Vikings: Return to Repton

The Vikings had been carrying out coastal raids around the British Isles since the late 8th century. But their tactics changed in the second half of the 9th century; instead of hit and run raiding parties the Vikings now seemed intent on settling a Great Army on the land.

The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland record that Ímar (Ivar) was the son of Gofraid, King of Laithlinn (Norway?). Ímar had two brothers, Auisle and Amlaíb (Olaf), collectively described in the Irish Annals as “kings of the foreigners”, forming the Uí Ímair dynasty. Another Viking leader, Halfdan is often named as another brother.They were leaders of a particularly aggressive Scandinavian group active across Ireland and Britain, raiding into Wales and Scotland by the mid-9th century, taking York in 866 and ruling the city until 954, taking Dumbarton, the rock of the Britons in 870 after a 4-month siege, and being the dominant force in England for a short period in 878.

Ivar (Ímar) was given the title "King of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain" in contemporary annals and has been identified by historians as ‘Ivar the Boneless’, the Viking who led the Great Heathen Army in England in the 860’s, returning to Dublin in 870 with much booty and slaves after his success at Dumbarton.  This period of activity in England and Scotland corresponds with Ivar’s absence from the Irish Annals during these years. Furthermore, the death of both Ivar the Boneless and Ivar (Ímar) is recorded as 873 in Ireland, After his death, it is claimed, Ivar’s body was transported to England and buried at the Viking camp at Repton, where a significant grave of an individual was uncovered.

The Danes appear to have lost interest in Wessex and after overwintering at London 871-72 headed for York the following year. After overwintering at Torksey 872-73 they then moved to Repton in Derbyshire on the river Trent. Overwinter 873-74 they dug in and fortified this settlement with the church of St Wystan, desecrating the Royal Mercian mausoleum, centred in the ditch and rampart.

When the Great Army left Repton, destroying the monastery buildings and setting fire to the church, they went on to complete the conquest of Mercia in 874, driving the Mercian king Burgred into exile and replacing him with Ceowulf II.

Early Excavations
Repton was first excavated between 1974 and 1993 when Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjblbye-Biddle investigated the site. They found evidence of a D-shaped enclosure with a massive V-shaped ditch, 4m wide and 4m deep. This enclosure used the Trent as a boundary on one side (closing the 'D') and the Mercian royal shrine of St Wigstan (Wystan) as a gatehouse to control access on the opposite side.

Evidence for the Danish presence was found around the east end of the church. During the Biddles' excavations a number of furnished graves were uncovered at the site in the churchyard, immediately north and south of the crypt; one contained silver pennies securely dating the grave to the mid-870s. The most significant grave, originally marked by a 12 in square wooden post, was found north of the church containing the skeleton of a 35-45 year old man, about 6 ft tall.

This individual showed evidence of weapon trauma; he had received a blow to the skull, and a sword-cut to the thigh had severed the femoral artery. Around his neck a leather string held two glass beads, a leaded bronze fastener  and a small silver Thor's hammer. Between his thighs had been placed the tusk of a boar and lower down the humerus of a jackdaw.

Between 1980-86 the Biddles also investigated a mound (a charnel house) in the vicarage garden to the west of St Wystan’s church. Here they discovered a charnel deposit with the remains of at least 264 people, approximately 80% of which were determined to be male, mostly aged between 18 and 45, with many displaying evidence of fatal violent injury. Based on this analysis, it was thought that these might be the remains of the Viking Great Army who died in battle.

The archaeological context (including several coin finds dated between AD 872 and 875) and a few of the original radiocarbon dates from the site appeared to confirm the Biddles' theory, suggesting a 9th century date for the burials. However, other Carbon-14 dates indicated that some of the remains dated from as early as the 7th and 8th centuries. This was explained by the suggestion that the deposit had been mixed with reinterred burials from the Saxon cemetery, which may have been unearthed by the digging of the defensive ditch around the church.

Within the mound was the remains of a structure which held a stone coffin, containing 'a Skeleton of a Humane Body Nine Foot long.' Speculation has led to claims that this was the body of Ivar the Boneless. Around this singular interment the disarticulated remains of over 260 people were found with their Feet pointing to the Stone Coffin. The entombment is without parallel in Europe during the Viking age, and it is interesting that one saga notes that Ivar died and was buried in England 'in the manner of former times', an allusion to the fact he was interred in a barrow. At least some of these individuals must have been part of the Great Army who died at Repton during the winter of 873-874.

Biddle proposed that the mass burial had been purposefully arranged around this central burial, suggesting Ivar the Boneless, one of the leaders of the Great Army and ruler of the Irish Sea Vikings who died in 873 at an unspecified location.

Return to Repton 
It is over 40 years ago since Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle’s excavations suggested the Great Army of the Vikings had encamped at Repton during the winter of AD 873-74. But many archaeologists had thrown doubt on their interpretation of the site and many questions remained unanswered.

Dating evidence, including silver pennies dated AD 872-75, supported the argument for winter camp of the Great Army at Repton. However, the dating of some of the 264 people found in the mass grave had long puzzled archaeologists; some of these bodies were dated to as early as the 7th and 8th centuries, which doesn't fit the historical context.

Now, new investigations carried out by archaeologists from the University of Bristol under the direction of Cat Jarman and Mark Horton, are using bioarchaeological methods to resolve unanswered questions about the human remains.

In 2017 new geophysical surveys took place, followed by further excavations on the site of the so-called charnel house in the Vicarage gardens west of the church.

Cat Jarman determined that the dating discrepancy turned out to be due to marine reservoir effects (MREs). Cat explains that radiocarbon measured in archaeological samples comes from the carbon absorbed during life, mainly from diet. Carbon 14 in terrestrial and marine animals gives an apparent age difference of around 400 years, due to the mixing at sea of atmospheric carbon and older carbon from deep water:

“Therefore a fish would yield a date significantly earlier than say a sheep, even if they were alive at the same time. This difference is passed on along the food chain, meaning that remains of humans with marine diets can give radiocarbon dates that seem artificially older than their real age.”

After making corrections by estimating the percentage of an individual’s marine food consumption it placed the human remains at Repton precisely within the range of the coins found with the skeletons, indicating that the charnel deposit is consistent with a single event.

Sampling a large selection from the charnel deposit revealed they were not local people but likely from southern Sacandinavia supporting the interpretation that they were members of the Viking Great Army from Denmark.

Brothers in Arms
The double grave of G.511 and G.295 at Repton gives dates of AD 677–866 and AD 715–890 respectively. The early date for G.511 is inconsistent with our current understanding of the historical context and archaeological evidence. The grave goods leave little doubt as to the Scandinavian cultural identity of this individual, yet a date before AD 873 seems unlikely, as there is no evidence for a Scandinavian presence in Repton prior to this date.

DNA extracted from G.511 and G.295 revealed the individuals were related in the first degree on the paternal side; meaning they are either father and son or half-brothers. Osteological analysis shows that the older man was at least 35-45 years old and the younger man 17-20 years old at the time of death, suggesting the father-son relationship may be the correct interpretation. Isotope analysis indicates that G.511 and G.295 grew up in a similar location, possibly southern Scandinavia (Denmark).

Both men had suffured violent trauma at the time of death,  and probably buried within a few years of each other. G.511 suffered two spear wounds above his left eye and a deep cut to the left femur, likely to have removed his genitallia. A boar's tusk was placed between his legs so that he arrived in the afterlife with his virility intact. The boar tusk buried with G.511 yielded a calibrated date of AD 695–889.

New radiocarbon dates indicate the death of the two men to between 873 and 886; the archaeological evidence supports a date toward the beginning of the range. We can identify a father and son from the Historical sources that matches these two individuals. The Annals of Ulster records Olaf (Amlaib) as one of the Viking kings active in Ireland and Britain in this period but particularly dominant in Ireland in the 850's and 860's. Olaf was the brother of Ivar the Boneless who he campaigned with in Northern Britain from 870-871, besigung Dumbarton Rock before returning to Ireland.

Olaf returned to Scotland in 874 when he was killed by King Constantine. The following years Olaf's son Eystienn was killed by Halfdan at an unspecified location, probably the same Halfdan, Olaf's brother, named as being at Repton in 873 in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. Cat Jarman suggests Olaf and Eystienn as the best candidates for the individuals in graves G.511 and G.295.



Sources:
Cat Jarman, Resolving Repton, Current Archaeology 352, July 2019, pp.18-25.
Catrine L. Jarman, Martin Biddle, Tom Higham & Christopher Bronk Ramsey, The Viking Great Army in England: new dates from the Repton charnel, Antiquity 92 - 361 (2018): pp.183–199

* * *

The Uncrowned Queen: A Biography

“The success of Edward’s campaigns against the Danes depended to a great extent upon her co-operation. In the midlands and the north she came to dominate the political scene. And the way she used her influence helped to make possible the unification of England under kings of the West Saxon royal house. But her reputation has suffered from bad publicity, or rather from a conspiracy of silence among her West Saxon contemporaries.” - FT Wainwright, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians.

Scandinavian England

Academic articles aside, until very recently there was very little information available for general readership regarding Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, Queen in all but name, and her role in the recovery of the Danelaw from the Vikings went relatively unnoticed; most sources credited the success of the Viking Wars to her father King Alfred the Great and her brother Edward the Elder.

An article by Frederick Threlfall Wainwright (1917 – 1961) in 1959 was the first to highlight Æthelflæd’s part in recovering Mercia: “Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians” in The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in Some Aspects of their History and Culture Presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. Peter Clemoes (Bowes and Bowes, 1959).

This article was published posthumously in 1975, with a collection of other significant articles by Wainwright in “Scandinavian England” (Phillimore) edited by Herbert (HPR) Finberg, highlighting the Scandinavian settlement of north-west England, which Wainwright saw as nothing less than a mass migration. Using place name evidence and O’Donovan’s 1860 translation of the Three Fragments he brought Ingimund’s story and the invasion of the Irish-Vikings in the north-west of England out from the shadows.

Other significant articles in Scandinavian England include: North-West Mercia AD 871-924 (1942); Ingimund’s Invasion (1948); The Scandinavians in Lancashire (1945). Sadly this collection does not include Wainwright’s article ‘The Chronology of the Mercian Register' (The English Historical Review, Volume LX, Issue CCXXXVIII, 1 September 1945, Pages 385–392), however, although now out of print this book should be in the library of anyone with an interest in Æthelflæd and the Viking Age in Britain.

The Lady who Fought the Vikings

After Wainwright there was no further popular works on Æthelflæd published for nearly another 20 years. ‘The Lady who Fought the Vikings’ (Imogen Books, 1993) by Don Stansbury received mixed reviews on publication, he was accused of being over creative and story telling in his efforts to reconstruct the life and times of Æthelflæd. Yet, it must be admitted there is very little historical information available on her and her husband, Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia.

Stansbury spends the first half of the book setting the scene and filling in the background to the Viking Wars, a period largely dominated by King Alfred and his construction of burhs in Wessex. This is not surprising as the primary text of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, our main source for the period, was written in Winchester, the ‘A’ text, at the direction of Alfred himself we are led to believe. To that we can add Asser’s biography of the king and the list of burhs in Wessex (The Burghal Hidage) produced some years after Alfred’s death, 911-914.

Much of the first half of Asser’s Life of King Alfred is based on the entries in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle up to 887 and fails to record the battles with the Vikings in the 890s or the death of the king in 899 and was probably left unfinished.

Stanbury heavily references Asser’s work, it certainly is not much use to us in constructing an account of Æthelflæd and merely tells us she was Alfred’s oldest child who married Æthelred and the Mercian Viking conflict up to the division of the kingdom in 874. Stansbury makes no mention of The Chronicle of Aethelweard, edited by Alistair Campbell in 1962, essentially a Latin translation of a lost early version of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

However, that said there is very little primary source material available for Æthelflæd; her history is entirely absent from the 'A' text of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle which simply records her death in 918. Aethelweard does not include much information on Æthelflæd either; following the Winchester version of the Chronicle he merely mentions her passing and burial at Gloucester. So we find most of our primary Anglo Saxon sources silent on the achievements of the Lady of the Mercians.

Stansbury, like most commentators on the Æthelflæd story, is forced to rely on secondary sources, with the key text being Wainwright’s 1959 article. Yet, a series of entries found in alternative copies of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the 'B', 'C' and 'D' texts, focusing on the years spanning 902 to 924 termed 'The Mercian Register', or 'Annals of Æthelflæd' tells the story of the 'Lady of the Mercians' (Myrcna hlæfdige).

Stansbury spends some time discussing Gloucester and Worcester, perhaps the two key sites in Æthelflæd's story. He then moves onto ‘Defending the North’ detailing the burh at Shrewsbury in 901, an episode often ignored, and the translation of the obscure Anglo Saxon Saint Alkmund. He then moves onto Chester and the arrival of Ingimund in 902. Before concluding Stansbury discusses the Æthelflædian burhs at Bremesburh, Scergeat, Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Eddisbury and Warwick before a brief analysis of the last three burhs constructed in 915 at Chirbury, Weardburh and Runcorn. Now that the Mercian borders were secure Æthelflæd turned to the recovery of the Danelaw working in conjunction with her brother Edward, launching attacks into the Danelaw from the Mercian burhs. In 917 Derby submitted, followed in 918 by Leicester and York.

Stansbury closes with Æthelflæd’s death 12 days before midsummer at Tamworth and a brief mention of Edward taking her successor and daughter Ælfwynn into Wessex three weeks before Christmas before summing up Edward’s recovery of the Danelaw and then the ascension of Æthelstan, the first king of all England, who as a boy was fostered at the Mercian court by Æthelflæd. And that is Æthelflæd’s story.

Stansbury’s book was the first full biography of Æthelflæd; in essence the story hasn’t changed in subsequent accounts although modern scholarship has produced more detail, particularly on the archaeology of the Mercian burhs.

Aethelflaed: Royal Lady, War Lady

Eight years after Stansbury’s book Fenris Press published a little book of just 35 pages by Jane Wolfe entitled ‘Aethelflaed: Royal Lady, War Lady’ (2001), “aimed at the general reader, to give Æthelflæd the place in history that she clearly deserves.”

Wolfe’s all too brief account tells the story of Æthelflæd and how she built or refortified 10 defensive burhs to protect Mercia against the Vikings and includes the raid into Wales in 916 in retaliation for the murder of an Abbot. The booklet includes a map of the Boundaries of Mercia, Wessex and the Danelaw C. 900, and a Plan of Chester in the 10th century. Appendices include Æthelflæd's Burhs and Genealogy of the Kings of Wessex.

From a limited print run this rare booklet has obtained cult status and now as rare as finding Unicorn doodah in your garden! Grab a copy if you get chance.

England's Forgotten Queen
These three books were all the popular reader had since Wainwright’s article  Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians back in 1959. With so little primary source material available and author’s often accused of conjecture and story telling to fill out the gaps perhaps fiction is the best way to reconstruct the story of Aethelflaed?

At the turn of the 21st century the writers of historical fiction turned their attention to Æthelflæd’s story with Bernard Cornwell producing The Last Kingdom (2005) series telling the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants (Aethelflaed features in Book 4, Sword Song, 2007), now a major television series available on Netflix, and Annie Whitehead’s novel To Be A Queen (2013)  said to be the true story of Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians, to name just two of many.

2017 saw the publication of two new historical works: The Warrior Queen: The Life and Legend of Æthelflæd, Daughter of Alfred the Great by Joanna Arman and Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians: The battle of Tettenhall 910AD; and other West Mercian studies by David Horovitz.

I first came across David Horovitz in researching the Stafford place name. His book on Æthelflæd is over 700 pages long and not a quick read, but it is full of very detailed information. Arman’s debut book is aimed more at the general reader and has received excellent reviews and is highly recommended.

2018 saw the Æthelflæd 1100 celebrations marking 1,100 years since her death at Tamworth which no doubt inspired the production of two further historical works: Æthelflæd: Lady of the Mercians by Tim Clarkson and Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians by Margaret C Jones. It seems the forgotten story of the Uncrowned Mercian Queen is finally getting out there and this remarkable Lady is now getting the recognition for her decisive part in the fight against the Vikings.

Perhaps aware of the gap in the market with the unavailability of Jane Wolfe’s  booklet, in February 2019 Penguin are due to publish Æthelflæd: England’s Forgotten Founder by Tom Holland. This little book (around 50 pages) is part of the new Ladybird Expert Series which retain the classic Ladybird style that anyone as old as me will remember from early school days. These Ladybird books were often the very first books we, and then our children, came across with a page of (large) text and pictures opposite. The publisher claims the books are the “same iconic small hardback format, artwork is gloriously retro, echoing the original Ladybird style but containing completely up to date information designed for an adult readership”.

Holland recently wrote on Æthelstan (2016) for the Penguin Monarchs series; the new book promises to tell the epic history of England's forgotten Queen, pulling her out of the shadowy history of the dark ages.

* * *

Chester Restored

The Mercian Burhs: Chester Part V

Fallen Warriors
The Three Fragments describes Ingimund’s expulsion from Ireland and how they failed to gain a foothold in Wales. Then, so the story goes, the Irish Vikings sought permission from the English Queen Æthelflæd to settle in Mercia who granted them lands near Chester.

In due course the Irish Vikings outgrew their lands in Wirral and desired to take the city of Chester, an ideal trading port facing the Irish Sea and mid-way between Dublin and York. Ingimund duly mustered his forces and attacked Chester, yet Æthelflæd had filled the city with Mercian forces and successfully repelled the Viking onslaught.

Invaders

After the battle for Chester Ingimund disappears from the Annals. However, according to the ‘C’ and ‘D’ texts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle there was a Viking leader who fell at the battle of Tettenhall in 910 who was named ‘Agmund’ who is said to have given his name to Amounderness (Agemundernes) in Lancashire. The archaeologist and historian FT Wainwright identified this ‘Agmund’ with Ingimund.

The deposition of the Cuerdale Hoard, containing more than 8,000 items of hack-silver, ingots and coins, uncovered just 40 miles from Chester on the banks of the river Ribble in Lancashire in 1840, has been dated to 905-910, the time immediately following the expulsion from Dublin and Ingimund's floruit on the British mainland. FT Wainwright suggested this huge silver hoard was the booty deposited by Vikings fleeing north, probably on route to York, after the battle of Tettenhall. Significantly, the river Ribble forms the southern border of Amounderness.

David Dumville notes that three of the Viking leaders who fell at Tettenhall possess the same names as the sons of the King of Laithlinn who attacked Dublin in 851, and subsequently identifies these fallen Viking kings as members of the dynasty of Ímar (Ivar).

Being expelled from Dublin in 902, we can be fairly certain that Ingimund was a member of the group of Vikings, known as ‘Dark Foreigners’ (Dubgaill) in the Irish Annals, the Norse dynasty of Ímar (Ivar) and his brothers, the sons of the King of Laithlinn. Ivar arrived in Dublin in 851 ejecting their predecessors the ‘Fair Foreigners’ (Finngaill), but were driven from the longphurt by Irish kings Cerball mac Muirecáin King of Leinster and Máel Findia mac Flannacáin King of Brega in 902. Ingimund was clearly associated, if not directly related, to this group; if this relationship is correct we should not be surprised to find him among the Viking leaders at Tettenhall.

Brothers in Arms
The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland record that Ímar (Ivar) was the son of Gofraid, King of Laithlinn (Norway?). Ímar had two brothers, Auisle and Amlaíb, collectively described in the Irish Annals as “kings of the foreigners”. They were leaders of a particularly aggressive Scandinavian group active across Ireland and Britain, raiding into Wales and Scotland by the mid-9th century, taking York in 866 and ruling the city until 954, taking Dumbarton, the rock of the Britons in 870 after a 4-month siege, and being the dominant force in England for a short period in 878.

Ivar (Ímar) was given the title "King of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain" in contemporary annals and has been identified by historians as ‘Ivar the Boneless’, the Viking who led the Great Heathen Army in England in the 860’s, returning to Dublin in 870 with much booty and slaves after his success at Dumbarton.  This period of activity in England and Scotland corresponds with Ivar’s absence from the Irish Annals during these years. Furthermore, the death of both Ivar the Boneless and Ivar (Ímar) is recorded as 873 in Ireland, After his death, it is claimed, Ivar’s body was transported to England and buried at the Viking camp at Repton, where a significant grave of an individual was uncovered which showed evidence of weapon trauma; he had received a blow to the skull, and a sword-cut to the thigh which must have severed the femoral artery, probably disembowelling him. Around his neck a leather string which held two glass beads, a leaded bronze fastener and a small silver Thor's hammer. Between his thighs had been placed the tusk of a boar, perhaps in place of the removed genitals so he would arrive in Valhalla complete.

The Viking grave at Repton - Is this Ivar the Boneless?

The Anglo Saxon kingdoms had fallen like nine-pins in the face of the Viking onslaught; Northumbria, East Anglia and eastern Mercia had all collapsed in the face of the Scandinavian storm from the east; only Wessex and western Mercia provided any resistance.

However, the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, a collection of annals written in Old English between the 9th and 12th centuries recording events of the first millennium such as the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms with additions up to the 12th century. The oldest version, the 'A' text was produced during the 9th century, popularly believed to have been commissioned by King Alfred himself.

Copies were passed to other ecclesiastical houses where they were copied and continued. The 'B' text was written in the late 10th century and was certainly at Abingdon Abbey by the mid-11th century where it formed the basis of another copy known as the 'C' text. Another version was produced at Worcester, the 'D' text, whose source appears to have been a northern version of the Chronicle.

Æthelflædian entries found in the 'B', 'C' and 'D' texts focusing on the years spanning 902 to 924, beginning with the death of Ealhswith the widow of King Alfred and Æthelflæd’s mother, and ending with the accession of Æthelstan ‘chosen king by the Mercians’, were termed 'The Mercian Register', or 'Annals of Æthelflæd' by the historian Charles Plummer.

The Mercian Register records the construction of 10 fortifications by Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, commencing with Bremesburh in 910 and finishing with Runcorn five years later, in response to attacks by the Vikings. In addition, Æthelflæd restored Chester in 907 and Shrewsbury in 901. Along with her husband, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, they restored fortifications at Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford as part of a Mercian revival. Possibly originating from the land of the Hwicce, Æthelred emerges from the shadows as ruler of English Mercia following the death of Ceolwulf II in 879. He is an experienced warrior who survived many battles and loyal to King Alfred throughout. The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, which contain Ingimund’s saga in the “Three Fragments”, say that Æthelred was a sick man and implies that the Saxon Queen Æthelflæd was ruling on her own at the time of Ingimund’s arrival on Wirral.

Mercian Burhs: The Iron Ring
The burh, or fortified settlement, was not just a defensive structure; it is from the burhs that Æthelflæd and her brother King Edward the Elder would launch the recovery of the Danelaw. Yet before taking the offensive against the Vikings, Æthelred and Æthelflæd first secured their borders against the threat of Vikings in the west and north of Mercia. As we have seen, on several occasions the Vikings journeyed up the river Severn into the heart of Mercia. This resulted in the establishment of burhs by Æthelflæd at Bridgnorth, Chirbury and Weardbyrig (Whitchurch?), and the re-fortification of Offa's settlements at Shrewsbury and Hereford to guard the west. Burhs were also constructed at the unidentified sites of Scergeat ('boundary gap') and Bremesburh.

The distribution of the Mercian burhs shows the main threat during Æthelflæd's reign was from the north and west (the Severn), with fewer burhs constructed along the eastern frontier, later known as the Danelaw. Tamworth to Stafford is just over 30 miles, roughly the Wessex standard distant between burhs, but after Stafford there are no known burhs until Chester, some 50 miles distant. Are we missing a burh or two along the Mercian north eastern frontier zone; or are we to assume the Viking threat was not so great here?

Perhaps Æthelflæd enjoyed a good relationship with the Vikings settled there? This may well be the case as witnessed by the rapid submission of the Vikings at Leicester, Derby and York. However, King Edward, who was not regarded so highly in Mercia, would later consolidate his sister's gains and make further advances into the Danelaw constructing the burhs at Manchester, 919, and Bakewell, 920.

Chester Restored
The restoration of Chester by Æthelflæd in 907, as recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, implies that the Mercian Queen rebuilt the Roman walls and this is usually the accepted meaning of the phrase; however it may also mean Æthelflæd restored law and order and expelled any Vikings there. It probably means both. There is evidence of the restoration of the Roman city walls; it is likely the old Roman fortress of Deva was extended out to the banks of the Dee forming an ‘L’ shaped enclosure to secure the harbour frontage.

Æthelflæd later built fortifications at Eddisbury  (914) and Runcorn (915), 10 miles and 15 miles from Chester respectively. The exact site of Æthelflæd's fortification at Runcorn is unknown but thought to be the Castle Rock, a promontory jutting out into the River Mersey which would have given control movement of Vikings from the Irish Sea on route to York. It is thought the burh at Eddisbury was incorporated into the Iron Age hillfort known as Castle Ditches which would have provided control over the old Roman road passing directly below the hillfort which provided a fast route from Chester to Manchester and on to York and Northumbria.

While the Mercians were constructing these burhs and securing their northern frontier in 914 a Viking fleet sailed into the mouth of the River Severn. After venturing up the river Wye and attacking south Wales the Vikings made no further progress and were turned back by the men of Hereford and Gloucester. In the Autumn these Vikings sailed for Ireland, promptly re-capturing the settlement of Waterford from which the Irish had expelled the Vikings. By 917 the Vikings had re-captured Dublin.

After Æthelflæd's death in 918 King Edward continued to secure the northern frontier of Mercia from the threat posed by Irish Vikings by constructing burhs at Thelwell (Warrington?) to guard a crossing over the Mersey, and Manchester (919), guarding the Roman road from York to Chester, and Rhuddlan (Cledemutha) at the mouth of the Clwyd in North Wales (921). Edward may have built a burh here to oppress a Welsh uprising, it is significant that he died not far away at Farndon on the River Dee after putting down a Mercian – Welsh revolt at Chester.

However, Edward's burh at Cledemutha may have been built to guard the river mouth from the ongoing threat from Irish Sea Vikings. It has been suggested that the unidentified burh at ‘Weardbyrig’ could have been a fortification built at Gwenspyr in the Llanasa to guard the mouth of the Dee on the opposite bank to Chester. When considered with the burhs at Cledemutha, Chester, Eddisbury, Runcorn, Thelwell and Manchester, Gwenspyr (Weardbyrig?) would have formed a line of fortifications to protect the north-western Mercian frontier. This was the area of settlement of the Vikings expelled from Ireland in 902, and following their return to Dublin in 917 the threat from the Irish Sea Vikings persisted after Æthelflæd's death.

Ingimund’s Saga Retold
At this point it is tempting to reconstruct the probable adventures of Ingimund in England and Wales following the expulsion from Ireland in 902. He first landed at Anglesey, the closest sailing to Dublin. After a short period there he was driven out of the island by the Welsh. Sailing further along the coast he arrived at Meols in Wirral where he obtained permission to settle from the Saxon Queen Æthelflæd in return for either payment or military obligation to guard the Dee and Mersey estuaries from further Viking encroachment. After several years there Ingimund’s group had outgrown their allocated land on the Wirral peninsula. Facing the Irish Sea and located directly between the Viking settlements at York and Dublin, Chester had long been desired by the Vikings who had made several previous attempts in the late 9th century to take the old Roman city by journeying up the river Severn. Now the attack was coming from the north western border of Mercia.

The Three Fragments records the unsuccessful attempt by Ingimund and his Irish Vikings to take Chester.  Æthelflæd had filled the walled city with the Mercian fyrd and repelled the attack. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the restoration of Chester in 907 by Æthelflæd, this was probably soon after the failed attempt to take the city. Ingimund now disappears from the story.

However, if he did not perish in the Viking attack on Chester he may have broken out of the Viking enclave on Wirral around this time and settled further north at Amounderness (Agemundernes) in Lancashire.  Ingimund, or Agmund, finally met his end at the Battle of Tettenhall in 910 when the northern Vikings were annihilated by a combined English army from Wessex and Mercia. Viking survivors from the battle heading back to Amounderness stashed their booty, taken from raiding through Mercia, on the bank of the river Ribble.


Sources:
Joanna Arman, The Warrior Queen: The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed, Daughter of Alfred the Great, Amberley Publishing, 2017.
Tim Clarkson, Aethelflaed: Lady of the Mercians, John Donald, 2018.
Richard Coates, ÆthelflÆd's fortification of Weardburh. Notes and Queries, 45 (1),  1998.
Clare Downham, Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, Dunedin, 2007.
David Dumville, Old Dubliners and New Dubliners in Ireland and Britain, Medieval Dublin VI, 2005.
David Griffiths, Vikings of the Irish Sea, History Press, 2010.
David Griffiths, The North-West Frontier, pp.167-187, in Edward the Elder: 899-924, edited by N.J. Higham and D.H.Hill, Routledge, 2001, p.169.
Stephen Harding, Ingimund’s Saga: Viking Wirral, (2000), University of Chester,  2016 edition.
Stephen Harding , David Griffiths and Elizabeth Royles (editors), In Search of Vikings: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Scandinavian Heritage of North-West England, CRC Press, 2014.
N J Higham, The Origins of Cheshire, Manchester University Press, 1993, pp.98-99.
Tom Holland, Athelstan: The Making of England, Penguin (Reprint edition), 2018.
David Horovitz, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians; the battle of Tettenhall 910AD; and other West Mercian studies, (Self Published) 2017.
Margaret C Jones, Founder, Fighter, Saxon Queen: Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, Pen & Sword, 2018.
Alfred Smyth, The Black Foreigners of York and White Foreigners of Dublin, Saga Book of the Viking Society 19, 1977.
FT Wainwright, Scandinavian England, Chichester, Phillimore,  1975.
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, Trans. by Joan Newlon Radner. CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

AFTERWORD

Æthelflæd 1100 celebrations

I make no apology for spending the last six months on this blog writing about the Saxon Queen  Æthelflæd. I started this series in June leading up to the celebration of 1100 years since her death at Tamworth on 12th June 918.

This remarkable woman was born during the time of the Viking Wars and witnessed first hand the constant struggle of her father, Alfred the Great, against the Scandinavians who were not just randomly plundering the coasts but the Dynasty of Ivar clearly had intentions of settling the whole country.

It is difficult for us today to imagine life in these brutal times; Æthelflæd stands out as the only ruling Saxon Queen in England, possessing considerable military ability in a truly heroic age, yet also an adept negotiator gifted in diplomacy, but more than anything she must have been incredibly resolute and courageous in the face of adversity; not one Æthelflædian burh was lost to the Vikings and formed the foundation of the recovery of the Danelaw after her death.

12th June 2018 marked the 1100th anniversary of her passing, with celebrations performed in Tamworth and Gloucester and recognised at other burh towns she created. But here in Stafford where I write, a burh created by Æthelflæd that developed into the county town of Staffordshire, we had nothing, barely a mention in the local newspaper. Why is this town so shy of its Æthelflædian heritage?

This was my little bit for redressing the balance.

* * *

Ingimund’s Invasion

The Mercian Burhs: Chester Part III

FA 429
?907 We have related above, that is, in the fourth year previously, that the Norwegian armies were driven out of Ireland, thanks to the fasting and prayers of the holy man, Céle Dabaill, for he was a saintly and pious man, and he had great zeal for the Christians; and besides inciting the warriors of Ireland against the pagans, he laboured himself through fasting and prayer, and he strove for freedom for the churches of Ireland, and he strengthened the men of Ireland by his laborious service to the Lord; and he removed the anger of the Lord from them. For it was on account of the Lord's anger against them that the foreigners were brought to destroy them (i.e., the Norwegians and Danes), to plunder Ireland, both church and tribe.

Now the Norwegians left Ireland, as we said, and their leader was Ingimund, and they went then to the island of Britain. The son of Cadell son of Rhodri was king of the Britons at that time. The Britons assembled against them, and gave them hard and strong battle, and they were driven by force out of British territory.

After that Ingimund with his troops came to Aethelflaed, Queen of the Saxons; for her husband, Aethelred, was sick at that time. (Let no one reproach me, though I have related the death of Aethelred above, because this was prior to Aethelred's death and it was of this very sickness that Aethelred died, but I did not wish to leave unwritten what the Norwegians did after leaving Ireland.) Now Ingimund was asking the Queen for lands in which he would settle, and on which he would build barns and dwellings, for he was tired of war at that time. Aethelflaed gave him lands near Chester, and he stayed there for a time.

Viking sites in North West England

What resulted was that when he saw the wealthy city, and the choice lands around it, he yearned to possess them. Ingimund came then to the chieftains of the Norwegians and Danes; he was complaining bitterly before them, and said that they were not well off unless they had good lands, and that they all ought to go and seize Chester and possess it with its wealth and lands. From that there resulted many great battles and wars. What he said was, ‘Let us entreat and implore them ourselves first, and if we do not get them good lands willingly like that, let us fight for them by force.’ All the chieftains of the Norwegians and Danes consented to that.

Ingimund returned home after that, having arranged for a hosting to follow him. Although they held that council secretly, the Queen learned of it. The Queen then gathered a large army about her from the adjoining regions, and filled the city of Chester with her troops…..

…….The armies of the Danes and the Norwegians mustered to attack Chester, and since they did not get their terms accepted through request or entreaty, they proclaimed battle on a certain day. They came to attack the city on that day, and there was a great army with many freemen in the city to meet them. When the troops who were in the city saw, from the city wall, the many hosts of the Danes and Norwegians coming to attack them, they sent messengers to the King of the Saxons, who was sick and on the verge of death at that time, to ask his advice and the advice of the Queen. What he advised was that they do battle outside, near the city, with the gate of the city open, and that they choose a troop of horsemen to be concealed on the inside; and those of the people of the city who would be strongest in battle should flee back into the city as if defeated, and when most of the army of the Norwegians had come in through the gate of the city, the troop that was in hiding beyond should close the gate after that horde, and without pretending any more they should attack the throng that had come into the city and kill them all.

Everything was done accordingly, and the Danes and Norwegians were frightfully slaughtered in that way. Great as that massacre was, however, the Norwegians did not abandon the city, for they were hard and savage; but they all said that they would make many hurdles, and place props under them, and that they would make a hole in the wall underneath them. This was not delayed; the hurdles were made, and the hosts were under them making a hole in the wall, because they wanted to take the city, and avenge their people.

It was then that the King (who was on the verge of death) and the Queen sent messengers to the Irish who were among the pagans (for the pagans had many Irish fosterlings), to say to the Irishmen, ‘Life and health to you from the King of the Saxons, who is ill, and from the Queen, who holds all authority over the Saxons, and they are certain that you are true and trustworthy friends to them. Therefore you should take their side: for they have given no greater honour to any Saxon warrior or cleric than they have given to each warrior or cleric who has come to them from Ireland, for this inimical race of pagans is equally hostile to you also. You must, then, since you are faithful friends, help them on this occasion.’ This was the same as saying to them, ‘Since we have come from faithful friends of yours to converse with you, you should ask the Danes what gifts in lands and property they would give to the people who would betray the city to them. If they will make terms for that, bring them to swear an oath in a place where it would be convenient to kill them, and when they are taking the oath on their swords and their shields, as is their custom, they will put aside all their good shooting weapons.’

All was done accordingly, and they set aside their arms. And the reason why those Irish acted against the Danes was because they were less friends to them than the Norwegians. Then many of them were killed in that way, for huge rocks and beams were hurled onto their heads. Another great number were killed by spears and by arrows, and by every means of killing men.

However, the other army, the Norwegians, was under the hurdles, making a hole in the wall. What the Saxons and the Irish who were among them did was to hurl down huge boulders, so that they crushed the hurdles on their heads. What they did to prevent that was to put great columns under the hurdles. What the Saxons did was to put the ale and water they found in the town into the towns cauldrons, and to boil it and throw it over the people who were under the hurdles, so that their skin peeled off them. The Norwegians response to that was to spread hides on top of the hurdles. The Saxons then scattered all the beehives there were in the town on top of the besiegers, which prevented them from moving their feet and hands because of the number of bees stinging them. After that they gave up the city, and left it. Not long afterwards there was fighting again …

>> Part IV: Settlement: Scandinavian Wirral

Source:

Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts [http://www.ucc.ie/celt]
Author: [unknown]
Translated by Joan Newlon Radner. Electronic edition compiled by Beatrix Färber, Maxim Fomin, Emer Purcell
Text copyright: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

* * *

Irish Vikings: The Dark Foreigners of Dublin

The Mercian burhs: Chester

Part II

The Coming of the Dark Foreigners 
The Annals of Ulster record the first Viking raids on Ireland in the year 795, just two years after the well known attack on Lindisfarne on the north-east coast of England, with the burning of “Rechru by the gentiles”. Rechru has been identified as Rathlin Island off the north coast of County Antrim. Further raids in 795 are reported on the west coast of Ireland at Inishmurray and Inishbofin, followed by the burning of St Patrick's Isle (Holmpatrick) and the destruction of the shrine of Do-Chonna in 798.

These early raids on Ireland were likely connected to Viking raids on the west coast of Scotland  and probably associated with the same group who attacked Lindisfarne, and the earliest recorded attack on England in 789 on Portland in which the king's reeve was killed.

In the 820's raids increased on Ireland's coast by Scandinavian groups termed by the annalists as either 'gaill' (foreigners) or 'gennti' (gentiles). During the 830's attacks recorded throughout eastern and central Ireland became more furious; monasteries at Armagh, Glendalough and Kildare were repeatedly attacked on more than one occasion in the same year.  By now there was greater emphasis on inland rather than coastal raiding with the Vikings becoming involved with internal conflicts within Ireland, often employed as mercenaries or allies.

The Dublin longphort

Large raiding parties such as the sixty longships recorded on the Liffey and Boyne in 837 could only have been sustained by overwintering groups on semi-permanent camps probably on off-shore islands. The earliest recorded Viking land base in Ireland was at Inber Dea in County Wicklow from which the raid on Kildare in 836 was launched. By the 840's the Vikings were establishing permanent camps at strategic locations on rivers and loughs. In 841 Dublin is described as a “longphort” (Old Irish: ship-fortress); with other settlements at Lough Neagh (841), Lough Swilly (842), Rosnaree (842), Limerick (845), Cork (848), and Waterford (860).

The location of the longphort at Dublin has remained a matter of debate among scholars, yet the Annals of Ulster record the site as Dubh-linn, i.e. the 'black pool'. Griffiths states this is possibly the former dark pool in the river Poddle, at its confluence with the Liffey, which would have formed a natural harbour. Excavations have revealed evidence of pre-917 (the date the Viking's re-founded Dublin) Scandinavian houses and animal pens at the confluence of the Poddle and Liffey.  However, no 9th century defences have been found for the longphort. Griffiths suggests the site of Dublin Castle, built by King John of England, overlooking the black pool, where excavations have uncovered evidence of later Viking defences, seems the most obvious location.

Dynastic struggles were prevalent among the Viking settlers as well as the native Irish groups during the 840's. After a series of defeats at the hands of the Irish, the Dubhlinn longphort was attacked in 849 by Máel Sechnaill, high king of Ireland aided by the chieftain Tigernach mac Fócartai. In 851 the annalists record the first appearance of the “Dubgaill” or “Dubgenti” (Dark Foreigners, or Dark Gentiles) in the following entry:

“The dark gentiles (Dubh gennti) came to Áth Cliath (Dublin), made great slaughter of the fair foreigners (Finn gaill), and plundered the longphort; the dark heathens then made a raid on Linn Duachaill where many were slaughtered”.

The descriptions of the heathens or foreigners as 'dark' and 'fair' (often interpreted as 'black' or 'white') is used in both Ireland and Britain during the Viking age has nothing to do with black men apparently taken from North Africa by the Vikings; although undeniably during the Viking age Dublin was a major economy in the trade of “thralls” or slaves. As we saw in the burh at Shrewsbury the Welsh Annals record engagements with “black gentiles” in Anglesey and Gwynedd and the presence of “pagans” in the land of the Wreocensæte during the mid-9th century. There can be little doubt that these Viking groups raiding into Wales and the Marches were from Scandinavian settlements in Ireland.

For many years these terms were used to describe different ethnic groups among the Scandinavian settlers, distinguishing Dane from Norwegian; the historian Alfred Smyth argued for the dark Danes of York and the fair Norsemen of the Western Isles. David Dumville has since argued for the term ‘dark foreigners’ used to describe a new batch of Vikings arriving in Ireland in the 850's; the terms used by the annalists to distinguish between 'old' and 'new'. Clare Downham takes this a step further and suggests that the 'dark foreigners' were the dynasty of Ivar who attacked the Dublin longphort in 851.

A fleet of 140 longships sailed up the Liffey and into Dubhlinn, said to have been sent by the King of Laithlinn “to exact obedience from the foreigners who were in Ireland before them”.

These dark foreigners from Laithlinn (Norway?) imposed their rule on the fair foreigners of the Dublin longphort and gained submission from the Irish in 853. They were led by the son of the kings of Laithlinn known as Olafr (Old Irish; Amlaib) and his brothers Ivarr (OI; Imair) who would go on to create a great dynasty in York and Dublin, and Auisle (OI; Ásl).

Olafr would soon come into conflict with Máel Sechnaill throughout the late 850's and early 860's. During this period the annalists introduced a name for another group, the 'Gallgoidil', fighting alongside Máel Sechnaill against the forces of Olafr and Ivarr. Historians have debated the enigmatic Gallgoidil (foreigner gaels) for many years; it appears to have been a term used by the annalists to distinguish a mixed-race group, from either the dark gentiles or the fair foreigners. They were possibly descendants of the first Norse settlers in Ireland in the 840's who had taken Irish wives.

Raids in to Wales
Having taken over the longphort it wasn't long before the Dark Gentiles of Dubhlinn started venturing eastward across the Irish Sea, taking their unique brand of violence with them; Anglesey was a short day's sail away, and the river Ribble was the most direct route to York. And the old walled Roman city of Chester sat invitingly at the mouth of the river Dee.

Shortly after the arrival of the sons of the king of Laithlinn in Dubhlinn, Dark Gentiles are recorded in north Wales. The Welsh Annals record that Cynin (of Powys) died fighting “the gentiles” (Vikings) in 850. In 854  “Y Llu Du” (the Black Host) attacked Môn (Anglesey). The following year, 855,  “Black Gentiles” attacked Gwynedd, their leader Gorm was slain by Rhodri Mawr, ruler of Gwynedd (844-78). Gorm [Orm] is recorded fighting in Ireland in the 850’s.

The Dynasty of Ivarr (Uí (h)Ímair; literally the grandsons of Ivarr) was a royal Norse dynasty which went on to rule much of the Irish Sea region from the mid 9th century; the Kingdom of Dubhlinn, the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, and parts of north-west England.

The expulsion from Dublin c.902 

However, the rule of the Dark Gentiles in Dubhlinn came to a devastating end in 902 when they were attacked by the Irish kings Cerball mac Muirecáin King of Leinster and Máel Findia mac Flannacáin King of Brega from the north and the south, driving the Vikings out of the  longphort, leaving “great numbers of their ships behind them, and escaped half-dead across the sea."

Having been expelled from Dublin in 902, the descendants of Ivarr moved their base to the Isle of Man and soon started making inroads into north-west England. Yet, in 914 the Vikings would return to Ireland, marking the beginning of the Second Viking Age.

That year a force Viking longships sailed into the estuary of the River Severn pillaging south Wales. Repelled by the men of Hereford and Gloucester  the Viking fleet made no further progress upstream and turned back. In the Autumn the Vikings sailed to Waterford harbour in Ireland. They promptly re-captured their settlement of Vadrefjord [Waterford] from which the Irish had expelled the first Vikings half a century earlier. By 917 the Vikings had re-captured the longphort at Dubhlinn.


>> Continued in Part III: Ingimund's Invasion


Sources:
Clare Downham, Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, Dunedin, 2007.
David Griffiths, Vikings of the Irish Sea, History Press, 2010.
Alfred Smyth, The Black Foreigners of York and White Foreigners of Dublin, Saga Book of the Viking Society 19, 1977.
David Dumville, Old Dubliners and New Dubliners in Ireland and Britain, Medieval Dublin VI, 2005.

* * *

The Mercian Burhs: Chester

“In 1840 workmen repairing a stretch of the southern embankment of the River Ribble, near Preston, in Lancashire, discovered the largest known silver hoard from the western Viking world. Consisting of over eight thousand items including silver coins, jewellery, hacksilver and ingots, the Cuerdale Hoard weighed an incredible 42kg. The Ribble Valley had been an important Viking route between the Irish Sea and York; significantly the hoard was buried between 905 and 910, shortly after the Vikings had been expelled from Dublin in 902.”

Part I

Buttington: The Irish Connection
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells us that in 893 the Viking warlord Hasten and his great army raided along the Thames then up the river Severn. Hasten's force had arrived the year before as one of two fleets of Viking longships that arrived in Kent from the Continent. They finally settled at Shoebury in Essex by agreement with the English. The following year, reinforced by Vikings from Northumbria and East Anglia, Hasten's army set out raiding along the Thames valley and headed up the river Severn.

They dug in at Buttington, Montgomeryshire, where they were besieged by an English army of Mercians and West Saxons supported by the men of North Wales. Facing starvation, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells us that the Vikings resorted to eating their horses. When the Vikings finally broke out of their encampment at Buttington they faced much slaughter, the survivors making their way back to their camp at Shoebury. The Annals of Ulster records, “The English won a battle against the Dark Foriegners in which countless multitudes fell”.

The following year the remnants of Hasten's army regrouped with Vikings from Northumbria and East Anglia and then set out marching day and night for "a deserted city on the Wirral called Chester". Historians have pondered the prospect of the old Roman city having stood as an empty ruin since Æthelfrith of Northumbria annihilated a combined Welsh force from Powys and Gwynedd in 616 in the Battle of Chester in which 2,000 unarmed monks from the monastery at Bangor-on-Dee were slaughtered. Welsh sources refer to the conflict of 'Perllan Fangor' (Bangor Orchard) which tends to indicate it was the monastery at Bangor that was destroyed and its monks murdered.

An earthwork enclosure backing on to the Dee at Heronbridge, just south of Chester, initially led to speculation that this was a classic riverside fortification constructed by Vikings. However, recent excavations have dated the site to the time of the battle of Chester, suggesting these burials may have been casualties from this Welsh-Northumbrian conflict. It may seem unlikely that the city would have been deserted since this battle, a period of nearly 300 years, yet archaeological evidence suggests this may have indeed been the case, apart from perhaps an ecclesiastical presence.1 However, the Vikings coveted the city; facing the Irish Sea it would be an ideal site for a major Norse settlement in the west, mirroring the former Roman walled-city of York to the east.

When the Mercians caught up with Hasten's Vikings at Chester they drove off all the cattle and burned the corn in an effort to starve them out. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle says this occurred about twelve-months since they first came “hither over sea”. After over-wintering at Chester, early in 895 the Vikings broke out of the old Roman city and headed into Wales, raiding and plundering. They returned to Essex by Northumbria, probably travelling north across the Mersey, avoiding further encounters with the Mercian army.

Clare Downham suggests that these two Viking raids along the Severn and toward Chester may have been motivated by events in Ireland. In 893 the Annals of Ulster report feuding Viking factions in Dublin resulting in the departure of two groups leaving the port; one led by a son of Ivarr and the other under Sigfrodr. Significantly the Viking fleet that attacked Wessex in 893 was led by a Northumbrian Viking also named Sigfrodr. Alfred Smyth suggested that Sigfrodr was a Northumbrian who, after his campaigns in Wessex, sailed to Dublin and attempted to take control of the Hiberno-Norse settlement there.2

In 896 the Vikings again attacked Mercia, again up the river Severn, but this time overland to "Quatbridge". Midway between Bridgnorth and Quatford is the settlement of Danesford which has been suggested as the place where the Vikings crossed the Severn, however Susan Laflin states that the name derives from 'derne-ford' meaning 'hidden ford'. Laflin claims there are shelves of rock about eighteen inches below the surface which would make it possible for local people with knowledge of this to ford the river at this point.3

Of course it is possible the Vikings, masters of the seas, identified this hidden ford and crossed the Severn here. On the otherhand, the region around modern Bridgnorth was known as 'Cwat' (meaning remains obscure); 9th century references to 'Cwatbrucge' indicate an early bridge stood here which would have been a major crossing point of the Severn.

Either way, having crossed the Severn the Vikings overwintered here, then in the following summer the army dispersed, some returning to Northumbria and East Anglia, others sailed south to the Seine. Three Years after Hasten's arrival it seems they gave up on Britain and what was left of the army returned to France. After this we hear no more of Hasten.  However, in 910 the Vikings would again come raiding up the Severn.

The Battle of Tettenhall
In 906 King Edward made peace both with the Scandinavians of East-Anglia and Northumbria. Three years later in 909 Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, took advantage of this treaty and travelled into Northumbria to recover the relics of St. Oswald from Bardney. St Oswald’s bones were interred at Gloucester in the new church the Æthelflæd and her husband Æthelred, Ealdorman of the Mercians, had commissioned as the new Royal Mercian mausoleum following the desecration of Repton by the Vikings. On his death, Æthelred was also buried there in 911, followed by Æthelflæd who passed away at Tamworth in 918.

In 910, the year after the recovery of St Oswald’s relics, the treaty with the Danes appears to have broken down as the Chronicle reports that Edward sent an army both from Wessex and Mercia and harassed the 'northern army' by their attacks on men and property of every kind. They slew many of the Danes, and remained in the country (presumably Northumbria) for five weeks.

The English chronicler Æthelweard states that Æthelred, Ealdorman of the Mercians, was ruler of both Northumbria and Mercia. Northumbria at this time stretched from sea to sea, east to west, and from the Mersey to the Humber in the south and beyond the Wall in the north. The Danish Vikings were centred on York in the east, which raises the possibility of western Northumbria being an extension to Mercia under the rule of Æthelred, perhaps as part of the treaty agreed in 906, which questions the northern boundary of the Danelaw at that time and may in part explain the speed of some of the Northumbrians rapid acceptance of Æthelflæd as ‘overlord’ in 918.

In the same year, Vikings again raided through Mercia, returning via the Severn, probably an act of revenge for Edward’s earlier harassment of the north. When they crossed the river and entered into Mercia the English army was waiting for them. The Battle of Tettenhall ensued, somewhere near modern day Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, with the Viking army taking many casualties among the slaughter; three Viking kings are named among the fallen; Halfdan and Asl, joint Kings of Northumbria. Æthelweard adds another, Ingwær (Ivar), their brother, who may have also ruled with them. Æthelweard states they were all despatched to the "halls of the infernal".

David Dumville identifies the names of these three Viking kings killed at the battle of Tettenhall as the same as three Viking leaders who were active in the British Isles in the 860’s and 870’s. Dumville argues that the three kings killed at Tettenhall were members of the dynasty of Ivarr (Uí (h)Ímair) who ruled in Dublin before 902, and later at York.4 Downham adds that this coincidence is too striking to be ignored.5

F T Wainwright also suggested that the substantial Cuerdale Hoard, discovered on the bank of the river Ribble in 1840, deposited between 905-910, was perhaps booty from the battle of Tettenhall. However, the Ribble lies on a direct route from the Viking colonies of Dublin and York and more likely associated with events in Ireland.

Another Viking leader who fell at Tettenhall was named ‘Agmund’ who is said to have given his name to Amounderness (Agemundernes) in Lancashire. Wainwright identified him with Ingimund who according to the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland was expelled from Dublin in 902 when the Irish drove the Scandinavians from the longphort. Many of the Vikings fled to north west England. Ingimund is said to have settled at Wirral, between the Dee and Mersey, north of Chester, on land granted by the ‘English Queen’ Æthelflæd.


>> Continued in Part II: The Dark Foreigners of Dublin


Sources:
1. David Griffiths, The North-West Frontier, pp.167-187, in Edward the Elder: 899-924, edited by N.J. Higham and D.H.Hill, Routledge, 2001, p.169.
2. Clare Downham, Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, Dunedin, 2007, pp.72-73.
3. Susan Laflin, Shropshire Place-Names ending in "-ford", lulu.com, 2015, p.18.
4. David Dumville, Old Dubliners and New Dubliners in Ireland and Britain: a Viking-Age Story, Medieval Dublin 6, 2004, pp.78–93.
5. Downham, op. cit, pp.84-87.

* * *

Alfred's Burhs

The Viking Wars
The Mercian Register records the construction of 10 fortifications by Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, commencing with Bremesburh in 910 and finishing with Runcorn five years later, in response to attacks by the Vikings. In addition Æthelflæd restored Chester in 907 and Shrewsbury in 901. Along with her husband, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, they restored fortifications at Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford as part of a Mercian revival. Possibly originating from the land of the Hwicce, Æthelred emerges from the shadows as ruler of English Mercia following the death of Ceolwulf II in 879.

There were few coastlines in western Europe that did not experience the violent raids of the Norsemen in the late 8th century. The Viking Age is a allotted a timespan of 793 to 1066, the raid on Lindisfarne to the Norman Conquest. In England the first encounter with seaborne raiders from Scandinavian is recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle in 787 at Portland. However, it seems these raids had started well before they were first recorded as Offa, king of Mercia (757-796), was constructing coastal defences in the later part of his reign.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Then the Vikings changed tact; the Great Heathen Army, a mixed Scandinavian army drawn from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, arrived in England in 865, no longer was their strategy to raid and pillage, now in much larger numbers they were intent on conquest and would focus on the Anglo Saxon kingdoms one after the other. After landing in East Anglia they overwintered at Thetford, unchallenged, before attacking York in 866. Seemingly able to roam around the country unhindered, they then marched on Mercia and wintered at Nottingham in 868. The Mercian's agreed terms and the Army returned to York. In 869 they went back to East Anglian, murdering King Edmund and overwintered into 870. The following year they headed for Wessex and engaged in nine battles, resulting in just one English victory, the Battle of Ashdown. Berkshire. Alfred became king of Wessex that year after his brother Ethelred died following the battle of Merton.

As the youngest of five brothers Alfred was never destined to be king. Born in 849 at Wantage, the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, he seemed destined for an ecclesiastical role, at the age of 5 he had been taken to Rome and confirmed by Pope Leo IV. He was a student of books and credited with initiating the production of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

The Danes appear to have lost interest in Wessex and after overwintering at London 871-72 headed for York the following year. After overwintering at Torksey 872-73 they then moved to Repton in Derbyshire on the river Trent. Overwinter 873-74 they dug in and fortified this settlement with the church of St Wystan, desecrating the Royal Mercian mausoleum, centred in the ditch and rampart. It would appear the Vikings had a rough time during their stay at Repton; excavations on the site have revealed several single burials and a mass burial containing the remains of at least 264 people. With no evidence of weapon trauma they probably died of disease.

In 874 they attacked and destroyed the Mercian Royal palace at Tamworth, said to have then lain in ruins until restored by Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, forty years later. Burgred, the king of Mercia, fled to Rome, driven out of the kingdom by the Vikings who installed Ceolwulf, described by the Chronicle as “a foolish king's thegn”, a puppet king who swore oaths to them. Presumably Ceolwulf's dominion was reduced to western Mercia, as the eastern half was now ruled solely by the Danes.

In less than 10 years of the arrival of the Great Army in England three of the four Anglo Saxon kingdoms had now fallen; Edmund of East Anglia had been murdered, Northumbria conquered, and Mercia split in two; English Mercia being reduced to Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire. The Vikings now set their sights back on Wessex again. But the heathens made a grave tactical error; the army, reduced in numbers from disease during their winter camp at Repton, now split in two, half followed Halfdan on to York, the other half, under Guthrum, heading south for Wessex, after stopping at Cambridge in late 874.

Halfdan returned to Northumbria and fought the Picts and the Strathclyde Britons, his army is not mentioned after 876. Guthrum's much reduced Great Army began the onslaught on Wessex in 875. In January 878 they nearly captured King Alfred in his winter quarters at Chippenham “in midwinter after Twelfth Night”. The King of Wessex was forced to flee to the Somerset marshes, spending the winter at Athelney, where he is famously said to have burnt the cakes.

In May 878 Alfred mustered the men of Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire then attacked the Danes at Edington in Wiltshire. We are not told what happened to the men of Dorset and are forced to question if they participated in the Wessex revival? However, the battle was a resounding victory for the English which led to the baptism of Guthrum, Alfred being his Godfather, and a Treaty agreed in which the Danes were required to leave Wessex and return to East Anglia, where they were able to remain in control of much of the Midlands and eastern England, the boundary defined north of the Thames and east of Watling Street, an area that would become known as the Danelaw.

English Mercia was effectively now part of Wessex, it is clear that the two kingdoms were working together against the Vikings. Ceolwulf's fate is uncertain, yet by 881 Æthelred was ruling west Mercia when he led an unsuccessful raid into north Wales. He may have been installed by King Alfred of Wessex; they certainly enjoyed a close relationship with the betrothal of Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd, and in 886 when Alfred re-took London, a Mercian town from the 7th century, it was handed back to Æthelred. By now Alfred was deemed the king of the Anglo Saxons.

England 878 AD (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Æthelred led an alliance of Mercians, West Saxons and Welsh to victory over a Viking army at the Battle of Buttington, Powys, in 893. In the following years Æthelred fought alongside Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, the future king of Wessex. In 910 a combined force of Mercians and West Saxons inflicted a major defeat on a Viking raiding army that had come up the Severn at the Batle of Tettenhall. It seems likely that  Æthelred was severely wounded in this battle, he died the following year and Æthelflæd become the sole ruler of Mercia.

Fortress, Bridge and Fyrd
Alfred knew the Vikings were sure to return, yet during the period of relative peace that Alfred and Guthrum's treaty brought he began a policy of building fortified towns, or burhs, throughout Wessex, such that no place was more than 20 miles from another; some burhs were built at old Roman or Iron Age fortifications, some were restorations of existing towns protected within a perimeter ditch and earth rampart, topped with wooden palisade. The network of burhs was to essentially provide safe refuges for the local people of the district, complete with food and supplies. A charter makes it explicitly clear that the burh at Worcester was to “shelter all the people”.

There was no standard size for Alfred's burhs, some were fortified towns, centres of commerce and local government, complete with mint. The larger burhs were constructed in the Wessex heartland and along the river Thames, where a Viking longship attempting to sail upstream would face five burhs in succession.

Some would develop into municipal centres in modern times, such as Chester, Stafford, Hertford and Warwick. The word 'burh' evolved into 'burgh', 'bury' then 'Borough' which can be found in many English place names today, as in council administrative districts.

Other burhs were small fortifications at river crossings or on the coast, to block access upstream to Viking longships. Some of these never developed into towns and cannot be located today. With a series of lookouts and beacons the burhs controlled movement within the borders of Alfred's territory and nullify the possibility of the Viking key strategic weapons; mobility and the surprise attack.

To man these fortifications Alfred introduced military obligations which extended burh work to include fyrd service. A record of Alfred's defensive system can be found in the early 10th century document known as 'The Burghal Hidage', which lists 33 fortifications in Wessex and southern Mercia.

The size of each burh is recorded by a land measure known as a 'hide'; the length of  the ramparts determining the number of local men required to defend it. Early records indicate that each hide would be required to supply one man for each four feet of burh perimeter. Later Anglo Saxon fyrds would be required to provide one man for every five hides. Alfred also  made provision for permanent manning of the defences with half the fyrd on active service and half at home. He also founded a fleet of warships to tackle the Vikings at sea before they could get in land.

The defensive system was continued by Alfred's children Edward and Æthelflæd in the reconquest of Mercia where 22 burhs were built, over half of these the Mercian Register credits the construction, or restoration, to Æthelflæd. Burhs had previously been established in the heartland of the west Mercian kingdom at Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, Winchcombe and Tamworth in the late 9th century by Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians.

Alfred certainly had a vision for the defence of his kingdom, and the network of Wessex burhs is seen as considerable innovation on his part, but where he did get his inspiration?

In the 9th century Pope Leo IV ordered the construction of a fortified city to provide protection to the Papal City. The Leonine Wall was constructed from 848 to 852 in response to the sacking of Old St. Peter's Basilica in 846 by Saracens – the boy Alfred visited Rome shortly after its completion.

The Vikings attacked Paris for the first time in 845, and returned three times in the 860's,  in response the Frankish king Charles the Bald declared a series of military reforms, The Edict of Pistres included the fortification of bridges built at all towns on rivers to prevent the Viking longships from penetrating the interior, such as the Loire and the Senne. These fortified bridges fulfilled their intended purpose during the Viking Siege of Paris of 885–886 with the low-lying bridges blocking the passage of the longships.

But the first record of burh work in Anglo Saxon England is made in a Mercian charter c.749. In this case the earliest Mercian burhs have been seen as fortified bridges, thereby blocking land and river movements. Prior to the re-development of the burh during Alfred's reign, in early records the word 'burh' could be used for an Iron Age hillfort or a monastic site, often distinguished by a form of curvilinear bank. Yet from the 8th century in Mercia a 'burh' had come to describe a fortified settlement, often sited on or near rivers or the coast. This network of burhs would also have provided centres for commerce, protected within the defensive walls of the burh.

A network of burhs was almost certainly constructed across greater Mercia in the 8th century which may have been instrumental in the emergence of the kingdom as the most dominant in Anglo Saxon England, the years of the so-called 'Mercian Supremacy'. Here military obligations were supplied by the great estates in exchange for land tenure and consisted of service in the fyrd, bridge work and burh work; the 'Three Necessities' which emerged under the Mercian kings Æthelbald (r. 716 to 757) and reinforced by Offa (r. 757 to 796) in response to Viking coastal raids.


Further Reading:
Nicholas Brooks, The development of military obligations in eighth- and ninth-century England, in England Before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources Presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Kathleen Hughes and Peter Clemoes, Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp.69-84.
Richard P Abels, Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England, University of California Press, 1992.
Jeremy Haslam, Early Medieval Towns in Britain, Shire, 2010.
Jeremy Haslam, Market and fortress in England in the reign of Offa, in World archaeology vol. 18, 1987, pp. 76-93.
Ryan Lavelle, Alfred's Wars: Sources and Interpretations of Anglo-Saxon Warfare in the Viking Age, Boydell Press, 2010.
Ryan Lavelle, Fortifications in Wessex c. 800-1066: The Defences of Alfred the Great Against the Vikings, Osprey, 2003.
Chris Peers, Offa and the Mercian Wars, Pen & Sword, 2012
Gareth Williams, Military obligations and Mercian supremacy in the 8th century, in Æthelbald and Offa: Two Eighth-Century Kings of Mercia, ed. David Hill and Margaret Worthington, British Archaeological Reports, 2005, pp. 103-109.

* * *