Pallig Tokesen (died 13 November 1002) was a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
chieftain. According to the 'A' Translation of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
he was recruited to help
Ethelred II,
, Barbara Yorke, ''Wessex in the Early Middle Ages'' (1995), p. 134. however upon the arrival of a significant Viking force in Devon in 1001 he deserted Ethelred and instead threw in his lot with the raiders. As the Chronicle relates:
"And they went thence west until they came to Devon; and there Paley
alligcame to meet them, with the ships which he could gather, because he had fled from king Ethelred, contrary to all the plighted troth that he had given him; and the king had also well gifted him with houses, and with gold and with silver. And they burned Teignton, and also many other good towns which we are unable to name; and there, afterwards, peace was made with them"
Later tradition credits him as the Earldoman of Devon
however there seems to be little contemporary support for this position. Yorke
only refers to him as a Viking Leader, not as an Earldoman.
He is said to have been killed in the
St. Brice's Day massacre, along with his wife
Gunhilde
Gunhilde (or Gunnhild) (died 13 November 1002) is said to have been the sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, and the daughter of Harald Bluetooth. She was married to Pallig, a Dane who served the King of England, Æthelred the Unready, as e ...
, daughter of
Harald Bluetooth
Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway.
He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 95 ...
of Denmark
and sister of
Sweyn Forkbeard
Sweyn Forkbeard ( non, Sveinn Haraldsson tjúguskegg ; da, Svend Tveskæg; 17 April 963 – 3 February 1014) was King of Denmark from 986 to 1014, also at times King of the English and King of Norway. He was the father of King Harald II of D ...
. Like his rank, this appears to be a later addition.
Sweyn's invasions from 1002 may have been partly in revenge for the murder of his sister. It has been proposed that it was actually Pallig's desertion that led to the St. Brice's Day Masscre, and that the slaughter was partly Æthelred's revenge.
[Ryan Lavelle, ''Aethelred II: King of the English'', The History Press, 2008, pp. 104-105]
Notes
{{Reflist, 2
1002 deaths
Danish emigrants to England
Year of birth unknown
People from Devon
10th-century births