A History of the Vikings
Chapter 8
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agement that was needed, and so in the middle of May, at the date appointed in the messages that he had sent secretly throughout this south-western portion of his kingdom, Alfred moved suddenly from Athelney to a rendezvous somewhere just to the east of Selwood Forest, (1) and was there joined by the levies of Wessex men that had been hastily raised in Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire. Great was the joy of these loyal West Saxons at being thus reunited under their beloved king, and it was amid demonstrations of enthusiasm and affection that Alfred now set out to recover Wessex from the Danes.
Swift action counted for much, and two days after the concentration of the army, Alfred, pushing rapidly forward with the troops thus collected, fell upon Guthrum's army that had by this time moved out from Chippenham to oppose him. The rival forces met at Ethandun (the modern Edington in Wiltshire, 12 miles south of Chippenham) (2) and the result of the battle was a complete rout of the Danes, who were driven back, after suffering heavy losses, to their camp. Without hesitation Alfred followed them there and laid siege to the place. It was the bold action of a great leader and it was successful, for two weeks later the remnant of the Danish army in Wessex, though a short time before a complacent and victorious host, surrendered unconditionally to the man who was deemed to be a fugitive and helpless king.
The peace treaty that followed was of the kind that the Christian monarchs of Europe considered a full reward for their occasional victories over the pagan invaders. The vikings gave hostages, swore solemnly that they would leave the kingdom, and Guthrum himself promised to become a Christian. And having by this time a wholesome dread of Alfred, they carried out their promises. Guthrum was baptized in June at Aller near Athelney, and this ceremony was followed by a chrism-loosing (the laying aside of the white band of the catechumen) at Wedmore near Glastonbury; here the Danish chief abode for twelve days with the Wessex king, who now received him as his son by adoption and loaded him with
1. At Ecgbrihtes stan, but the site has not been identified. Brixton Deverill is etymologically unsatisfactory.
2. This identification has been warmly contested and the Somerset Edington, near Athelney, has been preferred by certain authorities, among whom the Rev. C. W. Whister and Mr. Albany Major were the foremost; but in this instance ancient variants of the name show that an equation with Ethandun is difficult to defend; for the arguments in favour of this identification see Arch. Journ. 75 (1918), p. 178 and Antiquaries Journal I, p. 104.
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gifts. After this Guthrum and his vikings were permitted to winter in Wessex, but in the next year, faithful to their bond, they withdrew from the kingdom. Their first move was to Cirencester, just inside Mercia.
The Treaty of Chippenham, or Peace of Wedmore as it is often called, had at least put an end to any serious danger of a viking conquest of Wessex, but, just as had happened on the last occasion when Alfred rid his country of the Danes, their retreat from Wessex boded disaster for the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia. The move to Cirencester was plainly an indication that Guthrum had as yet no intention of leaving the midlands, and that Gloucestershire and Worcestershire were now in peril of being added to the Danelaw. But the two chief men of this Hwicce province, Æthelred, Duke of Gloucester, and the Bishop of Worcester, knowing that it was useless to turn to Halfdan's creature Ceolwulf, their so-called king, for aid, offered their allegiance to Alfred the Great, and this dramatic step (it put an end to the existence of the old independent kingdom of Mercia) had the anticipated effect on the Danes, for Guthrum made off without fighting a battle and marched back into East Anglia. In the summer of the previous year a fleet of viking ships had arrived in the Thames, apparently with the intention of plundering in southern England, perhaps even of joining forces with Guthrum; but the now considerable prestige of Alfred made any sort of expedition, even into Mercia, dangerous, and the newcomers accordingly remained for the winter at Fulham. In 880 when Hwicee passed under Alfred's protection and Guthrum had abandoned his hopes of conquest in the midlands, this fleet likewise changed its plans and sailed off to plunder on the Continent (p. 214 ).
Guthrum, finding himself back in the east of England, had perforce to be contented with the territories of Hendrica and East and Middle Anglia. Following Halfdan's example, he apportioned out the land among his followers; he established boroughs under independent jarls, each with his own army, at Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford, while he himself controlled a large province that embraced the towns of London, Colchester, Ipswich, Thetford, and Norwich, a province including not only Hendrica but a half (corresponding roughly with the modern Buckinghamshire) of the district of Chilternsaete.
The most significant result of the Treaty of Chippenham was that this Danelaw, now a vast belt of country stretching across England from the Tees in the north to the Thames in the south, had been recognized and, in part, defined by Alfred as the proper
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and permitted realm of the Danish leaders. As such it prospered and an Archbishop returned to York to resume the interrupted ecclesiastical government of northern England. Of the great Wessex kingdom of Ecgbert, his grandfather, Alfred had abandoned to the vikings only London and Essex, a big concession, but one that the occasion demanded, for the Danes, thus established, were now inclined to live peaceably within their own territory, while Alfred had a corresponding term of leisure wherein to set his realm in order. He was thus enabled to effect various pressing military reforms, notably a reorganization of the fyrd, or national levy, the enlistment of Frisian sailors for the strengthening and better management of his fleet, and the building of fortified strongholds on the model of the Danish boroughs, each the headquarters and rallying-point of districts that were subdivisions of the older shires.
The Treaty of Chippenham was made in 878 and it was not until 882 that Alfred was forced to take arms against the vikings once more, and on this occasion it was only to drive off four pirate ships. But there was a more serious disturbance in 885 when a viking host landed in Kent and attacked Rochester, for this was followed at once by a breach of the peace on the part of Guthrum who evidently believed that another opportunity had come for an attack upon Wessex. But Alfred drove off the Rochester vikings, who were forced to abandon their prisoners and the horses that they had brought with them from Francia, and he despatched his fleet across the estuary of the Thames to the mouth of the Stour, where it captured a fleet of sixteen viking ships. Guthrum, however, sent out a larger fleet that succeeded in catching Alfred's boats on their return and putting them to flight, so that the English naval expedition ended disastrously. But Alfred was in no wise daunted and acted at once with characteristic vigour, for he straightway marched up the south bank of the Thames and captured London. It was a bold and famous stroke. Guthrum was forced to make a new peace (1) with the Wessex king, and as a result the boundaries of the southern Danelaw were altered in Alfred's favour, the Danes ceding the North London area together with Hendrica and their portion of Chilternsaete. But even more important than mere territorial gain was the increased prestige that Alfred won by this
1. A part of the text of this peace between Alfred and Guthrum (not to be confused with the Treaty of Chippenham) has been preserved, F. Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, I, p. 126, and F. L. Attenborough, Laws of the Earliest English Kings, Cambridge, 1922, p. 98.
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liberation of London; for when he had restored the town and fortified it, and committed it to the care of his own son-in-law Æthelred, Duke of Mercia, 'all the English, save those in captivity of the Danes', turned to him eagerly as their leader, and now, in central and southern England, from the Mersey to the south coast, every man looked to him as the redoubtable head of the nation and the deliverer of the people of England.
But in 892 there was a new and most dangerous crisis to be faced, for this was the time when the great army of the siege of Paris left Francia and invaded England (p. 219 ). The formidable host, embarked in 250 ships, sailed from Boulogne and landed at the mouth of the Lymne in Kent, whence they marched inland and captured a fort at Appledore. At the same time another viking fleet, 80 ships strong, under Hastein, the lusty and terrifying old warrior of the Loire and the Somme, appeared in the Thames and seized the town of Miltonnear-Sittingbourne.
Alfred, fearing that there might be a general rising of the Danes throughout all the Danelaw, pledged both the Northumbrian Danes and those of East Anglia (from the latter he also took the precaution of extracting hostages) to abstain from joining in this attack upon his kingdom; but in spite of their vows they most certainly did send expeditions, as he had foreseen, to swell the numbers of the new invaders in Kent, and, furthermore, they chose this opportunity to land a viking force in Devonshire. The situation was therefore extremely serious when in 893 Alfred took up a position with his army within striking distance of both the enemy camps in Kent and so began an anxious and bitter three years war. At first there was no general engagement, and, after some skirmishes, Alfred tried to treat with Hastein; but while the negotiations were in progress the Appledore Danes sent their boats to Benfleet in Essex and themselves set out upon a long circuitous raid through Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire, across the upper Thames, and then eastwards to Benfleet. They were, however, intercepted by Alfred's eldest son, Edward, at Farnham and utterly routed in the battle that followed, being driven in confusion across the Thames. They then retreated for 6 miles up the Hertfordshire Colne and took refuge in an island by the hamlet of Thorney in the parish of Iver (1) on the Buckinghamshire side of the river; here they were besieged by Edward, but the young prince was
1. This identification of Æthelwerd's Thorney was first made by Professor F. M. Stenton, English Historical Review, XXVII (1912), p. 512.
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soon forced to withdraw as his army's term of service had expired and rations were running short.
Alfred was on his way to relieve his son's army when he heard that the treacherous Danelaw had sent a fleet of over 100 ships to besiege Exeter and another of 40 ships to harry North Devon; he was compelled therefore to march off to the west country and drive off the vikings encamped before Exeter. Meanwhile Edward, having obtained reinforcements and accompanied by Æthelred with his Londoners, returned to Thorney and, finding the Danes still there, forced them to surrender. He took hostages from them and then allowed them to retreat to Benfleet where Hastein had lately established himself, though the old pirate was on this occasion away on a plundering expedition; but soon afterwards he and Æthelred followed them there, attacked the Danish camp, and gained an overwhelming victory. The English took many prisoners, including the women and children of the settlement, (1) and they captured the whole viking fleet; they sent off as many of the enemy boats as they could man to London and Rochester, but the remainder they either broke up or burnt. It was, in short, one of the most complete victories hitherto gained over a viking force on English soil.
The Danes who escaped from this disaster were joined by Hastein at Shoebury and there they made themselves a new camp. It was not long, however, before their numbers were increased by large reinforcements from within the Danelaw, and their next move was to make a dash across England to the Severn valley, presumably to demand the succour of the vikings by this time established in South Wales. They succeeded in reaching the Welsh borders at Buttington before a great levy raised by Æthelred and the aldermen of Somerset and Wiltshire, a levy that even included some of the North Welsh, marched against them. For many weeks the two armies watched one another, but at length the Danes began to run short of provisions and in desperation crossed the Severn to attack the English main body. There followed a big battle and both sides lost heavily, but the result was a defeat for the Danes. Back to Shoebury fled the beaten remnant of the expedition.
But now all the Danelaw was in a ferment, and once again the old hopes of the conquest of western Mercia, perhaps even of Wessex itself, were revived. Fresh bands of warriors collected
1. Among these were the wife and sons of Hastein, but they were subsequently restored to him by Alfred. This was probably because Hastein had become, or had promised to become, a Christian when he was negotiating with Alfred at Milton.
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