TheWars of Alfredthe Great Alfredthe Great was a brilliantmilitary leader and organiser. Throughout the 870s,Wessex was beset with a sustainedseries of Viking raids, which cost amongother things Alfred's brother, King Aethelred. After assuming the throne andcarrying on the fight, Alfred negotiated a peace and used the time purchased byhis tribute to turn Wessex into a heavilyarmed citadel. When the Vikings returnedin892, Alfred held them in place with his fortified burghs and drove them offwith his mobile field army. By the time of his death in 899, Alfred ruled much of England,and had secured his Wessex throne against the Vikings... HeathenRaiders from Across the Sea The first recordedViking raid uponEngland occurred in the year793.The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports: Here terrible portents came about over the land of Northumbria, and miserably frightened the people: thesewere immenseflashes of lightning, and fiery dragonswere seen flying in the air.A greatfamine, and after that in the sameyear the raiding of the heathen miserably devastatedGod's church in Lindisfarne islandby lootingand slaughter.' For the first half of the ninth centu4r,the Vikings sporadicallyraided the English coast.While costly, these raids were never more than a nuisance.But in 865 a great wave of Viking maraudersarrived in England,settling first in Kent before plunderingtheir way north. The Anglo-Smon Chronicle calls them the 'great heathenarmy'. They ravagedEast Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria, sacking cities like York, killing kings and nobility, and taking everything of value.Having exhausted the resourcesofnorthern and eastemEngland, the Vikings looked west to Wessex, The campaignsof the GreatHeathen Army 865-879. the kingdomof the WestSaxons. An evocation of the Saxon shield wall. @ o 6' @ 3 Armiesand Weapons in the until the tenth century used similar crossed the Thames and made camp $trugglefor England arms and equipment. They were also at Reading, about thirty miles up the organized along similar lines. Raiding Thames from London. The Vikings parties would form around kings who fortified the camp and sent raiding To defend Wessex,Aethelred andAlfred promised great glory and plunder. The parties against the counhyside. In the had the furd. The furd was an Anglo- kings delegatedmuch authority to jarls; New Year the local fyrd, commanded Saxon militia led by ealdormen and nobility and prominent men in command by an ealdorman named Aethelwulf, thegns. The latter were the rich land of raiding parties or sections of raiding was heavily defeated at Englefield. owners and nobility who were rewarded parties. The Vikings were accomplished A few days later, King Aethelred and with the king's favour in exchange sailors who used their longboats for Alfred arrived with the rest of the West for military service. They were often strategic mobility (though they surely Saxonfurd andunited with Aethelwulf's armed with swords and outf,tted with would never have called it that). They remaining forces. The combined army mall byrnies and conical helmets. The could be brutal and recreationally marched on Reading. Here a bloody fyrd's rank and file was lower-class cruel. Contemporaries often substitute battle was fought and the West Saxons freeholdersand commoners.These men the word Dane for Viking, though they inflicted great slaughter upon the carried a simple spear, which could be hailed from all over Scandinavia.3 Vikings who then retreated to their thrust or thrown, and a small, round fortified camp. But when Aethelred and wooden shield. covered in leather and TheVikings come to his men reached the gates the Vikings ringed by a metal band. In combat, they stormed out in a furious charge 'like would lock shields and form a wall. In Wessex wolves' saysAsser, Alfred's biographer, theory the shield wall would stand firm and routed the West Saxons.Aethelwulf in defenceor press forward in atlack.2 In late 870 the 'great heathenarmy' was killed, but Aethelred and Alfred The Vikings, who did not start using invaded Wessex.Led by the Viking escaped.a their infamous two handed battle axe kings Bagsecgand Halfclan,the army Four days after the battle of Alfred'sfinal campaigns,892-896. \,r''' Saxons fought savagely and pusir.'. t'.,. back the Vikings. But the Viking- \,,, ') t.. regrotrped and counterattacked an. ( overwhelmedthe Anglo-Saxons. Wor:. a gleatfleet arrived. Under the colnmdnLl /,J of the Viking kings Gr.rthmrn.Oscetcl. and Anwencl, the fleet etnbarkeclfi'orr the continentas word filterec'lback thlt Wessexwas ripe for plunderand lightl.' clef'cnc1ed.Wessex was to suffet'auothcr blow when,after Easter, Aethelrecl clicd At thc age ol'twenty two. with Wesscr 'witlt under firrious attack, Alfi'ed thc approvalof divinewill anclaccorcliug tt, theunanin.rons wish of all theinhabitants of the kingdorn.'(ol so Assertells us). assurneclthe throne. A n.ronthafler taking thc throne.Alfi'cd led his fblcesinto battlc at Wilton,about seventy-fivcnriles south of Readirtg. The batllc lastedall clay,with neitheL siclegaining a clearadvantage. Finalll,. the Vikings withdrew frorn the ficld and Alfi'eclpursued with a srnallbancl. Seeingthat Alfl'ecl lackecl the lnanpowcl t \ to overwheltn thcrn. the Vikings counterattackcclaud def-eatcclAlfi'ed's fbrce. Thc Vikings continuedto inflict Landings of the Great Army rl Saxon vlctory clepravaliotisuport the countrysicle. and of Hasteinn But Alliecl would t.totgo qtrictly. hr Rrids of 893 ,l Norse fortlficatlon all, the year'871 saw no lessthan ninc Campaignsof894 I Alfred's burghs battlcsbetween the West Saxons ancl thc Campaigns of 895-6 and the Vikings. Accorclingto Asscr: dlspersal of the Great Army ' . .the Saxons were virtually annihilatcd 'like Reading,Aethelred and Alfrccl attacked a wild boar', and held the Vikings to a man in this singleyear...leaving Bagsecg'sforces at Ashclorvu.about in checkuntil Aethelrecl's forccs arrived asidc the inuumelableskimrishes by flfteen rnilesnorthwest of thcir Reacling and fell upon the Viking flank and rear. day and night which Alfi'ed...had base.Bagsecg held the high groundanci clriving them frorn the field. Not only fought ceasclesslyand intently against c'leployedhis troopsin two sectior.rsalong had1he Vikings fled; King Bagsecgand the Vikings. How rnany thottsandsc'rl a ridge; one division he cotlmanded l:re jurl.s rvere killed. Alfi'ed and his the Viking army were killed in thesc rvith Halfdan. while the other was led brotherwon a greatvictory for Wessex. frequent skinnishes (Quite aparl front by their izr'l lieutenants.Aethelred and thosewho were slaughteredin the eight their forces in "f- battlesmentioned above) is not krown. Alfled agreed to split ,*l',I 1-i' +::-r.!'i ;t i*i*= -.: ?ll i.: f : i'':-:l- :g tu,o. Aethelred wor.rld attack Bagsecg exceptto God alone.' and Halfdan: Alfi'ed would deal with knew the.jut'ls.Alfi'ed led his men into battle Yet afterReading, the WestSaxons *1il': "., ; -{ , -,, : -: !;".;1 .' first. br-rt Aethelred did not follow. only setbacks.A few weekslater another Apparently he refusedto attack before battle was fought at the royal estateof he finishedhis prayers,so Alfred found Basing, ten miles south of Reading. Even so, the Vikings proved to be totr 'a himself confronting the entire Mking After what Asser calls violent clash much for Wessexand by the end of the army on his own. Alfred ordered his on all fi'onts' the Vikings prevailed. In year Alfred's resourceswere exhansted. men to close ranks and charge.Alfred late March anotherbattle was fought at Alfred was forced to make peacewith personallyled the assault,Asser tells us the royal estateof Merettn. The West the Viking invaders and paid them ttr abandontheir baseat Readingand leave with a small band to the marshlandsof dominate the Thames. As a result, Wessexaltogether. After Alfred bought Somersetand made a campon the Isle of Alfred concludeda more advantageous them off, the Vikings spent 872-875 Athelneynear Taunton. From hereAlfred treaty with Guthrum. In return for ravaging Mercia and Northumbria, continuedto resist,sallying out of the ceding Essex, East Anglia, and the after which they returnedto Wessexand marshesto wage a partisanwar against EastemMidlands to Guthrum,the latter campedat Wareham.Remembering the the Vikings. Word spread throughout recognisedAlfred's undisputedconhol chaosbrought about by the last Viking Wessex that West Saxon resistance over Cornwall and everything south of raid, Alfred was in no mood to fight was not at an end. In early JuneAlfred the Thames.Alfred also exertedsome and negotiatedterms with the Vikings led his men out of the marshwith the control of the western Midlands and whereby he paid them tribute in return objectiveof raisingthe fyrd andbingng EnglishMercia from Walesto Watling for leavingWessex alone. about a pitched battle againstGuthrum. Street,and north to the River Mersey.In Alfred marchedto Egbert's Stone on describingAlfred's growingpower, the 'all Viking Treachery Wiltshire's southernborder: here he Anglo-SaxonChronicle claims that issueda call to arms.In all Alfred seems the Englishrace turned to him...'. The to have gatheredone thousandmen. new territorial arrangementgave Alfred In Decemberof 876 the Vikings broke Leaming of Alfred's sortie out of the a stablekingdom with definedborders their word - Asser calls it 'their usual marsh.Guthrum hunkered down amidst that couldbe defended.At this time, the treachery'- marchedinto Devonshire, his fortifications at Edington. Ready Vikings were ravaging the Franks, but and occupied the forhess of Exeter. for war, Alfred marchedto Guthrum's this could not last forever and. sooner Alfred rallied the fyrd and surrounded camp and offered battle. The Vikings or later,the Vikings would once again the forhess. With their fleet largely salliedout from their fortificationsand turn their attentionto Alfred's kingdom. destroyedin a violent stormoff Devon, a fiercebattle erupted.This time, West When they did, Alfred intendedto be thereby cutting them off, the Vikings Saxon manhood prevailed over the readyfor them. agreedto terms and left Wessexfor GreatArmy; the Vikings fled the field Mercia.But the Vikingswould be back.