Even with the death of the King of Northumbria failed to satisfy the lust for conquest of Ivar and his brothers. After the death of the Northumbrian King, they advance to conquer the other Saxon Kingdoms of England.
War with Mercia and
East Anglia
After the fall of York, the Heathn Army took the whole southern region of Northumbria called Deira.
They then focused their attention to take the Saxon Kingdom of Mercia that held the center of England.
They took Nottingham and set it up as their winter quarters. After winter,
the Army then faced the combined might of Mercian King Burhred and Wessex King
Ethelred. But luckily, before the Great Heathen Army fought the Saxon Army in battlefield, Ivar and his brothers agreed to a truce after a
danegeld payment by King Burhred. Following the peace with Mercia, the army returned to York and consolidated their hold there.
After
staying in York for a year, the Great Heathen Army mobilized this time against the Kingdom of East Anglia. They arrived in Thetford and set
up their headquarters for the campaign. Ivar and his brother Ubbi won great
victories, subduing East Anglian King Edmund, who they later captured and
executed. Danish England then came out of the conquest of Deira and East
Anglia.
As
East Anglia fell, Ivar decided to leave for Dublin in 870. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle then silenced about Ivar. Some speculated that Ivar was Imar in the
Ulster Chronicles of Ireland. The Irish chronicle stated, Ivar returned to
Ireland in 871 with Angles, Britons and Picts captives, probably to work as
slaves. The last entry for Ivar was in 873 when the Ulster Chronicle stated,
“Imar (Ivar), King of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain, ended his life.”
First Invasion of
Wessex and Fall of Mercia
His
brothers and other Viking leaders, on the other hand, took over the Great
Heathen Army. Halfdan led a part of the Heathen Army to attack the southern
Kingdom of Wessex, ruled by King Ethelred.
Wessex,
proved to be a challenge due to its geography. It lacked rivers that connect
the sea to the hinterlands and its border composed of ridges facing north, which
served as a natural wall. Nevertheless, this did not stop the Great Heathen
Army.
Halfdan
met Ethelred in numerous battles. The Heathen Army met strong resistance, scoring both victories and defeats, most notably in Ashdown in 871. In the
middle of the war, however, King Ethelred passed away, leaving his brother
Alfred to assume the throne. The Heathen Army fought Alfred and weakened the new King's army. With winter coming, however,
Halfdan accepted a truce with Alfred that led to payment of danegeld.
With peace with Wessex, the Heathen Army then turned its attention back to
Mercia, restarting the kingdom's. With Wessex in peace
with the Vikings, King Burhred had no one to ask for aids. Finally in 874 Mercia
fell and King Burhred escaped to the continent and later passed away in Rome.
By
the time the Heathen Army had placed most of England to the Viking fold, they
numbered to thousands of men. They grew as new Earls and Viking parties arrived and
joined after news of their victories spread. Their numbers grew so large that
in 875 in managed to divide itself between high level Viking leaders to protect
the borders and consolidate their hold on Danish England. Halfdan led a portion of
the army to protect their holdings against hostile Picts. Guthrum, another
Viking leader, led another part of the army to East Anglia.
The Rise of Danish Settlements
In
876, Halfdan set up rule in Mercia. Half of the kingdom, the so-called Five
Borough (Yorkshire, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby, and Leicester) became the new
home for Danish settlers. All of the early Danish settlers were families of the
men who fought in the Great Heathen Army. Earls received their lands as a reward for their contribution and moved their families to settle in the new lands. The early settlements, as Winston
Churchill said, were “essentially military” with warriors and their families
living inside palisades.
On the other half of Mercia, they established a puppet
ruler in 877 with a King named Ceolwulf, who had to give tributes in form of
gold or men to his Viking overlords.
Alfred the Great and
Creation of Danelaw
But
besides protecting the Five Boroughs, Guthrum also eyed to subjugate finally
Wessex, the last bastion of Saxon resistance to the Great Heathen Army. Wessex’s
geographic features once again helped the Saxons in their defense. But in
addition to geographic features, Guthrum faced a determined and stubborn opposition
of King Alfred.
Another
problem arrived from the loss of many men in 877. Off the cost of Swanage, 120
ships said to have sunk due to a strong storm. The storm caused the fall of hundreds or even thousands of men. Nevertheless, the Heathen Army remained strong against
any of Alfred’s onslaught.
In January 5, 878
(Twelfth Night), Guthrum outwitted Alfred. The Heathen Army launched a surprise
attack on Chippenham, where Alfred stayed for winter. The surprise attack scattered
Alfred’s followers and forced him to hide in the swampy island of Athelney.
Guthrum’s
conquest of Wessex, however, never ended as long as Alfred remained. Alfred gathered men and rebuilt his army to continue his resistance. Few months
after the fall of Chippenham, he attacked Viking forces in Devon to secure
his rear. Then, he attacked eastward, towards Ethandun (Eddington).
Guthrum
brought the Heathen Army to Ethandun to put an end to Alfred’s reign. But the
battle went wrong for the Vikings and they retreated to there fortress and faced a siege. Hopelessly surrounded, Guthrum
submitted to Alfred and negotiated a treaty at Wedmore.
The
Treaty allowed the Vikings to leave Wessex under the condition of Guthrum’s
conversion to Christianity, taking Alfred as his godfather. The Viking warlord then
withdrew his troops to East Anglia. After the war with Alfred, they began to settle
to their lands. Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford, along with
Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and London, formed what became known as Danelaw.
Impact of the Great
Heathen Army
The
impact and significance of the Great Heathen Army laid in the country
established of its conquest – the Danelaw. From their battles and from their
efforts, Danes managed to conquer most of England from which they set their
roots. Their families who built settlements in the Danelaw influence the local
language and customs. And their people too also adopted ways of the locals,
most importantly Christianity.
The
conversion of Guthrum to Christianity led to the quick spread of the religion
within the Danes in Danelaw. Their conversion led to easier relations with
locals and later on their assimilation among the populace.
As
for the Great Heathen Army’s impact in Viking culture, they showed the strength
of Vikings in large numbers. They showed flexibility in making changes their
ways from small raiding parties to large and even conventional fighting.
Combined with strong leadership, the Great Heathen Army managed to unify a huge
part of England and create a new state. Their achievement, laid the foundation for the later creation of the Kingdom of England.
See also:
Bibliography:
Books:
Churchill, Winston. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples v. 1. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1963.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Peterson, Gary Dean. Vikings and Goths: A History of Ancient and Medieval Sweden. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2016.
Websites:
“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Ninth Century.” In The Avalon Project. Accessed on January 23, 2017. URL: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang09.asp#b36
“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Ninth Century.” In The Avalon Project. Accessed on January 23, 2017. URL: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang09.asp#b36
“The Annals of Ulster.” In CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts. Accessed on January 24, 2017. URL: http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/T100001A/
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.