789 to 878
Unless otherwise stated, narrative source entries are from the ASC Parker ‘A’ text.
Abbreviations
ASC – Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Æðelweard – Chronicon
Alcuin Ep. – The letters of Alcuin
ASB – Annals of St Bertin
Asser – Life of King Ælfred
AU – Annals of Ulster
HSC – Historia de Sancto Cuthberto
LDE – Symeon’s Libellus de Exordio
NH – Nithard’s Histories
RFA – Royal Frankish Annals
789 First recorded attack by Scandinavian raiders on south coast kills royal official named as Beauduherd (Æðelweard).
793 Lindisfarne attacked and plundered by Vikings. Famine in Northumbria.
799 Romans capture Pope Leo, cut out his tongue, blind and banish him. He recovers and retains his see—and sight (RFA).
— First recorded Viking raid on Francia: islands off the coast of Aquitaine (Alcuin Ep.).
807 The Iona community retreats to new monastic foundation at Kells in Co. Meath for safety (AU).
810 King Godfrið’s Danish fleet of 200 ships harries Frisian coast, defeats Frisian forces, exacts 100 lb (45 kg) silver in tribute. King Godfrið murdered (RFA).
814 Death of Charlemagne, aged seventy; succeeded by Louis the Pious (RFA).
820 Approximate dendrochronology date for construction of Oseberg ship.
825 Battle of Ellendun: defeat of Mercian King Beornwulf by Ecgberht, king of the West Saxons. Wessex annexes Sussex, Kent and Essex.
829 Conquest of Mercia by Ecgberht; Wiglaf exiled. Ecgberht mints coins as king in Lundenwic.
834 Dorestad laid waste by a raid (ASB). The beginning of a series of great Danish raids on Francia and England.
835 Heathens ‘devastate Sheppey’, the first great raid on an Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
839 King Ecgberht, after a series of poor harvests, tells Louis the Pious of an apocalyptic vision of darkness and heathen fleets raiding (ASB).
— Death of Ecgberht; Æðelwulf succeeds as king of Wessex; Æðelstan, his eldest son, succeeds to Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
— Large Viking raid against Fortriu in which Pictish kings are killed and the ruling dynasty is wiped out (AU).
841 Dublin becomes the principal longphort of the Vikings in Ireland: evidence of co-ordinated establishment of raiding bases in Ireland (AU).
— Charles the Bald becomes king of West Francia (NH).
— Cináed mac Ailpín becomes king of Alba and Pictland.
845 Paris plundered by Norse raiders (ASB).
851 350 heathen ships arrive at the mouth of the Thames; raiders attack Canterbury and London, put King Beorhtwulf of Mercia to flight. King Æðelwulf and his son Æðelbald achieve great victory over a Danish army at the Battle of Acleah.
855 King Æðelwulf of Wessex travels to Rome for twelve months with his youngest son Ælfred. Marries Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald (Asser).
858 Death of King Æðelwulf. Æðelbald succeeds in Wessex; Æðelberht succeeds in Kent, Essex, Sussex and Surrey.
860 King Æðelbald dies; Æðelberht succeeds to whole kingdom.
864 Edict of Pîtres: Charles the Bald reforms the Frankish army, forms cavalry; reforms coinage; orders construction of fortified bridges to block Viking incursions (ASB).
865 A Great Host comes to England and overwinters in East Anglia under Ívarr. East Anglians submit. Death of King Æðelberht; succeeded by his brother Æðelred (to 871).
866 Óláfr and Ásl attack Fortriu, plunder Pictland and take hostages (AU).
867 Osberht of Northumbria expelled, succeeded by Ælle. Battle of York against mycel hæþen here: city stormed by Northumbrian force.
869 Battle of Hoxne: Danes under Ívarr kill St Edmund, king of East Anglia.
870 Dumbarton besieged and captured by Óláfr and Ívarr (AU); last Early Medieval mention of Dumbarton.
871 Battle of Ashdown. Year of nine engagements between Wessex and Danish army; King Æðelred dies (buried at Wimborne monastery); succeeded by Ælfred. Wessex makes peace with the Host.
873 The Host moves to Repton and builds a fort; King Burhred of Mercia driven overseas.
874 The Host returns to Northumbria, winters on the Tyne and ‘overran that land’. The Danish army splits: one part invades Pictland and Strathclyde.
875 The southern Host evades Ælfred’s forces and camps at Wareham. Hálfdan ‘shares out the land of the Northumbrians’ (or 876: variants of ASC).
— St Cuthbert’s relics and coffin removed from Lindisfarne: beginning of the ‘Seven Years’ Wandering’ (HSC; LDE).
876 Ælfred makes peace with the Danes on a sacred ring; they evade him by night and reach Exeter.
877 Viking army moves from Cirencester to attack Chippenham at Midwinter; occupies Wessex. Many shires submit.
878 Ælfred flees into hiding in the Somerset marshes and builds a small fort at Athelney. After Easter Ælfred decisively defeats Danes at Battle of Edington. Treaty with Guðrum; his baptism.