sourced story
865 CEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Great Heathen Army lands in England

A coalition force, not a raiding party, arrives to conquer rather than plunder

On the timeline · around 865 CE · Conquest and SettlementThe First RaidsConquest and SettlementThe Great Heathen Army lands in England845 CE850 CE855 CE860 CE865 CE870 CE875 CE880 CE

Quick facts

Landing site
Isle of Thanet, Kent
Date
865 CE
Named leaders
Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan, Ubbe
Duration of campaign
14 years (865-878)

What happened

Late in 865 a large combined Scandinavian force, remembered as the Great Heathen Army, landed on the Isle of Thanet in Kent. Unlike earlier hit-and-run raids, this army meant to conquer territory, and English chroniclers named its leaders as sons of the semi-legendary Ragnar Lothbrok, including Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan, and Ubbe, said to be seeking revenge for their father's death at an English king's hands. The Vikings extracted a tribute payment from Kent and then broke the truce, before wintering in East Anglia and marching on Northumbria's capital, York, by late 866.

Why it matters

Over the following 14 years this army overran three of England's four kingdoms in turn, East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, killing or exiling their kings and leaving only Wessex standing. It set up the confrontation with Alfred the Great that would eventually split England between Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule.

How we know

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tracks the army's movements year by year; its size is not given a firm number in any surviving source, though chroniclers described it as unusually large.

Sources

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