The Danish Expeditions.—The Danish Conquest.
A fate similar to that which the Anglo-Saxons had formerly brought upon
the Britons, now partly became the lot of the Anglo-Saxons themselves.
The same sea, the North Sea, or, as the old inhabitants of Scandinavia
called it, “England’s Sea,” which in the fifth century had borne the
Anglo-Saxons to England, and which had afterwards served to maintain the
peaceful connections of trade, and the intercourse between kinsmen in
England and in their northern fatherland, now suddenly teemed with the
numberless barks of the Vikings, which, from the close of the eighth
century, constantly showed themselves in all the harbours and rivers of
England. For about three centuries the Danes were the terror of the
Anglo-Saxons. They generally anchored their ships at the mouths of
rivers, or lay under the islands on the coasts. Thence they would sail
up the rivers to the interior of the country, where they frequently
mounted on horseback, and conveyed themselves with incredible speed from
one place to another. Their frightful sabre-cuts resounded everywhere.
Their progress was marked by the burning of churches and convents,
castles, and towns; and great multitudes of people were either killed or
dragged away into slavery. In a short time they began to take up their
abode in the country for the winter, and in the spring they renewed
their destructive incursions. The terrified inhabitants imagined they
beheld a judgment of God in the devastations of the Vikings, which had
been foretold in ancient prophecies.
Not even the remote and poorer districts of Wales were spared. It is
true that it was extremely difficult for the Danes to force an entrance
on the land side, and, in order to do so by sea, it was necessary to
make a troublesome and dangerous voyage round the long-extended
peninsula formed by the modern Cornwall and Devonshire. In general its
rivers were not large or navigable, and the number of good harbours was
but small. Nevertheless, the Northmen seem to have known Wales well, as
the old land of the Britons; since it was always called “Bretland,” to
distinguish it from England. Palnatoke, the celebrated chief of the
Jomsvikings, is said to have married there, during one of his warlike
expeditions, Olöf, a daughter of the Bretland jarl, Stefner, whose
Jarledömme (earldom) Palnatoke afterwards possessed. The Sagas often
make mention of _Björn hin Bretske_ (Bear the Briton) as being among his
men; and it is said that when he assisted at the funeral solemnities
which his foster son, King Svend Tveskjæg[3], held in honour of his
father, King Harald Blaatand[4], the half of his suite were Britons.
Svend himself had ravaged Bretland; and it was there, as is well known,
that the Icelander, Thorvald Kodransön, surnamed Vidförle (the
far-travelled), delivered him by his noble disinterestedness from a
perilous imprisonment.
Footnote 3:
Split-beard.
Footnote 4:
Blue-tooth.
The expeditions of the Danes to Bretland seem, however, to have been
confined to the tracts bordering on the north bank of the Severn, and to
the Isle of Anglesey; which latter was not unfrequently visited by the
Norwegians in their piratical voyages to the Hebrides and Ireland. At
least the Sagas mention it as “the southernmost region, of which former
Norwegian kings had made themselves masters;” and it was probably here
that Palnatoke had his kingdom. The very name of the island recalls a
close connection with the inhabitants of the north. Anciently it was
called “Maenige;” but the Danes and Norwegians, with regard, clearly, to
its situation by the land of the Angles (England), gave it the name of
“Öngulsey,” or Angelsöen, whence the present form Anglesey may,
doubtless, be said to have been derived.
The connections of the Danish Vikings with Bretland were, however, far
from being always unfriendly. For as the Britons in Wales and Cornwall
constantly nourished a lively hatred against the Anglo-Saxons, on whose
lands they continued to make war, the Danes often entered into an
alliance with them against their common enemies. The Danish and British
armies were either combined, or else the Britons attacked from the west
and south, whilst the Danes invaded the eastern coasts. These deep and
well-laid plans show that the views of the Danes were no longer confined
to robbery and plunder, with a view to gain booty, or to overthrow the
churches and convents which threatened their ancient gods with
destruction, but that they now seriously thought of conquering for
themselves new tracts of country; nay, if possible, of subjugating or
expelling the Anglo-Saxons throughout England.
Already in the ninth century the Anglo-Saxons had receded considerably
before the Danes, who had obtained possessions on the east coast, where
they quickly spread themselves, and where fresh arriving Vikings always
found reception and assistance. The Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great,
was driven from his throne, and wandered about a long time in the
forests, whilst the Danes held the sovereignty in his dominions. He
succeeded, indeed, at length in regaining the crown; but in the mean
time the possessions of the Danes on the east coast had been extended,
and their power continually increased by the arrival of fresh emigrants,
who settled in different parts of the country, and married the native
women. Alfred, it is true, built fleets for the protection of the
coasts; but the militia-men instituted in his time, in order to repel
the frequent attacks of the Danes, now went over to them, accounting
them their kinsmen. In Northumberland especially, the Danes, and a
considerable number of Norwegians, had settled themselves securely under
their own chiefs. Here they had sought a refuge against the new order of
things which was now about to make itself felt in the mother countries,
Denmark and Norway.
Partly as a result of the expeditions of the Vikings, and the frequent
contact into which they were thus brought with Christian States,
Christianity began, towards A.D. 900, to spread itself in the countries
of Scandinavia. About the same time occurred there, as in the rest of
Europe, a union of many small kingdoms under a single sovereign: and the
Scandinavian tribes were subjected to the kings of Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden. Some powerful and malcontent ones had indeed migrated beyond the
sea; but, nevertheless, there were materials enough left for dissension
in the new kingdoms, before Christianity could be generally introduced,
and the power of the kings firmly established. A time arrived when the
internal struggles in Denmark and Norway scarcely allowed the
inhabitants to send any availing support to their friends in
Northumberland, or to the other Danes on the coasts of England. Towards
the middle of the tenth century, therefore, the hitherto almost
independent Danish provinces in England were compelled to submit to the
Anglo-Saxon kings, whose sovereignty, however, was but of short
duration; for after the year 980 Danish and Norwegian Vikings again
swarmed throughout England. Nor was it now, as formerly, merely the
petty kings, who, with a comparatively inferior force, conducted these
warlike expeditions. By degrees the Danish and Norwegian kings’ sons,
and even the kings themselves, endeavoured, with large fleets and
well-appointed armies, to wrest the sceptre from the hands of the feeble
Anglo-Saxon monarchs. It was in vain that the latter strove against
them. They laid a tax on the whole land, called _Danegelt_, in order to
defray the great expenses which the defence of the country against the
Danes occasioned. But the money thus raised it was often necessary to
expend in buying off the Danes, or in supporting their victorious hosts
whilst they wintered in the country. The Anglo-Saxon king, Ethelred,
after seeing his kingdom harried and fearfully devastated by the Danish
king, Svend Tveskjæg, in conjunction with Olaf Trygvesön, the son of the
king of Norway, first succeeded in making peace with Olaf in 995, and
with Svend in 1002, after paying immense sums as Danegelt, and agreeing
to many humiliating conditions.
As a last resource against the daily-increasing number and power of the
Danes, Ethelred determined secretly and cruelly to murder these who were
settled in England. The massacre took place on St. Bridget’s eve, the
13th of November, 1002. Old and young, women and children, were murdered
with the most frightful tortures. Not even the churches could protect
the Christian Danes against the fury of the Anglo-Saxons. The slaughter
was, however, confined almost exclusively to the south of England; since
towards the north, and particularly in Northumberland, the population
was chiefly of Danish and Norwegian extraction.
No sooner did the news of Ethelred’s perfidious and sanguinary act reach
Denmark, than a strong fleet was fitted out, and in the following year
(1003) the Danish flag waved on the coasts of England. After numerous
sanguinary battles, the Anglo-Saxons were compelled to submit to Svend
Tveskjæg and Canute. What could not be conquered by force of arms was
obtained through prudence and cunning. The Danish conquest of England
was completed, and for about one generation Danish kings wore the
English crown.
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