Alfred Defeats the Danes
The conflict between Alfred of Wessex and the Danish Vikings marks a significant period in English history, characterized by invasions that began in the late 8th century. The Vikings, originating from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, launched numerous raids across England, establishing a reputation for their military prowess. By the mid-9th century, a formidable Viking force, known as the Great Army, began a systematic campaign against English kingdoms, capturing key territories and instilling fear. Alfred, who became king of Wessex in 871, initially sought to buy peace from the Danes through payments, but the situation escalated when the Vikings launched surprise attacks.
In 878, after a period of guerrilla warfare, Alfred achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Edington, forcing the Danish leader, Guthrum, and his forces to retreat. This victory not only secured Wessex but also led to Guthrum's conversion to Christianity, symbolizing a significant cultural shift. The events surrounding Alfred’s leadership and the subsequent peace treaty with the Danes are celebrated in English folklore, showcasing his role in unifying the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and establishing a foundation for future governance. The legacy of this conflict resonates through the historical narrative of England, highlighting themes of resilience, adaptation, and the complex interplay of cultures during this tumultuous era.
Alfred Defeats the Danes
Date 878
Locale Wiltshire, Wessex, England
King Alfred defeated the Danes at Edington, encouraging further Anglo-Saxon resistance against Viking invasion and establishing the foundation for his transition from king of Wessex to king of the English.
Key Figures
Æthelred I (d. 871), king of Wessex, r. 866-871, and elder brother of Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great (849-899), king of Wessex, r. 871-899Asser (d. c. 909), Alfred' biographer, a monk from St. David' (Wales), and later bishop of Sherborne (Somerset)Guthrum (d. 890), self-appointed Danish king of East Anglia, r. 880-890Ragnar Lothbrok (fl. ninth century), Viking leaderHalfdan (fl. ninth century), son of the Viking chief Ragnar Lothbrok, conqueror of YorkIvar the Boneless (fl. ninth century), Halfdan' brother and conqueror of East Anglia
Summary of Event
The Vikings, invaders from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, first arrived in England in 789 and raided Dorchester, Wessex, then under Mercian control. The raiders did not commit any plunder but exhibited their superior strength. When the royal reeve from Dorchester commanded them to meet the king (Brihtric), he was killed on the spot. In 793, the Vikings sacked the monastery of Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumbria. The following year, they hit the monastery of Jarrow at the mouth of the Don. Nearly half a century later, in 835, a Danish raiding party devastated the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary. In 836, thirty-five Viking ships landed at Carhampton (Somerset), but King Egbert put up a stiff resistance. Two years later, a Viking fleet joined forces with the Britons of Cornwall, but the allies were defeated by Egbert’s West Saxon army at Hingston Down.
A more serious phase of Viking operations in England began when they took to wintering on island bases in the river mouths, conveniently situated for quick resumption of campaigning at the onset of spring. In 851, after wintering on the Isle of Thanet, an army of 350 ships stormed Canterbury and London. It routed the army of King Berhtwulf of Mercia but was defeated by Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, and his son Æthelbald at Aclea (“oak field”) in Surrey.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 865 records how the people of Kent promised the Viking army at Thanet protection money, or Danegeld, and how the heathens broke their promise. In 866, a Great Army of Danes commanded by two brothers, Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, took up winter quarters in East Anglia, and the East Angles paid them money to buy their peace. For fifteen years, this army terrorized England. According to Scandinavian folklore, the two young Danes wished to avenge the horrible murder of their father Ragnar Lothbrok, “Hairy Breeches,” the most notorious Viking of his time. Evidently some years earlier, Ragnar’s ships had been wrecked by a great storm off the Northumbrian coast. He was captured by the Northumbrian king, Ælle, and flung into a pit of adders where the violent Viking met a horrible death.
The Great Army conquered York in 866, East Anglia in 868, and by 870 had seized Reading at the junction of the Thames and Kennet Rivers. In January, 871, they were checked by Alfred the Atheling, brother of King Æthelred I of Wessex, who, as Asser, a monk from St. David’, writes, charged the enemy “acting courageously, like a wild boar,” cutting them down at Ashdown. Although the Vikings were vanquished, they held their own and fought nine more battles that year. In April, 871, Alfred became king of Wessex on his brother’s death and decided to make peace by paying protection money to the Danish host. The Danes then turned to Mercia, forced King Burhred to abdicate in 874, and in his place appointed one of the royal thegns, Ceolwulf II, “a foolish king’s thegn,” in the contemptuous phraseology of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The peace that Alfred bought from the Danes gave his kingdom a respite for reorganizing its defense, though it must be recognized that the West Saxon army, the fyrd (national militia), was nothing more than an emergency force, though quite effective and expedient. Neither ealdorman nor king could keep it in the field indefinitely nor lead it far beyond the borders of the shire(county) of its origin. The inability to keep a battle-worthy army constantly at hand resulted in the near-destruction of Wessex when the second Viking invasion began toward the end of 875. This was the southern division of the army, commanded by the three kings: Oscetel, Anwend, and the foremost and most forceful, Guthrum (Godrum). Under Guthrum’s leadership, the Danes quickly settled themselves at Wareham on the Dorset coast in 876 before the West Saxons could intercept them in the open country.
Unable to dislodge them by force, Alfred soon came to terms with the Danes, who promised to leave the West Saxon kingdom. In actuality, however, they merely transferred their camp farther west and took up winter quarters for 876 to 877 at Exeter. Again, Alfred offered terms; this time, the Danes actually honored the agreement. In August, 877, they crossed the border into Mercia and established camp at Gloucester. Here they proceeded to share some of the land and to give some to King Ceolwulf II of Mercia, their protégé. The Viking settlement covered an extensive region of central and eastern Mercia comprising the Five Boroughs—Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby—as well as the land further south and southeast, around Northampton, Bedford, and London. Ceolwulf’s share lay in the southwesterly part of the kingdom, including the towns of Gloucester, Worcester, and Warwick.
The settlement of parts of Mercia in the autumn of 877 must have diverted Viking manpower, but still they had enough fighting men to undertake a third invasion of Wessex. The English had, on the other hand, mistakenly believed that their invaders followed a single method of attack: campaigning in summer and holding up in a fortified lair in winter. After departing from Exeter in August, 877, Guthrum’s army tarried for five months and then “in midwinter” 878, descended on Chippenham. Guthrum chose a surprise attack when the land of the West Saxons had hibernated for the winter and its army long dispersed. Chippenham was the royal residence, and probably the invaders attempted to kill Alfred and his body of councilors at one stroke. Although the attempt failed and Alfred decamped, this winter descent of the Danes surprised, confused, and appalled the West Saxons, who thought their king to be dead and thus lay at the mercy of the intruders.
Alfred actually fled southeast into the heart of Somerset, where he set up a guerrilla base on the Isle of Athelney and began mounting periodic incursions against the Vikings. His preparations were severe and precarious. He could not raise the full muster of Wessex but had to make do with the fyrds of Somerset, Wiltshire, and western Hampshire. In any case, in the late spring of 878, he rode to Egbert’s Stone east of Selwood, took command of the host, and led his men toward the northern fringe of the Salisbury Plain, where Guthrum’s men paused on their march through Wessex. At Ethundune (Edington), as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records, Alfred drove the entire Danish army away from the battlefield, and they promised to quit Wessex and have their king Guthrum baptized. Accordingly, “three weeks later King Guthrum with thirty of the men . . . came [to] Athelney, and the king [Alfred] stood sponsor to him at his baptism there.” Guthrum may have faced growing unrest among his battle-weary host, who compared their uncertain and unstable condition on the field to the peaceful and settled life of Halfdan’s men in Northumbria and thus looked for a peace with the Christians of the south so that they would be free to pursue a normal settled life in East Anglia and southern Mercia.
Significance
Alfred’s flight to Athelney and triumphant return to Egbert’s Stone, “where men were fain of him,” as well as his victory at Edington followed by Guthrum’s conversion to Christianity have become part of the folk history of England. These episodes showed Alfred in his magnificent best and glorified Christianity as a civilizing force for the pagan and nomadic Vikings who were to be Christianized and civilized. The immediate threat to Wessex was eliminated. Edington led to the eventual creation of a united Christian, Anglo-Scandinavian kingdom. To cite the concluding remarks of a distinguished historian, “whatever Alfred’s shortcomings as a military commander in the future might prove to be, Edington was truly his finest hour.”
Bibliography
Asser, John. Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Translated by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. Meticulous, scholarly, indispensable account of Alfred’s life.
Asser, John. The Medieval Life of King Alfred the Great. Translated by Alfred P. Smyth. New York: Palgrave, 2002. A translation of Asser’s classic ninth-century text, De Rebus gestis Aelfredi. Includes extensive bibliography and index.
Graham-Campbell, James. The Viking World. London: Frances Lincoln, 2001. A succinct account with a brief but helpful bibliography.
Loyn, H. R. The Vikings in Britain. Rev. ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1995. A concise and highly regarded history of the Vikings and Viking Age by a renowned medievalist.
Smyth, Alfred P. King Alfred the Great. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Erudite critical study of Alfred. Chapter 3 is especially pertinent to an understanding of the Battle of Edington.
Sturdy, David. Alfred the Great. London: Constable, 1995. In an effort to counterbalance prevailing accounts, Sturdy’s biography is extremely critical of Alfredian myths and legends.
Whitelock, Dorothy. “The Importance of the Battle of Edington.” In From Bede to Alfred: Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Literature and History. London: Variorum Reprints, 1980. This lecture to the Society of Friends of the Priory Church of Edington comments on the long-term significance of the Battle of Edington.
Whitelock, Dorothy, David C. Douglas, and Susie I. Tucker, eds. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1961. An authoritative annotated translation of an important primary source from the period.