Northmen: The Viking Saga AD 793-1241 (41 page)

‘When [the Danes] were in the east, the English army was kept in the west, and when they were in the south, our army was in the north. Then all the councillors were summoned to the king, and it was then to be decided how this country was to be defended. But even if anything was then decided, it did not last even a month. Finally there was no leader who would collect an army, but each fled as best he could, and in the end no shire would even help the next’.

Archbishop Ælfheah’s murder

In September 1011, Thorkell laid siege to Canterbury. The city fell three weeks later: a traitor opened the gates. Thorkell took a good haul of valuable captives, including Ælfheah, the archbishop of Canterbury. Æthelred finally called for a truce over the winter and at Easter Thorkell was paid
gafol
of 48,000 pounds (21,772 kg). England’s defences might have been collapsing but its bureaucracy was still functioning efficiently and Æthelred’s tax collectors had no difficulty raising even this enormous amount of money from his long-suffering subjects. The payment did not save Ælfheah. The Danes wanted another 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg) ransom for his release, but the archbishop refused to allow anyone to pay it, apparently so as to spare the peasantry further burdens. On the Saturday after Easter (19 April 1012), Ælfheah’s captors got good and drunk and gave vent to their frustration with their unco-operative prisoner. They battered the archbishop with bones and ox heads and then one of the Danes killed him with an axe blow to the head. Thorkell seems to have tried to save the hostage, promising his men silver and gold if they would spare him, but to no avail. Even in such violent times, the murder of an archbishop was a shocking event. The next day, Ælfheah’s body was taken to London for burial in St Paul’s cathedral: he was immediately recognised as a martyr. Once the
gafol
was paid and shared out, the Danish army split up. Most headed home with their loot, but Thorkell entered Æthelred’s service with forty-five ships, promising to defend his kingdom in return for which he and his men would be fed and clothed. To cover the costs Æthelred introduced an annual land tax called the
heregeld
(‘army-tax’). Like many taxes introduced as a temporary expedient, the
heregeld
became permanent and was not officially abolished until 1052. Thorkell’s decision is sometimes presented as being motivated by remorse for Ælfheah’s murder, but putting his army up for hire was probably a commercial decision: in 1014 Æthelred paid him 12,000 pounds (5,443 kg) of silver raised by the
heregeld
.

Back in Denmark, King Svein must have watched Thorkell’s growing wealth and influence with suspicion. What might he do if he returned to Denmark with a ship full of treasure and a loyal army at his back? It was scarcely credible that he would just retire quietly to his family estates. Svein must also have been well-acquainted with the chaotic condition of England’s defences and, as there was no shortage of experienced warriors now that most of Thorkell’s army had come home, he decided that the time was right for him to launch a new invasion on his own account. This time, however, he was planning to conquer England.

In the high summer of 1013, Svein’s fleet landed at Sandwich and then followed the coast north, round East Anglia and into the Humber estuary, then up the River Trent to Gainsborough, where he made his headquarters. There the Northumbrians and the Danish settlers of the Danelaw submitted to him and gave hostages. Svein left the hostages and the fleet in the care of his son Cnut at Gainsborough, took horses and set off south plundering and burning as he went. Town after town submitted. Only at London did Svein meet resistance.

London resists the Danes

The Londoners had already seen off Olaf Tryggvason and several attacks by Thorkell’s army. Now with Æthelred and Thorkell inside the city walls, Svein’s army also failed to break through. London was not yet England’s capital – Winchester in Hampshire was the Wessex dynasty’s main political centre – but it was by now its largest and most prosperous city. Though the Vikings sacked London a number of times in the ninth century, they indirectly helped set the city on the road to national pre-eminence. After he seized control of London in 886, Alfred the Great rebuilt the old Roman walls and installed a garrison. New streets and wharves were built and the trading community at Lundenwic (at Aldwych) was relocated within the protection of the walls. Around 915 another fortified settlement was founded on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. It was probably around this time that London Bridge was built, not just to link both sides of the river but also to control shipping and prevent hostile fleets sailing up the river. In this way London became critical to the defence of the kingdom against the Vikings.

Repulsed from London, Svein headed west to Bath, where the nobles of Wessex submitted to him. London, now the only place that still had not recognised Svein as king, bowed to the inevitable, submitted and gave hostages. Svein returned to Gainsborough and demanded that the English pay and feed his army. Æthelred took refuge with Thorkell and his army at Greenwich on the Thames. He then went to the Isle of Wight, where he spent Christmas before going into exile with his brother-in-law Duke Richard in Normandy. Svein did not enjoy his victory for long. He fell ill and died at Gainsborough at Candlemas, 3 February 1014. The Danish army elected Cnut as king, but the English recalled Æthelred from exile with a message saying ‘that no lord was dearer to them than their natural lord, if he would govern them more justly than before’.

Come Easter, Cnut was still at Gainsborough. The people of Lindsey, a Danish-settled district of Lincolnshire, agreed to supply Cnut with horses and join him on campaign. However, Æthelred behaved with uncharacteristic decisiveness and marched north before Cnut was ready. Cnut took to his ships and abandoned the people of Lindsey to savage retaliation. Cnut sailed south to Sandwich, where the hostages who had been given to his father were put ashore, but only after their hands, ears and noses were cut off. Returning to Denmark, Cnut found that his brother Harald had been made king. Harald refused Cnut’s request to divide Denmark with him but did agree to help him conquer England.

Æthelred soon showed that he would not govern his people any more justly than before. At the assembly at Oxford in 1015, ealdorman Eadric murdered two thegns from the Five Boroughs, Sigeferth and Morcar, so that the king could seize their property. Before that happened, Æthelred’s eldest son, the atheling (crown prince) Edmund Ironside, rebelled, married Sigeferth’s widow and seized the properties for himself. Edmund’s motive was probably to forestall a claim on the throne by his younger half-brother Edward. While this dispute was going on, Cnut arrived back at Sandwich with a very large fleet. Writing very shortly after Cnut’s invasion, the German chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg (d. 1018) gives the strength of the fleet as 340 ships, each with eighty men, which adds up to a force of 27,200 men. Viking armies of this size are not credibly attested elsewhere but, while Thietmar’s numbers are almost certainly exaggerated, it is likely that Cnut’s army was impressively large by the standards of the day. This time Cnut had some heavyweight allies, jarl Erik of Lade (Hlaðir) (d.
c.
1023), the most powerful magnate in Norway, and Thorkell the Tall, both of whom could raise large armies in their own right. Thorkell had decided that it was time to patch things up with Cnut and had travelled to Denmark during the winter to offer to serve him with his army. With the fate of a kingdom at stake, Cnut’s army attracted warriors from all over Scandinavia, not just Denmark.

Æthelred chose this moment of crisis to fall sick and utterly failed to offer his divided kingdom any inspiring leadership. Edmund raised forces in the north and Eadric raised an army in the south. The two agreed to collaborate, but they did not trust each other and separated without engaging the Danes. Eadric then changed sides, going over to Cnut and taking a unit of Danish mercenaries with him. Edmund’s efforts to organise an effective defence against Cnut came to naught because no one was willing to take the field unless the king himself would lead them. Æthelred, now becoming increasingly frail, refused to leave the safety of London.

Edmund Ironside

Æthelred finally died on 23 April 1016 and was buried in St Paul’s. Such magnates as were present in London, together with the people of the city, chose Edmund as their new king. Edmund had the appetite for war that his father had so conspicuously lacked and he inspired the English to renew their resistance to the Danes. Two weeks after Æthelred died, Cnut’s fleet sailed up the Thames to Greenwich. Edmund hurriedly left to raise forces in Wessex while the Londoners prepared to resist the Danes once again. The widowed queen Emma remained in London with her sons throughout the siege, encouraging the defenders. The Danes could not get past London Bridge so they dug a canal around Southwark and dragged their ships to the west side of the bridge, then surrounded the city with a ditch to prevent anyone getting in and out, but the townsfolk continued to resist fiercely. Edmund’s presence in Wessex forced Cnut to go after him, leaving only a small force to maintain the siege of London. Edmund and Cnut pursued each other across the breadth of southern England, fighting two bloody battles, at Penselwood and Sherston before midsummer. Though inconclusive, they allowed Edmund to relieve the siege of London, but the Danes escaped in their ships. Edmund won a battle at Brentford but not decisively enough to prevent the Danes making another assault on London from both the river and from land. Once again, London put up a stout defence and the Danes withdrew, setting off on a march that took them in a great loop through southern Mercia, south into Wessex and east to Kent. Edmund caught up with them again at Otford, where he inflicted another reverse on the invaders. Edmund was beginning to look as if he might succeed in defeating Cnut. Ealdorman Eadric predictably offered to change sides again and Edmund took him back into favour. ‘No greater folly was ever agreed to than that was,’ said the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, plainly believing that it was safer to have Eadric as an enemy than a friend. Later chroniclers, such as Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury, claim that Eadric changed sides with Cnut’s agreement so that he would have the opportunity to betray Edmund.

In the autumn, Cnut’s army went into Essex. Edmund gathered his forces and clashed with Cnut at Ashingdon on the morning of 18 October. As soon as the battle started Eadric began to spread alarm and defeatism and took flight with the Mercian levies. With Edmund in command, Eadric’s betrayal was not enough to precipitate a general rout. The rest of the English stood their ground and fought until long after dark, suffering very heavy casualties, including the stalwart ealdorman Ulfcytel of East Anglia. Under cover of darkness, Edmund was able to disengage in reasonably good order and he retreated to Alney in Gloucestershire. Here Eadric presented himself again, urging Edmund to reach a negotiated settlement with Cnut. After such a punishing campaign, Edmund probably had little choice but to agree. By the Treaty of Alney, Cnut and Edmund divided England between them. Edmund kept Wessex, Cnut was granted everything north of the Thames. Only now did the Londoners finally submit to Cnut and paid him unspecified tribute for peace. Cnut moved his fleet to London and took up winter quarters there with his army.

Cnut becomes King of England

On 30 November 1016, a matter of weeks after agreeing to the division of the kingdom, Edmund Ironside died. No contemporary source says what caused Edmund’s death but later chroniclers, all too plausibly, blamed Eadric. Eadric is alleged to have concealed an assassin – in one version, his own son – in the pit of the king’s privy. When Edmund went to empty his bowels, the assassin struck, stabbing him from below. After Edmund’s death Cnut, by agreement, became king of all of England. There was no opposition; English resistance was broken and leaderless. Significantly, Cnut chose London for his coronation, rather than Winchester or any other place associated with the Wessex dynasty. The surviving English claimants to the throne, King Edmund’s brother Eadwig and Emma’s two young sons by Æthelred, Edward the Confessor and Alfred, went into exile in Normandy. Emma probably went with them. Eadric advised Cnut to kill Edmund’s infant sons, Edward the Exile and Edmund, but he sent them into exile in Sweden and from there they went to Kiev and, eventually to Hungary. Several high ranking English nobles were executed as were some of Cnut’s own commanders. Cnut divided England into four. Keeping Wessex for himself, he left Eadric with Mercia, and rewarded Thorkell the Tall with East Anglia and jarl Erik with Northumbria.

By the end of 1017, Cnut felt secure on his throne and he decided that he no longer needed the dubious benefit of Eadric’s support. At Christmas that year Cnut summoned Eadric to London. Eadric expected to be further rewarded for helping Cnut win the throne but the king upbraided him for his treachery and ordered jarl Erik to cut his head off, ‘so that soldiers may learn from this example to be faithful, not faithless, to their kings’. Cnut could now pay off his army. To do this he levied an exceptionally heavy tribute on the English of 82,500 pounds (37,421 kg), to be paid at Easter 1018. London’s share of the tribute was 10,500 pounds (4,763 kg), a sign of just how important and wealthy the city was becoming. Many of Cnut’s commanders were rewarded with lands and titles, establishing a new Anglo-Danish aristocracy, but there was no large scale Danish settlement as there had been in the ninth century. Cnut’s warriors were mercenaries serving for pay and now that the campaign was over most went home. Cnut retained forty ships’ crews as his housecarls (
huskarlar
), his household warriors. They were paid by continuing to levy Æthelred’s heregeld. Despite a heavy burden of taxation, Cnut’s rule was not unpopular in England. He made few changes to the traditional institutions of the country and the English welcomed the peace and security he brought after so many years of violence and instability.