The Great Viking Invasion Of Denmark | The Last Journey Of The Vikings | Timeline

hi everybody welcome to this timeline documentary my name is dan snow and here i am in a lancaster bomber cockpit one of the few remaining lancasters from the second world war to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hit it's like netflix for history hundreds of history documentaries on there and interviews with many of the world's best historians follow the information below this film or just search online for history hit and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show this is a story about the people who came sailing across the ocean it's a story about a long and perilous journey of upheaval which came to change populations and influence politics trade culture religion and entire societies it's a story about the vikings and how they transform the world for most people the vikings are seen only as plunders and pirates [Applause] [Music] they're going abroad to take what they seek in this series we will dig deeper and gain more insight into who the vikas really were and the truth turns out to be surprising [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in the late 700s the scandinavians set sail across the seas searching for a better life looting and pillaging eventually becoming what we know as the vikings using their longships the vikings began wreaking havoc along the coasts of the frankish empire sacking villages as well as monasteries but even though the vikings quickly became notorious for their violent raids abroad their first attacks on the franks were not very successful the frankish defenses built by charlemagne were simply too effective and the franks were able to prevent the vikings from sailing up the great rivers and advance further inland so how were the pagan vikings able to push into christian franchia in order to answer that we have to find out more about charlemagne and what happened during the very first viking attacks on francia charlemagne is a key figure in medieval european history and one of the most influential rulers the continent has ever known his empire consisted of not only what is today france but also present-day western germany northern italy switzerland and austria so the emperor charlemagne was an incredibly powerful ruler and during his reign he greatly expanded the borders of his empire into the north towards the area of southern scandinavia what we now refer to as denmark village or and it's been suggested um that the way in which he did this not only um undertaking military conquest but also in seeking to convert large numbers of people to christianity at the point of a sword which is even suggested to have resulted in large-scale massacres [Music] and it's been suggested that this somehow generated um the perception that there was a need um for a strike on the christian world from scandinavia and in this the early viking raids have sometimes been presented almost for one of a better term as a pagan crusade and i certainly don't feel that this was um such an important factor in that sense what we have happening at this time in scandinavia is that society is changing greatly and there is a number of of social and political um economic and ideological factors at play here but i'm not sure that charlemagne's actions in expanding his empire really did provide the primary impetus for these raids charlemagne was known for his strong christian faith and he wouldn't tolerate any pagans in the frankish empire in fact he repeatedly tried to convert other nations to christianity by force including the pagan saxons whose religion had strong similarities with the beliefs of the vikings for example the most important religious symbol of the saxons was the sacred tree irminsul which can be likened to the tree ugudrasil an important symbol in the norse religion of scandinavia [Music] foreign for a long time the frankish empire had suffered constant raids from the saxons but around the year 772 charlemagne decides to strike back and attacks saxony this time he doesn't only want revenge he wants to force the saxons to convert from their pagan beliefs to christianity once and for all [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] charlemagne's servant a scholar and a monk by the name einhardt wrote the frankian emperor's biography the vita caroli mangani life of charlemagne in this biography einhard writes the last war that charles undertook was against those northmen who are called danes who first came as pirates and then ravaged the coast of golden germany with a greater naval force he was of course talking about the vikings the debut is [Music] b he instituted a system of coastal defense on the frankish coast he put in place not only orders to construct ships to deter seabourn pirates but he also installed a coast guard system a system of armed groups who would watch for threats coming from the sea and their job was primarily to stop those forces on the beach as it were [Applause] at the beginning of the 9th century the system seemed to work quite well in 820 we have a fairly small viking raid on the frankish coast the vikings make several attempts to enter frankish waterways to plunder and each time they are thrown out essentially by this frankish coast guard and when the vikings now start attacking francia charlemagne who has fought extended wars against people belonging to other religions is determined not to let plundering pagans into his country the setback of the first attacks leads some viking chiefs to simply leave the frankish empire and focus on easier targets the danish king gubtred is one of these powerful men who gives up on frankie and heads for other destinations [Music] other vikings decided to go different routes [Music] good friend's younger brother half don for instance chooses not to follow his brother's example and instead alliance himself with charlemagne becoming the danish envoy to the frankish emperor [Music] for a while it almost seems like the violent viking attacks on franchia have ceased for good during this time the vikings quickly become known in europe as bloodthirsty pirates pillaging and looting whenever they are able to their far-flung journeys outside scandinavia also lead to an increase in trade the voice of this man foreign and these collectively provided a hub in northwestern europe for the exchange of goods across long distances what is [Music] [Music] [Music] sizzler handle [Music] [Applause] different production artisanal [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] control extraction distribution media premiere in possibilities [Applause] [Music] raiding also gives the vikings access to another product one that they buy and sell at various markets [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] visitors to these trading posts are mainly engaged in peaceful trade and as the buying and selling of various goods increases the trading posts grow rapidly as does their political significance they soon become centers of political power and important strategic points to control as a result the conflicts between the vikings and the franks flare up once again in the year 808 the great trading post of ray rick is suddenly attacked by the danish king good friend it is what we have in denmark at this time during the reign of godfred is an attempt to by the king to consolidate his power which is you know at least uh to some extent in relation um to the increasing and antagonistic contacts uh between the danes and the carol indians [Music] federer lamporium [Music] [Music] [Music] and there he basically had control over these individuals and these are craft specialists specialists in trade they can bring in a lot of income this income can be taxed and this directly has consequences for for god for its power it also sends a strong message to the carol indians that godfred the the danish king is is a force to be reckoned with and that he now has the influence and the power to bring you know elements of this north sea and atlantic and baltic trade under his direct control he also is recorded as establishing a large linear earthwork in southern jutland it's called the dhana vehicle long palisades somewhere long in all likelihood according to the archaeological evidence this monument was already in existence during godford's reign so what he probably did was it was re-fortified but nonetheless that indicates that he must have had extensive control not only over a significant pool of resources but also a pool of labor so from this we can infer that certainly within godford's sphere of power there was certainly a degree of centralized political power allowing him to draw on his various subordinates and likely large numbers of the the general population as well [Music] naturally the sacking and destruction of ryerik was a clear provocation of charlemagne on the part of the danish king peace negotiations were held between the two sides but in the end they came to nothing after this charlemagne created a permanent garrison north of the river elbe he planned to retaliate and when the danish king brought hundreds of ships to raid the fission coastline charlemagne gathered his forces to strike back just before the frankish attack something happens charlemagne is reached by a messenger good fred is dead killed by one with his own bodyguards when godfred dies in 810 denmark is torn by severe internal strife as the danish elites are drawn into a power struggle for the danish crown but the danish conflicts are nothing compared to what happens when the great frankish emperor dies just four years later in 814 he had ruled france for four to six years and during his reign he created a strong christian empire well equipped to deal with the viking threats [Music] what would happen now when he was gone after that call us [Music] yes [Music] and so what we have here is really a kind of a perfect set of circumstances uh for viking raiding groups to um start not only raiding the coast but to penetrate much further in land and and to really start to cause havoc and that's exactly what we see in the historical record the carolingians did have a well-developed defensive system in place which in theory was supposed to counter these attacks the kings had the ability to muster large armies often at short notice but at the same time they're often hampered in their ability to do so simply because they cannot always count on the support of their magnets first um [Music] while the franks are occupied with the civil war the vikings finally managed to push past their defenses and sail up the great rivers in search of gold glory and ultimately land they advanced deeper into frankish empire than ever before [Applause] [Music] um [Music] um [Applause] [Applause] uh foreign [Music] [Music] b what we're looking at here is is no kind of concerted attempt to extort money or land out of the carol indians or any other societies that these groups are coming into violent contact with but rather they're these are small groups operating very much within their own interests i think we need to look at these groups as having their own individual objectives and goals and and pursuing them in their own ways uh rather than kind of conforming to to a general strategy um that may not have actually existed within their own minds in march 845 a large danish viking fleet consisting of 120 ships sails up the river sand to paris the new king charles the bald had tried fighting the vikings off with his army but failed paris had a high city wall dating back to roman times and the city had several churches inside the wall as well as outside on the beaches of sam two bridges led to the city on the mainland these bridges were guarded by tall stone towers the vikings organized a siege on the city the franking king charles the bald was eventually forced to pay a large amount of gold and silver as ransom for his city [Music] frankly [Music] foreign [Music] after the events in denmark more and more people traveled from scandinavia and across the seas to other countries [Music] it's not only armed men in search of gold and glory who make the voyage they are also families with women and children and sometimes the journey can be very [Music] long [Music] england [Music] the francis civil war gives the vikings an opportunity to stay in frankie for considerably longer periods of time [Music] they managed to exploit the unrest for their own game and are able to remain over the winter in several places in england as well as in the frankish empire but life in exile at winter camp is not easy the majority of the information we have from the continent at the moment is limited to the historical sources we know the locations where they were setting up temporary encampments but archaeologically at least it's quite difficult to identify these sites where we have had some really good archaeological research done recently is in england and what we found uh in england are at least two now um winter camps essentially when these viking forces were operating in the field for long periods of time they'd often spend the winter ensconced in some kind of temporary [Music] encampment [Music] [Music] foreign what we're seeing here are groups that are very different to the early viking raiding fleets these aren't just a few crews of individuals operating opportunistically but rather they're very large uh comprising perhaps thousands of people moving around the landscape for long periods of time and like the early raiders who would raid seasonally these groups were staying out in in what is now france in england um for years and even over decades of time what we're not really sure about at this time is what these camps physically looks like what we do see evidence for though is their occupation of the site itself largely through evidence of metal production and manufacturing and trade and the thing about these sites is that they're often detected uh through the work of metal detectorists uh so we actually have a preponderance of fragments of jewelry of fragmented coins uh bits of silver bullion which attests to actually quite a large amount of loot being processed at these sites and also to substantial trade [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] but one thing i found really interesting about these sites is what they mean for our perceptions of the later settlement of the landscape in both england and in the carolingian empire if we're to accept that these large viking forces were comprised of numerous autonomous groups coming together and acting together for a short period of time then what we essentially have here is the creation of although we call them often armies they're actually kind of mobile societies or polities in their own right and the conditions in which are living in these camps uh might actually provide a kind of precursor for the later settlement of the landscape both in england and within the carolingian empire because it might have been the first time that many of these groups were coming together and inhabiting a single area in such a [Music] way [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] after the death of charlemagne civil war raged in frankie and the coastal defenses couldn't be maintained the area lay open to scandinavians searching for gold to glory and eventually land meanwhile there was also unrest in denmark along with usual adventures there were now other people in exile looking for new opportunities abroad during the 800s as the vikings managed to push deeper into christian frankia their tactics changed they went from pillaging small monasteries to attacking large cities like paris a common viking's tragedy was to hold a city hostage forcing them to pay a ransom usually gold and silver despite the turbulence that plagued frankie during this period the vikings will not be able to remain the resistance soon becomes stronger again and the new frankish emperor manages to rebuild his defenses including those along the riverside preventing further attacks on paris during the years that follow the vikings will instead turn toward the british ice this however is only temporary the vikings haven't finished with frankie when they return they do so with a new goal to become an integrated part of frankie's society and in order to achieve this the vikings are willing to go to any length you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, viking history, viking invasion, history of the vikings, vikings in denmark, viking denmark war, scandinavian history

Id: rpdx4Cdhzvs

Length: 50min 1sec (3001 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020