A History of the Vikings by T. D. Kendrick

Author:T. D. Kendrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486123424
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

The Danes made York (Jrvík it was now called in place of the English name Eoforwic) their stronghold, and soon all Deira lay under their dominion. Nor was it long before they were in a position to extend their conquests. Bernicia, to the north, did not attract them, and so was allowed to remain for a time under the rule of its English princes ; but to the south-west lay the richer lands of Mercia, and thither a large force of the Danes advanced. Their route took them down the valley of the Trent to Nottingham, and seizing that town, they remained there for the winter. In the meantime the king of Mercia, Burhred, appealed to Æthelred, the fourth son of Æthelwulf and now king of the West Saxons, for help, and the Wessex king, with his brother Alfred, marched with an army to join Burhred in an attempt to win back Nottingham. The English laid siege to the town, but there was no pitched battle and in the end the Mercians bought a peace, the viking host thereupon retiring to York. For a year the whole Danish force remained in Deira, but late in 869 a Danish army rode south, burning the fenland monasteries and plundering recklessly on all sides, until it arrived at Thetford in East Anglia, where it made preparations to pass the winter. There Edmund, King of East Anglia, met them in battle, but the English force was decisively beaten, Edmund himself being captured by Ivar the Boneless and Ubbe and, it is said, cruelly put to death at Hoxne because he would not become the vassal of a pagan. The exact circumstances of Edmund’s death are unknown and the familiar story of his martyrdom cannot rank as more than legend, but there is no reason to doubt that some cruel and cold-blooded act of Danish barbarism attended the death of this unfortunate petty king ; for, insignificant though he was, few events in the whole of the history of the viking wars so profoundly impressed a horror-struck Christendom. The memory of Edmund, henceforward Saint and Martyr, was soon venerated not only by the vanquished Anglians, but throughout all England ; the stream of pilgrims to his shrine, the jealous protection of his relics, and the very naming of him, perpetuated the shame of his murder and made of Edmund’s martyrdom a constant reproach to the Danes, even to Cnut, the great Danish king who ruled in England in the eleventh century.

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