under Kenneth

Accession of Alfred

Danes settle in Northumbria and the Five Boroughs

Battle of Edington.

Alfred’s laws and literary activity

Death of Alfred. Edward the Elder. Battle ofHolme

Aetheyeda, the Lady of theMercians

Reign ofAethelstan. Battle ofBrunanburh

Reign of Edmund. ArchbishopOda

Reign ofEadred. Final submission of the North

ENGLAND FROM AD 954 TO THE DEATH OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, by William Corbett

Edgar’s administrative measures

Reign of Edward the Martyr

OlafTryggvason. The Massacre of St Brice’s Day

EdmundIronside. Battle ofAshington

Accession of Edward the Confessor

Return of Godwin. Flight of the foreigners

Death of Godwin. War with Scotland

Rivalry of Earl Harold and EarlAelfgar

TheRectitudinesSingularumPersonarum

Sake andSokein Edward’s day

THE WESTERN CALIPHATE, Rafael Altamira

Abd-ar-Rahman I

The Umayyad Emirate

Abd-ar-Rahman II

Mahomet I

Abd-ar-Rahman III

Rise of Castile

Almanzor

Fall of the Caliphate

Muslim Spain;

Leon and Castile; their nobles and towns

THE VIKINGS, BY ALLEN MAWER

~

THE TERM VIKING IS A derivative of the Old Norse Vik, a creek, bay or fiord, and means one who haunts such an opening and uses it as a base whence raids may be made on the surrounding country. The word is now commonly applied to those Norsemen, Danes and Swedes who harried Europe from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in such phrases as ‘the Viking age’, ‘Viking civilization’, is used in a still wider sense as a convenient term for Scandinavian civilization at a particular stage in its development. It is in this larger sense that the term is used in the present chapter, covering the activities of the Northmen in peace as well as in war. The term Viking in its narrower sense is no more descriptive of this age than ‘Buccaneering’ would be of the age of Elizabeth.

Except along the narrow line of the Eider, Scandinavia has no land-boundaries of importance and is naturally severed from the rest of Europe. Though known to Greek and Roman geographers and historians, it was almost entirely unaffected by Roman civilization. It was not till the Scandinavian peoples were driven by stress of circumstance to find fresh homes, that they found that the sea instead of dividing them from the rest of Europe really furnished them with a ready and easy path of attack against those nations of North-West Europe who had either neglected or forgotten the art of seamanship.

The history of the Teutonic North from the middle of the sixth to the end of the eighth century is almost a blank, at least in so far as history concerns itself with the record of definite events. During the first half of the sixth century there had been considerable activity in Denmark and Southern Sweden. About the year 520 Chocilaicus, King of the Danes, or, according to another authority, of the Getae (i.e. Götar) in South Sweden, made a raid on the territory of the Franks on the Lower Rhine, but was defeated and slain by Theudibert, son of the Frankish king Theodoric, as he was withdrawing from Frisia with extensive plunder. This expedition finds poetic record in the exploits of Hygelac, King of the Geats, in Beowulf. Some forty years later there is mention of them in Venantius Fortunatus’s eulogy of Duke Lupus of Champagne. They were now in union with the Saxons and made a raid on Western Frisia, but were soon driven back by the Franks. From this time until the first landing of Vikings near Dorchester (c.787), the earliest attacks on the coast of France against which Charles the Great made defence in 800, and the first encounter between the Danes and Franks on the borders of Southern Denmark in 808, we know almost nothing of the history of Scandinavia, at least in so far as we look for information in the annals or histories of the time.

The story of these two hundred years has to some extent been pieced together from scraps of historical, philological and archaeological evidence. Professor Zimmer showed that it was possible, that the attacks of unknown pirates on the island of Eigg in the Hebrides and on Tory Island off Donegal, described in certain Irish annals of the seventh century, were really the work of early Viking invaders, and that the witness of Irish legends and sagas tends to prove that already by the end of the seventh century Irish missionaries were settled in the Shetlands and Faroes, where they soon came into contact with the Northmen. Evidence for the advance from the other side, of the Northmen towards the West and South, has been found by Dr Jakobsen in his work on the place-names of the Shetlands. He has shown that many of these names must be due to Norse settlements from a period long before the recognized Viking movements of the ninth century. Archaeological evidence can also be adduced in support of this belief in early intercourse between Scandinavia and the islands of the West. Sculptured stones found in the island of Gothland show already by 700 clear evidence of Celtic art influence. Indeed archaeologists are now agreed that in the eighth century and even earlier there were trade connections between Scandinavia and the West. Long before English or Irish, Franks or Frisians, knew the Northmen as Viking raiders, they had been familiar with them in peaceful mercantile intercourse, and it is probable that in the eighth century there were a good number of Scandinavian merchants settled in Western Europe. Their influence on the trade of the West was only exceeded by that of the Frisians, who were the chief trading and naval power of the seventh and eighth centuries, and it is most probable that it was the crushing of Frisian power by Charles Martel in 734 and their final subjection by Charles the Great towards the close of the eighth century which helped to prepare the way for the great Viking advance.

About the year 800 the relations between the North and West Germanic peoples underwent a great change both in character and extent. We find the coasts of England, Ireland, Frisia and France attacked by Viking raiders, while on the southern borders of Denmark there was constant friction between the kings of that country and the forces of the Empire. The question has often been asked: What were the causes of this sudden outburst of hostile activity on the part of the Northmen? Monkish chroniclers said they were sent by God in punishment for the sins of the age; Norman tradition as preserved by Dudo and William of Jumièges attributed the raids to the necessity for expansion consequent on over-population. Polygamy had led to a rapid increase of population, and many of the youth of the country were driven forth to gain fresh lands for themselves elsewhere. Polygamy does not necessarily lead to over-population, but polygamy among the ruling classes, as it prevailed in the North, means a large number of younger sons for whom provision must be made, and it is quite possible that stress of circumstance caused many such to visit foreign lands on Viking raids. Of the political condition of the Scandinavian countries we know very little at this time. We hear however in Denmark in the early years of the ninth century of long disputes as to the succession, and it is probable that difficulties of this kind may have prompted many to go on foreign expeditions. In Norway we know that the growth of the power of Harold Fairhair in the middle portion of the ninth century led to the adoption of a Viking life by many of the more independent spirits, and it is quite possible that earlier efforts towards consolidation among the petty Norwegian kings may have produced similar effects. Social and political conditions may thus have worked together, preparing the ground for Scandinavian activity in the ninth century, and it was perhaps, as suggested above, the destruction of Frisian power which removed the last check on the energy of the populous nations of the North.

EARLY RAIDS ON ENGLAND AND IRELAND

The first definite record of Viking invasion is probably that found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (s.a. 787), which tells of the coming of Danish ships to England in the days of Beorhtric, King of Wessex. They landed in the neighborhood of Dorchester and slew the king’s reeve. Certain versions of the Chronicle call them ships of the Northmen and tell us that they came from ‘Herethaland’. There can be little doubt that this is the West Norwegian district of Hörthaland, and that ‘Northmen’ here, as elsewhere in the Chronicle, means Norwegians. The term ‘Danish’ is probably generic for Scandinavian, the chronicler using the name of the nationality best known to him. In June 793 the church at Lindisfarne was destroyed, and a year later the monastery of St Paul at Jarrow. In 795 Vikings landed in Skye and visited Lambay Island off Dublin, and in 798 the Isle of Man. These invaders were certainly Norse, for the Irish annalists mention expressly the first arrival of the Danes in Ireland in 849, and draw a rigid distinction between the Norwegian or ‘white’ foreigners and the Danish or ‘black’ ones.

England was not troubled again by Viking raiders until 835, but the attacks on Ireland continued almost without cessation. Iona was destroyed in 802; by 807 the invaders had penetrated inland as far as Roscommon, and four years later they had made their way round the west coast of Ireland as far as Cork. In 821 the Howth peninsula was plundered and during the next few years the rich monasteries of North Ireland were destroyed. By the year 834 the Northmen had visited nearly the whole of the island and no place was safe from their raids. About this time there came a change in the character of the attacks in that large fleets began to anchor in the loughs and harbors and estuaries with which the coast of Ireland abounds. Thence they made lengthy raids on the surrounding country, often staying the whole winter through, instead of paying summer visits only as they had done hitherto. At the same time they often strengthened their base by the erection of forts on the shores of the waters in which they had established themselves.

When the Viking raids were resumed in England in 835 it is fairly certain that they were the work of Danish and not of Norwegian invaders. The Norsemen had found other fields of activity in Ireland, while the Danes who had already visited the chief estuaries of the Frankish coast now crossed to England. At first their attacks were directed towards the southern shores of Britain, but by 841 they had penetrated into Lindsey and East Anglia. London and Rochester were sacked in 842. In 851 the Danes wintered in Thanet and four years later they stayed in Sheppey. The Danish fleet in this year numbered some 350 ships. It was probably this same fleet, somewhat reduced in numbers, which in 852 sailed round Britain and captured Dublin. With the winterings in Thanet and Sheppey the Viking invasions of England had reached the same stage of development as in Ireland. We have passed from the period of isolated raids to that of persistent attacks with a view to permanent conquest.

The mainland of Western Europe was also exposed during these years to attacks of a twofold character. In the first place, trouble arose on the boundary between Southern Denmark and Frankish territory owing to the desire of the Danish kings to extend their authority southward: in the second, constant raids were made along the whole of the shores of Europe from Frisia to Aquitaine.

The friction between the Danes and their neighbors on the south was continuous through the last years of the eighth and the greater part of the ninth century. Charles the Great by his campaigns against the Saxons and Nordalbingians had advanced towards the Danish boundary on the Eider, and the Danes first gave offence in 777 when their king Sigefridus (Old Norse Sigurör) gave shelter to the Saxon patriot Widukind. Gradually the Frankish power advanced, and in 809 a fort was established at Itzehoe (Esesfeld) on the Stör, north of the Elbe. The Danes also made advances on their side and in 804 their king Godefridus collected a fleet and army at Slesvik (Schleswig). In 808 after a successful campaign against the Obotrites, a Slavonic people in modern Mecklenburg, he constructed a boundary wall for his kingdom, stretching from the Baltic to the Eider. He received tribute not only from the Obotrites but also from the Nordalbingians and Frisians. He was preparing to attack Charles the Great himself when he died suddenly by the hand of a retainer in 810. There can be little doubt that this Godefridus is to be identified with the Gotricus of Saxo Grammaticus and Gudrodr the Yngling of Scandinavian tradition. If that is so, Gudrodr-Godefridus was slain in Stifla Sound (probably on the coast of Vestfold), and was king not only of Denmark, but also of much of Southern Norway, including Vestfold, Vingulmork, and perhaps Agtir, as well as of Vermland in Sweden.

Later events confirm the evidence for the existence of a Dano-Norwegian kingdom of this kind. In 812 a dispute as to the succession arose between Sigefridus, nepos to king Gudrodr, and Anulo, nepos to a former king Herioldus (O.N. Haraldr) or Harold (probably the famous Harold Hyldetan slain at the battle of Bravalla). Both claimants were slain in fight but the party of Anulo were victorious. Anulo’s brothers, Harold and Reginfredus (O.N. Ragnfrodr), became joint kings, and soon after we hear of their going to Vestfold, the extreme district of their realm, whose people and chiefs were refusing to be made subject to them. Fortune fluctuated between Harold and the sons of Godefridus during the next few years, but Harold secured the support of the Emperor when he accepted baptism at Mayence in 826, with his wife, son and nephew. After his baptism he returned to Denmark through Frisia, where the Emperor had granted him Riustringen as a retreat in case of necessity. An attempt to regain Denmark was frustrated, and Harold probably availed himself of his Frisian grant during the next few years. The next incident belongs to the year 836, when Horic (0.N. Harekr), one of the sons of Godefridus, sent an embassy to Louis the Pious denying complicity in the Viking raids made on Frisia at that time, and these denials continued during the next few years. In 837 Hemmingus (O.N. Hemmingr), probably a brother of Harold, and himself a Christian, was slain while defending the island of Walcheren against pirates. These two incidents are important as they tend to show that the Viking raids were rather individual than national enterprises and that there was an extensive peaceful settlement of Danes in Frisia. In addition to the grant of Riustringen the Emperor had assigned (826) another part of Frisia to Rorie (O.N. Hroerekr), a brother of Harold, on condition that he should ward off piratical attacks.

ST. ANSKAR

It was during these years that the influence of Christianity first made itself felt in Scandinavia. The earliest knowledge of Christianity probably came, as is so often the case, with the extension of trade. Danes and Swedes settled in Friesland and elsewhere for purposes of trade, and either they or their emissaries must have made the white Christ known to their heathen countrymen. The first definite mission to the North was undertaken by St Willibrord at the beginning of the eighth century. He was favorably received by the Danish king Ongendus (O.N. Angantyr), but his mission was without fruit. In 822 Pope Paschal appointed Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, as his legate among the northern peoples. He undertook a mission to Denmark in 823 and made a few converts. But it was in 826, when King Harold was baptized and prepared to return to Denmark, that the first opportunity of preaching Christianity in Denmark really came. With the opportunity came the man, and Harold was accompanied on his return by Anskar, who more than any other deserves to be called Apostle of the Scandinavian North. Leaving his monastery at Corvey (Corbie) in Saxony, and filled with zeal to preach the gospel to the heathen, Anskar made many converts, but Harold’s ill-success in regaining the sovereignty injured his mission in Denmark and, two years later, at the request of the Swedes themselves, he preached the gospel in Sweden, receiving a welcome at Birca (Björkö) from the Swedish king Bern (O.N. Bjorn). After a year and a half’s mission in Sweden, Anskar was recalled and made Archbishop of Hamburg and given, jointly with Ebbo, jurisdiction over the whole of the northern realms. Gautbert was made first bishop of Sweden and founded a church at Sigtuna, but after a few years’ work he was expelled in a popular rising. Little progress was made in Denmark. No churches were established, but Anskar did a good deal in training Danish youths in Christian principles at his school in Hamburg.

Anskar’s position became a very difficult one when the lands from which his income was derived passed to Charles the Bald, and still more so when the seat of his jurisdiction was destroyed by the Danes in 845. Louis the German made amends by appointing him to the bishopric of Bremen, afterwards united to a restored archbishopric of Hamburg. Anskar now set himself to the task of gaining influence first with King Horic, and later with his successor Horic the Younger. He was so far successful that the first Christian church in Denmark was established at Slesvik, followed soon after by one at Ribe. He also concerned himself with Sweden once more, gaining authority for his mission by undertaking embassies from both Honk and Louis. He obtained permission for the preaching of Christianity and continued his activities to the day of his death in 865. Anskar had done much for Christianity in the North. His own fiery zeal had however been ill supported even by his chosen followers, and the tangible results were few. Christianity had found a hearing in Denmark and Sweden, but Norway was as yet untouched. A few churches had been built in the southern part of both countries, a certain number of adherents had been gained among the nobles and trading classes, but the mass of the people remained untouched. The first introduction of Christianity was too closely bound up with the political and diplomatic relations of Northern Europe for it to be otherwise, and the episcopal organization was far more elaborate than was required.

With the death of Louis the Pious in 840 a change took place in the relations between Danes and