Wessex battles the Vikings; Danes occupy part of England

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Domains

Battle

Dates

Date of occurrence 870-12-31-871

Places

England (Location)
Denmark (Involved)

The English Kingdom of Wessex opposes the Danish Vikings in a series of battles: Englefield, Berkshire (31 Dec. 870); Reading (4 Jan. 871), Ashdown (8 Jan. 871), Basing (22 Jan. 871), Merton (22 March 871), Wilton (May 871). At Ashdown the English win their first significant victory of the war; nonetheless, it proves impossible to recapture Reading. Wessex, like the other English kingdoms, makes peace with the Danes, and rule over England is divides between the Danes and the Kingdom of Wessex, now ruled by Alfred (the Great).

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

77 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Wessex battles the Vikings; Danes occupy part of England". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 May 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6977, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Wessex battles the Vikings; Danes occupy part of England

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback