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>