Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Vikings and Anglo-Saxons (Simon Keynes - Vikings 790-1016 (Vikings and…
Vikings and Anglo-Saxons
Evidence
Written sources
Histories
- St Gildas the Wise - 540 AD - British monk, founded monastery in Brittany, wrote religious polemic on history of sub-Roman Britain
- St Bede - 731 AD - English monk, wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People, 'Father of English History'
- Historia Brittonum - 828 AD - history of indigenous Britons, depicts Arthur as historical figure
- Asser's Life of King Alfred - 893 AD - Welsh monk, part of Alfred's court, Alfred still alive at time of writing
Chronicles/Annals
- Chronica Gallica - 452 AD - focuses on Gaul in Late Antiquity, covers 379 Theodosius I up to 452 Attila attack on Italy
- Annales Cambriae - complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles, presumed C10, earliest extant a C12 copy
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - C9 - created during reign of Alfred the Great, individual copies in different monasteries separately updated up to 1154, most important single source for England post-Roman to following Normans
Literatures
- Beowulf - manuscript from between 975-1025, anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, set in Scandinavia
- Viking sagas
Archaeological evidence
- Viking burials pre-450
- Anglo-Saxon burials show process of Xtianisation
- Buildings - halls, farms etc
- Weaponry, jewellery etc - grave goods, battlefields
Place names
- In Danelaw etc
- _by, _thorpe, _ham
- NE England and S Scotland
- Confirms division of land between Vikings in C9-C10
- Clearly Viking - hardly any SW of Danelaw boundary
- Sometimes lacking in areas of known Viking settlement - evidence of quick English recovery/restoration
- Sometimes kept names - Roman Eboracum -> Anglian Eoforwic -> Norse Jórvík -> Middle English etc York
General
A-S Arrival
- Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in Britain by C5 AD
- Mixed with Britons over next 500 years - coherent cultural Xtian identity - start of kingdoms
- Gildas and Bede - invited by Roman-British to 'protect' country from Picts and Scots but migrated and took over
- By C9/10 - 10 kingdoms in England, smaller population in north and not as well organised
A-S Society
- First laws in 605 - Ethelbert of Kent - transgressions at different levels of society, avoiding blood feuds - also first Xtian king
- Warlike culture - male warrior elite, peasants had right to weapons
- Fragmented land ownership - farmsteads run by a family with employees
- Importance of kinship - legal duties, blood feuds, wergild
- Fusion of Germanic and Xtian values
A-S Christianity
- Adopted around C6 - Pope Gregory, Augustine
- More of a feature in the south - links to continent etc
- Celtic tradition led by monastery of Iona - monastic life, asceticism
- Monastic life more in north - Jarrow, Lindisfarne etc
- Monasteries as centres of development - 'Northumbrian Renaissance' - manuscripts, chronicles, stained glass - centres of wealth and power
Alfred the Great
Alfred as king
- King of Wessex 871-899 AD
- Became 'king of the Anglo-Saxons' - enabled successors to be kings of England
- Inspired by Carolingian kings - Old Testament legislation, Frankish scholars at court (also gathered English + Welsh scholars eg Asser), Old English translations of Latin works
- Also inspired by Germanic kings - generous gifts, annexation of church lands, tax system, harsh law-code
- Powerful king - English, Welsh and Viking rulers all sought his protection
Events
- 871 - Paid Vikings to withdraw from Wessex after Danish victory at Wilton, they occupied other areas in England for 5 years
- 876 - Danes broke the peace under new leader Guthrum, occupied Wareham - peace negotiated involving hostages - Danes broke oath, killed hostages, left
- January 878 - attacked Chippenham where Alfred was staying and killed most
- Winter/Spring 878 - Alfred mounted resistance from fort in Somerset marshes - Wessex only kingdom not fallen to Danes
- May 878 - Battle of Edington with support of Somerset, Hampshire and Wiltshire - Alfred won and starved them out of Chippenham - terms of surrender/negotiations - Guthrum convert to Xtianity and baptised, division of Mercia into Danelaw and under Aethelred
- 892-896 - repeatedly repelled invading Viking armies with Wessex/Mercian alliance
Military reorganisation
- Apparently copied Charles the Bald/Carolingian kings
- Taxation and conscription based on number of 'hides' (amount of land needed to support one family based on productivity of land)
- Burhs and garrisons - 33 each 19 miles apart - allowed army to respond to any attacks quickly - used 27,000 soldiers kingdom-wide (1 in 4 of all free men in Wessex) - twin towns straddling a river like Carolingians
- 896 - created/developed navy, apparently utilised design of Greek/Roman warships rather than Norse ships - but difficulty because mostly fought in estuaries, hard to maneuvere
Danelaw
- Area of England that wasn't 'English'
- Different law - Yorkshire, East Anglia, north/east/central midlands
- Place name evidence suggests settlers in Yorkshire across to Leicestershire but little material evidence
- Seizure of power late C9 by Danish rulers - dates back to Alfred and Guthrum's treaty
- Partial reconquest by Edward and Aethelflaed next generation - most Danes acknowledged their rule
- By 920 substantial part was Anglo-Danish gentry with English overkings
- Complicated by incorporation of Northumberland - York loyal to Scandinavia until about 1065
- Influential C10-11 - more urbanised, coin economy, high population density
- Not a single entity - Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia - regional communities
-
-
-
-
-
-