Northumbria

Mercia

Wessex

Map Link: British Isles about 802:

<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/british_isles_802.jpg>

730-825 Mercia dominant state in England

793 Vikings sack Lindisfarne

825-30 Egbert of Wessex (r. 802-39) defeatsMercians (825), conquers Mercia (829),defeats Welsh (830)

víking830s Vikings attack England víkingr

850s Vikings start settling in England

Map Link: Suggested Viking Routes: from 8th-11th Cent. CE:

<http://www.roebuckclasses.com/maps/histmap/vikingroutes.jpg>

851 Vikings sack London

860s and 870s Vikings receiving tributes fromEnglish kingdoms

876 Vikings settle in Northumbria

877 Vikings take eastern Mercia

878 Vikings invade Wessex Danelaw

Alfred the Great of Wessex (r. 871-99)

878 Alfred defeats Vikings at Edington

885 Alfred and Vikings make peace

Alfred: Lands south of Thames,(W. Mercia), Christianisationof Danes

Danes: E. Anglia, E. Mercia,Lincolnshire and Yorkshire

Map Link: England after 886:

<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/england_after_886.jpg>

Alfred’s Reconstruction of England

System of burhs PeterboroughEdinburgh

Re-organising army

Establishing navy

892-96 Wessex repels Viking attacks

Edward the Elder (r. 899-924)

Aethelstan (r. 924-39)

shires

Map Link: England during the reign of King Aethelstan(924-39):

<http://www.anglo-saxons.net/images/mapAthelstan.jpg>

Government of Anglo-Saxon State

King: Theoretically electedHolds lands all over EnglandRight to military supportReceives judicial finesRepresented by shire-reeves/sheriffsAppoints bishops and abbots

Witangemot: Assembly of important men

Chancery office: Issuing royal letters

Local courts:

Meet regularly at county courts

Each headed by ealdorman, sheriff, bishop

Using customs, rites of compurgation andordeal

Monetary penalties, mostly…

Social Classes in Anglo-Saxon England

Warrior nobility incl. ealdormen

Ceorls - free peasants (by 9th c. more semi-freepeasants and slaves)

Churches as landowners, also expecting titheand (on royal lands) Peter’s Pence/church-scot

Alfred’s Intellectual Reforms

Encouraging reading, writing, translation

Four books “most necessary for all men toknow:”

Gregory I, Pastoral CareBoethius, Consolation of PhilosophyPsalms 1-50Bede, Ecclesiastical History

Law Code

Beowulf

One manuscript fromc. 1000 in OldEnglish (W. Saxon)

Probably from Mercia orNorthumbria, c. 700

Set in Scandinavia,5th-6th c.

Geatish hero Beowulf comes to Heorot, hallof Danish king, to help defeat Grendel

Kills Grendel and Grendel’s mother

Rules home kingdom for 50 years, thenkills dragon, dies in process. Funeral

Map Link: Approximate map of Germanic tribes around Jutlandat time of Beowulf:

<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Beowulf_geography_names.png>