What Happened To The Last Vikings? (1027-1263) // History Documentary

[Music] the eleventh and twelfth centuries were heiress of immense change in Europe and the wider world as the new millennium dawned vast are modest of battle-hardened Viking warriors many of them still pagans regularly set sail to war often claiming entire kingdoms as their own now led not by warlords but anointed Kings within a generation most Scandinavian rulers were Christian and by the 1100 they're marauding way of life and even the ships they sailed in cutting-edge technology for centuries had become obsolete [Music] how did this shift happen and what became of the last Vikings [Music] this is a standalone documentary delving into the fascinating history of the late Viking world on the verge of the medieval era it's also the fourth and final part in a series charting the evolution of the Viking longship you can watch those videos here but they aren't necessary for understanding this one if you'd like to see me making shorter historical videos go subscribe to my second channel where I'm currently uploading every single week [Music] this video is sponsored by Magellan TV a brand new educational streaming service with over 2000 documentaries to watch on all manner of different subjects Magellan's producers and curators have brought together an astounding collection of documentaries on history science nature culture and geography these include films series and exclusive playlists you can't find anywhere else like Netflix this is a streaming service but made just for documentary lovers and knowledge seekers you can watch Magellan anywhere at anytime on any device directly through the high quality app which also offers a wide selection of content in 4k had no extra costs there are no ads or limited access at any time and the best part new documentaries are added on a weekly basis recently I've been making my way through Magellan's collection of ancient history documentaries this one on Pharaoh Ramses the second of Egypt one of the most powerful Kings in history was particularly fascinating those of you who head on over to tri-dot Magellan tv.com forward slash history time or use my link in the description below we'll get a free trial so what are you waiting for head on over and get yourself some free knowledge [Music] by the year 1026 European ruler he may have been anointed monarch of both Denmark and England but King Canute was most certainly still a Viking at heart war had been bred into him and in that year his position as foremost warlord in the North Sea secured the Pope's blessing in hand he went north to crush his enemies foremost amongst them of course was another anointed Christian monarch Olaf haraldson the king of Norway a thorn in Knut side since the days of Ethelred the unready by the summer of 1026 Canute's invasion force was ready he'd kept a massive Viking army on retainer since his invasion of England a decade earlier many of them still pagans at heart and in all likelihood they were probably eager for a fight but this time it wasn't just Scandinavians standing aboard Canute's Armada English Danes now stood side-by-side with Danish man probably with Slovak Norwegian and Swedish warriors too England's influence had stretched here before during the last lull in Viking activity in the early to mid 10th century when the Great King Athelstan fostered a young Norwegian boy one of the sons of the first king of Norway Harold fine hair at his court before eventually sending him home as a Christian to reclaim his throne and now English influence was coming this way again Albert this time with a Danish tinge we know Canute's ally earl oath was present along with the new yarl of late Hakan Eriksson though it's unclear whether the young Godwin Earl of Wessex was there too though if he had been perhaps it might have felt a little like revenge for the decades of chaos England had suffered under Scandinavian hands during his youth this being a rare time when English soldiers went to Scandinavia to fight and not the other way round but what of the fleet that took them there well in the 13th century saga of Olaf haraldson we have reference to Canute's dragon ship during the campaign and unsurprisingly for the only man ever to successfully rule over England Denmark and Norway for an extended period of time it's the largest ever mentioned Knut the Great was at last ready with his fleet and left to the land and a vast number of men he had and ships frightfully large he himself had a dragon ship so large that it had 60 banks overdose and head was guilt all over well hey Khan had another dragon of 40 banks and it also had a gilt figurehead the sails of both weren't stripes of blue red and green and the vessels were painted all above the water stroke and all that belonged to their equipment was most splendid up until fairly recently and the discovery of ships such as there were skilled of six vessels of they size were often thought to be little more than fantasy that great dragon boat later scuttled in the rascal de Harbor measuring 37 metres long is the largest ever discovered and dates to around 1025 exactly the time Knut prepared for his invasion the ensuing battle fought at the hell gaya River with the combined navies of both sides said by chroniclers to number more than a thousand ships in all Olaf being supported by an and Jakob the new king of Sweden was a hard-fought affair eventually after great slaughter on both sides Canute's numerically superior force triumphed leaving him the undisputed master of all Scandinavia [Music] by 10:28 he sailed unopposed into Trondheim to lay claim to the kingdom of Norway placing it under the rule of his son Sven with his English mother elf Gifu from a prominent mercy and noble family in a supervisory role two years later olaf returned with a new army comprised mostly of swedish mercenaries according to the sagas marching to their deaths at the famous battle of stick lestat singing pagan songs of old he'd be remembered as a Christian Saint and can still be seen at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem today [Music] from 10:30 onwards Knut ruled as undisputed master of the North Sea even achieving the submission of the Swedish King and on Jacob himself still engaged in a centuries-old power struggle with the Geats of the southern forests of modern-day Sweden though very little written evidence exists on Sweden during this era coins would soon be minted at the Sigtuna region with Canute's name on them the first of their type in Sweden and a large number of rune stones scattered over the landscape would commemorate those who went to fight in Canute's army some bringing back large amounts of wealth and winning glory for themselves [Music] though he kept a permanent fleet of dragon boats on retainer along with the hardened mercenaries to go with them man who still viewed him as gold giver and warlord Canute's good relations with the papacy in Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor conrad on his southern border speaks of his desire to be viewed by his Christian subjects not as a Viking but as a Christian emperor of the north a new Charlemagne in accompanying his ally Conrad to Rome in 10:27 for his coronation Knut set a precedent that would soon be followed by a variety of Viking rulers perhaps most notably by Thor Finn the mighty the yarl of Orkney in 10:47 a man who up until that point had fought a generation of vicious blood feuds and wars with kinsmen and neighbors are like to become sole ruler of the north and Isles [Music] during his journey Thor Fionn was feasted by the King of Denmark span Astrid sir and Henry the third the Holy Roman Emperor and most powerful ruler in Europe at the time before returning to dedicate himself to the administration and social aspects of his realm dying a respected and veteran King some twenty years later to a certain extent Thor fiend and others like him who made the same journey to Rome had probably been emulating Knut in doing so for in 1031 when Thor Fionn had still been a young man with many brothers and many enemies according to the anglo-saxon Chronicle without bloodshed Knut had sailed up into the northern seas to receive the submission of three Scottish rulers Malcolm the king of Alba Macbeth the ruler of Moray and Lamar an unidentified ruler of an Irish Sea Kingdom potentially acmemarkets.com by this time all across Britain and Northern Europe the Vikings had already left their mark but equally so immigrant populations had begun to merge with pre-existing ones creating distinct cultural zones Ireland from where one of the skull de life's originated was one such area though defeated by Irish king Bryan Burrough at Clontarf in 1014 Dublin remained the single most powerful settlement on the island and one steeped in norse culture though Gaelic to the Osterman as they began to be called who ruled there ever the shrewd negotiators probably gave Knut with his huge fleet some sort of Allegiance allowing him at least some sort of control over the western sea ways the Osterman of Dublin and the other port cities remained integral in Irish power politics until the arrival of the Normans in the late 12th century another force descended from Vikings Canute's Empire though impressive on a map in truth lacked any kind of legislative unity being kept together by sheer force of will and reputation when the Great King died it all came crashing down bringing with it the extinction of his male life just seven years later don't forget to subscribe as I'll be covering these events in great detail in the future yet even before Canute's death possibly during a bout of illness that preceded it the Empire began to unravel particularly in Norway where the local power brokers unhappy with the role of elf Gifu and Knutson span instead proclaimed a son of olaf haraldson just seven years old at the time as their new king presumably with the real power still firmly in the hands of the alles [Music] Sven Knutson was followed to the grave by his father just a few months later one of only two kings of England to bear the title great he was buried at Winchester given all the honors of a West Saxon King just as his vast Viking army very possibly hinted at by the anglo-saxon Chronicle went on a rampage seeking severance pay in the only way they knew how before disbanding and going home for a new war was on the horizon the greatest succession crisis ever seen in the Northlands largely created by Canute's concurrent marriages to two separate women one English and one Norman Canute son by Emma of Normandy hatha Knut still a teenager had been supposed to inherit England and Denmark yet unwilling to leave Denmark open as it was to Norwegian invasion his English half-brother Harold hair foot son of elf Gifu of Northampton managed to seize power instead in the ensuing chaos Emma fled to Flanders as God went and the other English else had no choice but to accept Harald as king outraged by the actions of his half-brother hatha Knut not only came to terms with Magnus in 1038 but apparently reached an agreement whereby the survivor of the two would inherit the throne of the other agreeing to combine their forces against Harold hare foot by March 1040 just as hatha Knut amassed a great fleet to reclaim England his half-brother died arriving on English shores with his fleet anyway the mercenaries were paid vast sums of dangled and Emma of Normandy returned as the power behind the throne leaving the Earl Godwin and many other English landowners who supported Harald hair foot in an awkward position though in truth we know barely anything about him hatha Knut does not seem to have been a good king and by June 1042 still a very young man whilst drinking heavily at a feast and preparing for an invasion of Norway he drops dead Magnus the good only around 18 years old but already a seasoned battlefield commander became ruler of both Norway and Denmark [Music] in England meanwhile for lack of a better option the wit anger MOT all ruling council of power burkas sent for the only surviving claimant to the throne an estranged son of Ethelred the unready and Emma of Normandy who'd been abandoned by his mother at the Norman Court decades earlier long ago were linked wishing any claims to regal Authority for a holy life when Edward the Confessor crossed over the channel that year he entered a precarious position as figurehead of a state dominated by powerful magnets in place since the days of Knut in reality he'd been brought in to oppose Magnus of Norway rather than for any real loyalty felt on his behalf by men such as Godwin the most powerful of the new dynasties that ruled England and a man who may very well have had something to do with the gruesome blinding and subsequent death of Edwards brother Alfred a decade earlier ostensibly the English had taken back control although in reality many of them were now Anglo Danish many of their families now married into Danish ones such as Godwin himself and Edward was himself essentially a Norman having spent the vast majority of his life across the channel thus Godwin's sons Harold Godwinson and toss stick were half Scandinavian to a certain extent half Vikings who certainly used long ships for war we can see this in near contemporary artifacts such as the Bayeux Tapestry and in contemporary written accounts such as the propagandistic history of Emma written by st. Amer of Flanders when at length they were all guard they went on board the towered ships on one side Lions moulded in gold were to be seen on the other birds on the top of the masts or dragons of various kinds port fire from their nostrils Irish Vikings could still play a significant role in British politics even long after the traditional end of the Viking Age in 1066 particularly in areas with less centralized control and more numerous states such as the Western Seaways and the Irish Sea in the later 11th century for example Griffith appt Kynan a Welsh Kingdom Gweneth came to the throne only with the help of Irish Vikings from Dublin along with a fleet of long ships and the mercenaries to man them godwyn himself seems to have had close ties with the Norse kale port cities in Ireland seeking refuge there along with his entire family and household warriors during his disputes with the king in the late 10 40s and early 10 50s and later after his son Harold Godwinson lost his life at Hastings the dynasty would relocate again launching an ultimately unsuccessful attempt on the throne a few years later with aid from Ireland but that was in the future in January 1066 when Edward the Confessor finally died childless the stage was set for the most famous confrontation in all of English history unlike hatha Canute's invasion this time the fighting would be very real what often isn't realized is that the three major armies of 1066 all utilized long ships in war and all were in some way tinged by Scandinavian culture in England Harold Godwinson took the throne though after a disagreement with his brother Tostig the younger man went Viking raising a small fleet of long ships to harass his brothers coasts before ultimately heading to Norway to seek the support of the Norwegian King we'll hear more of him later his own claims arcing back to the agreement between Arthur Knut and Magnus across the channel meanwhile the Norman Juke William allegedly having been promised the throne by Edward waited for his moment to strike but of course the story isn't as simple as that [Music] on the 29th of July 10:30 the de throned Norwegian King Olaf harrelson returned to his homeland for one final time in an attempt to seize back control from the Viking Emperor Knut in the previous year the last year I love late Hakan Eriksson had drowned at sea in somewhat suspicious circumstances and perhaps Olaf now saw his chance for vengeance on that day however near the village of stickler start in northern Norway his luck ran out a coalition of local elites set to benefit financially from Canute's overlordship met him on the battlefield along with their peasant levies hemmed in by the much larger force of Trondheim 'us Olaf's small but elite force largely made up of Swedish mercenaries died where they stood they didn't all die-- however and Olaf's young half-brother just 16 years old at the time if the saga traditions to be believed though already a leader of man managed to escape the battlefield to fight another day given refuge by men loyal to Olaf in the remote mountains of northern Scandinavia the young man eventually made his way to Sweden and from there onwards to the river ways of Eastern Europe and fortune beyond for that man was Harald Hardrada still an unknown figure at the time he was destined to be one of the most famous Vikings of all and some 36 years later very nearly the Conqueror of England many were the adventurers who had passed this way over the centuries Harold was about to enter the lands of the ruse though mostly Slovak in culture by this point archeology and the written record still suggests a tinge of Scandinavian culture and certainly diplomatic ties passing through the trading town of Lake Ladoga the most important roost trading center until it lost its influence in the mid 10th century sacked by Eric of laid in 996 and likely again by his half-brother spend in 1015 [Music] ever the threat of a town surrounded by marauding warlords the young man went ever onwards seeking out his destiny with a distant relative at the city of Kiev though perhaps not quite as numerous as their Swedish forebears of the 9th and 10th centuries by the 11th century many expeditions not to mention small bands of warriors still regularly made the journey east later sagas and contemporary rune stones tell us that much as well as accounts from the nation's they traveled to one of the largest of these expeditions seems to be that of ingvar the far traveled written down in the later 12th century the saga of ingvar the wide fairer remains one of the most interesting of all Norse Sagas due to its corroboration in archaeology and in the contemporary sources of the regions they traveled to though the details differ from telling to telling Ingvar is traditionally said to have been a soldier in the service of the swedish king olaf Scott's cannon raising a great force of warriors for an expedition to circ land in the east probably somewhere on the shores of the Caspian Sea the voyage was recorded for posterity on rune stones all over the Swedish uplands on the way very possibly getting involved in a regional dispute in Georgia in 1042 most of the expedition never made it home Harold wouldn't go as far as inva not yet anyway but he was in good company for once he arrived in Kiev he found employ with the Grand Prince Yaroslav the wise a Christian now Bert one who still engaged in wide-scale raiding and warfare there was precedent for this arrangement yaroslav's father Vladimir a pagan warlord at once left his lands in the late 10th century to seek refuge at all Hawkins court in late returning with a huge army to reclaim his birthright and now Harold would follow in his footsteps but the other way round [Music] though he wasn't as renowned as the Bruce Prince he was young and would have to work his way up but good soldiers were always needed in Yaroslav stris ena roughly meaning warrior band situated on the edge of the steppe lands to the east the ruse were in a permanent state of war most notably against the pecheneg horse no mats fierce warriors of the steppe Harold wouldn't have been able to escape at least a few engagements against them no doubt also against rebellious Slovaks subject people's to eventually becoming a notable commander in Yaroslav czar me Harold saga tells us that he wished to marry Yaroslav daughter Ellis F in order to do so however he had to make a fortune for himself first for Yaroslav only married his daughters to rule us of renowned Harold would go south as tens of thousands had done before him and tens of thousands would do after to serve in the Varangian guard at Constantinople over the next decade waging war from Bulgaria to Syria in the process [Music] though smaller less organized groups of Scandinavians has no doubt been heading to the great city to pledge their services as swords for hire for generations by the 1980s it was the Roose Prince Vladimir the great who sent the very same Viking army that had won him his throne to the court of basel ii in return for his sister's hand in marriage the first princess born in the purple ever to be married to a barbarian King first began the lengthy history of the Varangian guard and the transformation of ruse culture to Orthodox Christianity those man sent to the Imperial Army were formed into an elite autonomous unit serving admirably for hundreds of years to come soon becoming integral to the Byzantine army at the beginning they were probably mostly sweets but by the 11th century Danes Norwegians and Icelanders attracted by the high pay and glory that could be one made the long journey to sign up evidence of these man can still be seen at the Church of the aya sofia today runic graffiti itched into the marble by bored Guardsmen after years of service many would return home to Scandinavia some being incredibly rich man when they did so figures such as the Icelander Balibo lesson recorded in the lacks tale saga Bali Road from the ship with eleven companions all wearing scarlet and riding in golden saddles Bali was wearing clothes of gold embroidered silk which the Greek Emperor had given him he was good with the sword leg biter its pommel now gold embossed and the hilt bound with gold he had a gilded helmet on his head and a red shield at his side on which a knight was traced in gold he carried a lance in his hand as is the custom in horan lands Harald was no exception according to his saga quickly rising through the ranks and serving as an officer from 1034 to 10:43 fighting in Sicily Bulgaria Anatolia and the Holy Land [Music] though it is tempting to think of him using longships during this time we simply don't know how he got around probably in all likelihood doing so in the Byzantine Navy on drom ins similarly the ruse likely used much smaller craft by this point having a divergent shipbuilding tradition to the long ships of their ancestors these boats were suited for River journeys rather than landing craft for high seas eventually Harold returned home but not before taking part in the looting of a palace Treasury during a bout of civil discord in the 1040s such was his right as a Guardsmen breaking out through the Black Sea Laden down with treasure and riches Harold finally began the long journey home according to the saga stopping off to Mary yaroslav's daughter enroute upon arriving in Norway however there was an issue he found his own kinsmen on the throne Hart Rada wasn't one for sharing power much has changed since Olaf Harold Sam's death in 1030 he'd been sainted not long after the Battle of stick Lestat now beginning to be seen as Norway's eternal king a position he still holds today despite having been betrayed by his own people the memory of Olaf was no doubt used as a powerful unifier and rallying cry against domination from both Denmark and England the young man who acted as a figurehead for this movement was Olaf's young son Magnus despite being a boy king when he came to rule Magnus is only usual in the respect that he does seem to have been a capable military commander and a respected King it was he who probably brought the Young's borg fortress to an end in the 10 40s and fought many battles against the Slavs to Denmark south in 1042 after half the Canute's death even succeeding in taking control of denmark however it would prove extremely troublesome to keep in 10:43 a son of Canute's ally Alf and his sister Astrid span Astrid soon had risen to prominence when he won a battle on behalf of Magnus near the town of Hedeby against an invading army of Wednes swiftly using the momentum from this victory at leers cove heath span was crowned by the nobility of course this didn't last as Magnus returned to defeat Sven on a number of occasions eventually seeing him flee to Sweden from where he was able to establish a minor foothold in Scania proving a constant thorn in the side of Norwegian ambitions by 1045 however the war was further confused by the return of Harald Hardrada who at first as a means to an end allied himself with Spain against Magnus though before long when he realized spent would not be his Lackey the two norwegian rulers made common course entering into an uneasy joint rule although the latest saga tradition says they could not bear to be in the same room as one another holding separate courts at different ends of the kingdom Magnus would be near impossible for Harold to dislodge but likewise Harald was too powerful for Magnus to defeat both agreeing to rule together [Music] we have evidence of a ship dating to this time the scold Aleph to an impressive long ship measuring 29 meters not quite as large as that fit for an emperor like Knut but perhaps good enough for a king may be owned by one of these two man commissioned to a famous Dublin ship right perhaps in 10:47 Magnus died clearing the way for Harold to become the undisputed ruler of Norway far from content however he had ambitions to restore the days of the North Sea Empire embarking on a 15 year campaign against his southern neighbor only finally relenting in 1064 after a huge battle fought at sea convinced him that conquering denmark was a fool's errand we have record of a ship that Harold had built during the early 1060 s as usual in the home screen blur of Snorri Sturluson this boat was known simply as the great dragon [Music] the ship was built of the same size as the long serpent and every part of house finished with the greatest care on the stem was a dragon head and on the stern a dragon tail and the sides of the bowels of the ship were gilt the vessels of 35 rowers benches and was a large for that size and was remarkably handsome for the king had everything belonging to the ships equipment of the best both sails and rigging anchors and cables [Music] in late 1065 an Englishman arrived at the court of Harald Hardrada he was tossed 'ok Godwinson exiled by his brother Harald during political machinations that would lead to his own enthronement toss stick half Danish who'd embarked on a fair few piratical campaigns of his own along the English coast was angry and began seeking a new candidate for the throne Scotland proved unreceptive and finally he ended up with heart Rada probably already contemplating an invasion of England all went well with the initial invasion with the Norwegian army overwhelming the northern English at the Battle of Fulford when Godwinson turned up with his elite housecalls however from the south the legacy of Knut Viking army both men died after being struck down in the heart of the combat Herald allegedly fighting in the front line as a berserker warrior but of course another group of Scandinavian descended people at a stake to the Normans defeating Godwinson and ending the Viking Age so the story goes though they were brought there on Viking longboats however there was another frontier of the Scandinavian world one which retained its roots for much longer eventually preserving the stories that we can still hear today [Music] as the new millennium dawned though much of the scandinavian world including iceland had already officially converted to christianity all would do so soon it was still very common in the far western islands perched delicately upon stormy seas for sears to be consulted and magic to be invoked it was here in this curious mix of isolation and cultural homogeneity a land of long dark winters spent hurdling around the hearth that the old world lived on [Music] in stories and family sagas conveyed from one generation to the next before finally being written down as literacy came in from lands far away during the eleventh and twelfth centuries but Iceland was far from the limits of this sea world it wasn't long boats that came here not mostly for deep sea voyage Inc a hardy a wider vessel was needed manned by a far smaller crew we have evidence of these ships vessels like the class tat dating to around 1000 AD and found in southern Norway and the asker car found at the river gotta dating from around the same period these canals sit much deeper in the water they were sailed rather than rode not being able to Beach anywhere like other Scandinavian vessels they needed a jetty to do so what their crews lacked in numbers they made up for in cargo maximizing profits and acting as the lifelines of these remote colonies often separated by hundreds upon hundreds of miles of barren Tundra and open sea [Music] by the late 10th century tales had long existed of lands to the west some even claimed to have visited these it took a man of unique curiosity to find them and complete their colonization however recorded in to 13th century family sagas Eric the Red in truth had few other places to go already having been exiled from Norway and Iceland very quickly becoming overcrowded thus after a disagreement in the 1980s Eric bought the ship that one of these adventurers had taken maybe even some of his crew and set off to discover these new lands over the horizon [Music] hundreds of Icelanders follow Derek in those years many of them sailing to their deaths finally a relatively habitable and uninhabited region was located Erik and his man spent three summers exploring it before heading back to Iceland to convince others to follow which they did in droves such was the desire for land an extremely difficult life awaited those who arrived in the new colonies two isolated valleys surrounded by Tundra that during the summer months blossomed into a relatively agreeable environment though life had to be adapted here the people making their livings from walrus ivory seal skins and furs for sale in European markets the man regularly traveling hundreds of miles north on hunting expeditions stopping off at places like Baffin Island where a probable Norse camp has been found there were always short on timber and iron commodities which had to be shipped in from outside it was very difficult to grow crops here making it even more important to raise animals which of course had to be carried there maybe on boats such as this one founded scold Aleph and this a much larger vessel dating to 10:25 found it had to be it was on a ship not too dissimilar to these that the next step would come it may be that given the treeless landscape of Greenland it was an unspoken of need for raw resources and timber that drove the voyages in the year 1000 it was Eric's own life that would take them there again pushing back the limits of the Worlds End establishing a short-lived colony in what is now North America whilst their life and his man may have indulged in some local berries fermenting them into a sort of alcoholic beverage and thus the place would soon be known as Finland the land of wine before long however Eric died and Lafe took up his position as leader of the Greenland settlement though he didn't return to the new continent himself several of Leif's family members would go back over the coming decades in a total of three more settlement attempts fraught with adventure encounters with Native Americans and even brutal kin strife within the Norse settler communities this is a fascinating era and one which I'll be covering in much more detail in the future so don't forget to subscribe we know about this era not just from the sagas but from archaeological records too a famous noir site at Lancer Meadows on Newfoundland contains two large halls and numerous smaller workshops perhaps contained enough space for around 250 people after more confrontations with the Native Americans of the region however known as scray Ling's in the sagas the colony was eventually abandoned the norse would probably never live in america again though they would periodically go back on canals to get timber a situation hinted at by a coin of Harald Hardrada son found not far from the Newfoundland settlements in the later 11th century historian Adam of Bremen mentions Midlands to suggesting it to still be at least partially relevant in the minds of Northern Europeans within a few centuries however it'll be forgotten entirely in the long run Scandinavians had very little impact on North America their numbers simply being far too small and the landscape vast so much so that by the time Columbus arrived there in 1492 all knowledge of the place had been lost by the 14th century due in part to the Little Ice Age which made life in the North Atlantic increasingly difficult even Greenland was mostly forgotten its colonists left largely to go their own way by the time Protestant missionaries arrived in Greenland in the 16th century thinking they would convert the Norse they found there they found only in u''t and the ruins of Ages gone by [Music] [Music] the last recorded reus campaign against Byzantium to incorporate Scandinavians or at least those descended from them referred to as Ferengi ants came in 1043 just like the attacks carried out in 941 and earlier however the fleet was decimated by war galleys carrying a deadly secret weapon Greek fire we simply don't know whether these warriors sailed on long boats or a similar kind of vessel and in truth very little archeology has been carried out in comparison to that undertaken in Scandinavia at that time during the mid 11th century the ruse Prince Yaroslav the Weiss still enjoyed contacts with the Northlands though in truth these were little different to his links with other European powers making a point of marrying off multiple daughters to monarchs all over Europe perhaps part of the reason for his epithet the Weiss after yaroslav's rained and the breakup of the kiev in ruse into a number of smaller realms the situation was nowhere near as stable as it had been and never would be again Scandinavians still traveled south to take up service with Constantinople though now they mostly travelled by a boat or through Hungary and Germany rather than the river routes of the ruse who were now almost entirely Slovak in culture the Varangian guard continued to serve Byzantium perhaps even until the 14th and 15th centuries in name at least but in the years immediately following 1066 curiously their ranks were increasingly made up of anglo-saxon recruits many of them Anglo Scandinavian in origin some of these men were landowners al stood by Norman attack one such figure recorded in the anglo-saxon chronicle and perhaps a later saga tradition a Seward barn is said to have arrived sometime in the later 11th century to aid the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus against the Seljuk Turks in a precursor to the Crusades according to some traditions being granted lands in the Crimea for his troubles a region that would go on to be known as New England although this is far from being universally accepted by scholars [Music] by this time long boats were still very much in use though they often carried Christian crosses as well as or instead of dragon sigils they now often traveled a different way too as well as into the baltic and more remote corners of their own kingdoms sometimes heading to the Holy Land as Crusaders in fact the first European King ever to go on crusade was a Scandinavian Sigurd of Norway following in the footsteps and expanding on earlier rulers such as Robert of Normandy and Eric of Denmark to go on pilgrimage but this time traveling with a fleet to war rampaging across the Mediterranean until helping King Baldwin of Jerusalem in expanding his fledgling realm after riding together to the jordan river to undergo baptism in the holy waters there we find other evidence of crusading Norseman - in the form of rune stones on Orkney and many written records of ventures much closer to home into the Baltic and the rest of Scandinavia a new era had most certainly dawned Viking ferocity would merge with Christian zeal in taking the fight to the still pagan elements of their homelands and in future generations deep into Eastern Europe it was the Slavs who were some of the last to hold on to their pagan roots on the mainland with the last of them araignee holding out on the island of rubia before finally being defeated by King Valdemar of Denmark in 1168 likewise across the channel in Britain 1066 was far from the last time Scandinavians invaded in 1069 Danish King Spanish drusen sent a force to England of two hundred and forty long ships under his son Knut to face off against the Normans landing in Dover they marched north rousing up support eventually seizing York William the Conqueror however showed his military genius as he was able to quickly retake the city before launching into a vicious scorched earth campaign of the Danish northern areas known as the harrying of the north span soon landed in person to join the war in 1070 Bert which were looked n't to meet William in open combat and fled soon afterwards Knut tried again and again to reclaim England all the way up to his death in 1086 in Scotland attacks came to King Magnus barefoot of Norway came with a great expedition in the late 11th century to subdue all the Scottish Isles dying in Ireland as he attempted to bring the austere man of Dublin and a Norwegian suzerainty succeeding in taking Dublin for a year before dying at the hands of Norse Irish kings Viking attacks on Britain continued well into the 12th century though for the most part new systems of control had put a stop to independent people going Viking these were now royal expeditions during the anarchy of the mid 12th century North King iced in the second took advantage of strife to ravage the eastern coast from Scotland to York sacking the town of Scarborough and making off large amounts of loot on his long ships yet this was to be the last major record adventure for soon enough a different type of ship would take hold in the north on Isles and fjords battles continued between Norway Scotland and the settler communities somewhere in between well into the late 13th century with long ships still heavily being favored by many local rulers continuing to play an integral role particularly in the power struggles of the Irish Sea and the Scottish Isles with famed nor scale leaders like summer lad attempting invasions of the Scottish mainland and Norwegians getting involved all the way up to the Battle of larcs in 1263 where long ships are thought to have been used but all this was to change and soon [Music] a few decades ago a fascinating archeological find was made in a Swedish Harbor dating to the 12th century unlike ships found from earlier ages these are of a very different type reflecting a further leap forward in shipbuilding technology in much of the North Sea the age of the longship was now effectively over this was the time of the cog floating castles in the water perhaps developed in part to counter long ships though in time becoming their own unique thing integrated across Northern Europe [Music] Scandinavians no longer enjoying an inherent advantage over their southern neighbors by the late 1100 English pirates using cogs harried the English Channel and the North Sea and by the 1300s Denmark's entire fleet was made out of this new kind of vessel yet variants of long ships would never stop being used by fishermen and small folk in Scandinavian regions the tradition never really having died out and today they are being resurrected again you've been watching history time don't forget to Like and subscribe and I'll see you on the next one [Music]

Channel: History Time

Views: 741,249

Rating: 4.8490949 out of 5

Keywords: iMovie, last vikings, vikings, vikings history, history documentary

Id: YjDuLWtxvCU

Length: 63min 6sec (3786 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 08 2020