The Vikings
Timeline
The following chronology charts the main events of the ‘Viking Age’, from the Norsemen’s first raid on England to the coronation of a Viking as the English king.
AD 789
Approximate date of the record in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of the first documented sighting of Viking ships off the south coast of England. The emissary sent to investigate by Offa, king of Wessex, is killed by the 'heathens'.
793
The monastery on Lindisfarne (Holy Island, Northumberland) is sacked on 8 June during a Viking treasure raid. Within two years, the monasteries on Iona (west Scotland) and at Jarrow (Northumberland) are also attacked – the first of what will become almost annual raids. The date of the Lindisfarne raid is usually taken as the beginning of the ‘Viking Age’.
795
The first recorded Viking attack on Ireland. Their Irish campaigns would see the establishment of Dublin some 60 years later, a highly successful Viking settlement.
799
Viking expansion increases and includes initial attacks on France.
834/835
The Vikings switch from pilfering coastal monasteries to searching for greater rewards inland. The following years witness increasing attacks and larger 'armies' arriving from Scandinavia.
839/840
The earliest traces of a Viking presence in Byzantium on the edge of the Black Sea after their ships navigate the length of the river Dnieper, from Russia to the Ukraine, and possibly also the Danube.
845
With Britain under almost constant harrying, the Vikings search out new conquests and begin attacks on Spain and Germany. They also increase their activity in France, sending a fleet of 120 ships up the Seine to attack Paris.
851
The seasonal Danish campaigning army decide to stay in Britain for the winter – an ominous sign for the Anglo-Saxons.
860
Viking expansion takes in parts of the western Italian coast, and they even reach North Africa and Jerusalem. They also discover Iceland.
862
The Viking warrior Rurik is invited to rule the Russians and Ukrainians from the fortresses of Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod and founds a Russian dynasty that lasts until 1598.
865
This year sees the greatest invasion of the British Isles in recorded history, when, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ‘a great heathen army came into England’, led by Ivarr the Boneless and his brothers. This is the first Viking incursion into England that is aimed at conquest rather than pillage.
866
York (Jorvik) is conquered and adapted as a permanent Viking settlement and successful trading station.
870
The exiled Viking leader, Ingolfur Arnarson, settles into his new home on Iceland.
876
Much of north-east England becomes a new region known as Danelaw – the land ruled by the Danes.
878
Battle of Edington. Alfred the Great leads his army from Athelney and defeats the Danish leader Guthrum, greatly weakening the Vikings’ stranglehold on Britain.
882
Swedish Vikings expand to the east, their leader Oleg taking Kiev on the Dnieper. Later expansion has been traced as far as Tashkent, in modern-day Uzbekistan.
900
Greenland is discovered. A tough and harsh environment, the Vikings establish a successful community, which is bolstered by further settlement in the 980s.
911
In an attempt to appease the Viking leader Rollo, the French under King Charles the Simple agree to the treaty of St Clair-sur-Epte, in which they give him a region of north-west France (Normandy) in return for his agreement to convert to Christianity and defend the Seine against other Viking raiders. The new Norman settlers become almost independent of the rest of the Viking world. However, their later rapid but short-lived expansion – led by William the Conqueror, Rollo’s direct descendant – appears remarkably Viking-like.
954
Eric Bloodaxe, formerly king of Norway and now the last independent Viking king of Jorvik, is driven out and killed at the battle of Stainmore in Cumbria.
965
As far as the rest of Europe is concerned, the gradual taming of the barbarians begins when Harold Bluetooth, the Danish king, converts to Christianity. He is followed by Olaf Tryggvason of Norway 30 years later and Olof Skottkonung of Sweden in 1008.
986
Eric the Red sails from Norway to Greenland and establishes two communities there. This is also the generally accepted date of when the Vikings first become aware of North America, when Bjarni Herjolfsson spots Newfoundland after being blown off course on his way to Greenland.
1000
Leif Ericson, son of Eric the Red, sails for North America, which the Vikings call Vinland. A small settlement has been found at L'Anse-aux-Meadows, Newfoundland, which, when excavated in the 1970s, reveals Viking finds dating from about 1080.
1016
Cnut, monarch of Norway and Denmark, finally becomes king of all England after his joint leadership with the British king Edmund Ironside ends with the latter’s death.
