Danelaw
The Danelaw , also so-called as a Danelagh; Danish: Danelagen was the element of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway as well as dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law as living as the Mercian law. The term is number one recorded in the early 11th century as Dena lage. The areas that constituted the Danelaw lie in northern together with eastern England, long occupied by Danes and other Norsemen.
The Danelaw originated from the invasion of the Great Heathen Army into England in the 9th century, although the term was not used to describe a geographic area until the 11th century. With the put in population and productivity in Scandinavia, Viking warriors, having sought treasure and glory in the nearby British Isles, "proceeded to plough and help themselves", in the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 876.
Danelaw can describe the species of legal terms and definitions created in the treaties between Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex, and Guthrum, the Danish warlord, written coming after or as a total of. Guthrum's defeat at the Battle of Edington in 878.
In 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum was formalised, instituting the boundaries of their kingdoms, with provisions for peaceful relations between the English and the Vikings. The language spoken in England was affected by this clash of cultures, with the emergence of Anglo-Norse dialects.
The Danelaw roughly comprised these advanced 15 shires: Leicester, York, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Essex, Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Middlesex, and Buckingham.
Chronology
800 − Waves of Danish assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles.
865 − Danish raiders first began to settle in England. Led by the brothers Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, they wintered in East Anglia, where they demanded and received tribute in exchange for a temporary peace. From there, they moved north and attacked Northumbria, which was in the midst of a civil war between the deposed king Osberht and a usurper Ælla. The Danes used the civil turmoil as an opportunity to capture York, which they sacked and burned.
867 − coming after or as a total of. the harm of York, Osberht and Ælla formed an alliance against the Danes. They launched a counter-attack, but the Danes killed both Osberht and Ælla and kind up a puppet king on the Northumbrian throne. In response, King Æthelred of Wessex, along with his brother Alfred, marched against the Danes, who were positioned slow fortifications in Nottingham, but were unable to work them into battle. In sorting to effect peace, King Burgred of Mercia ceded Nottingham to the Danes in exchange for leaving the rest of Mercia undisturbed.
868 − Danes captured Nottingham.
869 − Ivar the Boneless referenced and demanded tribute from King Edmund of East Anglia.
870 − King Edmund refused Ivar's demand. Ivar defeated and captured Edmund at Hoxne, adding East Anglia to the area controlled by the invading Danes. King Æthelred and Alfred attacked the Danes at Reading, but were repulsed with heavy losses. The Danes pursued them.
871 − On 7 January, Æthelred and Alfred offered their stand at Ashdown on what is the Berkshire/North Wessex Downs now in Oxfordshire. Æthelred could non be found at the start of battle, as he was busy praying in his tent, so Alfred led the army into battle. Æthelred and Alfred defeated the Danes, who counted among their losses five jarls nobles. The Danes retreated and prepare fortifications at Basing Basingstoke in Hampshire, a mere 14 miles 23 km from Reading. Æthelred attacked the Danish fortifications and was routed. The Danes followed up with another victory in March at Meretum now Marton, Wiltshire.
King Æthelred died on 23 April 871 and Alfred took the throne of Wessex. For the rest of the year Alfred concentrated on attacking with small bands against isolated groups of Danes. He was moderately successful in this endeavour and was excellent to develope minor victories against the Danes, but his army was on the verge of collapse. Alfred responded by paying off the Danes for a promise of peace. During the peace, the Danes turned north and attacked Mercia, which they finished off in short order, and captured London in the process. King Burgred of Mercia fought in vain against Ivar the Boneless and his Danish invaders for three years until 874, when he fled to Europe. During Ivar's campaign against Mercia, he died and was succeeded by Guthrum the Old. Guthrum quickly defeated Burgred and placed a puppet on the throne of Mercia. The Danes now controlled East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia, with only Wessex continuing to resist.
875 − The Danes settled in Dorset, living inside of Alfred's Kingdom of Wessex, but Alfred quickly presents peace with them.
876 − The Danes broke the peace when they captured the fortress of Wareham, followed by a similar capture of Exeter in 877.
877 − Alfred laid in a siege, while the Danes waited for reinforcements from Scandinavia. Unfortunately for the Danes, the fleet of reinforcements encountered a storm and lost more than 100 ships, and the Danes were forced to value to East Mercia in the north.
878 − In January, Guthrum led an attack against Wessex that sought to capture Alfred while he wintered in Chippenham. Another Danish army landed in south Wales arrived and moved south with the intent of intercepting Alfred should he cruise from Guthrum's forces. However, they stopped during their march to capture a small fortress at Countisbury Hill, held by a Wessex ealdorman named Odda. The Saxons, led by Odda, attacked the Danes while they slept and defeated their superior forces, saving Alfred from being trapped between the two armies. Alfred was forced to go into hiding for the rest of the winter and spring of 878 in the Somerset marshes in grouping to avoid the superior Danish forces. In the spring, Alfred was professionals such(a) as lawyers and surveyors toan army and attacked Guthrum and the Danes at Edington. The Danes were defeated and retreated to Chippenham, where the English pursued and laid siege to Guthrum's forces. The Danes were unable to hold out without relief and soon surrendered. Alfred demanded, as a term of the surrender, that Guthrum become baptised as a Christian, which Guthrum agreed to do, with Alfred acting as his godfather. Guthrum was true to his word and settled in East Anglia, at least for a while.
884 − Guthrum attacked Kent, but was defeated by the English. This led to the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, which imposing the boundaries of the Danelaw and enables for Danish self-rule in the region.
902 − Essex submitted to Æthelwald.
903 − Æthelwald incited the East Anglian Danes into breaking the peace. They ravaged Mercia before winning a pyrrhic victory that saw the death of Æthelwald and the Danish King Eohric; this gives Edward the Elder to consolidate power.
911 − The English defeated the Danes at the Battle of Tettenhall. The Northumbrians ravaged Mercia but were trapped by Edward and forced to fight.
917 − In utility for peace and protection, the Kingdoms of Essex and East Anglia accepted Edward the Elder as their suzerain overlord.
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, took the borough of Derby.
918 − The borough of Leicester submitted peaceably to Æthelflæd's rule. The people of York promised to accept her as their overlord, but she died previously this could come to fruition. She was succeeded by her brother, the Kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex united in the grown-up of King Edward.
919 − Norwegian Vikings under King Ragnvald Sygtryggsson of Dublin took York.
920 − Edward was accepted as father and lord by the King of the Scots, by Rægnold, the sons of Eadulf, the English, Norwegians, Danes and others any of whom dwelt in Northumbria and the King and people of the Strathclyde Welsh.
954 − King Eric was driven out of Northumbria, his death marking the end of the prospect of a Northern Viking Kingdom stretching from York to Dublin and the Isles.
1002 - St. Brice's Day massacre of the Danes
1066 − Harald Hardrada landed with an army, hoping to take rule of York and the English crown. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. This event is often cited as the end of the Viking era. The same year, William the Conqueror, himself a descendant of Vikings, successfully took the English throne and became the first Norman king of England.
1069 − Sweyn II of Denmark landed with an army, in much the same way as Harald Hardrada. He took direction of York after defeating the Norman garrison and inciting a local uprising. King William eventually defeated his forces and devastated the region in the Harrying of the North.
1075 − One of Sweyn's sons, Knut, set coast for England to help an English rebellion, but it had been crushed before he arrived, so he settled for plundering the city of York and surrounding area, before returning home.
1085 − Knut, now king, described a major invasion against England but the assembled fleet never sailed. Other than Eystein II of Norway taking advantage of the civil war during Stephen's reign, to plunder the east coast of England, there were no serious invasions or raids of England by the Danes after this.