Five Boroughs of the Danelaw // Vikings Documentary

the River Trent is the third longest river in the United Kingdom from its source on the Staffordshire moss all the way to its emptying out into the frigid North Sea via the Humber actuary it cuts an impressive swathe through the English Midlands over a thousand years ago these windswept plains and sleepy Hills were the heart Lance of an early medieval kingdom for a century and more the most powerful in Britain we know it as Murcia around half way along the river sits just one of the many settlements founded by those anglo-saxon newcomers during the early Middle Ages the city of Nottingham the past can still be seen here if you look hard enough in the right places in the limestone caves that permeate the underbelly of the city and by the imposing hilltop Citadel atop its highest cliffs like nearby darby and lester cities with Roman foundations Nottingham may in fact predate the coming of the anglo-saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries situation hinted at by an earlier breath ah nickname meaning place or city of caves though no archaeological evidence has yet been found for this it is during the twilight years after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire that the first verifiable evidence for nottingham is found a time of warring clans shifting alliances and a new Germanic culture arriving from across the North Sea yet also one of the periods in history with the least amount of verifiable historical information just to the north and west of Nottingham fierce peckin c'était or peak Landis claimed the land to the south it was the Tom c'était but in the land around Nottingham we find a unique situation thus not Angus perhaps reflecting the name of an individual clan chieftain a warlord named snot or snored although it does remain possible that snot inga instead actually means place of caves if snart did exist long ago perhaps sagas and stories of his deeds might have been sunk in mead halls across southern Britain long since lost to oblivion in time the town of the snotting Gus and those of the peak Landis Tom c'était who each a and all manner of other peoples became part of a much larger Kingdom the land of Murcia by the time Christianity and a somewhat literary culture began to seep back into the island in the 600's Nottingham on an ideal location on the Trent accessible by both land and sea had become a thriving trade center though pagans were now frowned upon long distance trade links were still regularly forged all the way out to the Humber and across the North Sea by the latter 9th century Murcia had fallen on hard times the Great King offer was now long dead and a new power had arisen in the South in the form of the West Saxons and more recently a new threat had arrived for that same lifeline to commerce and riches on a good year could very well lead to death on a bad one in the late summer of 867 despite being right in the middle of England almost as far away from the sea as you can get long boats were spotted on the Trent sailing on their dragon headed ships deep into the interior of England infesting the river systems like they'd done all over Europe as well as riding stolen horses across the land Vikings had come to Nottingham they were led by Ivar the boneless and health dan ragnarson pagans from across the sea two of the most feared warriors of the age by the time King burgred of Murcia mustered an army supported by his West Saxon allies to the south it was too late the town that fallen the surrounding countryside stripped of food and riches determined to make a stand Bergeret began a siege of the city yet during this time sieges drained the resources of both procedures and besieged and Berger it's men simply weren't disciplined enough to prevent occasional forays into the countryside by the Vikings to get supplies for Ivar and half Dan's men were masters of living off the land unlike the Vikings who had a professional army blooded from a lifetime of war burg Reds force was made up of two types of warriors the well-equipped professional household soldiers could be relied upon all year round but they were few and far between the vast majority of the army being made up of the feared a peasant levy that had to go home for the winter to plant their crops lest they starve the next year and many of them were fighting on home turf the stalemate dragged on eventually forcing Bergeret to call off the siege allowing IVA and health down to head back north to their newly claimed city of York to fight another day weighed down with vast amounts of plunder the contemporary sources are cagey about the details but the Vikings had probably been paid off given a taste of wealth and weakness Norsemen would always be back in the 870s arriving again in force Bergeret the last independent king of Mercia in history fled the country living out the rest of his days in Rome by 877 the western portion of Mercia was ruled by a puppet King she-wolf called a foolish king stayin in the West Saxon sources the East would be settled by Scandinavians in time the anglo-saxon towns of Darby Leicester Lincoln Stamford and Nottingham becoming bastions of an immigrant Scandinavian population we know today as the five boroughs also loosely aligned to towns further to the south but Bedford Huntingdon and Northampton as well as the kingdom of your Vic to the north and the kingdom of East Anglia to the South for a generation to come until reconquest by Wessex in the summer of 1918 the five boroughs existed under self-rule led by Danish y'alls and leaders and still evidenced today by place-name evidence DNA and language at least six hundred modern English words such as husband fellow egg window knife and race coming straight from Danish along with a number of local colloquial terms such as duck though this region of the East Midlands was technically reincorporated into England in the early 10th century it would relapse to Scandinavian control many times and though the exact numbers of Scandinavian immigrants during the 9th and 10th centuries remains a matter of dispute it certainly retained unique elements of Scandinavian culture for much longer the Danish law code of the East Midlands surviving all the way up until the mid 12th century and henry ii creation of english common law this is the story of the vikings of the east midlands a state that thrived in the heart of England for centuries and might have still spoken Danish today at history played out ever so slightly differently [Music] this episode of history time is sponsored by curiosity stream a subscription-based streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and nonfiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers including exclusive originals who can't find anywhere else the world's first streaming service dedicated entirely to learning with categories including history science nature technology society and lifestyle just like other streaming services you can watch curiosity stream on all of your devices and best of all you can get access to all of it for just $2.99 on this service that I've honestly been spoiled for choice recently I've been watching storm over Europe a four-part series charting the history of the Germanic peoples who inherited Europe from the Roman Empire as well as loads of other great history documentaries on Rome ancient history and more head on over to curiosity Stream comm forward slash history time for unlimited access to the world's top documentaries and nonfiction titles and get 30 days free there are links to everything in the description below now back to the post Roman Twilight [Music] the Humber estuary today an industrial landscape moulded by the fires of Commerce Goods and people ferried over the Starck waterways of the North Sea as they have been for millennia today this landscape is permeated by giant towns like Hope hooking the shore ferries and cargo liners to Belgium the Netherlands and beyond are regularly seen chugging down the estuary not too dissimilar to Bronze Age and early medieval predecessors for eleven hundred years ago this was an artery of trade and commerce to a thousand years ago one of the most important settlements along this Shore may seem an unlikely place voted worst place to live in the UK several years in a row in a number of different publications Grimsby like Nottingham is named after an individual who founded it this time however a Viking there is a story at the root of this town - a good one the tale of have locked the Dane the Danish Prince saved from the sea by the heroic fisherman Grimm all down the eastern seaboard it was the same but places like Scarborough said to have been founded by a warrior named Scarth II whose tail almost feels like a more fleshed-out version of earlier Germanic warriors such as snot the legendary founder of Nottingham with infinitely more being known about Grimm and Skaar 'they simply because of the much increased sophisticated society in the centuries since Knotts day he living in a century of near perpetual darkness in terms of historical accounts [Music] heading south from Grimsby all the way down to the inhospitable fan lands of the wash the coast once belonged to the kingdom of Lindsay already an ancient mammary like burger its time its royal house having finally lost its tenuously held independence via a royal marriage in 800 [Music] the coastline was different in those days we claimed land in the later Middle Ages having created a solid definable Shore where once existed marshes and winding waterways home to holy man and monsters to leftovers from the pagan days of old Lindsey with its sensual town of Lincoln built on Roman foundations had been a battleground between Northumbria and Murcia for centuries and after the fall of your Vic to the Vikings in 866 the region would once more go its own way and many believing their God had abandoned them would turn back to those old ways the first large-scale Viking attack on Lindsay is recorded by the Wessex written anglo-saxon Chronicle in 841 no doubt earlier attacks took place to ultimately however being deemed unworthy of record by later West Saxon scribes writing during the time of alfred the great attacks on Murcia continued throughout the eight 50s with major assaults on London tearing through the kingdom in 865 however an even larger force arrived on the coasts of East Anglia this time not to plunder but to conquer the four anglo-saxon kingdoms for good swiftly riding north to capitalize on the endemic civil wars that had ravaged Northumbria for decades the capital of the offer which was captured before both rival Kings united against a common foe headed off together to the afterlife like they would soon do with Murcia a puppet King Egbert was put in place to keep the peace for the time being and to raise taxes after leaving Nottingham in 868 likely in return for a hefty Dane gelt left out of the historical record the leaders of the Viking force health Dan and IVA retreated back to offer which soon to re-emerge under a new name your Vic remaining a bastion of Scandinavian culture for centuries to come for the winter of 869 to 870 they arrived at that foot a sight connected to the wash and the North Sea which would eventually grow into an important Scandinavian town in the spring they moved on back to East Anglia putting an end to the kingdom perhaps the oldest of the anglo-saxons and making a martyr of its King next on the agenda was Wessex where the most resolute resistance was encountered yet ultimately failing to conquer the land but again heading off with another Dane Galt before finally returning to Murcia a broken realm in that same year of 871 the situation was further complicated by a new force freshly arrived from Scandinavia a great summer army led by a sea king named Gotham the man who would take command of the war against Wessex becoming the personal nemesis of that kingdoms new king Alfred [Music] meanwhile in the north by 872 after five years of occupation the fires of Northumbria and rebellion finally broke out the Danish puppet king Egbert a glorified tax collector hailing from one of the competing northumbrian noble families was expelled from York along with the Quisling Archbishop wolf here as soon as he got word health Dan moved north according to the anglo-saxon Chronicle making his base in Linsey a region with easy access to Murcia by land and both East Anglia and your Vic by the sea which would become a stronghold of Scandinavian rule it is at this point in the tale that our literary evidence can be backed up by archaeology for unlike other sites such as Nottingham the Viking camp at torque C never became urbanized meaning archaeology can be and has been conducted here yielding incredible results vast amounts of hack silver and coins have been found along with elaborate ornate gaming pieces found by metal detectorists in 2015 and evidence of trade craftsmanship and female camp follow us experts think that the tauxy camp may have been large enough to house between 1500 and 5,000 people a city on the move alfe dan was soon able to secure control of the southern portion of Northumbria in campaigns during 873 and 874 yet the northern lands past the t's as to the ancient kingdom of Burnie SIA eluded him seeming to retain some kind of local autonomy under the rule of a lord named Ric seek in 872 Bergeret may have traveled to tauxy to pay yet another tribute to save his kingdom yet with only Wessex remaining free to the south and Danes marching at will over his kingdom mercy as time was up [Music] in 873 the army moved in heading deeper inland near to the banks of the Trent once more to Repton not far from Darby and just 18 miles from Nottingham the place had been an especially important cult center since the 7th century and burial place of Mercy and Kings the Viking move there was a statement of intent they were now in charge and in response Bergeret fled the country never to return a puppet ruler taking his place according to Alfred the great spy Agra fer ah sir in 874 following their wind to stay at Repton the Vikings then split into two bands with one being led by health Dan and the other gothram according to the anglo-saxon Chronicle health Dan and his man subdued all the land of Mercia at this time whereas Guthrum and his men as well as the Kings Oscar tell and Anne went took up winter quarters at Cambridge in East Anglia from where Guthrum tried to conquer Wessex one final time during the decade from 871 there were many partitions of land between Danish newcomers and English residents some recorded innumerable unknown by 876 according to the anglo-saxon Chronicle half Dan shared out the lands of the northumbrian and they proceeded to plough and to support themselves we also have another quote in the harvest season of 877 the army went away into Murcia and shared out some of it and gave some to Cael wolf in 878 King Alfred finally defeated gothram conclusively thus ensuring the survival of Wessex for the time being and making it even more important to solidify land claims for many Scandinavians the era of conquest being over Gotham's man mostly traveled to East Anglia in this year the army went from Cirencester into East Anglia and settled there and shared out the land though no doubt some traveled to Murcia to where the West remained under the control of mercy and landowners the East however having been formally ceded to the Danes by Alfred at the Treaty of Wedmore the boundary of Watling Street would remain the border between English and Dane for centuries to come [Music] in truth between eight seventy seven and nine ten we have very little information at all on the East Midlands to the south in East Anglia gothram becomes King followed by another named Yorick likewise in your Vick we have a variety of named leaders found on coinage and in the written record beginning with health damp followed after a gap of six years by a former slave named go Thurid and then two figures named Sicard and Knut but in the five Boris we get no names at all they don't appear for a decade or more to come and unlike in these other areas both roughly coinciding with the borders of older anglo-saxon kingdoms and using the church and existing institutions to prop themselves up the bishops of Lindsay and Leicester simply disappear in the eight 70s by around 900 when scraps of written information pertaining to the East Midlands again begin to show up all signs heavily point to a mass displacement of the nobility accompanied perhaps by widespread scandinavian colonization in the countryside we can see this in language place-name evidence archeology and in the written record though in truth it remains difficult to tell whether this was masked peasant migration with some scholars seeing comparable effects to those of the coming of the anglo-saxons in the 5th 6th and 7th centuries or simply an overthrow of the elite to the north and east of watling street or a mixture of both for example we have well over 300 Scandinavian place names in Lincolnshire alone and certain areas of Nottinghamshire Derbyshire and Leicester sheer with very high levels of Scandinavian names yet nevertheless the majority of place names did remain English as opposed to somewhere like the Isle of Man where there was a total takeover of language and place names with only one or two pre Norse names surviving [Music] it was once thought that the five boroughs may have been specifically fortified as an act of Danish policy after the partitions of 876 to 877 perhaps even inspiring Alfred to set up his purse in actuality archaeology suggests they may not have become true fortified settlements until the nine hundreds or at least nine-tenths inspired by Alfred's fortifications with the years up until that point taken up with partitioning organizing and running the half of the kingdom now under the control of the immigrant Danes Derby Lester and Lincoln had all been built on Roman foundations and though Saxons tended to avoid Roman walls Vikings had no such qualms incorporating them into their defenses and perhaps structures in the towns themselves at Nottingham and Stamford Saxon enclosures predate Viking constructions with the foundation of Stamford's castle in particular dating well back into the early Saxon period interestingly the five borough towns all retained their saxon names besides Derby which had once been called noteworthy none of them were particularly large urban centres before the Viking Age anglo-saxon England was predominantly rural in character perhaps originating as the centres of lordly estates in the years following the 870's the seizure of countryside areas by Scandinavian settlers may have caused some of the rural dispossessed to seek new opportunities in towns and thus led to their growth some English towns are thought by scholars to have grown somewhat during this time as people found themselves evicted from countryside areas by incoming Danish farmers as time went on and certainly by around 900 each of the five boroughs seems to have been ruled as a Danish yalda controlling lands around a fortified BER which served as the center of political power though relatively little archaeological activity has been carried out on sites from this period Danish settlement undoubtedly had a profound impact upon the region's identity and culture by the late 9th century derbyshire in particular was especially Danish in culture as reflected by the change of the name itself and the yall's there continued to expand their lands a number of early Viking Age structures have been found in Nottingham at drawee Hill Fisher gate and wall Park Lane with pottery being made for sale at Halifax place along with excavated swords in Nottinghamshire and a golden ring found at Newark just further down the trench being just a few items amongst many at stamford iron smelting and pottery production were important industries during the Viking Age and many timber structures have been found from that time the best evidence by far of urban life in the five boroughs however comes from Lincoln the town furthest away from the border and thus most able to enjoy its newfound autonomy though the burr at Lincoln occupied by Dame's from the early 8th 70s onwards guarded the routes between Wessex and your vaq it was protected from much of the Anglo Danish fighting due to its isolated location here we have significant Riverside activity and land reclamation along with evidence of a significant new street system from around 874 onwards at flaxen gate and Michael gate seemingly under common ownership perhaps funded by a group of wealthy merchants for the Scandinavians that moved into Lincoln were not marauding warriors but traders the crumbling Roman ruins here inhabited near continuously since the decay of the city in the 5th century proved to be an ideal spot for a town soon enough artisans here would begin producing goods for export such as clothing hinted at by the street name flaxen gate salt hinted at by Salter gate and also becoming experts at glass working and metalworking ultimately like the Saxons before them the danes of the East Midlands were predominantly farmers and all of the five borough towns relied heavily on their rural hinterlands for raw material goods and manpower though operating their own autonomous armies the y'alls of the five boroughs often found themselves subject to overlords in your Vic East Anglia or even the large Danish settlements at Northampton and Bedford which existed in a similar manner boundaries were by no means clear-cut fealty was fluidic as was language culture and religion some areas looked to your Vic others to East Anglia and others still perhaps even looked across the borders to Wessex and Mercia particularly as Christianity began to filter in in the South following Guthrum's death in 890 hundreds more Viking longboats arrived from the continent yet Alfred's new fleet of ships and his defenses held out many of these newcomers however no doubt settled in the east of the island which Wessex and Mercia were content to keep the peace with for now though pieces on the board the beginning to move about and plans put into motion [Music] in 1894 alfred sent an ambassador north to your vic to discuss the territories which the york dames held to the west of stanford possibly in relation to his daughter Ethel fled married to the ruler of Mercia the area around Stanford was invaded by a West Saxon Alderman Ethel month in the summer of 1894 but the town was not besieged and Danish rule unaffected though any more information was lost Alfred continued solidifying his holdings in tubers to fend off Viking attacks a strategy that would be continued by his children as we shall see the Dames did exactly the same in the lands they already held by 900 and otherwise unknown king named health dan was ruling York and perhaps some lands in the Midlands reflected by coins minted at York but who ruled in Viking Lincoln is not known coins were minted here but they do not mention a king instead curiously having sint maarten on them the patron saint of the city yet to the south and west events were being put into motion the Warriors who had conquered the land were now mostly dead in their place had come merchants and traders whereas in Wessex and Mercia a new generation of fighters had being born and new threats soon emerged from beyond the sea to it is only by 9:10 that we hear of Danish military Yale's ruling over the towns of the five boroughs whether men like these were in power before or whether they were a result of English power we don't know man like thir Kotel at Bedford therfore at Northampton and Tolly at Huntington some historians have even suggested that before this time and possibly even during the lands were ruled as a quasi parliamentary system with a thing searches at Iceland and the Isle of Man with some paying lip service to Northumbria and some to East Anglia in the early 10th century Norsemen from Ireland began making inroads into the eastern shores of Northumbria though some may have allied themselves to the danes of the region they were of a different culture spoke a different dialect and some at least began to make a nuisance of themselves to the rulers of your vaq thus creating another front for the danes of the five boroughs to worry about in 909 hostilities once more flared up between Dane and Englishmen as a combined West Saxon mercy and force launched a raid deep into Lindsay where they seized the relics of Saint Cuthbert a huge propaganda victory in the next year a large counter raid was launched into Murcia reaching all the way down to the seven on its way back north however disaster struck near modern-day Wolverhampton as an English trap was sprung much of the Northumbrian army weighed down as they were they plunder were massacred including all three of their kings he oels Alf Dan and Ingram this was exactly what Edward and Ethel firt had hoped for the web around the Danelaw was closing in by 911 Cambridge was threatened when Edward finished construction on a berth at the opposing town of Hartford thus began an era of raid and counter rate of border wars and shifting frontiers sometimes offense is the best form of defence and in 913 the Leicester Dame's combined their army with the man of Northampton in order to raid deep into Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire as well as attempting a siege of the new bird Hartford initially successful the Battle of Tatton Hall was repeated as local Mercian forces at Luton ambushed the Danes on their way home forcing them to abandon many horses and weapons meanwhile to the north lady Ethel fled of Murcia campaigned deep into the five boroughs establishing a birth near the old capital of Tamworth in direct opposition to Derby in the next year she built another at Warwick to oppose Leicester also in 940 a fresh fleet of Vikings arrived on the Severn from Brittany no doubt bringing fresh settlers to the five boroughs [Music] though much had changed in the last few decades and Mercia was now strong making light work of this new force and throwing them back into the sea in December 914 Danish strength was further depleted when a number of Northampton Dame's under yawl firket L having been gradually surrounded in a pincer movement submitted to Edward at Bedford Edward returned to take direct control of the fortress in 915 before allowing firket l and a number of his followers to leave the country entirely for France by July 917 the dames of East Anglia finally made their move along with those of Huntingdon advancing to temps furred where they built a bur and attempted to retake Bedford their defeat by the West Saxons was so severe that by the end of the year both Huntington and the entirety of East Anglia had fallen similarly to the north the combined armies of Leicester Northampton and perhaps Derby went on the offensive ultimately unsuccessfully besieged in the BIR at TAO Chester moving quickly ethel fled launched her first full-scale offensive into the five boroughs successfully assaulting the town of Derby one of the most important in the five boroughs seizing it after a fierce battle by the end of July according to the mercy and register losing several things dear to her in the process with the loss of Derby and East Anglia the two now veteran English armies on the warpath it was only a matter of time before the rest of the five boroughs folded Lincoln was probably the last to fall perhaps surviving as long as independent your Vic did striking your Vic poins into the early 9 20 s the rest submitted by the summer of 1918 after assault by West Saxon forces but what became of the Danish populations after they submitted well most of the new towns were heavily fortified by Mercian and West Saxon forces but some like Nottingham were manned by joint Saxon and Danish forces the latter of which made both to serve the king some Danes of course left the country and they seemed to have been allowed to do so such as the Bedford yawl furka tell others however no doubt became client rulers of the English Northampton yawl firfer for example a tested for charters of Edwards son and heir Athelstan between 9:30 and 9:30 for and may have even fought in his army there was probably another condition that the English demanded if the five borough Dame's weren't Christian by 9:18 they soon would be and though allowed to keep their own rulers and loss in time Saxon and Dane would be unified in faith against the heathens [Music] in 937 the greatest battle fought in Britain's early Middle Ages before Hastings played out at an unknown fortress named brunnen birth somewhere in the north with the English under Alfred the Great's grandson Athelstan emerging as the undisputed masters of Britain almost certainly with men from the five boroughs marching in their ranks along with man from every other region of the newly forged Kingdom just two years later however Athelstan was dead England collapsing and the adversary he's so admirably bested returned without opposition to claim the kingdom of your Vic he was olaf gorrister viking king of dublin a pagan and under his rule the Viking Age in the Midlands began anew within a matter of months not just your Vic but the people of the five boroughs - whether they liked it or not found themselves back under direct Scandinavian rule not that they necessarily wanted to be ruled by pagans from Ireland but in 10th century Britain only the strongest got their way and Olaf was most certainly stronger than the new English King Edmund barely out of his teens Edmund attempted to take Leicester back following an unsuccessful Norse attempt on Northampton but ended up ceding the five boroughs to Olaf at a peace conference sensing the way the wind was blowing y'all all attested in charters from 9:30 until 958 perhaps the ruler of Leicester at the time married his daughter to Olaf yet in the next year searched his fate Olaf was dead and it would be the Scandinavians turn for their kingdom to crumble [Music] finally by 9:42 having grazed a large enough army and with his rival gone King Edmund marched north it is only at this point that we have the first historical mention of the term fibrous in the form of an epic historical poem recording their capture King Edmund Lord of the English protector of kinsmen overcame Mercia doer of necessary deeds as far as door and Whitwell gap to the wide humbles rapid sea stream seizing back the five boroughs Leicester Lincoln Nottingham Stanford and Darby to those dwelling there bowed by need under the Northlands heathen yolk until to his honor the brave Edmund Edwards son broke the oppressors brutish chains and freed from their foes god-fearing danes the rulers of the five boroughs and much of their populace were undoubtedly not English yet in the poem we can see a clear attempt to anglicize the danes of the East Midlands many of whom were Christian now as opposed to the heathen Norseman who briefly ruled them poems such as these probably went a long way to constructing a unified English identity out of a variety of ethnic groups using common religion as a unifier [Music] [Music] in 954 on lonely staying more in Cumbria so says the 13th century historian Roger of Wendover probably drawing from a long-lost 10th century Chronicle the last independent Northumbrian King Eric Bloodaxe was betrayed and killed along with his kinsmen Wagnalls and his son horik England once more found itself united under the suzerainty of the West Saxon kings and this time it would last though in truth the success of the Wessex regime rested on its leniency in allowing Danish areas under their control a high level of autonomy West Saxon Kings probably rarely if ever visited the north preferring to exercise their power and gather taxes through proxies local leaders who they could personally rely on for support in the East Midlands these proxies usually came in the form of powerful noble families men and women of Scandinavian descent and joint Anglo Scandinavian culture who would continue to rule these lands for hundreds of years to come these were the Lords of the five boroughs still utilizing the old Danelaw border of Watling Street the Danish ruled East Midlands had its own local courts a unique Scandinavian style administration and even legal identity many of the people there still had Danish names language and laws though they defined themselves as Christian rather than heathen by the time of Ethelred the unready in the late 10th century we can actually read one of these unique law codes with a jury of 12 men being sworn to decide judgment on cases perhaps being based on much older scandinavian systems only later did this style of legal practice pass into the English legal system and may later have been used to help with the compiling of the Domesday book though in reality this Danish law may have been reserved for the upper classes the Danish nobility who'd ruled the region since the ninth century and were useful to have around for the West Saxon elite in time the towns ruled by James incorporated once more into the lucrative North Sea trade system became industrial powerhouses manufacturing goods for internal as well as international trade as usual though we can see this transition under English rule in all of the towns of the five boroughs it is most visible at Lincoln by the mid 10th century a new suburb Wickford was laid out south of the river and further downstream the north river bank was also converted so larger boats could tie up and unload goods for trade the growth of the Royal Mint here in 960 along with glass and copper alloy workshops made it one of the most important towns in the kingdom though at Leicester two can be found significant evidence of pottery manufacture at South Gate Street suggesting a boom in commerce in the later 10th century yet with prosperity always comes a price and when Vikings returned towards the end of the century the Danelaw didn't escape their wrath a vicious thirty-year struggle would soon break out pitting brother against brother father against son until England was finally conquered outright by the Danish King Canute in 1016 the five boroughs were central to these power struggles when the King of Denmark Spain Forkbeard conquered England in 1013 he did so with the acquiescence of the five boroughs making his capital the town of Gainsbourg on the borderlands between Lindsay and Murcia Forkbeard died not long afterwards however and of course a vicious reprisal campaign was launched against Lindsay the region which had given him the most support during the ensuing war between Edmund Ironside and Spain's son Knut there is evidence to suggest that both sides received aid from the five boroughs with both men marrying powerful noble women associated with the region ultimately little would change in eastern England under direct Danish rule these Dame's were already Christian and relatively well integrated into European society a man of unknown origins else I read was given command of the region in 1019 though by 1035 after 16 years of direct Danish rule and as the lines between Englishman and Dane began to blur the earldom was subsumed into that of Leah Fritch Earl of Mercia the great rival of Godwin Earl of Wessex [Music] though the five boroughs would remain its own entity within Murcia for centuries in 1015 we have a unique reference to seven Burris perhaps also including Yorkshire and tauxy regions with a distinct Danish system of laws these laws remained as they ever were even during the reign of Edward the Confessor as evidenced by surviving coats and through the Norman conquest of 1066 [Music] doomsday book fully compiled in 1086 gives a fascinating glimpse into the East Midlands of the late 11th century with lands in Lincoln in particular still being held by names searches firt injure zone of hatha Knut and sparked brandt zone of olfe but also english names like leah fine and Godric in the years after the Norman Conquest however the Danish descended population of eastern England proved to be a little too friendly with Denmark for William the Conqueror's liking the Danish King span Astrid son and his sons simply wouldn't stop trying to invade England hearkening back to the days of Knut North Sea Empire by the late 1060 s the northern us no doubt supported by elements of the five boroughs simply rebelled one too many times if william was to cling on to his new possessions he had to set an example launching into a systematic reign of terror we know today as the harrying of the north life there would never be the same again as potentially hundreds of thousands of people died but that's a story for another day hello and thank you for watching history time is a one man team run by me Pete Kelly if you want to see me visiting ancient cities medieval Citadel's megalithic monuments Iron Age hill forts and so much more and subscribe to my other channel by that same name I'll also be making book reviews video essays and anything else that doesn't quite fit in to history time thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one [Music] you

Channel: History Time

Views: 836,611

Keywords: history, history documentary, documentary, early middle ages, early medieval, early medieval history, vikings history, viking history, viking, vikings, vikingr, five boroughs, east midlands, east mids history, East Midlands history, East Midlands documentary, East Midlands history documentasry, East Midlands history documentary, danelaw history, danelaw documentary, five boroughs documentary, five boroughs history, five boroughs history documentary, east anglia, yorvik

Id: GbVWwL5sxLA

Length: 56min 7sec (3367 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 21 2019