Similar Norse names Swansea, Caldey, Fishguard, Gresholm, Haverford appeared on the coasts of Anglesea, Pembrokeshire, Gower and Glamorgan. A modern depiction of the Vikings advancing on Wessex. It was after the model of one of their abbeys, Jumi. Like Canute, Rollo the Viking and his descendants, in acquiring a Christian land, had become fervent champions of the Church. An army was gathered to oppose the raiders, but its appointed leaders, Fraena, Godwine and . He made immense grants of land to a Sussex thane named Godwin, whom Canute had created earl of the West Saxons, and who, in the dynastic quarrels before his accession, had been instrumental in blinding and, possibly, murdering Edwards brother, and later, when the Danish cause seemed doomed, in securing his election to the throne. On April 23rd, 1016 St. Georges Day Ethelred died and Edmund succeeded. His was the disintegrating force of power without responsibility. The story of the Vikings in Britain is one of conquest, expulsion, extortion and reconquest. He followed Alfred. In 1054 Siward, earl of Northumbria, was forced to lead a punitive expedition as far as the Forth, the old Northumbrian frontier, where he dethroned the Celtic usurper, Macbeth, and installed an exiled prince of the old Scottish line Malcolm, king of the Cumbrians. It was in the region now known as the English Midlands. On January 5th, 1066, a few days after the consecration of his abbey church at Westminster, the gentle Confessor died and was buried in the Minster he had built. He was so devout that he refused to give his wife a child and his realm an heir. Then a Danish herald asked that the English should withdraw to allow his countrymen to cross and battle to be joined. They were as restless as they were greedy and calculating. Their buildings expressed their religion. Other bands of Moslem fanatics, camped in the hills of northern Italy, raided the Alpine passes. . It was as though the Norman knights, the most acquisitive in Europe, were trying to offset their outrages by the orthodoxy of their ecclesiastical establishments and, while they stormed their way into their neighbours lands, to buy an entry to Heaven. Old forts were strengthened and new ones built at strategic sites, and arrangements were made for their continual manning. The richer parish churches helped to house such treasures: small barnlike buildings, with primitive rounded arches, high walls. While Wessex and Mercia were distracted, the Vikings of Dyflin - led by Sihtric Caech - invaded Wales, captured the Deheubarth fortress at Dinefwr, and inflicted a terrible defeat on Prince Hywel Dda when he set out to reclaim to the fortress. However, further defeats followed for Wessex and Alfred's brother died. Then the kings young son, Edmund Ironside, put up a fight worthy of Alfred himself against Sweyns son and successor, Canute. They rode at will across Sussex and Hampshire, moored their fleet in Poole harbour, burnt Norwich and Thetford, beat the fyrd at Penselwood in the heart of Wessex, and rode past Winchester flaunting the plunder of Berkshire as they returned in triumph to their ships. Uhtreds daughter Stiorra was taken by Sihtric as part of the peace terms, but the two fell in love and eventually married. How Did Alfred Save Wessex From the Danes? | History Hit , Ragnar Lothbrok. For though Canute was almost as ruthless as his father, he ended the long Norse scourge. They became the greatest church-builders since the days of Charlemagne and even since those of imperial Rome, whose giant buildings they boldly tried to copy. The Danes withdrew from Winchester without the need for a final assault, settling in their new lands in Northumbria, where Sihtric became King of Jorvik. In its permanent nucleus, its land approximated that of the modern counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset. Under their feckless king, who let all the nations labour come to nought, nothing went right for the English. But a band of his followers closed round the corpse and, dying to the last man, gave the Danes such grim war-play that they were unable to follow up their victory and scarcely, it was said, man their ships to sail home. They loved fighting with lance and horse so much that, when they were not at war, they were for ever challenging one another in mimic tourneys where the victors held the vanquished to ransom and plundered their horses and armour. She had lost her freedom of action. Its wealth, so much superior to that of Normandy, seemed a standing invitation. Sack of Winchester | Historica Wiki | Fandom Other Scandinavian words were being woven into the map of northern England; Like their kinsfolk in the old Danelaw and East Anglia, these northern dalesmen pirates brood though they were had a great respect for law, so long as they themselves made it. As he had so conveniently refrained from giving his kingdom an heir, his great-nephew, the young Duke of Normandy, formed the idea of claiming it for himself. The Danish Vikings, also known as Danes, were the most politically organized of the different types of Vikings. Wessex - Wikipedia Barred out of Europe, they turned once more to England. Following the wishes of their . Erik the Red, also known as Erik the Great, is a figure who embodies the Vikings bloodthirsty reputation more completely than most. Another sign of returning health was the resumption, by colonizing knights from Germanys frontier Marches and the little Christian kingdoms of northern Spain, of Christendoms long-interrupted expansion towards the east and south. Even then his powers were limited; when Clovis, conqueror of Gaul and first king of the Franks, wished to preserve a chalice - looted from Soissons cathedral, his sole resource was to split open the head of the warrior who voiced the customary right of veto.