214 dated events, from the Vikings on the Seine to Domesday Book and after. Red dots mark the turning points. Medieval dates are often approximate, and the page says so when they are.
Background to 911
After his defeat, Guthrum came to Alfred at Aller with about thirty of his best men; Alfred stood sponsor at his baptism, and Guthrum spent twelve nights with the king and received many presents (ASC s.a. 878). His baptismal name was Athelstan (ASC s.a. 890).
A Viking army besieged Paris; the emperor Charles the Fat bought the raiders off by giving them free rein to plunder Burgundy (Crouch p. 2).
Alfred died after twenty-eight and a half years as king. The great men chose his son Edward, who was crowned at Pentecost.
Alfred's nephew took Wimborne, where his father King Æthelred was buried, and Twinham (Christchurch) without leave of king or witan, swore to live or die there, then fled by night to the Northumbrian Danes, who made him king. His nun-wife was taken back to her convent.
Edward, elected by the nobles, was crowned with the royal crown on Whitsunday.
The men of Kent ignored seven orders to withdraw and were caught by the Danes. Two Kentish ealdormen died; on the Danish side King Eohric and Æthelwold were killed. The Danes held the field.
Æthelred and Æthelflæd rebuilt the old Roman fortress at Chester. Norse settlers under Ingimund, given land on the Wirral, later attacked it and were driven off.
St. Oswald's remains were carried out of Bardney in Danish-held Lindsey to the new minster at Gloucester built by Æthelred and Æthelflæd. The same year a West Saxon and Mercian army ravaged Northumbria for five weeks.
A Northumbrian Danish army raided Mercia to the Avon and across the Severn while Edward was in Kent with about a hundred ships. A West Saxon and Mercian army caught it on the way home, and three kings, Eowils, Healfdene and Ingwær, were killed.
911 to 1001
The Frankish king Charles the Simple granted territory to the Viking leader Rollo in exchange for defending the coast.
Æthelred, lord of the Mercians, died and was buried at Gloucester. Edward took London and Oxford. Æthelflæd ruled the rest of English Mercia as Lady of the Mercians.
A Frankish and Burgundian relief army under Robert of Neustria defeated Rollo's Northmen besieging Chartres. Dudo adds the bishop's sortie with the Virgin's tunic, the night escape from Lèves, and the fortress of carcasses.
Archbishop Franco baptized Rollo; Robert of Neustria lifted him from the font and gave him his name. In Dudo, Rollo endowed seven churches on the seven days in white robes, then distributed land to his men.
A fleet from Brittany under earls Ohter and Hroald raided the Severn, seized Bishop Cyfeiliog of Archenfield (ransomed by Edward for forty pounds), was beaten by the men of Hereford and Gloucester, and starved on Flat Holm before leaving for Ireland.
The archbishop of Reims sent his colleague at Rouen a handbook on the conversion of errant pagans (Crouch p. 8). A letter of Pope John X on the same problem survives (Walsh, 'Baptized but not Converted', Studies in Church History 51, 2015; not yet read).
The innocent Abbot Ecgberht and his companions were murdered. Within three days Æthelflæd's army stormed Brecenanmere, the Llangorse crannog, and took the Welsh queen and thirty-three or thirty-four others.
Æthelflæd stormed Derby. Four of her thegns, dear to her, were killed within the gates. The same year Edward's burhs held at Towcester, Bedford and Wigingamere, and the English took Tempsford and Colchester.
Æthelflæd's daughter Ælfwynn was stripped of all authority over the Mercians and taken into Wessex.
After taking Leicester and receiving pledges from York, the Lady of the Mercians died at Tamworth in the eighth year of her rule and was buried in the east porch of St. Peter's, Gloucester.
A charter of Charles the Simple for Saint-Germain-des-Prés excepts the properties 'which we have given for the protection of the kingdom to the Northmen on the Seine, that is, to Rollo and his associates' (Crouch p. 3; Lauer no. 92, via Douglas ch. 1 n. 8).
Edward built a fort at Bakewell in the Peak. The West Saxon chronicle says the king of the Scots, Ragnall of York, Eadwulf's son, all the Northumbrians and the king of Strathclyde chose him as father and lord.
After putting down a revolt at Chester allied with the Welsh, Edward fell sick and died at Farndon. His son Ælfweard died at Oxford about sixteen days later; both were buried at Winchester. The Mercians chose Edward's eldest son, Æthelstan.
King Ralph sponsored an agreement conceding the Bessin and Maine to a group of Northmen, almost certainly Rollo's (Crouch pp. 6-7; Flodoard s.a. 924 via Freeman p. 176 and n. 240). Normandy now reached Bayeux.
In the war between Rollo and the Franks, Rollo's border fortress at Eu was taken by storm (Freeman p. 176, n. 238). The Seine Northmen's push east stopped at the Bresle (Crouch pp. 9, 13).
More than a year after Edward the Elder's death, Wessex finally crowned the king Mercia had chosen, at Kingston on the Thames, 'the King's town' (John of Worcester, Forester p. 96). A coronation poem quoted by Malmesbury describes bonfires, wine and minstrels (p. 132).
Hugh, duke of the Franks, sends perfumes, emeralds, horses with gold bits, a carved vase, Constantine's sword with a nail from the Cross, Charlemagne's lance and a piece of the crown of thorns; Æthelstan agrees to the marriage and keeps some relics, later giving some to Malmesbury (Malmesbury pp. 135-136).
Sihtric, king of the Northumbrians (not named on air), met Æthelstan at Tamworth and married his sister, with gifts and a treaty meant to last forever (ASC; Malmesbury p. 132). Malmesbury can't name the bride (p. 124).
The Welsh kings agree a yearly tribute of 20 lb gold, 300 lb silver, 25,000 oxen, hunting dogs and hawks. At Exeter, the Cornish, who had lived there with equal rights, are pushed beyond the Tamar and the city is walled in squared stone (Malmesbury p. 134).
The Viking king of York died about a year after the Tamworth wedding; Æthelstan took the kingdom, expelled Guthfrith, levelled the old Danish fort at York and shared out the treasure man by man. The dead king's kin fled to Ireland and Scotland (Malmesbury pp. 132-133).
Herbert of Vermandois brought the captive Charles the Simple to meet the Northmen at Eu; Rollo's son commended himself to Charles and confirmed friendship with Herbert (Flodoard via Freeman n. 241). First record of William acting as ruler. Crouch p. 9 says he swore to King Ralph in 927; Flodoard says Charles.
Howel of West Wales, Constantine of the Scots, Owen, and Aldred son of Eadulf of Bamburgh made peace 'with covenants and oaths' and renounced idolatry (ASC). Malmesbury puts the meeting at Dacre and has Æthelstan stand godfather to Constantine's son (p. 133).
Æthelstan's big law code: no mercy for a thief over twelve caught with more than eightpence (II As 1); one coinage, minting only in towns, moneyers per town (II As 14); the hot-iron ordeal (II As 23); no sheepskin on shields (II As 15).
Rollo was probably alive but ailing in 927 and was clearly dead by 933; most historians put his death around 928 (Crouch p. 7). Buried at Rouen cathedral, it is said (Crouch p. 7). The lament for William says war broke out against William 'while his heathen father was dying' (Crouch pp. 8-9).
The king of the Germans asks for a sister for his son Otto; Æthelstan sends two. Otto picks one; the other marries a king near the Alps whose family nobody remembers (Æthelweard, Giles pp. 1-2; Malmesbury p. 135).
Charles the Simple died a prisoner at Péronne, 'whether actually murdered by Herbert, or simply worn out by sorrow and captivity' (Freeman p. 182, n. 254).
The Bretons who had been left subject to the Northmen rose and are said to have killed all the Northmen living among them on the feast of St Michael (Flodoard via Freeman n. 256). Dudo's version: the Bretons refuse service, raid the Bessin, and are crushed by William (ch. [17]-[18]).
Æthelstan's half-brother drowned. The Chronicle says nothing more; Simeon says Æthelstan ordered it; Malmesbury's ballad has him set adrift in an oarless boat, then says he doesn't believe it (pp. 139-140).
'William, leader (princeps) of the Northmen swore faith to that same king; to whom the king gave the land of the Bretons lying along the sea coast' (Flodoard, Crouch's translation p. 10). Taken to mean the Cotentin and Avranchin (Freeman pp. 183, 197).
Riulf's faction demanded the land to the Risle and camped in a meadow outside Rouen; William, shamed by Bernard the Dane, attacked with three hundred men and won; news came the same day that his son had been born (Dudo ch. [19]-[21]).
After the Scots king broke the peace, Æthelstan went north by land and sea. At Chester-le-Street he gave St Cuthbert gifts, lands and a curse on anyone who took them, probably including the book with his portrait (CCCC MS 183) and the embroidered stole; the army gave more than 96 lb of silver. The army raided deep into Scotland, the fleet to Caithness, and Constantine gave his son as hostage (Simeon; John of Worcester, Forester p. 97).
Æthelstan fits out his foster-son Haakon with men and good ships; the Norwegians make him king (Snorri, Hakon the Good's saga ch. 1).
The king tells his councillors it is cruel to put such young people to death for such slight offenses, as he has learned happens everywhere. Age raised to fifteen and the line to twelvepence; a boy who surrenders goes to prison, or his kin stand surety for his full wergild, or he stays in bondage until it is paid (VI As 12 §§ 1-3).
The Breton prince (Alan, not named on air) and his people, refugees at Æthelstan's court after the Northmen overran Brittany, go home to fight for their country (Freeman vol. 1 pp. 184-186).
After the West Frankish king died, the lords chose Charles the Simple's son. Æthelstan, at York, demanded oaths first. Houses were burned on both shores as signals; an English bishop crossed; the Franks did homage on the sand at Boulogne; Louis sprang onto his horse and was crowned at Laon by the archbishop of Reims (Freeman vol. 1 pp. 198-199).
A dynastic marriage to Liutgarde, a descendant of Charlemagne, with the estate of Longueville as her dower; no children (Crouch pp. 12, 25-26; Dudo ch. [22]).
Æthelstan and Edmund, with West Saxons and Mercians, defeat Olaf of Dublin, Constantine of the Scots and the king of the Cumbrians in a fight from sunrise to sunset. Five young kings and seven of Olaf's earls dead; Constantine's son killed; Olaf escapes by ship to Dublin; two of Æthelstan's cousins killed and buried at Malmesbury (Brunanburh poem; Simeon; Annals of Ulster; Malmesbury p. 136).
Æthelstan sends a fleet to support Louis; it plunders a stretch of coast and, in Flodoard's words, goes home 'nulloque negotio propter quod venerant peracto,' with none of its business done. The same year a count's wife and children are sent to Æthelstan for safekeeping (Freeman p. 202 and n. 292).
Late in 939, around Æthelstan's death, Olaf of Dublin leaves Dublin; the Irish annals give no destination. The northern history's 'King Olaf first came to York' was long read as him. Episode 6 (v5, Jason's ruling on CALL 3) follows Halloran: no early source puts him at York, and his next sighting is in Lothian in 941.
Arnulf of Flanders seized Montreuil and sent Herluin's wife and children to Æthelstan; William's army recovered it (Flodoard via Freeman nn. 291-292; Dudo ch. [26]). William was excommunicated by the bishops with the king for harrying Flemish land (n. 293). He, Hugh, Herbert and Arnulf all met Otto and swore to him (n. 297).
Æthelstan dies at about forty-five and is buried under the altar at Malmesbury, with gold, silver and relics carried before the body (Malmesbury p. 140). The Irish call him 'pillar of the dignity of the western world' (U939.6). No son; the crown goes to his half-brother Edmund, about eighteen (Malmesbury p. 141).
Louis met William in the district of Amiens; William commended himself to him, and the king gave him the land that his father Charles had granted to the Northmen (Flodoard via Freeman n. 300). Richer: William swore to die for the king or restore his full power (n. 301). Later the same year William joined Hugh and Herbert besieging Reims (n. 302).
Olaf of Dublin plunders the church of St Balther, burns Tyninghame, and dies soon after. Olaf Cuaran, son of Sihtric, comes over from Dublin and is king at York (the Irish annals have him arriving late in 940).
Edmund the Magnificent makes Dunstan abbot of Glastonbury, where he had been brought up. Dunstan's first Life ties it to the king's near-death at the Cheddar cliffs.
Edmund the Magnificent takes Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, probably to get ahead of Olaf Cuaran (Halloran 2016, p. 103). In episode 6 (v5) this comes before the raid on Tamworth and the Leicester treaty. A poem in the Chronicle celebrates it; who was freed from whom is disputed (Claims: reading of the poem, Genuinely open).
Late in 942 Olaf Cuaran raids south, fails at Northampton, and storms Tamworth (Wulfrun is carried off). Edmund the Magnificent traps him and Archbishop Wulfstan in Leicester, but they escape by night; the two archbishops then broker a peace (943) that gives Olaf Cuaran everything north of Watling Street. The older account puts all this under Olaf of Dublin in 939-940.
Otto reconciled Louis with Hugh (Freeman p. 206). Richer: William forced his way in and made Otto give the seat of honor to Louis. Dudo: William's men broke into the German king's lodgings; Saxons mocked him in a language he understood.
At a peace meeting on an island in the Somme, Arnulf of Flanders's men called William back to the bank and killed him (Flodoard via Freeman p. 628; Dudo ch. [27]; Crouch pp. 13-14). Buried at Rouen; the Norman and Breton leaders made his son Richard their lord (Dudo ch. [27]).
As part of the peace after Leicester (Halloran 2016, p. 104), Olaf Cuaran is baptized with Edmund the Magnificent as sponsor and given royal gifts; later that year Ragnall, Olaf of Dublin's brother, is confirmed and Edmund adopts him as his son.
A heathen king's fleet comes up the Seine; Turmod returns to paganism and pushes William's son toward it. Some Normans commend themselves to Louis, some to Hugh. Hugh takes Évreux; Louis beats the heathens at Rouen, Turmod is killed, and Louis gives the land of the Northmen to 'William's son, born of a Breton concubine.' Herluin left at Rouen; he kills William's murderer and sends his hands to Rouen. Hugh reconciles Arnulf to the king.
Edmund the Magnificent drives out Olaf Cuaran and Ragnall, his two godsons, and takes Northumbria. Æthelweard says the expelling was done by Archbishop Wulfstan of York and the ealdorman of the Mercians (Giles, s.a. '948'; Swanton p. 111, n. 7); Ragnall was apparently killed and Cuaran went back to Dublin (Halloran p. 106).
Louis, with Arnulf and Herluin, enters Normandy and is received at Rouen; some Northmen who will not have him take to the sea. Hugh occupies Bayeux, promised to him for help against the Normans; Louis makes him surrender it, and the two fall out. Louis leaves Ralph Torta to run Rouen in his interest (Crouch).
In the family's telling, Louis takes the boy to Laon to be educated; after a hawking trip he threatens to maim him; Osmund has him feign illness and gets him out in a rain cloak on fast horses to a castle (Coucy) and then to Bernard of Senlis. The Reims writers never mention a captivity.
Edmund the Magnificent ravages Cumberland and grants it to Malcolm, king of the Scots, on condition he be his ally by sea and land. Wendover alone says he blinded the British king's two sons.
Dudo: conference across the Dives, Herluin recognized and killed, battle, eighteen counts dead, Louis captured. Flodoard (s.a. 945 [C], [E], Fanning and Bachrach): Louis went to Rouen with Herluin that summer; Harald, in command at Bayeux, offered a meeting; the king came with few men, Harald with many armed Northmen, who killed almost all the king's companions; the king fled alone with one Northman and was seized at Rouen. Herluin is dead by 947 (his son holds Montreuil). Richer: Harald lured him to Bayeux with few men, Hugh complicit.
At Gerberga's request, Edmund the Magnificent sends envoys to Hugh the Great demanding Louis from Overseas be freed. Hugh refuses to yield to English threats.
The Normans hand Louis over for hostages: Gerberga sends her younger son, born that year, and refuses the elder; Bishop Guy of Soissons offers himself (Flodoard s.a. 945 [F], Fanning and Bachrach; Dudo has a royal son and two bishops). The boy dies at Rouen (Dudo, Widukind). Hugh commits the king to Theobald, who holds him almost a year. Edmund of England's envoys demand his release and are refused; Otto plans an invasion. Louis is freed for Laon, which Gerberga had held; Hugh does homage again (946 [C], [E]). Dudo adds an oath on the Epte that Richard will serve no one but God.
The three kings turn away from Laon, take Reims, fail at Senlis, ravage Hugh's land and the Northmen's, and fail at Rouen. Dudo adds Otto's nephew killed on the drawbridge, Otto asking Richard's leave to pray at Saint-Ouen, Arnulf's night flight and the camp's panic.
At the St Augustine's day feast, Edmund the Magnificent spots the banished robber Leofa among the guests, drags him down by the hair, and is stabbed in the chest. Buried by Dunstan at Glastonbury.
Eadred, Edmund the Magnificent's younger brother, is crowned at Kingston, the same place as Æthelstan. A charter that year styles him king of the Anglo-Saxons and Northumbrians, the pagans and the Britons.
The archbishop of York and the Northumbrian council swear allegiance to Eadred at Tanshelf, and abandon it soon after.
Eadred lays Northumbria waste and Wilfrid's minster at Ripon burns. On the way home, York's army strikes his rear at Castleford, where Ermine Street crosses the Aire, with great slaughter. When Eadred threatens to return, the Northumbrians drop Eric and pay compensation.
Breaking the Tanshelf oath, the Northumbrians take Eric, possibly Eric Bloodaxe (Genuinely open), as king at York.
Olaf Cuaran comes back to Northumbria and rules at York for about three years.
The Northumbrians expel Olaf Cuaran and take Eric back. Eadred imprisons the archbishop of York, often accused before him, and orders a slaughter at Thetford in revenge for a murdered abbot.
The Northumbrians expel Eric and Eadred takes over. Eric is killed at Stainmore by Maccus son of Olaf, betrayed by Earl Oswulf, who then governs Northumbria for the English king.
Louis's young son Louis dies at Laon. Setting out for Reims, the king chases a wolf that appears ahead of him, falls when his horse breaks into a gallop, is carried to Reims gravely hurt, lies ill a long time, wastes away, and dies, about thirty-three; buried at Saint-Remi (Flodoard s.a. 954 [B], Fanning and Bachrach). His son Lothair, still a boy, is consecrated at Saint-Remi with Hugh the Great's support (954 [F]).
Eadred dies at the royal estate of Frome. His will names his mother, bishops, priests and household but no wife or children, and leaves sixteen hundred pounds for his people to buy off famine or a heathen army, with twelve almsmen on each of his estates.
Hugh the Great dies; his son Hugh Capet is thirteen. Dudo: on his deathbed Hugh asked that Richard look after his wife and son while the son was under age.
Dunstan's property plundered with the king's consent and he is driven across the sea; received by Arnulf of Flanders and lodged at Blandinium (St Peter's, Ghent). Wendover: the king's mother-in-law sent men to put out his eyes.
Eadwig, about fifteen, anointed at Kingston by Oda. In B.'s story he leaves the feast for a noblewoman and her daughter; Dunstan and a bishop kinsman find the crown on the floor and drag him back (Wendover p. 257).
Wulfstan dies and is buried at Oundle; Oskytel succeeds.
The Mercians and Northumbrians throw off Eadwig and elect Edgar; the Thames becomes the border (John of Worcester p. 101; Wendover p. 258).
Edgar sends for Dunstan from Ghent, makes him a bishop, gives him Worcester and then London.
Oda ends the marriage as too close in kin. The first time such rules were imposed on an English king (Roach p. 47).
Oda dies; Ælfsige of Winchester becomes archbishop.
On his way to Rome for the pallium, Ælfsige dies of cold in the Alps; Wendover adds that he warmed his feet in his disembowelled horses.
Eadwig dies at about nineteen, cause unrecorded; buried in the New Minster, Winchester. Edgar, sixteen, succeeds in Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria.
Byrhthelm of Wells, Eadwig's choice for Canterbury, is sent back as 'little qualified'; Dunstan is installed.
Dunstan receives the pallium from Pope John and returns 'by a peaceful journey.'
'Richard, son of William, prince of the Northmen, married the daughter of Hugh, formerly prince beyond the Seine' (Flodoard, via Freeman vol. 1, n. 397). Dudo: a sworn marriage contract, not a bride purchase; Richard became Hugh's man.
Edgar, at Dunstan's request, makes Oda's nephew Oswald bishop of Worcester.
At a royal placitum (Soissons), Richard tried to break up the assembly; the king's fideles met him, some of his men were killed, and he fled (Flodoard s.a. 961 [B]). Dudo omits it.
With an insider's help (Gilbert Machel, Wace II vv. 3990-4024), Lothair captured Évreux and handed it to Theobald (Dudo [53]).
After a pestilence blamed on withheld tithes, Edgar's code lets the Danes keep their own secular law and sets standing witnesses for all purchases of livestock.
Theobald camped at Ementrudeville (Saint-Sever) opposite Rouen; Richard crossed by night and attacked at dawn; 640 dead buried; Theobald's son killed; Chartres burned (Dudo [54]-[55]).
Richard sent to Denmark; the Danes camped at Jeufosse on the Seine and wrecked Theobald's and Lothair's lands; famine, captives, unplowed fields (Dudo [56]; Wace II vv. 4124-4231).
Dunstan consecrates Æthelwold, abbot of Abingdon and Edgar's old tutor.
Edgar's third match; her father Ordgar becomes ealdorman of Devon; the grant S 725 opens 'they two shall be one flesh.'
With a royal thegn's backing, Æthelwold gives the clerks the choice of the monastic habit or leaving; most leave, three later convert. New Minster, Chertsey and Milton follow.
After Theobald's night peace at Rouen, the king and his magnates swore on the Epte that the Norman realm would belong to Richard and his descendants (Dudo [57], L882).
A northern lord ravages Westmorland; no reason given.
Richard expelled the canons and installed monks under Abbot Mainard; Lothair's diploma confirms that 'Richard, marquis of the Normans' recently gathered monks there with Pope John's consent (Gandy paras. 14, 28; Crouch pp. 19-21).
Hugh's daughter, Emma, died childless; Richard had her goods given to the church and the poor (Dudo [58], L896).
'c classes Normannorum cum rege suo nomine Gunderedo' entered the towns of Galicia (García Losquiño pp. 40-42). Palgrave links them to Dudo's departing Danes.
Edgar orders all Thanet raided; Wendover says the islanders had robbed York merchants, and the king seized their goods and executed some.
A wealthy Ælfgifu, very likely Eadwig's ex-wife, leaves estates and treasure to King Edgar, his queen and the ætheling, churches and family, and frees every penally enslaved man on her estates.
One customary for all English monks and nuns, with prayers for king and queen and the Easter Quem quaeritis.
Edgar and Ælfthryth's elder son dies as a small boy and is buried at Romsey.
One coin type across the kingdom, king's head, mint and moneyer named, dies distributed centrally; periodic recoinage follows.
Edgar's grand consecration: three promises, anointing to the Zadok antiphon, crowning; the queen feasts with abbots and abbesses.
Six (ASC) or eight (Ælfric, John of Worcester) kings pledge to be his allies on sea and land; post-Conquest sources add the rowing on the Dee.
Edgar dies at thirty-two and is buried at Glastonbury; nobles divide over Edward and Æthelred.
The great men split between Edgar's sons; the archbishops Dunstan and Oswald, with bishops, abbots and ealdormen, chose Edward (John of Worcester p. 106; Byrhtferth, Raine p. 449). Consecrated, very likely at Kingston, by Dunstan (Roach pp. 63, 82).
Ealdorman Ælfhere and others drove monks from houses in Mercia and brought back married clerks; Æthelwine of East Anglia, his brother and Byrhtnoth defended the eastern houses (Swanton p. 121; Byrhtferth, Raine pp. 443-446; John of Worcester p. 106).
A comet, 'cometa' as wise men call it; famine the following year.
Oslac, the leading figure in Northumbria, 'was driven from the country, over the rolling waves' (Swanton p. 120, 975 A); reasons unknown (n. 3).
'Here in this year was the great famine in the English race' (Swanton p. 122, 976 C).
Edward the Martyr's council at the royal manor of Kirtlington; his tutor Sideman of Crediton died suddenly; Edward and Dunstan had him buried at Abingdon (Swanton p. 122).
All the foremost councillors fell from an upper floor at Calne except Dunstan, left standing on a beam; some injured, some killed (Swanton p. 123, 978 E).
Meeting the household of Queen Ælfthryth and Æthelred at Corfe, Edward was seized by both hands on horseback and stabbed (Byrhtferth, Raine pp. 449-450; Swanton p. 123). Day certain; year 978 preferred over 979 (Roach pp. 72-73).
'they buried him at Wareham without any royal honours' (Swanton p. 123). The first year of the body's fate is disputed: buried, hidden in a marsh, or burned (Wulfstan).
Ælfhere came to Wareham with a crowd, raised the body, found it whole, washed and re-dressed it, and carried it with honor to Shaftesbury (Byrhtferth p. 450; John of Worcester p. 107).
Consecrated by Dunstan and Oswald with ten bishops, 'with great rejoicing of the councillors' (Swanton pp. 122-123; Byrhtferth p. 455). Roach: 4 May 979.
'a bloody cloud was seen, many times in the likeness of fire; and it appeared most of all at midnight' (Swanton p. 122, 979 C).
A ship-army raids Southampton, killing or capturing most of the townspeople; Thanet is raided; a northern fleet raids Cheshire (Swanton pp. 124-125).
Padstow (St Petroc's) raided and great harm done along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall (Swanton p. 124); John of Worcester p. 107: the same fleet as Southampton.
Three ships of Vikings raid Portland in Dorset; London burns; the Chronicle also records Otto II's Italian campaign and the death of his nephew Otto, Edward the Elder's great-grandson (Swanton p. 124).
Ælfhere of Mercia dies; his kinsman Ælfric succeeds (Swanton p. 124; Roach p. 91).
Bishop Æthelwold, 'father of monks' (ASC E), dies; with Ælfhere already dead, the regency ends and the teenage king strikes out on his own (Roach pp. 91, 93).
The queen mother, on over half her son's charters before, vanishes from the witness lists (Roach pp. 85, 91, 100-101).
Ælfhere's successor is exiled two years into office (Swanton p. 124; Roach pp. 102, 106). Same year, Abingdon's abbacy goes to Eadwine, brother of Ælfric of Hampshire (Roach p. 101).
A cattle plague sweeps England, with a fever among people (John of Worcester p. 108); also in Wales and Ireland (Newfield 2012 p. 202).
The king besieges Rochester, fails, and ravages the lands of St Andrew's (John of Worcester p. 108); Osbern says Dunstan paid him 100 pounds to stop (Stubbs p. 117).
Hugh Capet, Richard's brother-in-law and former ward, crowned king (Richer 4.12, p. 222). Norman writers say Richard backed him; Richer never names Richard.
Raiders hit Watchet; Goda the Devonshire thegn and many others killed, though more Danes died and the English held the field (Swanton p. 125; John of Worcester pp. 108-109; Byrhtferth, Raine pp. 455-456).
Dunstan dies at Canterbury after taking communion; Æthelgar succeeds for a year and three months (ASC E 988; Osbern, Stubbs pp. 120-126).
In Robert of Torigni's account, Richard married Gunnor in church first, the children covered by a cloak, because canon law barred the son of an unmarried mother (GND VIII.36, p. 269).
Sigeric ordained archbishop and travels to Rome for his pallium (Swanton pp. 125-126).
'ego Ricardus consul' grants estates to the church, with Archbishop Robert and all six suffragan bishops, his sons, his half-brother Rodulf and Gunnor's brother Arfast as witnesses.
Archbishop Sigeric, in Rome for his pallium, visits 23 churches in two days and has a meal with the pope; his party's itinerary lists 79 stops home.
Leo delivers Pope John XV's letters urging peace between Æthelred and Richard I; the king and council agree and send envoys to Rouen.
The fleet raids in the southeast, then Sandwich and Ipswich, then moves on to Maldon (Swanton pp. 126-127).
On Archbishop Sigeric's advice (with Ealdormen Æthelweard and Ælfric, per John of Worcester), the council decides for the first time to pay gafol to the Danes.
Three envoys swear for each side: lasting peace for both rulers and their people, wrongs to be compensated, and neither to receive the other's men or enemies without a sealed letter.
Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, lets the Vikings cross from Northey Island and is killed; Godric flees on his horse and the English break (ASC E, F 991; A 993 [991]; The Battle of Maldon; Byrhtferth, Raine p. 456).
Æthelwine of East Anglia, Ramsey's 'Friend of God,' dies and is buried at Ramsey.
Ships gathered at London under Ælfric, Earl Thored and two bishops; Ælfric warns the raiders and slips away by night; the fleet escapes but one ship; a sea fight with London and East Anglian ships ends in a slaughter whose winner is disputed; Ælfric's ship captured.
Oswald, archbishop of York and bishop of Worcester, dies on a leap day; buried in St Mary's, Worcester.
The raiders sack Bamburgh, then harry both banks of the Humber; a great English army gathers but its commanders Fræna, Godwine and Frithugist flee first.
The king orders Ælfgar blinded; the Chronicle gives no reason.
The king restores Abingdon's liberty, rejects the price Ælfric paid for his brother's abbacy, and blames 'the ignorance of my youth' and his advisers' greed (S 876). Ælfthryth and the king's four sons witness.
Fetched by Bishop Ælfheah and Ealdorman Æthelweard with hostages left at the ships, Olaf is received 'at the bishop's hands,' given royal gifts, and promises never to return in hostility.
Richard pleaded for days; Dudo agreed; after Richard's death, Richard II and Count Rodulf pushed him to finish (Dudo preface, L50-52). Crouch credits Richard II, c. 1020-1025.
Sigeric, without a single coin, gets 90 pounds of silver and 200 mancuses of gold from Bishop Æscwig of Dorchester for 30 hides at Monks Risborough and pays the Danes in full.
Peace with the army; mutual defense against other fleets; lands sheltering raiders declared enemies; merchant ships protected; killings priced; all past harm released; 22,000 pounds of gold and silver paid.
After ravaging Essex, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire on horseback, the army accepts tribute and food, winters at Southampton fed from all Wessex, and is paid 16,000 pounds (levied from all England, per John of Worcester).
Ninety-four ships; the attackers try to break the walls and burn the town and are beaten off by the townspeople with heavy loss.
Sigeric, who first advised paying tribute, dies; buried in the crypt of Christ Church.
Olaf Tryggvason, Sweyn Forkbeard and Olof Skötkonung strike their first coins on the model of the Crux type; Sweyn's names Godwine, 'moneyer among the Danes.'
Olaf sails home from Southampton, displaces Earl Haakon (who ruled under Sweyn's loose overlordship), and is chosen king of all Norway at the Thing in Trondheim (Heimskringla ch. 55-57).
The 'haired star' appears; the king and council choose Ælfric, bishop of Wiltshire (Ramsbury), as archbishop of Canterbury; consecrated 996.
Asked by Rodulf, Richard named 'the one who bears my name,' with his great men's approval; the other sons did homage and received land (Dudo [60], L932).
Died in his early sixties after more than fifty years; buried 'at the door by the gutters' of the Holy Trinity (Dudo [60]); Richer: 'the duke of the pirates, died of minor apoplexy' (4.108, p. 436).
Peasants across Normandy held local assemblies, each sending two envoys to a central assembly, to use the woods and waters by their own laws. Count Rodulf seized the envoys, cut off their hands and feet and sent them home; the assemblies dissolved.
The army raided Cornwall, Wales and Devon, burned Watchet, came round Penwith's Tail and up the Tamar to Lydford, burned Ordulf's minster at Tavistock and carried 'indescribable war-booty' to its ships; it wintered there (John of Worcester).
The army went up the Frome into Dorset; English forces gathered but always retreated before battle; the raiders lay on Wight and 'ate out of Hampshire and of Sussex'.
The army came up the Medway to Rochester; the men of Kent fought and fled; the Danes rode across west Kent. The king and council ordered a ship-army and land-army, but delay 'from day to day' (C: 'the judges delayed') meant it achieved nothing 'except the people's labour, and wasting money, and the emboldening of their enemies.'
Æthelred's mother died; in 1002 her estate at Æthelingadene went to her foundation at Wherwell for her soul (S 904).
The raiding fleet left England for Normandy for the summer of 1000; John of Worcester has it return to Exeter in 1001.
The king ravaged 'very nearly all' of Cumberland; his ships went out round Chester but could not meet him (John of Worcester: the winds) and ravaged 'Mon', probably the Isle of Man.
Pallig joined the raiders in Devon with his ships, despite his pledges and the king's gifts; Exeter's walls held; the high-reeve Kola and reeve Eadsige were routed at Pinhoe; Pinhoe and Clyst burned; the raiders went on to Wight unopposed.
The king gave the Shaftesbury nuns the monastery and estate of Bradford-on-Avon as an 'impenetrable refuge' for them and the relics of Edward the Martyr against the Danes.
The men of Hampshire fought the raiders at Æthelingadene (East or West Dean, Sussex); two of the king's high-reeves, a bishop's thegn and Bishop Ælfsige's son among 81 English dead; the Danes held the field.
1002 to 1016
Æthelred married Emma, daughter of Richard the Fearless and sister of Richard II of Normandy, who took the English name Ælfgifu; she first witnesses as 'Ælfgifu conlaterana regis' (S 902, after May 1002).
The king and council agreed to pay tax and provisions; Leofsige arranged a truce and 24,000 pounds were paid; he then killed Æfic, the king's high-reeve, and was banished, his lands sold.
Emma arrived in England; F names her 'Ymma' with 'Ælfgiua' interlined. No source dates the wedding itself.
Æthelred confirmed Wherwell's 70 hides and granted the 60 hides at Æthelingadene that had been his mother's, 'pro remedio animae' of Edgar and Ælfthryth.
In a grant of Little Haseley to the thegn Godwine for 30 mancuses, the new queen signs 'Ego Ælfgifu conlaterana regis consensi', after the king and both archbishops and before Æthelstan, the king's eldest son.
Emma's first attestation as queen and Wulfstan's first as archbishop of York; Keynes and Roach (after Wilcox) suggest the order to kill the Danes may have been agreed here.
The king and his councillors decree that 'all the Danish men who were among the English' be killed on a fixed day, because a plot had been 'made known' to the king.
Danes in English towns killed on the king's order; at Oxford they barricaded themselves in St Frideswide's and the townspeople burned it.
A very great army from Wiltshire and Hampshire came close enough to see the Danes; Ælfric 'took to his old tricks', pretended to be ill and retched; the army broke up (Swanton p. 135).
Sweyn Forkbeard's army took Exeter 'through the French churl Hugh whom the Lady had set as her reeve' and took great booty (Swanton p. 135); the wall broken from the east gate to the west (John of Worcester).
A new penny shows the king in helmet and armour (Roach p. 202). Godwine, Goldus and Sæwine, formerly of Wilton, strike it at Salisbury (VCH Wilts. 6 pp. 51-53).
Sweyn led his army into Wilton, raided and burned it, went to Salisbury and back to his 'wave-stallions' (Swanton p. 135). Salisbury not recorded as attacked (VCH Wilts. 6).
Sweyn came with his fleet to Norwich and raided and burned it; Ulfcytel, with no time to gather an army, bought peace with the councillors of East Anglia (Swanton p. 135).
Under cover of the truce the Danes went to Thetford, spent one night, burned it; in the morning Ulfcytel attacked; great slaughter on both sides; the East Anglian leaders killed; the Danes 'never met with harder hand-play in England' (Swanton pp. 135-136 and n. 1).
Æthelred restores St Frideswide's lands and title, recounting the 1002 decree and the burning of the church; witnessed by Emma 'consecrated to the royal bed'.
Ælfric's homily for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost gains the story of Theodosius I's penance for the massacre at Thessalonica; possibly a critique of 1002 (Clayton).
A Dane buys land near Oxford for a pound of silver paid in gold, toward the tribute.
After Edmund Ironside's death, the Danish king Cnut ruled England.
1042 to 1065
Edward returned from twenty-five years of exile in Normandy to take the throne.
After a violent incident at Dover involving Eustace of Boulogne, Edward drove Godwine and his sons out of England.
Godwine and Harold came back with ships and men, and Edward had to restore them.
Abbot Ailward finds the body undecayed, cuts it to fit, blood gushes (the story goes); the remains are placed on the altar in a shrine Edgar had given; the abbot dies of a broken neck.
Godwine died and Harold inherited the earldom of Wessex.
Harold crossed the Channel, ended up in Norman hands, campaigned with William in Brittany, and, by the Norman account, swore an oath on relics to support William's claim.
1066
Harald Hardrada and Tostig beat the northern earls Edwin and Morcar outside York.
A full day's fighting on a ridge seven miles from Hastings. Harold died with his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine, and the English army broke.
Harold covered roughly 185 miles in four days and destroyed the Norwegian army. Harald Hardrada and Tostig both died.
Edward died at Westminster, days after his new abbey was consecrated. On his deathbed he is said to have commended the kingdom to Harold.
A comet was seen across Europe and recorded in the English chronicles. It is on the Bayeux Tapestry.
Harold was crowned the day after Edward died, and the same day Edward was buried.
William's fleet crossed and landed unopposed, three days after Stamford Bridge.
William was crowned on Christmas Day. The guards outside, hearing the shouting inside, thought it was an attack and set fire to nearby houses.
1067 to 1072
After repeated northern revolts, William systematically destroyed villages, livestock, and food stores across Yorkshire and beyond.
Papal legates deposed Stigand, and Lanfranc of Bec became Archbishop of Canterbury.
The last organized English resistance, in the fens around Ely, was broken.
1073 to 1087
Commissioners recorded who held every piece of land, what it was worth, and what it had been worth in 1066.
The major landholders of England swore allegiance directly to William, over the heads of their own lords.
William died of an injury sustained on campaign in France. His funeral at Caen was interrupted by a man claiming the church was built on his stolen land, and the body reportedly would not fit the stone coffin.
After 1087
Thomas Hearne prints the poem as prose in his edition of John of Glastonbury, from a copy made by the Cotton under-librarian John Elphinston (Hearne vol. 1 p. li; vol. 2 p. 570).
Fire in the Cotton library's house; books thrown from the windows; the Maldon leaves in Otho A. xii burn (Report 1732; Crow p. ix).
Taking down the old choir wall, workmen open seven benefactors' cells; Byrhtnoth's has no head, as Bentham predicted; his height estimated at 6 ft 9 in (Hunter) or 6 ft 6-7 in (Bentham).