It’s January 8th, somewhere in Berkshire
Downs region. The invading Viking army had divided their force, the division on the right
under direct command of Halfdan and Bagsegc, and the left under the remaining jarls.
Mirroring the heathen formation, King
Æthelred assumed command of the Saxon left, while his younger brother Alfred
led the division on the right.
With the cold winter’s day passing quickly,
the Vikings wasted no time. Advancing at pace, their experienced warriors were
confident of crushing the Wessex army.
Alfred brought his force forward to
meet their foe, steeling the men to defend their homes against the heathens.
Locked in shield walls several ranks deep, the two armies closed in.
The battle of Ashdown, had begun…
The Britain of the mid-ninth century was certainly
no stranger to Viking incursions. Descriptive of their bloody vocation rather than any ethnic term,
the peoples inhabiting the region now housing the modern folk of Norway, Denmark and Sweden had
maintained trading links with the ports of Britain and Francia for centuries prior to the infamous
opening attack of the Viking Age at Lindisfarne. The rich ports, settlements and kingdoms of their
future victims were thus well-known to them.
Though Lindisfarne casts the longest shadow
down to us today, it’s clear other incidents blew up beforehand. In the year 792, a
Charter of the great Mercian king Offa specifically references ‘sea-borne
pagans with migrating fleets.’
Ironically, the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the
time around 865 were themselves centuries-forged products of sea-borne raiders and invaders in
the form of Angles, Saxons, and Jutish folk who had settled and conquered southern Britain in the
decades following Rome’s effective withdrawal.
In what is likely a mixture of factors, including
advancement in ship-building technology, the main impetus for these earlier attacks in Britain and
Ireland may simply have been that the rich and practically undefended monasteries held vast
wealth almost crying out to be plundered.
Following Lindisfarne, the Viking attacks
intensified, with Jarrow being plundered a year later. 795 saw the sacred site of Iona and other
monasteries in the Irish Sea region attacked.
The Kingdom of Wessex, further south,
also had the misfortune to experience the heathen menace sometime before
802 at Portland, the local reeve of King Beorhtric was killed by a band of
Vikings after confusing them for merchants.
Indeed, the relatively young House of
Ecgberht was very aware of the Viking threat. By the brief reign of King Æthelred, the struggle
was already three generations old. Indeed, the very founder of the future King Alfred’s house
had himself fought against the heathen hosts.
The ascendency of Ecgberht in 802 was, with
hindsight, fortunate for the Anglo-Saxon folk of Britain. Ecgberht had already contested
the throne previously, but had been driven into exile by a Mercian puppet, only to
secure the kingship following his death.
Ecgberht proved to be a strong ruler, not only
breaking the Mercian hegemony over southern England at the Battle of Ellendun, but also
assuming overlordship over the formerly-Mercian dominated southern kingdoms of Sussex, Essex,
and Kent. King Alfred’s grandfather in a glimmer of future West Saxon dominance even managed to
briefly conqueror Mercia and have his lordship acknowledged in Northumbria, the West Saxon
monarch, in theory at least, a Bretwalda.
In 836, Ecgberht was uncharacteristically
bested at Carhampton by a Danish force. However, in a show of his kingdom’s powerful
position, he gained victory two years later at Hingston Down, besting an
alliance of Danish and Cornish foes.
At his death a year later, Ecgberht left a strong
and rich kingdom to be smoothly inherited by his own son Æthelwulf. Æthelwulf and his sons
would continue the fight through their reigns, Alfred and Æthelred’s father defeating
a Danish force at Aclea in 851 in what was described as “the greatest slaughter of a
heathen army that we have ever heard of.”
By the key year of 865, the torch had truly
passed to the next generation in the succession of Æthelwulf’s younger son Æthelred. As with
his own successor, Alfred, Æthelred took up the mantle of kingship during a dark time.
The danger was now undoubtedly more severe. Over the decades, the bolder Viking forces
had begun overwintering in the land, but had eventually departed; yet by 865, this so-called
‘great heathen army’ had darker ambitions. An alliance had coalesced of Norse, hailing from
the Northern Isles and Ireland, Danes, and Swedes, as well as Frisians and those from Francia and
further afield, their intention was conquest.
The invaders were commanded by the three sons
of the semi-legendary Ragnar Lothbrok – Ivar, Halfdan and Ubba. They landed near
Thetford in the Kingdom of East Anglia, though to the relief of its people were content
to take payment and support. With their demand for horses for the next campaigning season,
the goal of the invaders became crystal clear. In 866, they made their move, crossing the Humber
to fall like a storm on the city of York.
Unfortunately for the people of Northumbria,
their ruling elite were already embroiled in a war all of their own; Osbert fought Aelle,
to the point that no serious resistance to the Vikings was mounted initially. With such
a sobering existential threat, however, the rivals reluctantly joined forces to march
on York, the two armies ferociously contending in and outside of the walls; however, when the
mist of battle cleared it was Ivar’s warriors who stood triumphant, king Osbert, Aelle
and a large number of nobles lying dead.
News of the fall of the ancient kingdom
of Northumbria likely struck south like a hammer blow, but Ivar was far from through; there
were richer lands ripe for plunder and his hoard moved south to engage Mercia. Their target
was Nottingham, which was taken before King Burgred could even muster a response.
Unlike the situation in Northumbria, however, Burgred had additional support. The
Mercians were not an island to themselves; Burgred had married Æthelswith a few years
before, making him King Æthelred and Alfred’s brother-in-law. Burgred perhaps had hoped
to avoid the wrath of the Great Heathen Army heading through his lands towards York, doing
nothing to impede its march through his lands; now he faced the terror he called upon
his rich neighbours to the south.
The Allied West-Saxon and Mercian army surrounded
Ivar’s men within Nottingham, however, the siege was arguably more precarious for the allies.
Ivar’s warriors were a professional fighting force, used to living off the land, moving from
place to place and given the siege was not so tight as to prevent foraging parties to resupply
the besieged, conditions within were not dire.
In contrast, though both Burgred and Æthelred’s
armies had a professional core of household troops, the vast bulk of their forces were made up
of fyrd, part-time fighting farmers to whom time was a factor; the ordinary folk of the allied army
needed to return to their farms to keep them in order and bring in the harvest. Perhaps cognisant
of this time pressure, Ivar’s response was to simply wait behind Nottingham’s walls.
It appears King Burgred blinked first, Asser writing that he brokered a peace
with Ivar, which likely included a hefty payment to leave his kingdom. As for the
West Saxon brothers, they returned south. Their disappointment at the fruitless siege
may have been soothed by knowledge that the Wessex-Mercian alliance would receive an added
boost in the marriage of Alfred to Ealhswith.
Returning north in 868, the Great Heathen Army
wintered in York, resting for the majority of 869, before Ivar cast his ambitious eyes on another
unfortunate kingdom. Wheeling back on themselves, while keeping their word to the Mercians, Ivar’s
army pushed back south into East Anglia.
The East Anglian response was weak, King Edmund
either too slow to muster a force sufficient to resist or perhaps facing a two-pronged invasion
– from Ivar, but also from sea by a separate force under Ubba. If so, his fighting forces
may have been stretched to breaking point.
Whatever the exact circumstances, King
Edmund was in over his head and Ivar, likely sensing this, sent an infamous
message to the beleaguered king:
“Ivar, our king, bold and victorious on sea
and land, has dominion over many peoples, and now has come to this country with his
army to take up winter quarters with his men. He commands that you share your
hidden gold-hoards and your ancestral possessions with him straightaway,
and that you become his vassal-king, if you want to stay alive, since you now don’t
have the forces that you can resist him...”
Perhaps to the initial surprise of Ivar,
King Edmund showed a glimmer of defiance; he would submit as suggested, but only if the
great warlord would submit to his Christian God. Possibly somewhat amused, Ivar had
no intention of conceding anything and now moved to crush his East Anglian foe.
Despite his fame as a Christian martyr, the
exact circumstances of King Edmund’s demise are not known for sure. He may simply have fallen in
battle, though a more gruesome possibility is that he was taken and tortured by the wrathful Ivar.
Initially beaten with sticks and then whipped, the Vikings finally tired of their sport, binding
Edmund to a tree they shot him full of arrows.
By the opening of 870, then, two Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms had fallen, with Mercia having teetered on the brink. Arguably the most powerful kingdom
– Wessex – remained uncowed. Fortunately for the fate of the West Saxons, it is around this
time that Ivar fades from the southern theatre. He evidently saw his own future in the North, as
he is recorded campaigning against the Picts.
Yet Ivar’s removal did not mean peace for Wessex
or Mercia. Where Ivar left others eagerly took up the mantle of leadership. Now the part of
the Great Heathen Army that remained in East Anglia fell under the sway of a warlord named
Bagsecg and Ivar’s own brother Halfdan. This duo made their move and by the autumn of 870
word reached the ears of King Æthelred and Alfred that the Great Heathen Army had crossed
into Berkshire, their new target was Reading.
That Reading was the destination made sense from
the Viking perspective. It was situated at the confluence of two rivers, making withdrawal easy
if events turned against them; the town was also a royal centre with good access to the old Roman
road network that snaked into Wessex itself. This is also not mentioning the fact that as a royal
centre, it would be aptly supplied, the matter of supplying a mobile army used to living off the
land no small consideration during the winter.
Taking the place was not difficult for this
professional force, and by year’s end Halfdan’s men were settled; however, just three days
later on the final day of the year unwelcome news made its way there. The West Saxons
had met and bested a part of their army.
Likely confident that over the twelve-day
Christmas period their foragers were relatively safe from counter-attack,
the invaders were ambushed and broken by the local ealdorman Æthelwulf, the
remnants pursued back to Reading.
Perhaps wishing to form a larger host to confront
their enemy, Æthelwulf joined his king and Alfred, the West Saxon army marching to Reading.
This time though circumstances favoured the defenders. Halfdan’s men had been busy digging a
rampart connecting the Thames and the Kennet.
Within Reading too, the West Saxons now faced
– not an unawares foraging party – but a fully-prepared and furious foe. With their
fyrd, the royal brothers managed to catch many foes outside of their camp; however, as the
Saxons settled into their own, Halfdan abruptly ordered his own attack. Asser writes that:
“Like wolves, they burst out of all the gates and joined battle with all their might.”
Both armies suffered heavy losses, however, it was the West Saxon fyrd that broke
this time, with both Æthelred and Alfred only escaping the defeat due to their
knowledge of the surrounding lands.
Fleeing westwards with the remnants of their army,
Æthelred and Alfred halted somewhere in the hills west of Reading on the fourth day. Halfdan
and Bagsegc, having their West Saxon enemy on the backfoot were eager to shatter their
resolve completely with a finishing blow.
The two armies eventually resolved to do battle.
The invaders had divided their numbers into two main divisions, one under the direct command
of Halfdan and Bagsegc, the second under the remaining jarls. Mirroring this, King Æthelred
retained command of one division of his army, while Alfred commanded the other.
Asser writes that Alfred had initially been tasked with taking on the Jarls’s division, while
the king would contend with Halfdan and Bagsegc’s. Despite these well-laid plans, however, Alfred
had not reckoned on his brother’s piety and while marching to close on his opposing division,
Æthelred remained in his tent hearing Mass, declaring that he would not “forsake divine
service for that of men,” and would not leave alive before the priest was done.
Having decided to engage his Viking foes regardless, Asser writes that “acting
courageously, like a wild boar,” and with God’s help, Alfred pressed on regardless, his
division formed into the tight shieldwall. The enemy possessed the higher ground,
though – as Asser points out – Alfred’s warriors were spurred on to fight for their
lands, loved ones and their very lives!
The battle raged, Asser assures us, around a
small and solitary thorn tree, the Saxon and Viking lines clashing to and thro for many hours.
As for the delaying Æthelred: his Mass concluded, he too joined the battle after Alfred had
already engaged with both heathen divisions. This dimension of the battle is somewhat arguable. Asser is a good source, yet firmly Alfred’s man
and likely to play down his elder brother’s role to the benefit of his hero.
It’s entirely possible that the delay was deliberate; however, whatever the case
Æthelred’s intervention arguably turned the tide. During the frenzied melee Bagsegc himself was
slain, along with five jarls. Halfdan survived the day, ordering his warriors to retreat back
to Reading. Asser states that many were slain into the night, though the battle failed
to utterly destroy the Viking force.
Ashdown, however, was an undoubted West Saxon
victory, though the cheers of victory may have been dampened with news of a new offensive.
Having sufficiently rested for a fortnight, Halfdan struck southwards towards
the royal vill of Basing.
Though battered and perhaps unbelieving
at this turn of ill-fortune Æthelred and Alfred once more led their fyrd to
engage the invaders. However, this time, as Asser succinctly states: “...after a long
struggle the Vikings gained the victory.” Asser then has Guthrum’s reinforcements arriving;
however, as he also wrote before that many of Halfdan’s host had been lost at Ashdown,
this means the Vikings won an impressive victory with lesser numbers at Basing,
assuming they had yet to be reinforced.
Whatever the case, West Saxon luck did not
improve. Later in March, Æthelred and Alfred fought their last battle together at a place
called Maeredun or Merton. Here they suffered a defeat comparable to that of Halfdan’s at Ashdown,
in that many important Saxon leaders fell. Two more dark events then proceeded to shake
the kingdom of Wessex to its core: first, was the aforementioned news of the arrival of
a so-called ‘Great Summer Army’ at Reading; but secondly was the loss of the king.
Though somewhat smeared by his depiction at Ashdown, King Æthelred had undoubtedly fought
a gruelling and brave defence of his people. The fyrd of Wessex had fought four battles by
the time of Basing and at this fifth encounter, Æthelred may have been mortally
wounded, and died soon after.
Yet not all was lost. Likely prior to his last
battle at Merton, Æthelred, Alfred and the Witan had retired to the unknown location of Swinbeorg
where it was resolved that Alfred would succeed as king if his brother fell. With Æthelred buried
with all honour at Wimborne it was thus Alfred – the Wild Boar of Ashdown – that took up the mantle
and sword of kingship. He would have much to do.
