879 to 918
Unless otherwise stated, narrative source entries are from the ASC Parker ‘A’ text.
ABBREVIATIONS
AC – Annales Cambriae
ASC – Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Æðelweard – Chronicon
Asser – Life of King Ælfred
AU – Annals of Ulster
CKA – Chronicle of the Kings of Alba
EHD – English Historical Documents
FA – Fragmentary Annals
HSC – Historia de Sancto Cuthberto
LDE – Symeon’s Libellus de Exordio
879 Viking army relocates to East Anglia and ‘occupied that land and shared it out’; probable death of Ceolwulf II, King of Mercia.
881 Battle of Conwy: defeat of Mercians (AC) under Ealdorman Æðelred.
883 Guðrøðr episode in the HSC; reigns in southern Northumbria to 895. Possible date for relocation of the St Cuthbert community to Chester le Street.
885 Asser comes to the court of King Ælfred in Wessex; takes up residence in 886 (Asser).
886 Ælfred takes London from Danes and gives it into the care of Ealdorman Æðelred. Possible date for marriage alliance of Æðelflæd with Æðelred.
890 King Guðrum (baptized Æðelstan) dies; succeeded in East Anglia by Eohric to 904.
—Plegmund becomes archbishop of Canterbury (to 923).
892 Famine in north-east Francia; the Franks give Vikings 250 ships to leave the Seine; they sail to the mouth of the River Lympne in Kent; eighty more ships arrive under Hæsten, from the Loire and sail up the Thames. Start of a two-year military campaign against Wessex.
893 Probable date of composition of Asser’s Life of King Ælfred. Viking armies campaign across south Britain and are defeated in several battles and skirmishes, ending in 896 (ASC and Æðelweard). Possible date for original compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
894 The Host sails up the River Lea to Hertford. Ælfred brings the fyrð into the area in late summer to protect the harvesting of crops, and begins construction of a bridge and double fort across the Lea. The Host decamps and marches west as far as Bridgnorth where it overwinters.
895 Death of Guðrøðr, leader of the Northumbrian Vikings (Æðelweard). Probably succeeded by Sigfrøðr to 900.
896 The Host disperses; some stay and settle; others return overseas.
899 King Ælfred dies on 26 October; succeeded by son Eadweard ‘the Elder’.
—Possible date for the ‘Arrangements for the building of fortifications at Worcester’ (EHD).
900 King Eadweard inaugurated at the tide stone, Kingston on Thames.
—Likely dendrochronology date for the construction of the Gokstad ship.
—Death of Domnall mac Constantín (AU), killed by Vikings at Dunottar (CKA); accession of Constantín mac Áeda (to 943).
902 Overkings of Brega and Leinster attack Dublin and force its leaders out (AU).
—Norse migration begins from Ireland to Wirral. Norse under Ingimundr invade Anglesey (AC; FA).
—Subsequently Æðelflæd grants lands around Chester to Ingimundr’s followers (FA).
903 Date after which the Cuerdale hoard of silver and coins was deposited in Ribbledale in a lead-lined chest.
904 Norse army slain at Straith Erenn [Stratheran or Strathdearn] (CKA). Ívarr, grandson of Ívarr, killed by the men of Fortriu (AU).
—Rebellion by pretender Æðelwold ends in his death at the Battle of the Holme (902 in Æðelweard and ASC ‘C’).
906 Constantín mac Áeda promulgates laws of Alba at Scone (CKA).
—Eadweard ‘compelled’ to make peace with the East Anglian and Northumbrian Hosts at Tiddingford (ASC ‘E’).
—King Oswald’s Bardney remains are translated to Gloucester at the behest of Æðelflæd (ASC ‘D’ or 909 in ASC ‘C’).
907 Æðelflæd ‘restores’ Chester (ASC ‘C’); subsequent attack on Chester by Ingimundr (FA).
908/9 Death of Bishop Asser of Sherborne.
—Probable date of death of Cadell ap Rhodri in Seisyllwg (AC); succession of Hywel ap Cadell (Dda) and his brother Cadog.
910 The army in Northumbria ‘breaks the peace’; they raid Mercia. Battle of Tettenhall (Staffs): Mercia and Wessex defeat returning Danish force.
911 Æðelred, Ealdorman of Mercia dies; succeeded by his ‘queen’ Æðelflæd to 918. King Eadweard takes control of London and Oxford.
916 Æðelflæd sends force to Brycheiniog; attacks royal crannog on Llangorse lake (ASC ‘C’).
—Jarl Ðurcytel goes overseas with his followers under Eadweard’s protection and ‘with his assistance’.
912–19 Period of construction of offensive burhs by Æðelflæd and Eadweard across South and West Mercia.
914 Viking raids from Northampton and Leicester, as far as Luton and Hook Norton; they are routed, apparently by county levies (ASC ‘D’).
917 Æðelflæd captures Derby and its hinterland from Danes (ASC ‘C’). Eadweard campaigns against Danish Mercian armies across the Midlands; he conquers East Anglia.
918 Æðelflæd receives the submission of the Men of York and gains control of Leicester (ASC ‘C’). She dies at Tamworth. Eadweard occupies Tamworth and annexes Mercia.
—Rögnvaldr invades Northumbria with a Norse army: Battle of Corbridge against a Scottish and Northumbrian army (AU; CKA).