Battle of Ashdown, 871 ⚔️ Alfred the Great takes on the Viking 'Great Heathen Army' ⚔️ Part 1/2

It's January 8, somewhere in the Berkshire Downs region. The invading Viking

army

divided its force, the right division under the direct command of Halfdan and Bagsegc, and the left under the direct command of the remaining jarls. Reflecting the pagan formation, King Æthelred took command of the Saxon left, while his younger brother Alfred led the right division. When the cold winter day quickly ended, the Vikings wasted no time. His experienced warriors advanced quickly and were confident that they would crush the Wessex

army

. Alfred advanced his force to confront his enemy and steeled the men to defend their homes against the pagans.

The two armies, locked several rows deep within the shield walls, closed in. The Battle of Ashdown had begun... Mid-9th century Britain was certainly no stranger to Viking invasions. The inhabitants of the region now home to the modern peoples of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, describing their blood vocation more than any ethnic term, maintained trade links with the ports of Britain and France for centuries before the infamous inaugural raid of the

viking

era in Lindisfarne. Therefore, they knew the rich ports, settlements and kingdoms of their future victims. Although Lindisfarne casts the longest shadow over us today, it is clear that other incidents preceded it.

In 792, a Letter from the

great

Mercian king Offa specifically referred to "

heathen

s who sailed by sea with migratory fleets." Ironically, the

great

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the time around 865 were themselves products forged over centuries by raiders and invaders from the sea in the form of Angles, Saxons and Jutes who settled and conquered southern Britain in the decades after the effective withdrawal from Rome. In what is probably a mix of factors, including advances in shipbuilding technology, the main impetus for these early raids on Britain and Ireland may have simply been that the wealthy and virtually defenseless monasteries had great wealth and were almost clamoring for screams be looted.

After Lindisfarne, Viking raids intensified and Jarrow was dismissed a year later. In 795 the holy site of Iona and other monasteries in the Irish Sea region were attacked. The Kingdom of Wessex, further south, also had the misfortune of experiencing the pagan threat sometime before 802 in Portland, King Beorhtric's local constable was murdered by a group of Vikings after mistaking them for traders. In fact, the relatively young House of Ecgberht was well aware of the Viking threat. During the brief reign of King Æthelred, the

battle

was already three generations old. In fact, the very founder of the house of the future King Alfred fought against the pagan hosts.

In retrospect, Ecgberht's rise in 802 was fortunate for the Anglo-Saxon people of Britain. Ecgberht had contested the throne before, but a Mercian puppet forced him into exile, only to secure his reign after his death. Ecgberht proved to be a strong ruler, not only breaking Mercian hegemony over southern England at the Battle of Ellendun, but also assuming rule over the previously Mercian-dominated southern kingdoms of Sussex, Essex and Kent. In a glimpse of West Saxony's future dominance, King Alfred's grandfather even managed to briefly conquer Mercia and have his rule recognized in Northumbria, the West Saxon monarch, in theory, at least a Bretwalda.

In 836, Ecgberht was unusually defeated by a Danish force at Carhampton. However, in a demonstration of the powerful position of his kingdom, he won a victory at Hingston Down two years later, defeating an alliance of Danish and Cornish enemies. Upon his death a year later, Ecgberht left a strong and rich kingdom to be inherited without problems by his own son Æthelwulf. Æthelwulf and his sons would continue the fight throughout his reign, Alfred and Æthelred's father defeated a Danish force at Aclea in 851 in what has been described as "the greatest massacre of a pagan army we have ever heard of." .

In the key year of 865, the torch had actually passed to the next generation in succession to Æthelwulf's youngest son, Æthelred. Like his own successor, Alfred, Æthelred assumed the mantle of royalty during a dark time. Without a doubt, the danger was now worse. Over the decades, the brave Viking forces began to winter on the land, but eventually they left; but in 865 this so-called "great pagan army" had darker ambitions. An alliance of Nordics, originally from the Northern Islands and Ireland, Danes and Swedes, as well as Frisians and from France and further afield, was formed, their intention was conquest.

The invaders were commanded by the three sons of the semi-legendary Ragnar Lothbrok: Ivar, Halfdan and Ubba. They landed near Thetford, in the Kingdom of East Anglia, but, to the relief of their people, they were content to receive payment and support. With horses in demand for the upcoming campaign season, the invaders' objective became very clear. In 866 they made their move and crossed the Humber to rain down like a storm on the city of York. Unfortunately for the people of Northumbria, their ruling elite were already embroiled in their own war; Osbert fought against Aelle, to the point that at first there was no serious resistance against the Vikings.

However, faced with such a sobering existential threat, the rivals reluctantly joined forces to march on York, and the two armies fought fiercely within and without the walls; However, when the fog of

battle

cleared, it was Ivar's warriors who emerged victorious, King Osbert, Aelle, and a large number of nobles who lay dead. The news of the fall of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria must have hit the south like a hammer blow, but Ivar was by no means alone; There were richer lands ripe for plunder and his treasury was moved south to include Mercia. His target was Nottingham, which was taken before King Burgred could even react.

However, unlike the situation in Northumbria, Burgred had additional support. The Mercians were not an island unto themselves; Burgred had married Æthels a few years earlier, making him King Æthelred and Alfred's brother-in-law. Burgred perhaps hoped to avoid the wrath of the Great Heathen Army passing through his lands towards York, and did nothing to prevent their march through his lands; He now faced the terror he invoked on his wealthy neighbors to the south. The allied army of West Saxony and Mercia surrounded Ivar's men inside Nottingham, but the siege was probably more precarious for the allies. Ivar's warriors were a professional fighting force, accustomed to living off the land, moving from place to place, and as the siege was not severe enough to prevent foraging groups from resupplying the besieged, the conditions inside They weren't horrible.

In contrast, although both Burgred's and Æthelred's armies had a professional core of household troops, the vast majority of their forces were made up of

part

-time fyrd-fighting peasants for whom time was a factor; The common people of the allied army had to return to their farms to keep them in order and gather the harvest. Perhaps aware of this time pressure, Ivar's response was to simply wait behind the walls of Nottingham. King Burgred appears to have blinked first and Asser writes that he made peace with Ivar, which probably included a considerable payment to abandon his kingdom. As for the West Saxon brothers, they returned to the south.

His disappointment at the unsuccessful siege may have been mitigated by the knowledge that the Wessex-Mercia alliance would receive a further boost with Alfred's marriage to Ealhswith. Returning north in 868, the Great Heathen Army wintered at York and rested for most of 869, before Ivar set his ambitious sights on another ill-fated kingdom. Ivar's army retreated inward, keeping his word to the Mercians, back south toward East Anglia. The East Anglian response was weak, King Edmund taking too long to muster a sufficient force to resist, or perhaps he faced an invasion on two fronts: from Ivar, but also from the sea by a separate power under Ubba.

If so, it is possible that his fighting powers have been pushed to the limit. Whatever the exact circumstances, King Edmund was out of control and Ivar, probably sensing this, sent an infamous message to the beleaguered king: "Ivar, our king, bold and victorious in sea and on land, rules over many peoples." , and now he came with his army to this land to take winter quarters with his men. He orders you to share your hidden piles of gold and your ancestral possessions with him immediately, and to become his vassal king, if you want. live, since you have nothing. power to resist him…” Perhaps to Ivar's initial surprise, King Edmund showed a hint of defiance; he would submit as suggested, but only if the great warlord submitted to his Christian God.

Possibly somewhat amusing, Ivar had no intention of giving in and now determined to crush his East Anglian enemy. Despite his fame as a Christian martyr, the exact circumstances of King Edmund's death are not known with certainty. He may have simply fallen in battle, although a more gruesome possibility is that he may have been captured and tortured by the enraged Ivar. Beaten at first with clubs and then beaten, the Vikings finally tired of his sport and tied Edmund to a tree and shot him full of arrows. By the early 870s, two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had fallen and Mercia was on the brink.

Arguably the most powerful kingdom, Wessex, remained untamed. Fortunately for the fate of the West Saxons, it is at this moment that Ivar disappears from the southern theater. He evidently saw his own future in the North, as he became involved in a campaign against the Picts. However, Ivar's dismissal did not mean peace for Wessex or Mercia. Where Ivar left off, others eagerly took up leadership. Now the

part

of the Great Heathen Army that remained in East Anglia fell under the power of a warlord named Bagsecg and Ivar's own brother Halfdan. This duo made their move and in the autumn of 870 it reached the ears of King Æthelred and Alfred that the Great Heathen Army had crossed into Berkshire, their new objective being Reading.

Reading being the destination made sense from a Viking perspective. It was located at the confluence of two rivers, which made retreat easier if events turned against them; the town was also a royal center with good access to the ancient Roman road network that reached into Wessex itself. Nor does it mention the fact that it would be adequately staffed as a royal centre, the question of providing a mobile army used to live off the land, no small consideration during the winter. Taking the place was not difficult for this professional force, and by the end of the year Halfdan's men were established; but just three days later, on the last day of the year, unwanted news arrived.

The West Saxons engaged and defeated part of his army. Probably confident that their gatherers were relatively safe from counterattack during the twelve days of Christmas, the invaders were ambushed and defeated by the local noble master Æthelwulf, and the remnants were chased back to Reading. Perhaps wishing to raise a larger army to confront his enemy, Æthelwulf joined his and Alfred's king, the West Saxon army marching towards Reading. This time, however, circumstances favored the defenders. Halfdan's men were busy digging an embankment connecting the Thames and the Kennet. At Reading too the West Saxons now found themselves, not with an unsuspecting party in search, but with a fully prepared and furious enemy.

With their fyrd, the royal brothers managed to capture many enemies outside their camp; However, as the Saxons settled into theirs, Halfdan suddenly ordered his own attack. Asser writes that: "Like wolves they burst through every door and joined the battle with all their might." Both armies suffered heavy losses, but this time it was the West Saxon fyrd that was broken, and both Æthelred and Alfred only escaped defeat due to their knowledge of the surrounding lands. Æthelred and Alfred fled west with the remains of their army and on the fourth day they stopped somewhere in the hills west of Reading.

Halfdan and Bagsegc, with their West Saxon enemy on the defensive, were eager to completely break his resolve with a final blow. The two armies finally decided to fight. The invaders divided their forces into two main divisions, one under the direct command of Halfdan and Bagsegc, the second under the command of the remaining counts. Reflecting this, King Æthelred retained command of one division of his army, while Alfred commanded the other. Asser writes that Alfred was initially tasked with facing the Jarl's division, while the king would fight with Halfdan and Bagsegc's. However, despite these well-laid plans, Alfred did not have the mercy ofhis brother and while Æthelred marched to finish off his enemy division, Æthelred remained in his tent to hear mass, declaring that it was not "the divine service for that of men." Not abandon". and he did not want to leave alive before the priest had finished.

Deciding to confront his Viking enemies anyway, Asser writes that he "behaved bravely, like a wild boar," and with God's help, Alfred continued regardless, forming his divisions at the narrow wall of shields. The enemy held the higher ground, although, as Asser points out, Alfred's warriors were encouraged to fight for their lands, their loved ones, and their lives! The battle took place, Asser assures us, around a small, solitary thorn tree, and the Saxon and Viking lines faced each other for many hours. As for the belated Æthelred: his mission concluded, he too joined the battle after Alfred was already committed to both pagan divisions.

This dimension of the struggle is somewhat debatable. Asser is a good source, but he remains firmly Alfred's husband and will probably play the role of his older brother for the benefit of his hero. It is quite possible that the delay was deliberate; Either way, Æthelred's intervention probably turned the tide. During the furious melee, Bagsegc himself, along with five throwers, were killed. Halfdan survived that day and ordered his warriors to retreat to Reading. Asser says that many died during the night, although the battle failed to completely destroy the Viking force. However, Ashdown was an undoubted West Saxon victory, although the cheers of victory may have been tempered by news of a new offensive.

After getting enough rest for two weeks, Halfdan headed south towards the royal city of Basing. Although battered and perhaps incredulous at this turn of misfortune, Æthelred and Alfred once again led their predecessor in the fight against the invaders. But this time, as Asser succinctly puts it: "...after a long fight, the Vikings won." Asser then sends reinforcements from Guthrum to arrive; However, as he also previously wrote that much of Halfdan's army was lost at Ashdown, this means that the Vikings won an impressive victory with fewer numbers at Basing, assuming they still needed reinforcements. Be that as it may, the fortunes of the West Saxons did not improve.

Later in March, Æthelred and Alfred fought their last battle together at a place called Maeredun or Merton. Here they suffered a defeat comparable to that at Halfdan at Ashdown, in which many important Saxon leaders fell. Then, two darker events shook the kingdom of Wessex to its foundations: first, the aforementioned news of the arrival of the so-called "Great Summer Army" in Reading; but secondly was the loss of the king. Although somewhat marred by his performance at Ashdown, King Æthelred certainly waged a brave and exhausting defense of his people. The Wessex fyrd had fought four battles at the time of the foundation and in this fifth encounter Æthelred was possibly mortally wounded and died shortly afterwards.

However, all was not lost. Probably before their final battle at Merton, Æthelred, Alfred and Witan retreated to the unknown location of Swinbeorg, where it was decided that Alfred would succeed as king if his brother fell. Once Æthelred was buried with full honors at Wimborne, it was Alfred, the Boar of Ashdown, who took up the mantle and sword of royalty. He would have a lot to do.