WWW.THECOLLECTOR.COM
Why Did the Vikings Begin Invading England?
The start of Viking raids in England, and the start of the Viking Age more generally, is usually dated to 793 CE when the Vikings sacked the holy island of Lindisfarne. This initiated centuries of raiding, followed by invading, with Vikings claiming English territory and creating areas of Danelaw. But what happened at the end of the 8th century that caused the Vikings to start their aggressive raids? Why was England consistently targeted for centuries? And why did the age of Viking raiding come to an end?Who Were the Vikings and When Was the Viking Age?Viking longship depicted on a runestone from Tjngvide, Gotland, c. 800-1100. Source: Wikimedia CommonsToday, Viking is often used as a general term for the people from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark between the 8th and 11th centuries and their descendants who settled in places like Iceland and Greenland. But these people never referred to themselves as Vikings. Instead, they would have called themselves Danes, Swedes, or another ethnic appellation. It is probably more accurate to call them Northmen, a term used by neighboring communities to refer to these men who came from the North.The word Vikingr in Old Norse refers to pirates. Many Northmen were pirates who raided neighbors for their wealth, but not all. There were also farmers, traders, and craftsmen. But many neighboring peoples, like those of England, principally had contact with the Northmen through their piratical raiding activity, so they thought of them as Vikings, while referring to them by a variety of terms including Northmen, Danes, and Vikings.The Vikings were also not the only pirates of their day. The Swedes themselves complained of Estonian Vikings who attacked their settlements, and Umayyad pirates were also busy raiding Spain in the 8th century.So, when we refer to the Viking Age, we are referring to a period during which some Northmen raided their neighbors, which primarily happened between 750 and 1066 CE.Impact of Climate ChangeSami people living in harsh northern conditions in Norway/Sweden, c. 1900-1920. Source: Wikimedia CommonsA variety of contributing factors led the Northmen to look beyond their own territory for resources and to the start of Viking raids. Changing population density patterns in Viking territories is believed to have been an important factor in the century or so preceding the start of the raids. Most scholars agree that good harvests in the 8th century saw populations increase. This placed pressure on resources, encouraging people to look outward for new opportunities and resources, even though the region continued to be sparsely populated at the time.Some scholars suggest that the impact of this change was intensified because it followed a period of hardship caused by a volcanic winter that impacted much of the northern hemisphere in 536 CE, known by some scholars as the worst year to be alive. It is believed that in 536, three volcanoes erupted around the same time causing an extended period of low temperatures, which is traceable through dendrochronology and ice cores. While the effects were at their worst in 536 CE, with Byzantine, Chinese, and Irish authors recording a year when the sun shone from behind a haze and gave no warmth and extended frosts impacted harvests and led to famine, the impact could have lasted decades.Reconstructed Viking Age longhouse excavated at Borg, the Lofoten Islands, Norway. Source: The Lofotr Viking Museum, BstadScientists believe that in Scandinavia, where conditions are already challenging, surface temperatures cooled by around 3 C (37.4 F) overall and around 6.9 C (44.42 F) during the growing season. There was also a significant reduction in rainfall during the growing season, reducing by 15-20 mm (0.59-0.78 inches) per month. This resulted in significant hardship and population decline. Archaeological excavations show that crops failed, and farms were abandoned. The population may have dropped by as much as 50 percent.However, archaeologists note that while the population was sparse, many fortifications were constructed at the time, even though the Vikings had no known external invaders. This suggests that there may have been significant infighting among the Vikings for scarce resources.Overall, the relatively rapid fluctuation in population caused by climate factors in a part of the world that is already on the edge of where human settlements can thrive placed pressure on resources, and people had to start looking outward for ways to sustain themselves.Rise of a Warrior EliteChess piece made of walrus ivory, depicting a Viking berserker, via National Museums Scotland, EdinburghArchaeologists suggest that infighting among the Vikings for resources led to the rise of a warrior elite class, which would eventually make the formation of raiding parties possible.The structure of Viking society was notably different from that of many of their neighbors. At this time, Anglo-Saxon England was divided into Christian kingdoms focused on a king and a small elite class who owned most of the countrys land. This land was worked by peasants and serfs living a subsistence lifestyle. In contrast, the Vikings were organized into relatively small communities led by a local chief. Within the community, there would be scores of relatively wealthy landowners who had prosperous farms worked by family members, paid hands, and slaves.Construction and oar details from a reconstructed Viking ship. Source: Museum of the Viking Age, NorwayRaised above subsistence, many Viking landowners had the wealth to invest in ships and weapons and the time to spend several months a year away from home as part of relatively egalitarian raiding parties. A story from the Frankish Annales has a band of Danish Vikings arriving in Frankish lands. When the Frankish emissary asks to see the Viking leader, the Vikings respond that they are all leaders.This all seems to have culminated in a practice recorded in the sagas of leaders, and probably other wealthy landowners, sending their younger sons away from home to reduce inheritance conflicts. But these younger sons were equipped with ships and resources to make their way in the world as raiders, traders, or explorers. According to the sagas, this is what the legendary chief Ragnar Lodbrok did with his younger sons, including Bjorn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless.These Vikings, who started to look outward, did not just restrict their activity to raiding. They also settled Iceland, Greenland, and Orkney, claimed territories in England, Ireland, and France, worked as mercenaries in the Byzantine Varangian guard, and established communities and trade routes in the east as far away as parts of Russia.Enabling TechnologyA manuscript depiction of Danes landing from ships, from MS M.736 fol. 9v, c. 12th century. Source: Morgan Library, New YorkScholars also point to changing Viking ship technology in the 7th and 8th centuries that allowed them to travel further, bringing them into contact with new, wealthy cultures. The evidence suggests that sails were adopted in the 7th century CE, allowing the Vikings to travel across larger bodies of open water. This saw them make it across the Balkan Sea in the 8th century, to the British Isles in the 9th century, to Iceland and Greenland by the 10th century, and even reach the Americas by the start of the 11th century.Nevertheless, the Vikings still favored shallow ships with a maximum draught of less than a meter. This design was useful for sailing in shallow waters close to shore and up the rivers and fjords that characterize much of Scandinavias coastline but provided little protection in the open sea. Nevertheless, this helped the Vikings in their raiding activity, such as when they sailed up the Seine and launched a surprise attack on a relatively unprepared Paris.Interestingly, we do not know how the Vikings navigated. They have left no evidence that they used maps or navigational equipment akin to sextants to measure latitude. Nevertheless, they were clearly some of the most skilled navigators of the age.OpportunityGravestone marker from Lindisfarne showing men attacking with Viking-style swords, c. 900. Source: WikidataWhen the Vikings landed in England at the end of the 8th century, they were probably surprised to find monasteries, which were poorly fortified buildings filled with extravagant riches. At the time, the local Christians did not see the need to fortify their monasteries, since it would be sacrilege to steal from one.Consequently, early raids were probably very successful. Combined with the unpreparedness of their victims, the evidence also suggests that the Vikings were much bigger and stronger than their southern neighbors, with some warriors measuring six feet tall. They may have been almost ten centimeters (4 inches) taller than the English and the French on average. With a better diet based on proteins rather than grains, they were probably stronger.Along with gold and silver, one of the major commodities that the Vikings took from England to trade was slaves. Again, when they started raiding, the Anglo-Saxons must have seemed like easy pickings, even though the small size of Viking ships limited the number of slaves they could take on any particular raid. When they raided Lindisfarne in 793, the Vikings reportedly had just three ships, so maybe took a dozen slaves. But when Paris was attacked around 50 years later, the Vikings reportedly had 120 ships.Many slaves were taken back to Viking lands and sold to locals, but bigger slave trades soon developed. Written records suggest major slave markets at Hebedy, in the south of Denmark, and at Boghar on the Volga River in the east. Historians now believe that slaves were the main commodity traded by the Vikings.From Raiding to InvadingManuscript image showing Sweyn Forkbeard riding a blue horse battling the Anglo-Saxon King Aethelred the Unready, MS EE 3.59, fol. 4r, c. 13th century. Source: Cambridge University LibrariesGroups of Vikings continued to raid England until the end of the Viking Age, but the dynamic between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons living in England changed in the second half of the 9th century. It started with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in 866, reportedly led by the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok to avenge his death.Whatever the reason for their arrival, the Vikings came with a relatively large force of 3,000 Vikings, as evidenced by large Viking camps in Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, and Yorkshire. This time they werent just after slaves and gold, they claimed territory. By 871, they had defeated the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia, leaving only Wessex undefeated. This led King Alfred of Wessex to negotiate a peace settlement with the Vikings, giving them control of all the land in England north and east of an imaginary line running from east London to Chester. These territories were considered to be governed by Danelaw, and their most famous settlement was Jorvik, now known as York.Bodies excavated at St John College, Oxford. Source: Museum of OxfordThe Vikings settled and farmed, but raids continued. For example, in response to increased raiding, in 1002 CE King Aethelred ordered the Saint Brices Day Massacre of all Danes in the area. It is unclear who all the Danes were and whether this included peaceful settlers, women, and children but there is evidence that there was a massacre. A royal charter from 1004 CE remarks on the most just extermination of the Vikings at Oxford. It describes the rebuilding of the local church after it was burned down to kill the Danes taking shelter inside.In 2008, archaeologists discovered the bodies of 37 people under St Johns College, Oxford, believed to be victims of the massacre. The bodies include 35 males aged 16 and 25 and two children. Chemical analysis suggests that they were Vikings, and the bodies have been dated to c. 960-1020. The bodies were unarmed and showed no defensive wounds, with most of the wounds on their backs, suggesting that they were fleeing.Of course, the Vikings retaliated, eventually conquering Wessex and claiming kingship of all England for a brief period at the start of the 11th century. The Vikings had become part of the political and social landscape of England.Why Did Viking Raids End?Viking Age Christian cross found at Lund, Sweden. Source: Wikimedia CommonsSo, why did Viking raids eventually stop by the end of the 11th century? Again, several factors played a role. First, the communities that the Vikings preyed upon learned to better defend themselves. They started to fortify their monasteries and cities and moved some to less vulnerable inland locations. Smaller kingdoms also solidified into larger ones under the rule of a single king. They gathered around them a permanent professional army that was better able to combat the Viking threat. While the Vikings were big, tall, strong, ferocious, and experienced warriors, raiding and fighting was only ever a part-time job.The Vikings also changed, largely due to the adoption of Christianity in the 10th and 11th centuries. Conversion probably started as a necessary political demonstration to form alliances with powerful neighbors, such as the Holy Roman Empire, who would only form alliances with other Christians. But over time, Christianity suited the Viking leaders who were also expanding their territories into larger kingdoms. Olaf Tryggvason can be seen using Christianity to consolidate his power across Norway at the start of the 11th century.King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, by Peter Arbo, 1860. Source: Norse-Mythology.orgChristianity supported the idea of the divine right to kingship and loyalty. This allowed the powerful Viking rulers to consolidate their power without the need for common consent from wealthy Viking landowners. The story of the life of Snorri Sturluson shows that this was a consistent issue for Viking kings. There were also fewer wealthy landowners as wealth became concentrated in the hands of a few. This resulted in large numbers of landless men, tied to leased land, paying rent and fees while supporting their families. Consequently, there were fewer men available to launch raids.Furthermore, Christians raiding and enslaving fellow Christians did not comply with the tenets of Christianity. For example, in the Bjarnar Saga Htdlakappa, King Olaf tells Bjorn that he wants him to give up raiding, saying, Though you feel it suits you well, Gods law is often violated. The Vikings had to look for new excuses to attack their neighbors, such as the Church-sanctified Northern Crusade against the Wendish pagans in the Baltic and the Livonian Crusade into Latvia and Estonia in the 12th century.Basically, as the Vikings integrated into the Christian world and began to look more like their Christian neighbors, three centuries of Viking raids came to an end, and with them, the Viking Age.
0 التعليقات 0 المشاركات 16 مشاهدة