3. The Danelaw

The first Danish-controlled enclave was established at York, called Jorvik by the Vikings. The Kingdom of York survived with several interruptions until the 950s.

The territory, covered by the Vikings’ settlements was called the Danelaw, roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester. Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, broadly covering the area now called the East Midlands.

The Vikings quickly accepted Christianity and did not disturb the local population.

The Vikings had similar effects on the various kingdoms of the Irish, Scots, Picts and (to a lesser extent) Welsh. Certainly in North Britain the Vikings were one reason behind the formation of the Kingdom of Alba, which eventually evolved into Scotland.

Norse and Danish settlement made enough of an impact to leave significant traces in the English language; many fundamental words in modern English are derived from Old Norse, though of the 100 most used words in English the vast majority are Old English in origin. Old Norse and Old English were still mutually comprehensible and the mixed language of the Danelaw caused the incorporation of many Norse words into the English language, including the word “law” itself, as well as the third person plural pronouns they, them and their. Many Old Norse words still survive in the dialects of Northeastern England. Similarly, many place-names in areas of Norse and Danish settlement have Scandinavian roots (e.g. Sutherland).

4. Kingdom of Wessex and Kings of England

So the wars led, as fortunes flowed and ebbed, initially to a Wessex king of all Britannia. Wessex emphasised the unification under the Germanics by renaming the country England - a name which stuck. By the end of Alfred's reign (899), he ruled what had previously been Wessex, Sussex and Kent. Cornwall (Kernow) was subject to West Saxon dominance, and several kings of the more southerly Welsh kingdoms recognised Alfred as their overlord, as did western Mercia under Alfred's son-in-law Æthelred.

During and after the reign of Alfred the Great, Anglo-Saxon towns (burhs) were fortified. Contemporary defensive banks and ditches can still be seen today. Oxford is an example of one of these fortified towns, where the 11th century stone tower of St. Michael's church has prominent position beside the former site of the North gate.

After the dispersal of the Danish invaders, Alfred turned his attention to the increase of the royal navy, partly to repress the ravages of the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes on the coasts of Wessex, partly to prevent the landing of fresh invaders. This is not, as often asserted, the beginning of the English navy. There had been earlier naval operations under Alfred. One naval engagement was certainly fought under Aethelwulf in 851, and earlier ones, possibly in 833 and 840. The partisan Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, however, does credit Alfred with the construction of a new type of ship, built according to the king's own designs, "swifter, steadier and also higher/more responsive (hierran) than the others". However, these new ships do not seem to have been a great success, as we hear of them grounding in action and foundering in a storm. Nevertheless both the Royal Navy and the United States Navy claim Alfred as the founder of their traditions. The first vessel ever commissioned into the Continental Navy, precursor to the United States Navy, was named The Alfred.

Successive kings of Wessex (and especially Athelstan) progressively reinforced the English unitary state, until the old constituent kingdoms in effect became irrelevant.

Alfred of Wessex died in 899 and was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder. Edward and his brother-in-law Æthelred of (what was left of) Mercia, began a program of expansion, building forts and towns on an Alfredian model. On Æthelred's death his wife (Edward's sister) Æthelflæd ruled as 'Lady of the Mercians', and continued expansion. It seems Edward had his son Athelstan brought up in the Mercian court, and on Edward's death Athelstan succeeded to the Mercian kingdom, and, after some uncertainty, Wessex.

Athelstan continued the expansion of his father and aunt, and was the first king to achieve direct rule of what we would now consider 'England'. Certainly the titles attributed to him in charters and on coins suggest a widespread dominance. His expansion aroused ill-feeling among the other kingdoms of Britain, and he faced a combined Scottish-Viking army at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. His victory there, recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with a poem, was one of the major steps on the road to the formation of England.

However, England was not a certainty, and indeed under Athelstan's successors Edmund, Eadred, and Edwy the kingdom broke up and was reformed numerous times. Nonetheless, Edgar, who eventually ruled the same expanse as Athelstan, seems to have consolidated the kingdom, and by the time of the rule of his son Aethelred (the Unready) England seems to have (almost) secured itself as a kingdom.

By 950 England seemed rich and peaceful again after the troubles of the Viking invasion. But soon afterwards the Danish Vikings started raiding westwards. The Saxon king, Ethelred, decided to pay the Vikings to stay away. To find the money he set a tax on all his people, called Danegeld, or "Danish money". It was the beginning of a regular tax system of the people which would provide the money for armies. The effects of this tax were most heavily felt by the ordinary villagers, because they had to provide enough money for their village landlord to pay Danegeld.

When Ethelred died Cnut (or Canute), the leader of the Danish Vikings, controlled much of England.

Canute proceeded to England in the summer of 1015 with a Danish force of approximately 10,000 men. This time, he was joined by his Norwegian brother-in-law Eiríkr Hákonarson, who was an experienced soldier and statesman. Fortunately for Canute, a strong mercenary chief, Thorkell the High, pledged allegiance to him. The Earl Eadric also joined the Danes with forty ships.

The invasion force landed in Essex, which was occupied quickly. Northumbria fell next, and Canute executed its Earl Uhtred for breaking an oath pledged to Sweyn Forkbeard two years earlier. In April 1016, Canute entered the Thames with his fleet and besieged London. King Ethelred died suddenly during the siege, and his son Edmund Ironside was proclaimed king. When Edmund left London to raise an army in the countryside, he was intercepted by Canute at Ashingdon, Essex. After a decisive victory for Canute in the Battle of Ashingdon, Edmund was forced to negotiate under unfavourable circumstances.

Meeting on an island in the Severn River, King Edmund II was forced to accept defeat and sign a treaty, in which all of England, except for Wessex, would be controlled by Canute, and when one of the kings should die, the other king would take all of England, his sons being the heir to the throne. After Edmund's death (possibly murder) on 30 November, Canute ruled the whole kingdom. Canute was recognised by the nobility as the sole king in January 1017.

So he became king for the simple reason that the royal council, the Witan, and everyone else, feared disorder. Rule by a Danish king was far better than rule by no one at all. By the early 11th century, the Danish were in ascendancy and England had a Danish king. 

As King of England, Canute combined English and Danish institutions and personnel. His mutilation of the hostages taken by his father in pledge of English loyalty is remembered above all as being uncharacteristic of his rule.

By dividing the country (1017) into the four great earldoms of Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria, he instituted the system of territorial lordships which would underlie English government for centuries. The very last Danegeld ever paid, a sum of £82,500, went to Canute in 1018. He felt secure enough to send the invasion fleet back to Denmark with £72,000 that same year.

Canute reinstated the laws passed under King Edgar. However, he reformed the existing laws and initiated a new series of laws and proclamations. Two significant ones were On Heriots and Reliefs, and Inheritance in Case of Intestacy. He strengthened the coinage system, and initiated a series of new coins which would be of equal weight as those being used in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia. This greatly improved the trade of England, whose economy was in turmoil following years of social disorder.

Canute is generally regarded as a wise and successful king of England, although this view may in part be attributable to his good treatment of the church, which controlled the history writers of the day. Anyway, he brought England more than two decades of peace and prosperity. The medieval church loved order and believed in supporting good and efficient government, whenever the circumstances allowed it. Thus we see him described even today as a religious man, despite the fact that he lived openly in what was effectively a bigamous relationship, and despite his responsibility for many political murders.

Ethelred's sons Edward the Confessor and Alfred Atheling were in exile in Normandy as their mother, Ethelred's widow, Emma of Normandy was daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy. In order to associate his line with the overthrown English dynasty and to insure himself against attack from Normandy Canute married Emma (July 1017) and proclaimed their son Harthacanute as heir in preference to Harold, his son by Aelgifu of Northampton.

Cnut died in 1035, and his son died shortly after, in 1040.

The Witan chose Edward, one of Saxon Ethelred's sons, to be king. Edward the Confessor had a Norman mother and had been raised and educated in Normandy.

Here we should point out that France, "the Kingdom of the Franks" (a Germanic tribe), was particularly hard-hit by Vikings about the same time as Britain. In 911, the French king, Charles the Simple, was able to make an agreement with the Viking warleader Rollo, a chieftain of disputed Norwegian or Danish origins. Charles gave Rollo the title of duke, and granted him and his followers possession of Normandy. In return, Rollo swore fealty to Charles, converted to Christianity, and undertook to defend the northern region of France against the incursions of other Viking groups. The results were, in a historical sense, rather ironic: several generations later, the Norman descendants of these Viking settlers not only thereafter identified themselves as French, but carried the French language and their variant of the French culture into England in 1066, after the Norman Conquest, and became the ruling aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon England.

Edward was known as "the Confessor" being more interested in the Church than in kingship. Church building had been going on for over a century, and he encouraged it. By the time Edward died there was a church in almost every village. The pattern of the English village, with its manor house and church, dates from this time. Edward started a new church fit for a king at Westminster, just outside the city of London. In fact we can see that Westminster Abbey was a Norman, not a Saxon building.

Edward only lived until 1066, when he died without an obvious heir. The question of who should follow him as king was one of the most important in English history. Edward had brought many Normans to his English court from France. These Normans were not liked by the more powerful Saxon nobles, particularly by the most powerful family of Wessex, the Godwinsons. It was a Godwinson, Harold, whom the Witan chose to be the next king of England. Harold had already shown his bravery and ability. He had no royal blood, but he seemed a good choice for the throne of England.

Harold's right to the English throne was challenged by Duke William of Normandy. William had two claims to the English throne. His first claim was that King Edward had promised it to him. The second claim was that Harold, who had visited William in 1064 or 1065, had promised William that he, Harold, would not try to take the throne for himself. Harold did not deny this second claim, but said that he had been forced to make the promise, and that because it was made unwillingly he was not tied by it.

Harold was faced by two dangers, one in the south and one in the north. The Danish Vikings had not given up their claim to the English throne. In 1066 Harold had to march north into Yorkshire to defeat the Danes. No sooner had he defeated them than he learnt that William had landed in England with an army. His men were tired, but they had no time to rest. They marched south as fast as possible.

Harold decided not to wait for the whole Saxon army, the fyrd, to gather because William's army was small. He thought he could beat them with the men who had done so well against the Danes. However, the Norman soldiers were better armed, better organised, and were mounted on horses. If he had waited, Harold might have won. But he was defeated and killed in battle near Hastings. Over 7,000 men fought long and hard at that battle.

William marched to London, which quickly gave in when he began to burn villages outside the city. He was crowned king of England in Edward's new church of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

A new period had begun.