Page 32 - BBC History - September 2017

Viking Britain

he Viking age gave us almost three centuries: from the
some of the most iconic end of the eighth until deep into
battles in British history. the 11th. Over this period, in
TThere was Edington, England alone, sources
Alfred the Great’s against-the- document at least 50 pitched
odds triumph in AD 878 over part battles, plus as many raids,
of a massive Danish invasion sieges and naval encounters.
force; Brunanburh (AD 937) in Most of these have been all but
which Alfred’s grandson forgotten over the centuries.
Æthelstan stamped his authority Many of them, however, played
on the British Isles; and Stamford a critical role in shaping the
Bridge (1066), where the nascent kingdoms of England
bones of Harald Hardrada’s and Scotland. Here, then, are five
Viking army were left to whiten battles of the Viking age: clashes
on the field, picked clean by that – though uncelebrated and
carrion birds. often unremembered – helped to
But the Viking age lasted for shape the destiny of Britain.

The crushing

of the Cornish

The battle of Hengest’s Hill AD 838

COMBATANTS: A Cornish–Viking alliance against Egbert’s
kingdom of Wessex
OUTCOME: Victory for Wessex

King Egbert of Wessex was not a man to came to Cornwall”, which combined
be trifled with. In AD 825, he established forces with the native Cornish and
himself and his kingdom as the immediately set about challenging King
pre-eminent power in Britain, crushing Egbert’s power. Egbert led an army into Ravens and
the Mercians at a place called Ellendun, Cornwall, bringing his strength to bear at
just outside Swindon. It was a memorably a place called Hengest’s Hill. This was ramparts
bloody business. A fragment of poetry most probably Kit Hill, the massive
recalled that “Ellendun’s stream ran red prominence that dominates the valley of The battle of Cynwit AD 878
with blood, was stuffed up with corpses, the Tamar, one flank of which is still
filled with stink”. known as Hingsdon. COMBATANTS: Odda and the men of
This was only one front in Egbert’s We know very little about what Devon against the Vikings
campaign to subdue the other happened, except that the Vikings
kingdoms of Britain. In AD 815, he had and the Cornish were put to flight. This OUTCOME: Victory for Wessex
raided Cornwall “from east to west” was to be the last gasp of Cornish
– a reminder to the still independent independence. The people of Britain’s In AD 878, things were looking grim for
Cornish kingdom of the limits of their south-western peninsula would never Egbert’s grandson, King Alfred. A Viking
autonomy. In AD 838, however, the again pose a military threat to the army, led by the warlord Guthrum, had burst
Cornish decided that the time had come Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The same into Wessex, occupying Chippenham and
to push back against West Saxon cannot be said of their erstwhile driving Alfred into exile in his own kingdom.
domination. This time they had allies – Viking allies. For several months the king was on the
Viking allies. Since the AD 790s, Viking fleets had run, living as a fugitive in the marshes and
The Anglo-Saxon been striking from the sea without wild places. Eventually he set up camp on
Chronicle records warning, raiding monasteries and the Isle of Athelney in Somerset, from where
that, in AD 838, coastal settlements and capturing he orchestrated guerrilla raids on the Viking
a “great slaves and treasure. By the AD 830s, occupiers. When, however, another Viking
ship-horde these attacks had become increasingly army, led by the warrior Ubbe, arrived in the
brazen, targeting substantial south-west of England, it must have seemed
settlements like Carhampton in likely that the days of the West Saxon
Somerset and defeating Anglo-Saxon dynasty were numbered in double-digits.
armies. But this was the first time (that Ubbe’s army was met by forces
A Viking
picture stone we know of) that Vikings had marched to commanded by Odda, the ealdorman of
depicting armed war alongside a native people in Britain. Devon. The battle that followed, one of the
men and scenes Although (and sadly for the Cornish) it great military reversals of the early Middle
from Norse was not a successful experiment, it Ages, was fought at an unidentified hillfort in
mythology would certainly not be the last. the south-west of England called ‘Cynwit’.

32 BBC History Magazine