Bjørn () was a

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

chieftain. He is the earliest known Scandinavian who was not a relative of the

Danish kings This is a list of Monarchy of Denmark, Danish monarchs, that is, the kings and queen regnants of Denmark. This includes: * The Kingdom of Denmark (up to 1397) ** Personal union of Denmark and Norway (1380–1397) * The Kalmar Union (1397–1536) ...

to enter the service of a Frankish king, in his case

Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as CharlesII, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during t ...

, king of

West Francia In medieval historiography, West Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the West Franks () constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the year 843, from the Treaty of Verdun, to 987, the beginning of the Capet ...

.Simon Coupland (1998), "From Poachers to Gamekeepers: Scandinavian Warlords and Carolingian Kings", ''Early Medieval Europe'', 7 (1), 103–104. He may be identified with the Swedish king

Björn Ironside Björn Ironside ( Swedish: ''Björn Järnsida''; Old Norse: ''Bjǫrn Járnsíða'') according to Norse legends, was a Norse Viking chief and Swedish king. According to the 12th- and 13th-century Scandinavian histories, he was the son of notor ...

. In July 856 a Viking chieftain named Sidroc entered the

River Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...

to pillage. On 19 August he was joined by a fleet commanded by Bjørn. Come winter Sidroc left Frankish waters while Bjørn built a fortified camp on an island called ''Oscellus'', probably

Oissel Oissel () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A suburban and light industrial town situated by the banks of the river Seine, just south of Rouen at the junction of the D18 and the ...

. The Vikings proceeded to raid as far as

Bayeux Bayeux (, ; ) is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It is also known as the fir ...

and

Évreux Évreux () is a commune in and the capital of the department of Eure, in the French region of Normandy. History Antiquity In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century AD, was named '' Mediolanum Aulercorum'', "the central town ...

, and the entire region showed little resistance to their movements throughout 857. (The '' Annales Fontanellenses'', an important source for these events, incorrectly date them to 855.) The surviving sources do not record Bjørn's reasons for visiting King Charles at

Verberie Verberie () is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department in northern France. It lies southwest of Compiègne on the main road to Senlis, Oise, Senlis and Paris. The railway station is on the line from Compièg ...

early in 858. In the words of the ''

Annales Bertiniani ''Annales Bertiniani'' (''Annals of Saint Bertin'') are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus con ...

'', the preeminent West Frankish annals for the period: “Bjørn, leader of the faction of pirates of the Seine, pursuing King Charles came to the palace in Veberie, and giving him his hands, swore fidelity to him.” Bjørn had probably been offered tribute (

danegeld Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or Protection racket, protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the ''geld'' or ''gafol'' in eleventh-c ...

) in return for submitting to the act of commendation (the giving of hands and swearing of fealty). In November the bishops of West Francia, meeting in a synod at

Quercy Quercy (; , locally ) is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and Auverg ...

, sent a letter, probably authored by

Hincmar Hincmar (; ; ; 806 – 21 December 882), archbishop of Reims, was a Frankish jurist and theologian, as well as the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald. He belonged to a noble family of northern Francia. Biography Early life Hincm ...

, to

Louis the German Louis the German (German language, German: ''Ludwig der Deutsche''; c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany (German language, German: ''Ludwig II. von Deutschland''), was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 8 ...

, the king of

East Francia East Francia (Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the East Franks () was a successor state of Charlemagne's empire created in 843 and ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was established through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided the for ...

, in which the raising of tribute to pay off the Vikings is mentioned.A. Boretius and V. Krause, edd., "Epistola synodi Carisiacensis ad Hludowicum regem Germaniae directa", ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

'', Capitularia II (Hanover: 1897), c. 6, p. 430: ''Ut ... regnum quod contra eos redimitus, a tributo indebito eiripiantur'' (“so that the kingdom which is being ransomed should be freed from this undeserved tribute”, trans. in Coupland, 104 n.101). Probably this refers to Bjørn and his men, since no other Vikings are known to have made their peace with the Franks at about this time. According to the ''Annales Fontanellenses'' Charles the Bald besieged Oissel late in 859 (actually 858). Since Bjørn is never again mentioned by name in the annals it is probable that he remained loyal to Charles and did not rejoin the army that remained at the island stronghold. The ''Annales Bertiniani'' confirm that Charles only besieged the island after Bjørn's commendation.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjorn (fl. 856-858) Viking warriors 9th-century Vikings