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This page is about historical events in Anglo-Saxon England. For Anglo-Saxon culture and society, see Anglo-Saxons. For the academic journal, see Anglo-Saxon England (journal).

Anglo-Saxon England
c.450–1066
Britain around the year 540. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms' names are coloured red. Britonnic kingdoms' names are coloured black.
Common languages	Old English
Demonym(s)	Anglo-Saxon, Angle, Saxon
History
• Start of Anglo-Saxon settlement	c.450
• Various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms successfully established	6th century
• Battle of Hastings	1066

Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from soon after the end of Roman Britain until the Norman Conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan (r. 927–939). It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway in the 11th century.

The Anglo-Saxons migrated to Britain (Pretanī, Prydain) from mainland northwestern Europe after the Roman Empire withdrawal from the isle at the beginning of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon history thus begins during the period of sub-Roman Britain following the end of Roman control, and traces the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th and 6th centuries (conventionally identified as seven main kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex); their Christianisation during the 7th century; the threat of Viking invasions and Danish settlers; the gradual unification of England under the Wessex hegemony during the 9th and 10th centuries; and ending with the Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066.

The Normans persecuted the Anglo-Saxons and overthrew their ruling class to substitute their own leaders for the purposes of overseeing and ruling England. However, Anglo-Saxon identity survived beyond the Norman Conquest, came to be known as Englishry under Norman rule, and through social and cultural integration with Romano-British Celts, Danes and Normans became the modern English people.

Etymology

Bede completed his book Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in around 731. Thus, the term for English people (Latin: gens Anglorum; Old English: Angelcynn) was in use by then to distinguish Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent (Old Saxony in Northern Germany). The concept of "Englishness" only developed very slowly.

Background

Further information: End of Roman rule in Britain and Sub-Roman Britain

It was quite common for Rome to swell its legions with troops recruited from the German homelands. This practice also extended to the army serving in Britain, and graves of these mercenaries, along with their families, can be identified in the Roman cemeteries of the period.

Roman Britain was already in decline before the barbarian invasions, which were too late to be the sole cause of the collapse. Many villas and towns were empty by the late fourth century.

In the fourth century, invasions of the Western Empire gradually weakened it and started the long process of disintegration. Military manpower in Britain declined as troops were successively withdrawn to meet Continental emergencies, but it was still sufficient to meet all but the most serious threats, and there were long periods of peace. The province's defences were overrun by Scotti of Ireland, Picts of northern Scotland and Continental Saxons in the so-called Barbarian Conspiracy of 367, but order was quickly restored. In 382 Magnus Maximus defeated another invasion by Picts and Scotti, but in the following year he led an army to Gaul for a bid to become emperor. There were further troop withdrawals in the 390s and the last major import of coins to pay the troops was in around 400, after which the army was not paid. This caused a revolt in 404, and in 407 Constantine III took troops from Britain to Gaul to support his attempt to make himself emperor. His evacuation of most of the Saxon Shore defences led to a collapse of Roman maritime control, leaving both the British and Gaulish coasts open to attack.

In the late first century, there was no distinction between the Britons in different areas, apart from some living under Roman rule and some not. By the time that the Romans left, the many small groups beyond the Antonine Wall had merged into a federation called the Picts, and by the eighth century they had their own form of Gaelic. In 400 there was no England and Scotland, but the Roman frontier was crucial in determining Britain's later political geography. The various peoples who migrated across the North Sea and the Channel did not bring their English identity with them. This only developed later, and included Britons who abandoned their language and culture in favour of that the immigrants.

Unlike in Continental Europe, Roman culture was almost wholly destroyed in England. The historian Michael E. Jones argues that it is wrong to attribute the destruction to the Anglo-Saxons, and that it was due to internal failings before the invasions, whereas Thomas Charles-Edwards thinks that on the Continent the civilian population was unable to put up serious resistance, so that the invaders took over intact institutions, whereas the long drawn out British resistance and refusal of the elite to accept Anglo-Saxon overlordship resulted in an English culture which owed little or nothing to the Romano-British.

Charles-Edwards comments that: "The end of Roman imperial power in Britain was far more than the substitution of one set of powerful men in place of another. The entire political order and material culture were transformed. However, the description of England as Anglo-Saxon belongs to a later period.

The end of Roman Britain is dated by most historians either the usurpation of Constantine III in c.407 or the letter the Roman Emperor Honorius is said to have sent to the Britons in 410 to look to their own defences, although some historians argue that it was addressed to the people of Bruttium in Italy. The historian Nicholas Higham argues that it was addressed to the British, who had probably appealed to him in the expectation that legitimate Roman rule would be restored as it had been after all previous rebellions.

The collapse of Roman rule forced the Britons to take charge of their own defence. At first, they employed a Saxon force settled on the east coast to defend them against the Picts and the Irish, but when this arrangement broke down the Saxons overran a large area. The British fought back and by the end of the fifth century had recovered some of the lost land. The result was a militarisation of British society, and the Britons continued to challenge the Anglo-Saxon domination of England until 634, while the full conquest of Romans Britain was not completed until Edward I conquered Wales in 1282.

The reasons for the collapse of Roman authority are disputed and some archaeologists deny that contemporary literary sources have any value, but where these overlap they are mutually consistent, and events are vividly described. No coins were minted in Britain after around 326, apart from those issued by usurpers. The supply of small coins from the Continent declined after around 392 and gold coins a decade later. Coin use seems to have ended abruptly around 410.

Early settlement (c.450-c.500)

Further information: Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

The start of the Anglo-Saxon period is commonly dated by historians to c.450. If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which eventually merged to become England were founded when small fleets of three or five ships of invaders arrived at various points around the coast of England to fight the sub-Roman British, and conquered their lands.

The historian Peter Hunter Blair expounded what is now regarded as the traditional view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain. He suggested a mass immigration, with the incomers fighting and driving the sub-Roman Britons off their land and into the western extremities of the islands, and into the Breton and Iberian peninsulas. This view is based on sources such as Bede, who mentions the Britons being slaughtered or going into "perpetual servitude".

Discussions and analysis still continue on the size of the migration, and whether it was a small elite band of Anglo-Saxons who came in and took over the running of the country, or a mass migration of peoples who overwhelmed the Britons.

Writing in 1992 Higham comments that the "Germanist" view of large-scale Anglo-Saxon immigration still has a surprisingly large following among scholars. He argues that the view is no longer credible in view of the evidence from aerial photography of a population of more than three millions in Roman Britain, which meant that immigration on a sufficiently large scale across the North Sea was no longer credible.

An emerging view is that two scenarios could have co-occurred, with large-scale migration and demographic change in the core areas of the settlement and elite dominance in peripheral regions.

According to Gildas, initial vigorous British resistance was led by a man called Ambrosius Aurelianus, from which time victory fluctuated between the two peoples. Gildas records a "final" victory of the Britons at the Battle of Mount Badon in c. 500, and this might mark a point at which Anglo-Saxon migration was temporarily stemmed. Gildas said that this battle was "forty-four years and one month" after the arrival of the Saxons, and was also the year of his birth. He said that a time of great prosperity followed. But, despite the lull, the Anglo-Saxons took control of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and part of Yorkshire; while the West Saxons founded a kingdom in Hampshire under the leadership of Cerdic, around 520. However, it was to be 50 years before the Anglo-Saxons began further major advances. In the intervening years the Britons exhausted themselves with civil war, internal disputes, and general unrest, which was the inspiration behind Gildas's book De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain).

The Anglo-Saxons under Ceawlin, king of Wessex, had a major victory against the Britons at the Battle of Dyrham in 577, taking taking Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath and cutting off the Britons of Wales from those of Dumnonia (the modern Devon and Cornwall). This expansion of Wessex ended abruptly when the Anglo-Saxons started fighting among themselves and resulted in Ceawlin retreating to his original territory. He was then replaced by Ceol (who was possibly his nephew). Ceawlin was killed the following year, but the annals do not specify by whom.

Literary evidence such as the writings of Saint Patrick and Gildas shows that Roman culture and the Latin language remained strong among the British into the sixth century.

Early kingdoms (7th and 8th centuries)

Southern Britain in AD 600 after the Anglo-Saxon settlement, showing division into multiple petty kingdoms

Anglo-Saxon and British kingdoms c. 800

The medieval historian Henry of Huntingdon conceived the idea that seventh and eighth century England was divided into seven kingdoms, which he called the Heptarchy, composed of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex, Essex, Kent and Sussex. The scheme is still influential in ideas of early Anglo-Saxon history even though it is a gross over-simplification.

At the end of the 6th century the most powerful ruler in England was Æthelberht of Kent, whose lands extended north to the River Humber.{{sfn|Bede|1994|pp=25-26 (I.25) In the early years of the 7th century, Kent and East Anglia were the leading English kingdoms. After the death of Æthelberht in 616, Rædwald of East Anglia became the most powerful leader south of the Humber.

Silver coin of Aldfrith of Northumbria (686–705). OBVERSE: +AldFRIdUS, pellet-in-annulet; REVERSE: Lion with forked tail standing left

Following the death of Æthelfrith of Northumbria, Rædwald provided military assistance to the Deiran Edwin in his struggle to take over the two dynasties of Deira and Bernicia in the unified kingdom of Northumbria. Upon the death of Rædwald, Edwin was able to pursue a grand plan to expand Northumbrian power.

The growing strength of Edwin of Northumbria forced the Anglo-Saxon Mercians under Penda into an alliance with the Welsh King Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, and together they invaded Edwin's lands and defeated and killed him at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. In 635, Oswald, a son of Æthelfrith, defeated and killed Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield, but in 642 Penda defeated and killed Oswald in the Battle of Maserfield.

His brother Oswiu was chased to the northern extremes of his kingdom. However, Oswiu killed Penda shortly after, and Mercia spent the rest of the 7th and all of the 8th century fighting the kingdom of Powys. The war reached its climax during the reign of Offa of Mercia, who is remembered for the construction of a 150-mile-long dyke which formed the Wales/England border. It is not clear whether this was a boundary line or a defensive position. The ascendency of the Mercians came to an end in 825, when they were soundly beaten under Beornwulf at the Battle of Ellendun by Egbert of Wessex.

Conversion to Christianity

Further information: Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

Archaeological evidence suggests that the British church was weak in the late fourth century compared with Gaul. Christianity was probably mainly confined to the elite while the peasantry remained mainly pagan.

Christianity had been introduced into the British Isles during the Roman occupation. The early Christian Berber author, Tertullian, writing in the 3rd century, said that "Christianity could even be found in Britain." The Roman Emperor Constantine (306–337), granted official tolerance to Christianity with the Edict of Milan in 313.

Escomb Church, a restored 7th-century Anglo-Saxon church. Church architecture and artefacts provide a useful source of historical information.

It is not entirely clear how many Britons would have been Christian when the pagan Anglo-Saxons arrived. There had been attempts to evangelise the Irish by Pope Celestine I in 431. However, it was Saint Patrick who is credited with converting the Irish en-masse. A Christian Ireland then set about evangelising the rest of the British Isles, and Columba was sent to found a religious community in Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. Then Aidan was sent from Iona to set up his see in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne, between 635 and 651. Hence Northumbria was converted by the Celtic (Irish) church.

In Bede's time the period of Roman rule loomed large. Many Roman buildings still survived and Anglo-Saxon clerics saw their main task as the re-establishment of the Roman church in Britain.

Bede is very uncomplimentary about the indigenous British clergy: in his Historia ecclesiastica he complains of their "unspeakable crimes", and that they did not preach the faith to the Angles or Saxons.{{sfn|Bede|1994|p=36 (I.22) Pope Gregory I sent Augustine in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons, but Bede says the British clergy refused to help Augustine in his mission. Despite Bede's complaints, it is now believed that the Britons played an important role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. On arrival in the south east of England in 597, Augustine was given land by King Æthelberht of Kent to build a church; so in 597 Augustine built the church and founded the See at Canterbury. Æthelberht was baptised by 601, and he then continued with his mission to convert the English. Most of the north and east of England had already been evangelised by the Irish Church. However, Sussex and the Isle of Wight remained mainly pagan until the arrival of Saint Wilfrid, the exiled Archbishop of York, who converted Sussex around 681 and the Isle of Wight in 683.

Whitby Abbey

It remains unclear what "conversion" actually meant. The ecclesiastical writers tended to declare a territory as "converted" merely because the local king had agreed to be baptised, regardless of whether, in reality, he actually adopted Christian practices; and regardless, too, of whether the general population of his kingdom did. When churches were built, they tended to include pagan as well as Christian symbols, evidencing an attempt to reach out to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, rather than demonstrating that they were already converted.

Even after Christianity had been set up in all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, there was friction between the followers of the Roman rites and the Irish rites, particularly over the date on which Easter fell and the way monks cut their hair. In 664 a conference was held at Whitby Abbey (known as the Whitby Synod) to decide the matter; Saint Wilfrid was an advocate for the Roman rites and Bishop Colmán for the Irish rites. Wilfrid's argument won the day and Colmán and his party returned to Ireland in their bitter disappointment. The Roman rites were adopted by the English church.

Viking challenge and the rise of Wessex (9th century)

Map of England in 878 showing the extent of the Danelaw

Between the 8th and 11th centuries, raiders and colonists from Scandinavia, mainly Danish and Norwegian, plundered western Europe, including the British Isles. These raiders came to be known as the Vikings; the name is believed to derive from Scandinavia, where the Vikings originated. The first raids in the British Isles were in the late 8th century, mainly on churches and monasteries (which were seen as centres of wealth).

The walled defence round a burgh. Alfred's capital, Winchester. Saxon and medieval work on Roman foundations.

In the 860s, instead of raids, the Danes mounted a full-scale invasion. In 865, an enlarged army arrived that the Anglo-Saxons described as the Great Heathen Army. This was reinforced in 871 by the Great Summer Army. Within ten years nearly all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell to the invaders: Northumbria in 867, East Anglia in 869, and nearly all of Mercia in 874–77. Kingdoms, centres of learning, archives, and churches all fell before the onslaught from the invading Danes. Only the Kingdom of Wessex was able to survive. In March 878, the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, Alfred, with a few men, built a fortress at Athelney, hidden deep in the marshes of Somerset. He used this as a base from which to harry the Vikings. In May 878 he put together an army formed from the populations of Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, which defeated the Viking army in the Battle of Edington. The Vikings retreated to their stronghold, and Alfred laid siege to it. Ultimately the Danes capitulated, and their leader Guthrum agreed to withdraw from Wessex and to be baptised. The formal ceremony was completed a few days later at Wedmore. There followed a peace treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, which had a variety of provisions, including defining the boundaries of the area to be ruled by the Danes (which became known as the Danelaw) and those of Wessex. The Kingdom of Wessex controlled part of the Midlands and the whole of the South (apart from Cornwall, which was still held by the Britons), while the Danes held East Anglia and the North.

English unification (10th century)

Edgar's coinage

From 874 to 879 the western half of Mercia was ruled by Ceowulf II, who was succeeded by Æthelred as Lord of the Mercians.

When Æthelred died in 911, Æthelflæd succeeded him as "Lady of the Mercians", and in the 910s she and her brother Edward recovered East Anglia and eastern Mercia from Viking rule. Edward and his successors expanded Alfred's network of fortified burhs, a key element of their strategy, enabling them to go on the offensive. When Edward died in 924 he ruled all England south of the Humber. His son, Æthelstan, annexed Northumbria in 927 and thus became the first king of all England. At the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, he defeated an alliance of the Scots, Danes, and Vikings and Strathclyde Britons.

Along with the Britons and the settled Danes, some of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms disliked being ruled by Wessex. Consequently, the death of a Wessex king would be followed by rebellion, particularly in Northumbria. Alfred's great-grandson, Edgar, who had come to the throne in 959, was crowned at Bath in 973 and soon afterwards the other British kings met him at Chester and acknowledged his authority.

The presence of Danish and Norse settlers in the Danelaw had a lasting impact; the people there saw themselves as "armies" a hundred years after settlement: King Edgar issued a law code in 962 that was to include the people of Northumbria, so he addressed it to Earl Olac "and all the army that live in that earldom".

Decline and end (975–1066)

Viking longboat replica in Ramsgate, Kent

Edgar died in 975, sixteen years after gaining the throne, while still only in his early thirties. Some magnates supported the succession of his younger son, Æthelred, but his elder half-brother, Edward was elected, aged about twelve. His reign was marked by disorder, and three years later, in 978, he was assassinated by some of his half-brother's retainers. Æthelred succeeded, and although he reigned for thirty-eight years, one of the longest reigns in English history, he earned the name "Æthelred the Unready", as he proved to be one of England's most disastrous kings. William of Malmesbury, writing in his Chronicle of the kings of England about one hundred years later, was scathing in his criticism of Æthelred, saying that he occupied the kingdom, rather than governed it.

Just as Æthelred was being crowned, the Danish Harald Gormsson was trying to force Christianity onto his domain. Many of his subjects did not like this idea, and shortly before 988, Sweyn, his son, drove his father from the kingdom. The rebels, dispossessed at home, probably formed the first waves of raids on the English coast.

Payment of Danegeld

By the 980s the kings of Wessex had a powerful grip on the coinage of the realm. It is reckoned there were about 300 moneyers, and 60 mints, around the country. Every five or six years the coinage in circulation would cease to be legal tender and new coins were issued. The system controlling the currency around the country was extremely sophisticated; this enabled the king to raise large sums of money if needed. The need indeed arose after the battle of Maldon, as Æthelred decided that, rather than fight, he would pay ransom to the Danes in a system known as Danegeld. As part of the ransom, a peace treaty was drawn up that was intended to stop the raids. However, rather than buying the Vikings off, payment of Danegeld only encouraged them to come back for more.

The Dukes of Normandy were quite happy to allow these Danish adventurers to use their ports for raids on the English coast. The result was that the courts of England and Normandy became increasingly hostile to each other. Then, on St. Brice's day in November 1002, Danes living in England were slaughtered on the orders of Æthelred.

Rise of Cnut

Cnut's dominions. The Norwegian lands of Jemtland, Herjedalen, Idre, and Særna are not included in this map.

In mid-1013, Sven Forkbeard, King of Denmark, brought the Danish fleet to Sandwich, Kent. From there he went north to the Danelaw, where the locals immediately agreed to support him.> He then struck south, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy (1013–1014). However, on 3 February 1014, Sven died suddenly.> Capitalising on his death, Æthelred returned to England and drove Sven's son, Cnut, back to Denmark, forcing him to abandon his allies in the process.

In 1015, Cnut launched a new campaign against England. Edmund fell out with his father, Æthelred, and struck out on his own. Some English leaders decided to support Cnut, so Æthelred ultimately retreated to London. Before engagement with the Danish army, Æthelred died and was replaced by Edmund.> The Danish army encircled and besieged London, but Edmund was able to escape and raised an army of loyalists.> Edmund's army routed the Danes, but the success was short-lived: at the Battle of Ashingdon, the Danes were victorious, and many of the English leaders were killed. Cnut and Edmund agreed to split the kingdom in two, with Edmund ruling Wessex and Cnut the rest.>

In 1017, Edmund died in mysterious circumstances, probably murdered by Cnut or his supporters, and the English council (the witan) confirmed Cnut as king of all England. Cnut divided England into earldoms: most of these were allocated to nobles of Danish descent, but he made an Englishman earl of Wessex. The man he appointed was Godwin, who eventually became part of the extended royal family when he married the king's sister-in-law. In the summer of 1017, Cnut sent for Æthelred's widow, Emma, with the intention of marrying her. It seems that Emma agreed to marry the king on condition that he would limit the English succession to the children born of their union. Cnut already had a wife, known as Ælfgifu of Northampton, who bore him two sons, Svein and Harold Harefoot.> The church, however, seems to have regarded Ælfgifu as Cnut's concubine rather than his wife. In addition to the two sons he had with Ælfgifu, he had a further son with Emma, who was named Harthacnut.

Edward becomes king

One result of Cnut's marriage to Emma was to precipitate a succession crisis after his death in 1035, as the throne was disputed between Ælfgifu's son, Harald Harefoot, and Emma's son, Harthacnut.> Emma supported her son by Cnut, Harthacnut, rather than a son by Æthelred.ef> Her son by Æthelred, then future King Edward the Confessor, made an unsuccessful raid on Southampton, and his brother Alfred was murdered on an expedition to England in 1036. Emma fled to Flanders when Harald Harefoot became king of England, but when he died in 1040 Harthacnut was able to take over as king. Harthacnut quickly became very unpopular for imposing high taxesand he died suddenly in 1042. Edward then became king.

Edward was supported by Earl Godwin of Wessex and married the earl's daughter. This arrangement was seen as expedient, however, as Godwin had been implicated in the murder of Alfred, the king's brother. In 1051 one of Edward's in-laws, Eustace, arrived to take up residence in Dover; the men of Dover objected and killed some of Eustace's men. When Godwin refused to punish them, the king, who had been unhappy with the Godwins for some time, summoned them to trial. Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was chosen to deliver the news to Godwin and his family.} The Godwins fled rather than face trial.

The Godwins, having previously fled, threatened to invade England. Edward is said to have wanted to fight, but at a Great Council meeting in Westminster, Earl Godwin laid down all his weapons and asked the king to allow him to purge himself of all crimes. The king and Godwin were reconciled, and the Godwins thus became the most powerful family in England after the king. On Godwin's death in 1053, his son Harold succeeded to the earldom of Wessex; Harold's brothers Gyrth, Leofwine, and Tostig were given East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. The Northumbrians disliked Tostig for his harsh behaviour, and he was expelled to an exile in Flanders, in the process falling out with his brother Harold, who supported the king's line in backing the Northumbrians.

Death of Edward the Confessor

St Bene't's Church of Cambridge, the oldest extant building in Cambridgeshire; its tower was built in the late Anglo-Saxon period.

On 26 December 1065, Edward was taken ill. He took to his bed and fell into a coma; at one point he woke and turned to Harold Godwinson and asked him to protect the Queen and the kingdom. On 5 January 1066 Edward the Confessor died, and Harold was declared king. The following day, 6 January 1066, Edward was buried and Harold crowned.

Although Harold Godwinson had "grabbed" the crown of England, others laid claim to it, primarily William, Duke of Normandy, who was cousin to Edward the Confessor through his aunt, Emma of Normandy. It is believed that Edward had promised the crown to William. Harold Godwinson had agreed to support William's claim after being imprisoned in Normandy, by Guy of Ponthieu. William had demanded and received Harold's release, then during his stay under William's protection it is claimed, by the Normans, that Harold swore "a solemn oath" of loyalty to William.

Harald Hardrada ("The Ruthless") of Norway also had a claim on England, through Cnut and his successors. He had a further claim based on a pact between Harthacnut, King of Denmark (Cnut's son) and Magnus, King of Norway.

Tostig, Harold's estranged brother, was the first to move; according to the medieval historian Orderic Vitalis, he travelled to Normandy to enlist the help of William, Duke of Normandy, later to be known as William the Conqueror. William was not ready to get involved so Tostig sailed from the Cotentin Peninsula, but because of storms ended up in Norway, where he successfully enlisted the help of Harald Hardrada. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle has a different version of the story, having Tostig land in the Isle of Wight in May 1066, then ravaging the English coast, before arriving at Sandwich, Kent. At Sandwich Tostig is said to have enlisted and press ganged sailors before sailing north where, after battling some of the northern earls and also visiting Scotland, he eventually joined Hardrada (possibly in Scotland or at the mouth of the river Tyne).

Battle of Fulford and aftermath

According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle (Manuscripts D and E) Tostig became Hardrada's vassal and then with 300 or so longships sailed up the Humber Estuary bottling the English fleet in the river Swale and then landed at Riccall on the Ouse. They marched towards York, where they were confronted, at Fulford Gate, by the English forces that were under the command of the northern earls, Edwin and Morcar; the Battle of Fulford followed, on 20 September, which was one of the bloodiest battles of medieval times. The English forces were routed, though Edwin and Morcar escaped. The victors entered the city of York, exchanged hostages and were provisioned. Hearing the news whilst in London, Harold Godwinson force-marched a second English army to Tadcaster by the night of the 24th, and after catching Harald Hardrada by surprise, on the morning of 25 September, Harold achieved a total victory over the Scandinavian horde after a two-day-long engagement at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.> Harold gave quarter to the survivors allowing them to leave in 20 ships.

William of Normandy sails for England

Section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing Harold (lower right) being killed at Hastings

Harold would have been celebrating his victory at Stamford Bridge on the night of 26/27 September 1066, while William of Normandy's invasion fleet set sail for England on the morning of 27 September 1066. Harold marched his army back down to the south coast, where he met William's army, at a place now called Battle just outside Hastings. Harold was killed when he fought and lost the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066.

The Battle of Hastings virtually destroyed the Godwin dynasty. Harold and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were dead on the battlefield, as was their uncle Ælfwig, Abbot of Newminster. Tostig had been killed at Stamford Bridge. Wulfnoth was a hostage of William the Conqueror. The Godwin women who remained were either dead or childless.

William marched on London. The city leaders surrendered the kingdom to him, and he was crowned at Westminster Abbey, Edward the Confessor's new church, on Christmas Day 1066. It took William a further ten years to consolidate his kingdom, during which any opposition was suppressed ruthlessly; in a particularly brutal process known as the Harrying of the North, William issued orders to lay waste the north and burn all the cattle, crops and farming equipment and to poison the earth. Figures based on the returns for the Domesday Book estimate that the population of England in 1086 was about 2.25 million, so 100,000 deaths, due to starvation, would have equated to 5 per cent of the population.

By the time of William's death in 1087 it was estimated that only about 8 per cent of the land was under Anglo-Saxon control. Nearly all the Anglo-Saxon cathedrals and abbeys of any note had been demolished and replaced with Norman-style architecture by 1200.

See also

• Anglo-Saxon art
• Anglo-Saxon architecture
• Old English literature
• Anglo-Saxon monarchs
• Anglo-Saxon warfare
• Anglo-Saxons
• Coinage in Anglo-Saxon England
• Government in Anglo-Saxon England
• History of the English penny (c. 600 – 1066)
• Timeline of Anglo-Saxon England

Sources

• Barlow, Frank (2002). The Godwins:The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty. London, UK: Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-78440-6.
• Bartlett, Robert (2000). England under the Norman and Angevin Kings. The New Oxford History of England. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-925101-8.
• Bede (1994). McClure, Judith; Collins, Roger (eds.). The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953723-5.
• Blair, John (2005). The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921117-3.
• Campbell, James (2000). The Anglo-Saxon State. London, UK: Hambledon & London. ISBN 978-1-85285-176-7.
• Charles-Edwards, Thomas (2003a). "Introduction". In Charles-Edwards, Thomas (ed.). After Rome. Short Oxford History of the British Isles. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0-19-924982-4.
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Further reading

• Gretzinger, Joscha; et al. (2022). "The Anglo-Saxon Migration and the Formation of the Early English Gene Pool". Nature. 610: 112–119. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05247-2. ISSN 1476-4687.

External links

• Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England