Historical Dictionary of the Vikings (Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras) by Holman Katherine

Author:Holman, Katherine [Holman, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2003-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

MERCIA, VIKINGS IN. Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the English Midlands, which rose to prominence in the eighth century under its king, Offa (757–796). The territorial boundaries of this kingdom appear to have fluctuated, but at its greatest extent in the century before Viking raids began, Mercia stretched from the Welsh borders in the west to the kingdom of East Anglia in the east, and from the Humber in the north to the Rivers Thames and Avon in the south, embracing a number of distinct peoples.

Beorhtwulf, king of Mercia, is recorded as unsuccessfully confronting a large Viking fleet around Canterbury and London in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 851. Just two years later, Mercia was forced to ask for West Saxon help (against the Welsh), an alliance that was confirmed by the marriage of Mercia’s new king, Burgred (852–874), to the daughter of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex. The kingdom of Mercia suffered its first real taste of Viking attacks following the arrival of the Great Army in 865, and these fatally weakened the kingdom and ultimately brought it under the leadership of the West Saxon kings. In 867, the Viking army attacked Nottingham; even with the support of Æthelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred the Great, Burgred was forced to come to terms with the Vikings. Further deals with the Vikings were struck in 871 and 872, but following the occupation of Repton, the Viking army drove Burgred out of his kingdom and into exile. He was replaced by Ceolwulf II (874–879), who is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a Viking puppet ruler and characterized as a “foolish king’s thegn.” In 877, the Chronicle records that the Scandinavians settled part of Mercia and granted part of it to Ceolwulf. The Scandinavian part of Mercia, roughly corresponding to the East Midlands, lay in the area that became known as the Danelaw, while the English part of Mercia, or the West Midlands, briefly preserved a degree of independence under Æthelred (d. 911), “Lord of the Mercians,” who succeeded Ceolwulf and who was married to Alfred’s daughter, Æthelflæd (known as “Lady of the Mercians”) in around 886. Following the death of Æthelflæd in 918, control of Mercia passed to Alfred’s son, Edward the Elder of Wessex, who deprived Ælfwynn, the daughter of Æthelred and Æthelflæd, of power and took her to Wessex.

By the time of the death of Æthelflæd, Scandinavian control of the East Midlands was largely ended: a series of campaigns by Edward and Æthelflæd had led to the recapture of Viking strongholds at Northampton in 914, and Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, and Stamford in 917 and 918. However, in 942, King Edmund is said to have won Mercia and the Five Boroughs back from the Norse (Norðman-num), suggesting that Dublin-York kings, Olaf Guthfrithsson and Olaf Cúarán, had held power in the region for a time. Nevertheless, the power of the Scandinavian kings of York was curtailed during the reign of Athelstan and ended for good in 954.

Lasting evidence of the Scandinavian settlement of this region can, however, be traced in the many Scandinavian place-names ending in by and thorp.

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