An overview of the period across Europe

Many Christians thought the world was going to end in 1000 AD and continuous attacks from Viking in the north and from Muslims in the south only went to support their fears.

England

200 years of relative stability in England under the rule of the Saxon Kings of Wessex was shattered by Vikings from Denmark and Norway who eventually settle and control eastern and northern England.

Byzantium

The Romans in Byzantium remain the cultural capital of Europe still ruling over all of Anatolia, eastern and southern Greece, and the extreme south east of Italy. Under constant pressure from Islamic Arabs, Turks in their north and Bulgarians who control the Balkans in their north west.

Scandinavia or Viking Land

The area begins to look like the Norway, Sweden and Denmark of today. However the Danes rule much of the south coast of Sweden. During this period the Vikings, as Scandinavians were known, became the invaders of Europe and settled in the east and north of England with headquarters in York, the west coast of Ireland centred in Dublin, Iceland, Newfoundland in North America, the north west of France which became known as Normandy, (where the Norman, William the Conqueror was born.) Swedish Vikings travel east over the Baltic Sea and via the Russian river systems arrive on the Black Sea where they harass the Byzantines but eventually unify this land to create Russia.

Russia

The huge area between present day Finland, south towards the Black Sea comes under one ruler a Prince Oleg, a Viking from Sweden and becomes known as Russia.

Franks

The three grandsons of Charlemagne rule France, Germany and Italy and other than Normandy are strong enough to remain Viking and Muslim free. The Pope regularly chooses one of these Frankish rulers to be the Holy Roman Emperor for Roman Christian Church protection. Some times the reverse is true and the Holy Roman Emperor chooses the Pope!

Arabs and Islam

The huge Islamic territories are fortunately no longer a unified threat against western Christianity as they have broken up into five individual Caliphates or Emirates who fight between themselves. They still occupy 80% of Spain and have found huge deposits of gold south of Timbuktu in west Africa. The Persians are no longer under Arabic Islamic influence but run their own Islamic schools. On the eastern provinces of Christian Byzantium the Arabs permanently attack and also retain occupancy of Jerusalem.

Magyars

During this period a new horseback army from the east arrived in Europe and settled on the grasslands of Hungary, the Magyars. They immediately added to the chaos in Christendom with continuous plundering raids into France, Germany and Italy. Fortunately a German King called Otto 1st eventually rallied against them virtually exterminating the Magyar army in 955 at a battle near Augsburg in southern Germany. Bolstered by this victory Otto annexed Italy and so impressed the Pope that he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Italy, as such had ceased to exist.

Back in England, the period 800-1000 in greater detail:

Saxon Kings rule all England

Egbert 802-839

820 England’s southern Kingdom, Wessex (Saxon) under King Egbert (802-839) breaks the military supremacy of Mercia (Angles) creating the powerbase to unify England. The only remaining Roman British stronghold (Cornwall) is also brought under Wessex control. Egbert is considered the first king of all England. Egbert married a French princess, none other than Redburga, sister of Charlemagne and with her he sired the future king Ethelwulf.

The arrival of small bands of Danish Vikings on English shores which began in 787 continues for the next 100 years.

Ethelwulf 839-858

839 The son of Egbert, Ethelwulf rules 839-858 all of England but in 855 he is forced to allow the first permanent settlement of Vikings on the Island of Sheppey off the north coast of Kent. Ethelwulf travels to Rome in 856 to see the Pope he is so worried about the Vikings from Denmark. On the return journey he marries princess Judith, daughter of Charles the Bold, king of the Franks.

Ethelwulf previously in 830 he married an English girl Osburga and they had four sons all becoming kings of England; (Osburga died c. 850)

Ethelbald, Ethelburt, Ethelred 1st and Alfred (The Great)

Scotland

844 In Scotland, Kenneth McAlpine a “Scotty” from Ireland defeats the Picts and unites Scotland.

865 England is completely over run by “The Great Army” of Danish Vikings

Alfred called “The Great” 871-899 (22 when crowned)

King Alfred the Great saves England and sets up a dynasty which keeps England free of invasion permitting steady economic growth for 130 years.

For 100 years from 787 to 878 the Vikings attacked the Shores of England. In 870 a huge force landed in East Anglia with the mission to take over the whole of England. They turned north and sacked Northumbria and then drove south eventually meeting the stronger and better organised Wessex royal family, Ethelred the King and his younger brother Alfred. There were many battles against the Viking Danes led by a determined Guthrum who eventually won and temporally ruled the whole of England. King Ethelred was killed and Alfred went into hiding in some Wessex marshes. Seven weeks later he returned and with some of his faithful warriors won a decisive victory against Guthrum at Edington Wiltshire-879. Guthrum was forced to give back half of his recently conquered England to Alfred (now the King) and recognise Alfred as King of all England. The country was divided North East/South West along the old Roman Road called Watling Street running from Dover through London to the Roman town of Chester. (Modern roads A2 and A5) The Saxons ruled directly in the south and the Vikings in the north.

Alfred the Great

One of the great Kings of England who can be remembered for:

• Saving England from being ruled by Vikings
• Created a navy from scratch to keep the Vikings away
• Created a standing army rotating between those on duty and those back home farming the land
• Law maker. Re-kindled the old Saxon laws and created some new ones
• A strict and just administrator of law
• A religious man who restored the monasteries
• Created schools and invited the best from Europe to teach in them
• Teaching himself to read when he was in his late teens then he translated Bede’s histories from Latin into English and commenced the Anglo Saxon Chronicle in English. The first European history book not written in Latin
• Alfred’s son Edward re-conquered the Viking North and East

Edward 1st 901-925 (29 when crowned)

Edward, son of Alfred the Great, was determined to win back the Danish ruled land (Danelaw) north east of Watling street and with the help of his equally determined sister Ethelfleda (Lady of Mercia) did so between 921 and 924. So terrified were the remaining Danes in Northumbria together with the Scots and the Welsh that they all paid homage to him to avoid further bloodshed.

Edward (the Elder) is remembered for siring more legitimate children 18, than any other English King before or since. He needed three successive wives for this feat.

Athelstan 934-939 (29 when crowned)

Athelstan continued where his father Edward had left off when a mighty army formed against him in the north of England at Brunanburg consisting of Vikings, from Northumberland and Ireland together with the Scots. Like his father he annihilated his enemies in what historians consider the most important English Saxon victory yet as he thus became overlord of all Britain including Scotland and Wales and was recognised as the most powerful King in Europe. Unfortunately he had no wife and hence no children to expand further. He was succeeded by one of his many half brothers, Edmund

Edmund 1st 939-946 (18 when crowned)

Half Brother of Athelstan called Edmund the Elder and the “Magnificent” who was unfortunately assassinated by a notorious outlaw Liofa, during a feast in his castle at Pucklechurch Dorset when only 26. However he had two wives, the first when he was 18, St Elgiva who produced two sons and a daughter, then she died. Secondly Ethelflleda who when widowed became a nun which was quite usual for widows and unmarried sisters of Kings.

Militarily he followed in the strong family tradition by suppressing Viking uprisings in Northumberland and Mercia and a Welsh threat in Cumbria. He secured friendship with the King of Scotland Malcolm by giving him Cumbria.

Eadred (or Edred) 946-955 (22 when crowned)

Succeeded his half brother Edmund, no record of a marriage or children.

Militarily he quelled the last uprising of Vikings in Northumbria and then removed or ethnically cleansed all the Vikings from England who were causing the English Royal family so much trouble. He divided the troublesome Northumbria into three, giving the northern section to the Scottish King and dividing the remaining part into two, self governed, by two English Earls.

Eadwig (or Edwy) 955-959 (15 when crowned)

A disastrous reign of 4 years

Sometimes called Edwy the Fair. Fortunately murdered when he was 19. Promiscuous from the start he famously left his coronation banquet at Kingston on Thames, to have sex with two women simultaneously, his mistress Elgifu and her mother. In those days the Archbishop of Canterbury would not only perform the coronation ceremony but also attempt to look after the morals and sometimes the education of the King. In Edwy case he was advised by the famous (Saint) Dunstan whose job it was to pull Edwy from his love bed and return him to the coronation. Not surprisingly Edwy eventually exiled Dunstan who fled to Normandy. Later the church punished Elgifu by branding her with a red hot iron and sent her to Ireland.

Note; at this time when St Dunstan went to Normandy it was already in Viking hands as Rollo was given the land round the mouth of the Seine in 911 by the French king Charles 3rd The Simple.

In his short reign of 4 years Edwy lost control of Northumbria who with the aid of the Church set up Edwy’s younger brother Edgar as their King (initially of Northumbria).

Edgar 959-975) (16 when crowned)

Edgar “the peaceful” brother of Edwy, was a much better bet who made sure he was well advised by the educated elders of the Church. He brought St Dunstan back from exile and made him Archbishop of Canterbury. He had a sufficient presence and hold over the potential trouble makers of the land to also rule both the Welsh and the Scots. His authority was demonstrated by a remarkable publicity stunt on the river Dee when he was rowed up and down in a ceremonial barge by the various kings of Wales(5) and Scotland(2) plus the king of the Isle of Man.

Edgar strengthened the Church creating 40 religious centres to foster culture and learning.

Edgar had two wives Ethelfleda and then Elfrida and a number of mistresses, notably a nun called Wulfryth who produced him a daughter who became St Edith of Wilton. Edgar’s first wife Ethelfleda produced King Edward who was also Sainted.

St Dunstan should be noted for trying to reform Church morals by insisting on the poverty, chastity and obedience of monks and the celibacy of parish priests.

Edgar and St Dunstan brought together the Danish and Saxon races in England by introducing Danes into the Witan and creating some Danish Bishops and Earls.

Edward 975-979 (12 when crowned)

Edward the Martyr, son of Edgar and his first wife Ethelfleda

Edward was too young to follow in his fathers good footsteps and even though supported by St Dunstan could not control the Earls. After 4 years as King he was brutally murdered at Corfe Castle probably at the instigation of his stepmother Elfrida who lived there, to open the way for her son Ethelred to be crowned King even though he was only 10.

Edward was buried unceremoniously at Wareham but soon after, miracles apparently occurred in the area, so he was reburied with full royal honours in Shaftsbury Abbey. The procession from Wareham to Shaftsbury a distance of only 25 miles took 7 days. Although Edward was unimportant in the history of England pilgrims still travel to his grave now a modern shrine in Brookwood Cemetery near Woking in Surrey.

Ethelred 979-1016 (10 when crowned)

Ethelred the Unready. Step brother of Edward the Martyr. Father King Edgar, mother Elfrida.

Ethelred had two wives first Elfled of Northumbria and then Emma of Normandy. His son by Elfled became Edmund Ironside and his son via Emma, Edward the Confessor.

The word “Unready” actually was the Saxon word “unraed” which means he was uncouncilled or would not listen to his advisors. His long 37 year reign was an unmitigated disaster.

The Danish Vikings recommenced their interest in England with a landing in the south (Essex) in 980. Ethelred’s response was to buy them off with cash by imposing a tax called Danegelt which raised £10,000.

1000 AD

During the reign of Ethelred the Unready.

After 130 years of stable Saxon rule commencing with Alfred the Great and then his sons, grand and great grand children, his line collapsed through the unavailability of mature offspring. The renewed and strengthened Viking invasions were the last straw. Also;

• Many people thought, 1000 years after Jesus, heralded the end of the world
• England had two pathetic kings who had lost the confidence of his powerful earls who were his source of fighting men
• The Danes and Norwegian Vikings attacked simultaneously
• The English King Ethelred married Emma the daughter of the Norman ruler Richard, in the vain hope that the Normans would provide an army to see off this latest wave of Vikings
• Ethelred paid handsomely to persuade the Vikings to leave
• Some Vikings did go and those who didn’t Ethelred sought out and massacred. Unfortunately for him this included Gunhild the sister of the Danish ruler Sweyn who in 1003 returned to avenge the brutal killing of his sister. After 10 years of intermittent but brutal fighting Ethelred fled to Normandy and the Danish Viking leader Sweyn Forkbbeard was appointed king of England by the Witan.

This was not the end of the leadership chaos because within the year, Sweyn not yet crowned, fell from his horse and died. This created the opportunity to recall Ethelred who ruled in competition with Canute the son of Sweyn Forkbeard. Ethelred died soon after his return and his son Edmund Ironside reigned as the Witan appointed King for 8 months in 1016. Like his father Edmund did not have the support of the whole country in his fight against the now resident Danes and was murdered (probably) in November 1016. Canute was crowned king of England to the relief of all, almost immediately.