2019.10.07 VIKING EXPANSION IN THE WEST BY DENIS SUKHINO-KHOMENKO (DOKTORAND I HISTORIA) [email protected] Suggested extracurricular literature 2019.10.07 • Ashby, Steven P. 2015. “What Really Caused the Viking Age? The Social Content of Raiding and Exploration.” Archaeological Dialogues 22 (1): 89–106 • Barrett, James H. 2008. “What Caused the Viking Age?” Antiquity 82: 671–685. • Christiansen, Eric. 2002. The Norsemen in the Viking Age, 214–235. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. (NB: requires a level of factual knowledge before reading!) • Gore, Derek. 2016. “A Review of Viking Attacks in Western England to the Early Tenth Century: Their Motives and Responses.” In Danes in Wessex: The Scandinavian Impact on Southern England, c. 800—c. 1100, edited by Ryan Lavelle and Simon Roffey, 56–70. Oxford — Philadelphia: Oxbow Books. • Jones, Gwyn. 1968. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (NB: a very classical style, no easy-read for an unprepared reader; some hypotheses outdated!) • Hadley, Dawn M. 2000. “‘Cockle amongst the Wheat’: The Scandinavian Settlement of England.” In Social Identity in Early Medieval Britain, edited by William O. frazer and Andrew Tyrrell, 111–135. London — New York: Leicester University Press. • Haywood, John. 2015. Northmen: The Viking Saga 793–1241 AD. London: Head of Zeus. (NB: a very old-school and syncretic narrative!) Regional expansion: a structural overview2019.10.07 In the West, the Viking expansion could be delineated in three main regions, depending on the character of interaction with the local population and the end product: • The North Atlantic • The British Isles • Western [and Southern] Europe viz. francia (The Viking expasinon ↑) The question of the day: can we identify any common features between these regions, and if so, what contributed to the (dis)similarities? What caused the Viking expansion? 2019.10.07 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The causes behind the Viking Age are still being debated. Possible (intertwining) factors: • population pressure; • shortage of fertile soils; • cultural shifts; • technological development; • political turmoil/novelties; • etc. It is possible to speak of “push and pull” motivations to sail overseas: • push: o growth of the rural population; o social and political changes; o climate change; • pull: o wealth acquisition; o struggle for political power; (↑ The Oseberg longship, reconstruction, after: Graham-Campbell, James, and Batey, o commercial profit; Colleen. 1994. The Cultural Atlas oF the Viking World, 77. New York: facts on file) o development of currency; • The take-away of the day: history is complicated! Avoid o sheer curiosity (?). single-factor explanations! � The Viking expansion in mainland Europe2019.10.07 • The first Viking incursions in Europe are recorded in 799, an unsuccessful raid in Aquitane. Emperor Charlemagne reacted and blocked the river mouths in Northern france. The first successful raid occurred in 810, when the Danish king Godfred forced the frisians to pay him 100 pounds (45 kg) of silver in tribute. • After Charlemagne’s death (814), the Vikings unleash a series of successful raids (below are the most devastating ones): o 834: the first sack of Dorestad (the mouth of the Rhine): o 843: the sack of Nantes; o 845: the first sack of Paris; o 851, 852, 854, 857: raids in frisia; (↑ Viking raids in francia) o 879: a raid in flanders: o 885–86: a failed siege of Paris; o 911: unable to stop piracy, Charles the Simple cedes Armorica to Rollo, thus founding Normandy; o 919/921–939: raiding and attempt at settling in Brittany. The Viking expansion in mainland Europe2019.10.07 (↓ The Vikings in Brittany, ibid.: 145) (↑ The Viking Settlement of Normandy, after: Graham-Campbell and Batey 1994: 144) (A modern Viking boat monument in Bayeux, Normandy ↑; own photo) The Viking expansion in mainland Europe2019.10.07 (The Carolingian empire by 843 ↓, after: Halsall, G. 2003. WarFare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450–900. London – New York: Routledge. P. xviii) • The Vikings on the continent owed a lot of their success to the internal strife in the crumbling Carolingian empire: o Troubled succession of Charlemagne: his only son Louis the Pious (r. 814–840) had to quell his own sons’ rebellions. o Troubled succession of Louis: after a civil war, his three sons divided the empire in 843. o Troubled rule and succession of Charles the Bald (r. 843–877): Charles succeed to Louis in the western part of the empire and had to fight his own brothers and quell vassals’ rebellions throughout his reign. Charles’ priority was his own crown, and he did not really stop the raids in rebellious counties. His successor, Charles the fat (r. 881–888) hesitated to raise the siege of Paris and was the last West frankish Carolingian emperor. The new kings, Arnulf and Odo, were more successful, and in 892 Arnulf drove the Paris army into England. The Viking expansion in mainland Europe2019.10.07 • Besides actual military resistance, the Carolingian rulers came up with three general strategies to repel the Scandinavian pirates: o Paying tribute: in the short term, the military consequences of the tribute payments were invariably positive; in the long run, tribute-paying must have attracted more Vikings. o Building defences: following Charlemagne’s precedent, Charles the Bald had river crossing at Pont de l’Arche fortified in 862 (the river Seine; the bridge was completed in (The fortified bridge at Pont de l’Arche ↑, after: Haywood, John. 1995. The Penguin 873) and ordered fortifications at the Historical Atlas oF the Vikings, 60. London: Penguin Books) Marne, Oise and Loire rivers. o Hiring Vikings against other Vikings: one of Louis the Pious sons, Lothar (r. 840–855), granted Walcheren to the Danish king Harald in 841; the same year he granted land in frisia to Harald’s relative Rorik, and the same fief was granted by Charles the fat to one Godfred in 882; in 860, Charles the Bald hired one Vǫlundr to attack the raiders at Oissel; in 911, Charles the Simple granted the Norse chieftain Rollo (Hrólfr?) lands in the estuary of the Seine, and the future duchy of Normandy was founded. The Viking expansion in mainland Europe2019.10.07 (↑ Paris in the 850s, according to the Vikings, produced by (A fantasy town, Heroes oF Might and Magic V ↓) the History Channel) NOPE! The Viking expansion in mainland Europe2019.10.07 (A fantasy town, Heroes oF Might and Magic V) (↑ An artistic reconstruction of Paris in 845) The Viking expansion in the British Isles 2019.10.07 • In this region, the Viking raids fall into two distinct periods. • The first Viking period (c. 789–954) in England. General chronology: o 789: the first raid (landfall in Portland), followed by the sack of Lindisfarne in 793. o 835: desolation of the Isle of Sheppey. o 851: the first wintering (at Thanet). o 865: the invasion of the “great heathen army”; 867 defeat of Northumbria, 869 of East Anglia, 873 subjugation of Mercia; 878 defeat of the Danes by King Alfred; division of England between Alfred and Guthrum; 892– 896 Alfred repels a new army from the continent, repelled by King Arnulf. o 910–918/920: the re-conquest of the southern Danelaw by King Edward the Elder and his sister Æthelfled, the “lady of the Mercians”. o 927–939: the hegemony of King Æthelstan in Britain; 938 the Battle of Brunnanburg. o 954: final annexation of the kingdom of York (↑ The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms c. 800) by the West Saxon monarchy. The Viking expansion in the British Isles 2019.10.07 (↑ Scandinavian place names in England, after: Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. 2013. The Anglo-Saxon World, 288. New Haven — London: Yale University Press) The Viking expansion in the British Isles 2019.10.07 • The second Viking period (c. 980– (Cnut’s “empire”, after: Graham-Campbell and Batey 1994: 211 ↓) 1066) in England. General chronology: o 980: the first renewed attack; o 991: the Battle of Maldon; o 990–1000s: endemic warfare and raiding from all directions; o 1010s: the virtual breakdown of the English kingdom; King Æthelred flees to Normandy and King Swein forkbeard seized the crown (1013). o 1013–1016: struggle between Swein’s son, Cnut, and Æthelred’s, Edmund; division of the kingdom, Edmund dies soon after. o 1016–1035: the reign of Cnut, creation of a large “Northern Empire”. o 1042–1066: the reign of Æthelred’s son, Edward the Confessor. o 1066: the death of Edward, succession crisis, the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings; William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy and Edward’s distant cousin, emerged victorious. o 1085: last (failed) attempt to seize the English crown by the Danish king Knut IV. The Viking expansion in the British Isles 2019.10.07 • The West Saxon response to the Viking invasions, apart from fighting in the field, was of three kinds: o Paying tribute: during the first period, this was sporacidal and occasional, often worked; in the second period, King Æthelred used this tactics on a centralised level, but hardly succeeded. o Rallying defences: 1) building fortifications (the burghal system); 2) building a fleet (first by Alfred – success, then by Æthelred – failure); 3) reforming the army by Alfred. (The burghal defence line; after: Baker, John, and Stuart Brookes. 2013. Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 394. Leiden – Boston: BRILL ↓) o Negotiating: when strong, imposing own power by means of treaties and/or oaths of allegiance; when weak, hiring the raiders or negotiating peace (in 994, with Óláfr Tryggvasson; in 1009, with Thorkell the Tall). The Viking expansion in the British Isles 2019.10.07 • The first Viking period (c. 795–902) in Ireland. General chronology: o 795: the first raid (landfall in Rechru). o 807: first circumnavigation around Ireland.