Please enter your number below.The official website for BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed and BBC World Histories MagazineIt's more than 1,000 years since Swein Forkbeard employed superior military strength and tactical ability to supplant the descendants of Alfred the Great. After a brief campaign, he secured the submission of all the English people apart from the inhabitants of London. The Anglo-Saxons take control. English valour and moral courage lie at the heart of the poet’s message, but the military prowess of the “fierce” Vikings is never concealed.Although the poem did not name any of the hostile army, the After a period of relative peace, Vikings had begun again to attack English shores before Swein and Olaf arrived in 991. Was it this Calvinist regime, one wonders, which frowned so severely on all superstition, that banished from the Island its folk music? Sarah Foot traces Swein's journey from foreign adventurer to first Viking king of England...Around one thousand years ago, the king of Denmark (and lord also over Norway and Sweden) invaded England with a large fleet. Jump to: navigation, search. The plunder he gathered in England helped to bolster both his resources and his reputation, strengthening his position on both sides of the North Sea.Defeated at Maldon, the English paid tribute to the Danes.
Danes (“the hateful visitors”) appear as arrogant in their demand for tribute before a blow has been struck; they use guile to gain ground on the English side of the causeway. If you subscribe to BBC History Magazine Print or Digital Editions then you can unlock 10 years’ worth of archived history material fully searchable by Topic, Location, Period and Person. The character of the Reformation which reached Jersey was Continental, though the actual Edict of 1547 naturally emanated from the English King. But a close connection between Swein and Thorkell cannot be proven, and other considerations motivated the Danish king, including the desire to now conquer England.From Sandwich, Swein sailed quickly round East Anglia, into the mouth of the Humber and along the Trent until he reached Gainsborough. St Brelade's Church - Not built in 1111AD as some guidebooks claim .
The innumerable wayside crosses were hewn down as being idolatrous. He might (as one source maintained) have wanted to punish Thorkell for changing sides. And for all this truce and tribute, they journeyed none the less in bands everywhere, and harried our wretched people and plundered and killed them.”From an English perspective, the nadir of Thorkell’s campaign came in 1012 following the fall of the city of Canterbury when, on 19 April, his army shamefully put to death Ælfheah, archbishop of Canterbury.
The dates given in some guidebooks (St Brelade's 1111, St Martin's 1116, St Clement's 1117 etc) are derived from an impudent forgery. So it was that the men of London also submitted for fear of what he would do to them. How could he have reversed the victory Alfred had won over the ninth-century Vikings, and reduced England to a subject realm within a Scandinavian empire?Determining that the “grim game of battle” would arbitrate between them before the English would pay tribute, Byrhtnoth ordered his men to pick up their shields and walk to stand on the edge of the river, where the flood tide flowed, separating the two forces. There seems to be a problem, please try again. The story of Swein’s conquest of England goes back to the AD 990s, to one of the most celebrated episodes in early English military history, reported laconically in the Facing them on the other shore stood the ranks of the English army led by the Ealdorman of Essex, Byrhtnoth. Then he allowed his army to do whatever damage it would, intending to subdue the English by fear. They had met with no concerted resistance, and though Ethelred’s kingdom was the richest of the English dominions, its success against the invaders was certainly not guaranteed. This diplomatic victory gave Swein a power base from which to attack Thorkell and Æthelred in the south.Having provisioned his army, and equipped it with horses, Swein left his son Cnut in charge in Northumbria and crossed Watling Street. The chantry chapels were turned into cottages or allowed to fall into ruins.
And Swein demanded full payment and provisions for his army that winter.
Period In the aftermath of the archbishop’s martyrdom, Thorkell and 45 ships from his army changed sides to ally with Æthelred, promising to defend England.In 1013, King Swein arrived with his fleet at Sandwich in Kent. Events
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