At the Battle of Edington, an army of the kingdom of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
under
Alfred the Great defeated the
Great Heathen Army
The Great Heathen Army,; da, Store Hedenske Hær also known as the Viking Great Army,Hadley. "The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire", ''Antiquaries Journal''. 96, pp. 23–67 was a coalition of Scandin ...
led by the Dane
Guthrum
Guthrum ( ang, Guðrum, c. 835 – c. 890) was King of East Anglia in the late 9th century. Originally a native of what is now Denmark, he was one of the leaders of the "Great Summer Army" that arrived in Reading during April 871 to join forces ...
on a date between 6 and 12 May 878, resulting in the
Treaty of Wedmore
The Treaty of Wedmore is a 9th-century accord between Alfred the Great of Wessex and the Viking king Guthrum the Old. The only contemporary reference to this treaty, is that of a Welsh monk Asser in his biography of Alfred, (known as ''Vita Ælf ...
later the same year. Primary sources locate the battle at "''Eðandun''". Until a scholarly consensus linked the battle site with the present-day village of
Edington in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, it was known as the Battle of Ethandun. This name continues to be used.
Events before the battle
The first Viking raid on Anglo-Saxon England is thought to have occurred between 786 and 802 at
Portland in the
Kingdom of Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
, when three Norse ships arrived; their men killed
King Beorhtric's
reeve.
[Sawyer, ''Illustrated History of Vikings'', pp. 50-51] At the other end of the country, in the
Kingdom of Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
, during 793 the holy island of
Lindisfarne was raided.
After the sacking of Lindisfarne, Viking raids around the coasts were somewhat sporadic until the 830s, when the attacks became more sustained.
[Sawyer, ''Illustrated History of Vikings'', p. 52] In 835, "heathen men" ravaged
Sheppey.
In 836,
Ecgberht of Wessex
Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlema ...
met in battle a force of 35 ships at
Carhampton
Carhampton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, to the east of Minehead.
Carhampton civil parish stretches from the Bristol Channel coast inland to Exmoor. The parish has a population of 865 (2011 census).
History
Iron Age occup ...
,
and in 838 he faced a combined force of Vikings and
Cornishmen
The Cornish people or Cornish ( kw, Kernowyon, ang, Cornƿīelisċ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall: and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons w ...
at
Hingston Down
Hingston Down is a hill not far from Gunnislake in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the subject of an old rhyme, due to the prolific tin mining that formerly took place in the area:
This Hingston Down should not be confused with the ...
in Cornwall.
The raiding continued and with each year became more intense.
In 865–866 it escalated further with the arrival of what the Saxons called the
Great Heathen Army
The Great Heathen Army,; da, Store Hedenske Hær also known as the Viking Great Army,Hadley. "The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire", ''Antiquaries Journal''. 96, pp. 23–67 was a coalition of Scandin ...
.
The annals do not report the size of the army, but modern estimates suggest between five hundred and a thousand men.
It was said to have been under the leadership of the brothers
Ivar the Boneless
Ivar the Boneless ( non, Ívarr hinn Beinlausi ; died c. 873), also known as Ivar Ragnarsson, was a Viking leader who invaded England and Ireland. According to the ''Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok'', he was the son of Ragnar Loðbrok and his wife Asl ...
,
Ubba
Ubba (Old Norse: ''Ubbi''; died 878) was a 9th-century Viking and one of the commanders of the Great Heathen Army that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the 860s. The Great Army appears to have been a coalition of warbands drawn from Scandinavia, ...
, and
Halfdan Ragnarsson
Halfdan Ragnarsson ( non, Hálfdan; oe, Halfdene or ''Healfdene''; sga, Albann; died 877) was a Viking leader and a commander of the Great Heathen Army which invaded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, starting in 865.
One of six sons of R ...
.
[Jones, ''A History of the Vikings'', p. 219] What made this army different from those before it was the intent of the leaders. These forces began "a new stage, that of conquest and residence".
[Jones, ''A History of the Vikings'', p. 218] By 870, the Northmen had conquered the kingdoms of
Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
and
East Anglia, and in 871 they attacked Wessex. Of the nine battles mentioned by the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' during that year, only one was a West Saxon victory. In this year, Alfred succeeded his brother Ethelred, who died after the
Battle of Merton
The Battle of Meretun (or Merton) between a West Saxon army led by King Æthelred and his brother, the future King Alfred the Great, and a Danish army took place on 22 March 871 at an unknown location in Wessex, probably in one of the modern cou ...
.
[Garmonsway, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. 70-73]
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era= Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ...
had collapsed by 874, and the Army's cohesion went with it. Halfdan went back to Northumbria and fought the
Picts
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from e ...
and the
Strathclyde
Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...
Welsh to secure his northern kingdom.
[Jones, ''A History of the Vikings'', p. 221] His army settled there, and he is not mentioned after 876, when "
he Daneswere engaged in ploughing and making a living for themselves".
Guthrum, with two other unnamed kings, "departed for
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
in East Anglia".
He made several attacks on Wessex, starting in 875, and in the last nearly captured Alfred in his winter fortress at
Chippenham.
By 878, the Danes held the east and northeast of England; their defeat at the
Battle of Ashdown
The Battle of Ashdown, was a West Saxon victory over a Danish Viking army on about 8 January 871. The location of Ashdown is not known, but may be Kingstanding Hill in Berkshire. Other writers place the battle near Starveall, a short distance n ...
had paused but not halted their advance.
[Wood. In Search of the Dark Ages. pp. 116-117] Alfred the Great had spent the winter preceding the Battle of Edington in the Somerset marsh of
Athelney
Athelney is a village located between the villages of Burrowbridge and East Lyng in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The name is believed to be derived from the Old English '' æþeling'' meaning "prince" + -''ey'' meaning "isle". T ...
, protected somewhat by the natural defences of the country.
[Wood. In Search of the Dark Ages. pp. 118-120] In the spring of 878, he summoned his
West Saxon forces and marched to Edington, where he met the Danes, led by Guthrum, in battle.
[Wood. In Search of the Dark Ages. pp. 120-125]
Alfred's position before the battle
Guthrum and his men had adopted the usual Danish strategy of occupying a fortified town and waiting for a peace "treaty", involving money in return for a promise to leave the kingdom immediately; Alfred shadowed the army, trying to prevent more damage than had already occurred. This started in 875 when Guthrum's army "eluded the West Saxon levies and got into
Wareham".
[Garmonsway, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', p. 74] They then gave hostages and oaths to leave the country to Alfred, who paid them off.
[Smyth, ''King Alfred the Great'', p. 70] The Danes promptly slipped off to
Exeter, even deeper into Alfred's kingdom, where they concluded in the autumn of 877 a "firm peace" with Alfred,
[ under terms that entailed their leaving his kingdom and not returning.][Smyth, ''King Alfred the Great'', p. 72] This they did, spending the rest of 877 (by the Gregorian calendar) in Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
(in the kingdom of Mercia). Alfred spent Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
at Chippenham (in Wessex), from Gloucester . The Danes attacked Chippenham "in midwinter after Twelfth Night
''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...
",[ probably during the night of 6–7 January 878. They captured Chippenham and forced Alfred to retreat "with a small force" into the wilderness.][ (It is to this period that the story of Alfred burning the cakes belongs.][Horspool, ''Why Alfred burnt the cakes'', pp. 2–3. Although there may have been an early oral tradition about the burning of the cakes, there is no contemporary evidence for the cake story. The first time it appears is one hundred years later and it may have been invented to make an obscure saint Saint_Neot">nowiki/> Saint_Neot">nowiki/>Saint_Neot">Saint_Neot.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Saint_Neot">nowiki/>Saint_Neotlook_good.])
Alfred_seems_at_this_time_to_have_ineffectually_chased_the_Danes_around_Wessex,_while_the_Danes_were_in_a_position_to_do_as_they_pleased._The_''Anglo-Saxon_Chronicle''_attempts_to_convey_the_impression_that_Alfred_held_the_initiative;_it_is_"a_bland_chronicle_which_laconically_charts_the_movements_of_the_Danish_victors_while_at_the_same_time_disingenuously_striving_to_convey_the_impression_that_Alfred_was_in_control",_although_it_fails._Even_if_Alfred_had_caught_up_with_the_Danish_force,_it_is_unlikely_that_he_could_have_accomplished_anything._The_fact_that_his_army_could_not_defend_the_fortified_Chippenham,_even_in_"an_age..._as_yet_untrained_in_siege_warfare"_casts_great_doubt_on_its_ability_to_defeat_the_Danes_in_an_open_field,_unaided_by_fortifications._There_was_little_that_Alfred_could_do_about_the_Danish_menace_between_875_and_the_end_of_877,_beyond_repeatedly_paying_the_invaders_off.
_Battle
This_was_even_truer_after_the_Twelfth_Night_attack._With_his_small_warband,_a_fraction_of_his_army_at_Chippenham,_Alfred_could_not_hope_to_retake_the_town_from_the_Danes,_who_had_in_previous_battles_(for_example_at_Battle_of_Reading_(871).html" ;"title="Saint_Neot.html" ;"title="Saint_Neot.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Saint Neot">nowiki/>Saint Neot">Saint_Neot.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Saint Neot">nowiki/>Saint Neotlook good.)
Alfred seems at this time to have ineffectually chased the Danes around Wessex, while the Danes were in a position to do as they pleased. The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' attempts to convey the impression that Alfred held the initiative; it is "a bland chronicle which laconically charts the movements of the Danish victors while at the same time disingenuously striving to convey the impression that Alfred was in control", although it fails. Even if Alfred had caught up with the Danish force, it is unlikely that he could have accomplished anything. The fact that his army could not defend the fortified Chippenham, even in "an age... as yet untrained in siege warfare" casts great doubt on its ability to defeat the Danes in an open field, unaided by fortifications. There was little that Alfred could do about the Danish menace between 875 and the end of 877, beyond repeatedly paying the invaders off.
Battle
This was even truer after the Twelfth Night attack. With his small warband, a fraction of his army at Chippenham, Alfred could not hope to retake the town from the Danes, who had in previous battles (for example at Battle of Reading (871)">Reading in 871) proved themselves adept at defending fortified positions.[ So he retreated to the south, preparing himself and his forces for another battle, and then defeated Guthrum and his host. The first we read of Alfred after the disaster at Chippenham is around Easter, when he built a fortress at ]Athelney
Athelney is a village located between the villages of Burrowbridge and East Lyng in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The name is believed to be derived from the Old English '' æþeling'' meaning "prince" + -''ey'' meaning "isle". T ...
.[Garmonsway. ''The Anglo Saxon Chronicle''. p. 76.][Smyth, ''The Medieval Life of Alfred'', pp. 26–27] In the seventh week after Easter, or between 4 and 7 May,[Smyth, ''King Alfred the Great'', p. 74] Alfred called a levy
Levy, Lévy or Levies may refer to:
People
* Levy (surname), people with the surname Levy or Lévy
* Levy Adcock (born 1988), American football player
* Levy Barent Cohen (1747–1808), Dutch-born British financier and community worker
* Levy ...
at ''Ecgbryhtesstan'' (Egbert's Stone). Many of the men in the counties around (Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, and Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
) who had not already fled rallied to him there. The next day, Alfred's host moved to Iley Oak, and then the day after that to ''Eðandun''.[ There, on an unknown date between 6 and 12 May, they fought the Danes. According to the ''Life'':
After the victory, when the Danes had taken refuge in the fortress, the West Saxons removed all food that the Danes might be able to capture in a sortie, and waited.][ After two weeks, the hungry Danes sued for peace, giving Alfred "preliminary hostages and solemn oaths that they would leave his kingdom immediately", just as usual, but in addition promising that Guthrum would be baptized.] The primary difference between this agreement and the treaties at Wareham and Exeter was that Alfred had decisively defeated the Danes at Edington, rather than just stopping them, and therefore it seemed more likely that they would keep to the terms of the treaty.
The primary reason for Alfred's victory was probably the relative size of the two armies. The men of even one shire could be a formidable fighting force, as those of Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
proved in the same year, defeating an army under Ubbe Ragnarsson
Ubba (Old Norse: ''Ubbi''; died 878) was a 9th-century Viking and one of the commanders of the Great Heathen Army that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the 860s. The Great Army appears to have been a coalition of warbands drawn from Scandinavia, ...
at the Battle of Cynwit
The Battle of Cynwit, was a battle between West Saxons and Vikings in 878 at a fort which Asser calls ''Cynwit''. The location of the battle is not known for sure but probably was at Countisbury Hill, near Countisbury, Devon.
Prelude
The Viking ...
.[ In addition, in 875 Guthrum had lost the support of other Danish lords, including ]Ivar
Ivar (Old Norse ''Ívarr'') is a Scandinavian masculine given name. Another variant of the name is Iver, which is more common in Norway.
The Old Norse name has several possible etymologies. In North Germanic phonology, several of the elements c ...
and Ubba
Ubba (Old Norse: ''Ubbi''; died 878) was a 9th-century Viking and one of the commanders of the Great Heathen Army that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the 860s. The Great Army appears to have been a coalition of warbands drawn from Scandinavia, ...
. Further Danish forces had settled on the land before Guthrum attacked Wessex: in East Anglia, and in Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era= Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ...
between the treaty at Exeter and the attack on Chippenham; many others were lost in a storm off Swanage in 876–877, with 120 ships wrecked.[ Internal disunity was threatening to tear the Danes apart, and they needed time to reorganize. Fortunately for Wessex, they did not use the time available effectively.
]
Location of the battle
The primary sources for the location of the battle are Asser
Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his ...
's ''Life of King Alfred'', which names the place as "''Ethandun''" and the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', which has ''Eðandun''. The chronicle was compiled during the reign of Alfred the Great and is thus a contemporary record. It is believed that Asser's ''Life'' was originally written in 893; however, no contemporary manuscript survives.[Keynes/Lapidge, ''Asser's Life of King Alfred'', p. 84 Ch. 56, also a discussion on Asser and the text pp. 48 – 58] A version of the ''Life'', written in about 1000 and known as the ''Cotton Otho
This is an incomplete list of some of the manuscripts from the Cotton library that today form the Cotton collection of the British Library. Some manuscripts were destroyed or damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, and a few are kept in othe ...
A. xii'' text, lasted until 1731, when it was destroyed in the fire at Ashburnham House. Before its destruction, this version had been transcribed and annotated; it is this transcription on which modern translations are based.[ Some scholars have suggested that Asser's life of King Alfred was a forgery.
The location of the battle accepted by most present-day historians is at Edington, near Westbury in Wiltshire.][Lavelle, ''Alfred's Wars'', pp. 308 – 314] However, the location has been much debated over the centuries. In 1904 William Henry Stevenson analysed possible sites and said "So far, there is nothing to prove the identity of this ''Eðandun'' s named in the Anglo-Saxon Chroniclewith Edington" but then goes on to say that "there can be little reason for questioning it".[Stevenson]
Asser's life of King Alfred
p. 273. Retrieved 13 February 2013
The reasoning to support the ''Eðandun'' of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the ''Ethandun'' of Asser's ''Life'' being Edington in Wiltshire is derived from a trail of information from ancient manuscripts.[Keynes / Lapidge, ''Alfred the Great'', pp. 176–177 and fn. 90 p. 323] Edington, Wiltshire, is known to have been part of Alfred's family estate.[ He left a manor called ''Eðandun'' to his wife in his will. A charter records a meeting of the king's council at ''Eðandun'', although a later scribe has annotated the same document with ''Eðandune''.][Stevenson. The battle of Ethandun]
''in'' ''The Athenaeum'', Number 4116. pp. 303-304. Retrieved 29 January 2014 In 968, another charter reported that King Edgar had granted land at ''Edyndon'' to Romsey Abbey. The Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086 has an entry for Romsey Abbey
Romsey Abbey is the name currently given to a parish church of the Church of England in Romsey, a market town in Hampshire, England. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was the church of a Benedictine nunnery. The surviving Norman-era c ...
holding land at ''Edendone'' in the county of Wiltshire at the time of Edward the Confessor (before 1066) and also in 1086, and this is known to be at Edington, Wiltshire
Edington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about east-northeast of Westbury. The village lies under the north slope of Salisbury Plain and the parish extends south onto the Plain. Its Grade I listed parish church was built ...
.
Alternatives to Edington, Wiltshire, have been suggested since early times. The Tudor historian Polydore Vergil
Polydore Vergil or Virgil (Italian: ''Polidoro Virgili''; commonly Latinised as ''Polydorus Vergilius''; – 18 April 1555), widely known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino, was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat, who spent ...
appears to have misread the ancient texts for the battle site, as he places it at ''Abyndoniam'' ( Abingdon) instead of Edington. In the 19th century there was a resurgence in interest of medieval history and King Alfred was seen as a major hero.[Parker, ''England's Darling'', Ch. 3] Although most early historians had sited the battle as in the Edington area, the significant interest in the subject encouraged many antiquarians to dig up Alfredian sites and also to propose alternatives for the location of the battle.[Lavelle, ''Alfred's Wars'', p. 309][Parker, ''England's Darling'', pp. 18 – 22] Arguments for the alternative sites were generally name-based, although with the large interest in everything Alfredian in the 19th century, any site that had an Alfredian connection could be guaranteed large numbers of tourists, so this was also a driving force to find a link.[Lavelle, ''Alfred's Wars'', pp. 311 – 312]
Consequences
Three weeks after the battle, Guthrum was baptised at Aller in Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
with Alfred as his sponsor.[Asser, ''Life'', ch. 56] It is possible that the enforced conversion was an attempt by Alfred to lock Guthrum into a Christian code of ethics, hoping it would ensure the Danes' compliance with any treaties agreed to. The converted Guthrum took the baptismal name of Athelstan.[Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 176 – 177]
Under the terms of the Treaty of Wedmore
The Treaty of Wedmore is a 9th-century accord between Alfred the Great of Wessex and the Viking king Guthrum the Old. The only contemporary reference to this treaty, is that of a Welsh monk Asser in his biography of Alfred, (known as ''Vita Ælf ...
, the converted Guthrum was required to leave Wessex and return to East Anglia. Consequently, in 879 the Viking army left Chippenham and made its way to Cirencester
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
(in the kingdom of Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ye ...
) and remained there for a year.[Asser, ''Life'', ch. 57] The following year the army went to East Anglia, where it settled.[Asser. Life. ch. 60]
Also in 879, according to Asser, another Viking army sailed up the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
and wintered at Fulham in Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
.[Asser, ''Life'', ch. 58] Over the next few years this particular Danish faction had several encounters with Alfred's forces. However, Alfred managed to contain this threat by reforming his military and setting up a system of fortified cities, known as burh
A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constr ...
s.
In 885 Asser reports that the Viking army that had settled in East Anglia had broken ''in a most insolent manner'' the peace they had established with Alfred, although Guthrum is not mentioned.[Asser, ''Life'', ch. 72] Guthrum reigned as king in East Anglia until his death in 890, and although this period was not always peaceful he was not considered a threat.[ASC 890. English translation a]
Project Gutenberg
/ref>
In 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum defined the boundaries of their two kingdoms. The kingdom of Mercia was divided up, with part going to Alfred's Wessex and the other part to Guthrum's East Anglia.[The treaty of Alfred and Guthrum]
in Attenborough's ''The laws of the earliest English kings'', pp. 96-101. Retrieved 28 January 2014 The agreement also defined the social classes of Danish East Anglia and their equivalents in Wessex. It tried to provide a framework that would minimise conflict and regulate commerce between the two peoples.[Abels, ''Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 165-67] It is not clear how seriously Guthrum took his conversion to Christianity, but he was the first of the Danish rulers of the English kingdoms to mint coins on the Alfredian model, under his baptismal name of Athelstan. By the end of the 9th century, all of the Anglo-Danish rulers were minting coins too. By the 10th century, the Anglo-Saxon model of kingship seems to have been universally adopted by the Anglo-Danish leadership.
After the defeat of Guthrum at the Battle of Edington, Alfred's reforms to military obligations in Wessex made it increasingly difficult for the Vikings to raid successfully. By 896 the Vikings gave up with some going to East Anglia and others going to Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
. It was under Alfred that the Viking threat was contained. However, the system of military reforms and the Burghal Hidage introduced by Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder (17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin ...
enabled Alfred's successors to retake control of the lands occupied in the North of England by the Danes.[Horspool, ''Why Alfred Burnt the Cakes'', pp. 104-110][ASC 896, ASC 897. English translation a]
Project Gutenberg
/ref>
References
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External links
BBC Radio 4 Archive Programme – In Our Time: ''Alfred and the Battle of Edington''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ethandun
870s conflicts
Battles involving Wessex
Battles involving the Vikings
Military history of Wiltshire
Battles involving the Anglo-Saxons
878
9th century in England