THE ARRIVAL of the ‘Great Army’ in England marked a turning point, “transitioning from seasonal raiding to a more permanent Viking presence in England.”¹ ‘Great Army’ is a term that has been translated from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which uses the term micel here. The leaders of this Danish army were the legendary sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók: Ívarr hinn Beinlausi (the Boneless) and Halfdán Ragnarsson.²

CONTENTS:
I. The ‘Great Army’
II. King Alfred of Wessex
III. Impact and Conclusion

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I. THE ‘GREAT ARMY’:

THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME that we have discussed this Viking force, but it is perhaps the more renown.³ It was with this force that the Viking presence in England reached a new level, in that they were not going to leave. In fact, they now planned to stay permanently. Yet, before going into further details, it is wise to step back and discuss the nature of this ‘army’ itself. After all, such a Viking army is likely a popular subject in many circles, so let us not get carried away.

Most importantly, the size of this force was likely not massive. Medieval sources are, in all honesty, not very good with numbers; they tend to express reaction versus accuracy.⁴ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from which the majority of such information comes from, was written by monks who did not necessarily witness the events themselves. Also, such a source only gives minimal detail. In the end, do not be concerned too much about the size of this army. The most important thing to know is that such an army, despite the impressive name, was large, but not massive; it was a more overwhelming force than England had seen previously. It is also likely that such an army was not entirely unified in action or purpose, either. Yet, I do say this out of contemplation, rather than being backed by scholarly evidence, so just keep an open mind.

The Great Army jumped around England quite a bit, so bear with me. They first landed in Kent, making peace with the Kentishmen. Yet, in the most Viking-like manner, “the heathen army stole up by night and raided the whole east of Kent.” Shortly thereafter, they went to East Anglia, where they “established winter quarters and procured horses.” From here, the Great Army spread across England “across the mouth of the River Humber as far as York in Northumbria.”⁵

In 867, the great army moved into Mercia, taking up winter questers in Nottingham. The Mercian army could do little against their fortifications, and so they made peace with the Vikings for now.⁶

In 869, the Great Army once again moved on East Anglia. This time the king of East Anglia faced them, Saint Edmund, but he was defeated. Afterwards, your typical Viking-fare followed:

“They overran the whole land and destroyed all the monasteries they came to. At that time, they stormed and burned Medeshamstede, where they killed the abbot and the monks. They destroyed everything they found there and reduced to nothing a place that had formerly been very prosperous.”⁷

Notice that the monks compiling this Chronicle are particularly concerned about the monasteries and not much else? I do not really blame them, however, their bias cannot be completely forgone. The Vikings had a very, very poor reputation for quite some time because of their words. In some regards this was fair. Yet, many Danes of this Great Army settled down in England as well. Just keep such things in mind while considering history. Facts are only what happened to survive to us today. There are many forgotten details and perspectives throughout our past.

II. KING ALFRED OF WESSEX:

THE GAME CHANGED when King Alfred became king of Wessex in the year 870.⁸  He would come to be known as the savior of England. At first, however, the kingdom of Wessex still made peace with the Great Army using money – as all the other kingdoms had been.⁹ This, of course, did not do anything except prolong the inevitable conflict ahead. Kind Alfred, however, was not like the rest. He rose to save his kingdom, and then he later became the king over all of England, which was something that has never before happened. His achievements were impressive, and he can, within reason, be deemed as England’s savior against the Vikings.

Alfred gradually gave the Great Army more resistance, particularly after the year 874. During that time the Great Army split, Halfdan leading half into Northumbria to settled, while three other Danish kings (Guthrum, Oscytel, and Anwend) went to Cambridge to continue their attack on Wessex.¹⁰ With the army now split, it would be easier for native resistance. Although not initially gaining a great deal of success, Alfred engaged the army on numerous occasions between 874 and 896. The most prominent of these collisions between Kind Alfred and the Great Army were those of 878 and 896 (to save us the tediousness of going year-by-year). 

In 878, Alfred officially ‘saves’ Wessex from the Vikings, and thus prevents Wessex rule from falling into a Viking dynasty. This is what had already occurred in Northumbria, East Anglia, and even parts of Eastern Wessex. In those areas, “Viking dynasties had replaced native Anglo-Saxon ones.”¹¹ Furthermore, there was beginning to be a more significant amount of land being owned and passed on by Danish settlers.¹² Yet, Alfred prevented this from happening to all of Wessex. He did this by defeating the Danish king Guthrum in battle:

King Alfred engaged the Great Army in “Eddington where he fought with the whole army and put them to flight. Then King Alfred rode after them as far as the fort and stayed there for a fortnight. Then the Danish army have hostages and swore many oaths that they would leave his kingdom. They promised that their king would accept baptism; they kept that promise. …Guthrum stayed with King Alfred for twelve days, and King Alfred honored Guthrum’s comparisons with rich gifts.”¹³

After this, they were of less threat to his kingdom. Alfred had become a much more capable leader against the Great Army. Yet, this was not the end of his conflict with Vikings. In 896, after more years of various engagements with the Great Army (which had split a few times here and there), King Alfred finally pushed them out of England for good. After a naval encounter with six Danish ships, with King Alfred sending out nine in response (brand new and made at King Alfred’s order and designed), the Great Army left England.¹⁴ King Alfred had become the king of all of England, gaining the title ‘the Great.’ As it states in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: 

“He was king over all England, except for the part under Danish control. He rules that kingdom for twenty-eight and a half years…”¹⁵

III. IMPACT AND CONCLUSION:

IN THE END, many things came about from this period of history. Viking involvement in England turned towards a more permanent state. The Danes, under much more organization, and specific leadership, began to settle and ‘conquer’ much of Eastern England. Many kingdoms could not unify enough to deal with the Vikings, except for the Wessex king Alfred. King Alfred managed to preserve his kingdom. Yet, he also strengthened England’s military and defenses so that he could give the Great Army no more chances to do as they pleased. Under king Alfred, there began a common English identity, whereas before there was strife between these Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 

This was not to be the end of the Vikings in England, however. Many Danes did stay in England, controlling much of the east. After the death of king Alfred, weak leadership followed, allowing more opportunities for the Danes. This will be discussed, however, in our next lesson.

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Footnotes

1. Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald ed., The Viking Age: A Reader, 2nd Edition. (University of Toronto Press, 2014), 230. ↩︎
2. Ibid. ↩︎
3. This was during our discussion of Vikings in France. ↩︎
4. I decided it would be best to discuss this in a footnote, because it is a bit tedious to include in the main text. I have not really backed this up with academic text, but I would say medieval sources use numbers, at times, to express a reaction instead of an actual size. For example, 10,000 sounds much more threatening than 1,000. By exaggerating and rounding the numbers, you can, in a sense, give the reader an idea of the intensity in a given situation. Just imagine a bunch of monks hanging out and saying, ‘Did you hear that 10,000 heathens raided a monastery in East Anglia?’ ‘Holy shoot Æthelweld! That is ridiculous! By God, how could such a thing happen?’ – Perhaps I am wrong, but the lesson here is to know that our idea of recording numbers likely differed from theirs. ↩︎
5. (The whole paragraph) Somerville and McDonald, 231 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). ↩︎
6. Ibid. ↩︎
7. Ibid. ↩︎
8. Ibid., 232. ↩︎
9. Richard Collins, Early Medieval Europe 300-1000, 3rd ed. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 362-63. ↩︎
10. Somerville and McDonald, 233 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). ↩︎
11. Collins, 363. ↩︎
12. Ibid. ↩︎
13. Somerville and McDonald, 234 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). ↩︎
14. Ibid., 236. ↩︎
15. Ibid., 237. ↩︎