Viking Challenge and The Rise of Wessex (9th Century)
Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, raiders and colonists from Scandinavia, mainly Danish and Norwegian, plundered western Europe including the British Isles. These raiders came to be known as the Vikings; the name is believed to derive from Scandinavia, where the Vikings originated. The first raids in the British Isles were in the late eighth century, mainly on churches and monasteries (which were seen as centres of wealth).
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that the holy island of Lindisfarne was sacked in AD 793. The raiding then virtually stopped for around forty years; but in about AD 835 it started becoming more regular.
In the 860s, instead of raids the Danes mounted a full scale invasion; and 865 marked the arrival of an enlarged army that the Anglo-Saxons described as the Great Heathen Army. This was reinforced in 871 by the Great Summer Army. Within ten years nearly all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell to the invaders: Northumbria in 867, East Anglia in 869, and nearly all of Mercia in 874-7. Kingdoms, centres of learning, archives, and churches all fell before the onslaught from the invading Danes. Only the Kingdom of Wessex was able to survive. In March 878, the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, Alfred, with a few men, built a fortress at Athelney, hidden deep in the marshes of Somerset. He used this as a base from which to harry the Vikings; and in May 878 he put together an army formed from the populations of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, which defeated the Viking army in battle at Edington. The Vikings retreated to their stronghold, and Alfred laid siege to it. Ultimately the Danes capitulated, and their leader Guthrum agreed to be baptised, and also to withdraw from Wessex. The formal ceremony was completed a few days later at Wedmore. There followed a peace treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, which had a variety of provisions, including defining the boundaries of the area to be ruled by the Danes (which became known as the Danelaw) and those of Wessex. The Kingdom of Wessex controlled part of the Midlands and the whole of the South (apart from Cornwall, which was still held by the Britons), while the Danes held East Anglia and the North.
After the victory at Edington and resultant peace treaty, Alfred set about transforming his Kingdom of Wessex into a society on a full time war footing. He built a navy, reorganised the army, and set up a system of fortified towns known as burhs. He mainly used old Roman cities for his burhs, as he was able to rebuild and reinforce their existing fortifications. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation system known as the Burghal Hidage. These burhs (or burghs) operated as defensive structures. The Vikings were thereafter unable to cross large sections of Wessex: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that a Danish raiding party was defeated when it tried to attack the burh of Chichester. The burhs, although primarily designed as defensive structures, were also commercial centres, attracting traders and markets to a safe haven; and they provided a safe place for the king's moneyers and mints too.
A new wave of Danish invasions commenced in the year 891. This was the beginning of a war that lasted over three years. However, Alfred's new system of defence worked, and ultimately it wore the Danes down: they gave up and dispersed in the summer of 896.
Alfred will also be remembered as a literate king. He or his court commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was written in Old English (rather than in Latin, which was the language of the European annals). Alfred's own literary output was mainly of translations, though he wrote introductions and amended manuscripts as well.
Read more about this topic: Anglo-Saxon England
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