Information about Danelaw

The Danelaw, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles also known as the Danelagh, (Old English: Dena lagu; Danish: Danelagen), is a name given to a part of the British Isles, now northern and eastern England, in which the laws of the Danes held predominance over those of the Anglo-Saxons. Its origins lie in the Viking expansion of the 9th century. With the increase in population and productivity in Scandinavia, Viking warriors sought treasure and glory in nearby Britain. Its name is also used to describe the set of legal terms and definitions created in the treatises between the English king Alfred the Great and the Norwegian warlord Guthrum, written down following Guthrum's defeat at the Battle of Edington, in 878. Later, in 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum was formalised, founding the boundaries of their kingdoms, with provisions for peaceful relations between the English and the Vikings.

The Danish laws held their sway with kingdoms in regions known as Northumbria and East Anglia, and the lands of the Five Boroughs, one might say counties, known as Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln. Ironically the prosperity of the Danelaw, especially in York, was to lead to it itself becoming the target of Viking raiders. Conflict with Wessex and Mercia sapped the strength of this Norse culture, and the waning of its military power together with the Viking onslaughts lead to its submission to Edward the Elder in return for protection. It was to be part of his Kingdom of England, and the province of Denmark no longer, as the English lay final claim on it.

History

From about AD 800 waves of Danish assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers. Danish raiders first began to settle in England starting in 865, when brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless wintered in East Anglia. They soon moved north and in 867 captured Northumbria and its capital, York, defeating both the recently deposed King Osberht of Northumbria, as well as the usurper Ælle. The Danes then placed an Englishman, Ecgberht, on the throne of Northumbria as a puppet.^[1]

In response to this Danish invasion, King Æthelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred, led their army against the Danes at Nottingham, but the Danes refused to leave their fortifications. King Burgred of Mercia then negotiated peace with Ivar, with the Danes keeping Nottingham in exchange for leaving the rest of Mercia unmolested. The Danes under Ivar the Boneless continued their invasion in 870 by defeating King Edmund at Hoxne and thereby conquering East Anglia^[2]. Once again, the brothers Æthelred and Alfred attempted to stop Ivar by attacking the Danes, this time at Reading. However, this time they were repulsed with heavy losses. The Danes pursued, and on January 7 871, Æthelred and Alfred defeated the Danes at Ashdown. The Danes retreated to Basing (in Hampshire), where Æthelred attacked and was, in turn, defeated. Ivar was able to follow up this victory with another in March at Meretum (now Marton, Wiltshire).

Shortly thereafter, on April 23 871, King Æthelred died and Alfred succeeded him as King of Wessex. However, his army was weak and he was forced to pay tribute to Ivar in order to make peace with the Danes. During this peace the Danes turned to the north and attacked Mercia, a campaign that would last until 874. The Danish leader, Ivar, and the Mercian leader, Burgred, would die during this campaign, with Ivar being succeeded by Guthrum the Old, who finished the campaign against Mercia. The Danes had in ten years gained control over East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia, leaving only Wessex to resist.^[3]

Guthrum and the Danes brokered peace with Wessex in 876, when they captured the fortresses of Wareham and Exeter the following year. Alfred laid siege to the Danes, who were forced to surrender after reinforcements were lost in a storm. Two years later, Guthrum once again attacked Alfred, this time surprising him by attacking him while he wintered in Chippenham, Wiltshire. King Alfred was saved when the Danish army coming from his rear was miraculously destroyed by inferior forces at Countisbury Hill. Alfred was forced into hiding for a time, returning in the spring of 878 to gather an army and attack Guthrum at Edington. The Danes were defeated and retreated to Chippenham, where King Alfred laid siege and soon forced them to surrender. As a term of the surrender, King Alfred demanded that Guthrum be baptized a Christian, which he did (with King Alfred serving as his godfather).^[4] This peace lasted until 884, when Guthrum once again attacked Wessex. He was defeated, with Guthrum and Alfred agreeing to peace through the aptly named Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum.^[5] The treaty outlined the boundaries of the Danelaw and allowed for Danish self-rule in the region. The Danelaw represented a consolidation of power for Alfred; the subsequent conversion of Guthrum to Christianity underlines the ideological significance of this shift in the balance of power.

The reasons for these waves of immigrations are complex and bound to the political situation in Scandinavia at that time; moreover, they occurred at a time when the Viking forces were also establishing their presence in the Hebrides, in Orkney, the Faroe Islands, in Iceland, in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (see Kievan Rus').

Scandinavia was never to give up its ambitions on England. From 1016 to 1035 the whole of the English kingdom was ruled by Canute the Great as part of a northern empire which saw Danish sovereignty at its height. In 1066 two rival Vikings led invasions of England. One, under Harald Hardrada, was able to sack York, yet, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, it was to concede his death and defeat. Another, under one William the Conqueror and his Normans, was victorious over the Anglo-Saxon armies at the Battle of Hastings, and the submission was given by the child Edgar last in the line of Wessex kings at Berkhamsted.

The Danelaw was to appear in legislation as late as the early twelfth century with the Leges Henrici Prime, being referred to as one of the laws together with those of Wessex and Mercia into which England was divided.

Geography

The area occupied by the Danelaw was roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester, excluding the portion of Northumbria to the East of the Pennines.

Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, broadly delineating the area now called the East Midlands. These strongholds became known as the "Five Boroughs". Borough derives from the Old English word burg, meaning a fortified and walled enclosure containing several households — anything from a large stockade to a fortified town. The meaning has since developed further.

Legal concepts of the Danelaw

The Danelaw was an important factor in the establishment of a civilian peace in the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon and Viking communities. It established, for example, equivalences in areas of legal contentiousness, such as the amount of reparation that should be payable in weregild.

Many of the legalistic concepts were very compatible; for example the Viking wapentake, the standard for land division in the Danelaw, was effectively interchangeable with the hundred.

Enduring impact of the Danelaw

The influence of this period of Scandinavian settlement can still be seen in the North of England and the East Midlands, most evidently in place names: name endings such as "by" or "thorp" being particular giveaways.

Old Norse and Old English were still mutually comprehensible to a small degree and the mixed language of the Danelaw caused the incorporation of many Norse words into the English language, including the word law itself, as well as the third person plural pronouns they, them and their. Many Old Norse words still survive in the dialects of Northeastern England.

Four of the five boroughs became county towns — of the counties of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. However, Stamford failed to gain such status — perhaps because of the nearby autonomous territory of Rutland.

Genetic heritage

In 2000 the BBC conducted a genetic survey of the British Isles for its program 'Blood of the Vikings' with the conclusion that the Norse invaders settled sporadically throughout the British isles with a particular concentration in certain areas such as the Orkneys and Shetlands.

Archaeological sites and the Danelaw

Major archaeological sites that bear testimony to the Danelaw are few, but perhaps the most famous is the site at York, which is often said to derive its name from the Norse, Jorvik, though that name is itself a borrowing of the Old English Eoforwic (the Old English diphthong eo being cognate with the Norse diphthong jo, the Old English intervocalic f typically being pronounced softly as a modern v, and wic being the Old English version of the Norse vik), which in turn was derived from a preexisting name for the town, spelled Eboracum in Latin sources. Other sites include the cremation site at Ingoldsby.

When considering the Danelaw as agreed in the treaty with Alfred the Great, in general, archaeological sites do not bear out the historically defined area as being a real demographic or trade boundary. This could be due to misallocation of the items and features on which this judgement is based as being indicative of either Anglo-Saxon or Norse presence. Otherwise, it could indicate that there was considerable population movement between the areas, or simply that after the treaty was made, it was ignored by one or both sides.

References

In literature

• Types of Manorial Structure in the Northern Danelaw, Frank M. Stenton, London, 1910

External links

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1689955.stm News Item: BBC Blood of the Vikings
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/index.shtml BBC Viking History Links

See also

• List of generic forms in British place names
• UK topics
• Danelaw (Timeline)