The Viking Age & the Unification of England

UK History

Chapter 3 · The Viking Age & the Unification of England

Chapter 2 left England as a set of separate English kingdoms. This chapter covers the response to Viking invasion, first under Alfred and then under Æthelstan, who is often called the first king of England. The sources are two reference articles, one on each king. I could not retrieve a source on the Viking raids and settlement themselves, so the chapter does not describe them, and it says where that leaves gaps.

Alfred the Great

Alfred was King of the West Saxons from 871 to about 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886 to 899. He was born between 847 and 849 in Wantage, Berkshire, and died on 26 October 899.

Measure	What the source says
Battle of Edington, 878	Alfred defeats the Vikings and forces their leader, Guthrum, to convert to Christianity.
The Danelaw	Established through the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon and Viking territories.
Burghal system	A network of 33 fortified towns spaced roughly 30 km apart for rapid defense.
Military reforms	An expanded fyrd (militia) and a fleet of warships designed with classical influences.
Learning and law	A court school for nobles and commoners; an extensive law code drawing on earlier laws; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle commissioned; Latin works translated into Old English.

What This Source Does Not Give It gives no date for the treaty and does not describe the Danelaw's boundaries. It says that contemporaries viewed Viking raids as divine punishment, and that Alfred's contemporary Asser noted many nobles resisted the fiscal demands of the burghal system. I did not find how strong that resistance was or how the system was paid for. It also says "the Great" gained popularity as an epithet only from the sixteenth century onward.

Æthelstan

Æthelstan ruled as King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to 939. He was crowned on 4 September 925 at Kingston upon Thames.

927: York and Eamont Bridge

He conquered York, described as the last Viking kingdom, and became the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of all England. That year at Eamont Bridge, Scottish, Welsh and other British rulers submitted to his overlordship.

937: Brunanburh

He defeated a coalition of Scots, Vikings and Britons at the Battle of Brunanburh, which secured his prestige across Britain and Europe. I did not find where the battle took place or the number of troops.

Government

The source says he created England's most centralized government to date, issued more legal texts than any other tenth-century English king, focused on robbery and social order, and issued detailed charters between 928 and 935. He also summoned distant rulers to his councils.

"The First King of England" Is a Judgment Modern historians regard him as the first king of England, though some scholars dispute that description. The source does not say why they dispute it, and I did not find out. The historian Charles Insley is quoted as saying his hegemony was "perhaps not attained again...until Edward I," which suggests the unity was fragile, not lasting. I report the disagreement and take no side.

Reading Alfred and Æthelstan Together

Alfred's defense in the south, and Æthelstan's conquest of York fifty years later, are the two steps the outline links to unification. The source on Æthelstan says scholars such as Frank Stenton and Simon Keynes rank him among England's greatest monarchs, comparable to Alfred. He died on 27 October 939 at Gloucester and was buried at Malmesbury Abbey. That the same one hundred years covers the burghal system and a king ruling as "King of the English" is a fact the sources support, but the connection between the two is my reading, and neither source spells it out.

What I Did Not Verify I could not retrieve the source on the Viking Age in England, so the outline's early events are not covered: the first raids, the arrival of the Great Heathen Army, and the Battle of Ashdown. Also missing are the details of the Danelaw, the events between 899 and 924, and the reigns of Alfred's immediate successors, which the chapter cannot fill. Cnut and the Danish kings, mentioned in the outline for later, are not covered.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Set out Alfred's military and cultural measures from the chapter in two lists, and name one the source describes only in outline.

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Exercise 2

A student writes "Æthelstan unified England in 927 and it stayed unified." Use the chapter to qualify it.

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Exercise 3

Say what the chapter's sources cannot tell you about the Viking invasions themselves, and what source you would look for.

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Quick Reference

Alfred: reigned 871 to 899; Edington 878; Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum; 33 burhs about 30 km apart
Æthelstan: crowned 4 September 925; King of the English 927 to 939; died 27 October 939
927: York conquered; submissions at Eamont Bridge; 937: Brunanburh
Dispute: "first king of England" is disputed by some scholars; his hegemony may have been fragile
Not covered: the raids, the Great Heathen Army, the Danelaw's borders, 899 to 924