Vikings in the British Isles

When the Vikings launched their first attacks on the British Isles, in the late eighth century,  England, Scotland Ireland and Wales were dividid among many kingdoms that were constantly warring with one another.

England was made up of three major kingdom: Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex, and four smaller kingdom: East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex.

Scotland was divided into Dál Riata, Strathclyde, and the kingdom of the Picts.

In Ireland, the leaders of many small kingdoms paid homage to the High King in Tara.

Wales was also divided into small kingdoms.

England

In 789, three Viking ships landed on the coast of Dorset in southwest England. The invaders killed the local chief, collected booty, and then returned to their homeland.

Four years later, the monastery on Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, off Northumbria was sacked and burned.

The Vikings then began to devote their attentions to Ireland, but in the 830's, they began attacking England once more.

At first, the Vikings were content to attack, take as many spoils as they could carry, and retreat to their ships.

However, in 851, they changed their tactics and wintered on the Isle of Thanet in Kent.

A few years later, the Vikings decided that they were ready to conquer England.

In 867, a Viking force set up a base in York. By the 870's, they had defeated the armies of East Anglia and Northumbria and had forced the neighboring kingdom of Mercia to pay tribute.

The Danes, led by Guthrum, overran Alfred, king of Wessex but were finally defeated at the Battle of Ethandun in Wiltshire in 878.

In 886, the Danish leader Guthrum agreed to a pact dividing England between himself and Alfred.

Land in the north and east came under the rule of the Danes, or the "Danelaw", as it was called.

Another wave of Viking invasions began in 980, when Vikings raided the east and south coasts of England.

The English king, Aethelred (known as "The Unready") tried to buy the enemy off with gold. The tax he collected from the people for the purpose was known as Danegeld.

In 1013, a king of Denmark named Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England, but died before his conquest was complete.

The conquest of England was completed by his son, Cnut, who was crowned King of England in 1016.

Scotland

The Vikings first raids into Scotland were on the Orkney, Shetland, and Hebrides islands.

In 795, Vikings pillaged the island of Iona.

In the 8oo's, they began raiding the mainland. Vikings stormed Dumbarton, capital of Strathclyde, in 870. In 904, they ravaged Dunkeld, farther to the east.

The Scottish king eventually regained the Hebrides in 1266. The Orkneys and Shetlands remained under Scandinavian rule until the 1470's.

Ireland

The first Viking raid on Ireland took place in 795, when the monastery on Lambay Island, off the eastern Irish coast, was attacked.

A fleet from Norway arrived in 832 and captured Armagh, the center of the Irish church.

In 841, the Vikings founded Dublin and established bases at Wexford, Cork and Limerick. "

Wales

Vikings settled along the south coast of Wales during the late 900s.