Danelád: ATL Danelaw

At the risk of creating a Viking-wank, here's a short timeline I made in my spare time, still working on it, this be just the beginning. And away we go, please do comment if you think it's plausible or not, I'm probably gonna have to create some stuff up, especially as to the newer Kings, etcetra. First time trying anything like this, yeah.

In the summer of the year the year 866, Halfdan Ragnarsson and his brother Ivar Ragnarsson, better known as Ivar 'the boneless' moved north from East Anglia where they had endured the winter of 865 to Norþanhymbra (Northumbria). Osbhert, having ruled since the death of the son of Æthelred II of Norþanhymbra, sat on the throne in Norþanhymbra for 19 winters before the invasion by the Danes. The Great Army reached Eoforwic (York) and would capture it in November of the same year, with both Osbhert and the pretender to the throne of Norþanhymbra being slain. In an attempt to curtail tensions before they arise, the Danes picked an Angle from the prominent families, and placed a man named Ecgberht upon the throne in Norþanhymbra to serve as client-king to the Danes. In 868 Æthelred I, King of Westseaxana (Wessex) raised his banners as in our timeline and rode with his brother Alfred to Nottingham. Unlike OTL, the Danes gave battle to the Saxon's, the results of which would be the death of both Æthelred and Alfred of Westseaxana. The death of the King and his only visible successor left a small succession crisis in Wessex, with the only remaining child of King Ethelwulf, who came before Æthelred, being Æthelswith, a daughter. Married to Burgred of Mercia, the throne of Wessex passed to him through her.

With the defeat of the Saxons in Nottingham, the Great Army pressed on into Mercia, drunk from the triumph of war. Continuing their invasion, the traditional capital of Mercia in Tamworth was captured by the Danes in early 869. The armies of Wessex (and Mercia by extension) weak, Burgred made peace as in OTL with the Danes, effectively ceding all the Danes had captured so long as Wessex and what little of Mercia remained to him would not be molested. The Army would remain quiet until the summer of 870, in which the new Summer Army from Scandinavia bolstered their numbers and the invasion of East Anglia was made by the Danes. Arriving at Thetford, the Danes slew Edmund, King of East Anglia, overrunning the remainder of the Kingdom. Reaping great havoc, the 'pagan' Danes burned a number of monasteries and Christian priories. Continuing west, ignoring the same oath made a year prior, Reading came under attack by the Danes, Burgred once again begging for peace. Ivar promptly ignored the first request, sacking Reading and weaving a trail of havoc all the way down the Thame valley, until eventually confronted by Saxon armies outside Oxford, Ivar swore oath on that sunny Autumn day in 871 to keep the peace, and Burgred did the same, promising to pay tribute to the Danish lords in Eoforwic, East Anglia, and Mercia.

Although Viking (not purely Danish) settlement was already occurring in Britain prior to the conquest of Northumbria and East Anglia, it began to take speed with the accession of Guthrum as King of the Danes in England. Gradually consolidating his holdings in Mercia, Guthrum would loose his armies upon Wessex once more, his main force driving down the southern coast of England. The Wallingford was sacked and taken to the north, and in the south Exeter came under attack by the Danes. Burgred, leading his own host to battle west of the city, in which he perished. Leaving behind no direct descendants, the throne of Wessex was left to no one, and numerous claimants came forth. Despite it, Winton was eventually taken by the Danish, and the Great Army ground to a halt, settling down for the winter of 874, the five boroughs, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria, and a good deal of Wessex in Viking hands.

 
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In 876, the Welsh kingdoms in the north had been united. Powys had been inherited by Rhodri Mawr. With the Saxons preoccupied with the Danish invasions, Rhodri had managed to add the southern Welsh kingdom of Seisyllwg to his his own. Although originally of Gwynedd, Rhodri supplemented his army with many men of both the inherited and conquered realms, famously winning a battle against Norse raiders on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) in 854, and defeating a Danish host in west Mercia in 856. As the Danish stormed across England, drawing Saxon attention elsewhere, the great pressure exercised upon the Welsh was gradually reduced – Rhodri paying extensive attention to his frontier, and beyond it. In Mercia, Guthrum did what he could to consolidate his own primacy further, but was ultimately unable to suppress resentment and bloodshed. The de-centralized nature of the Danelaw allowed certain chieftains to wage their own raids and wars, sometimes against one another. Such occurred frequently, causing unwanted wars in the process. By 876 the Great Army had mostly disbanded, settling down as the Danes had taken a great deal of land from the Saxons. Wales was still a prime target for raids by the Danes, the frequency of which had greatly increased ever since the conquest of Mercia.

Declared Earl of Mercia by Guthrum, Halfdan Olafrsson embarked on many incursions into Powys for slaves and plunder. Rhodri would meet Halfdan in battle near Dolywyddelan, a small town in northern Gwynedd. The Welsh host outnumbered that of the Danes, and Halfdan along with his party were slain. His death would trigger war, as Rhodri capitalized upon the death of his main adversary and crossed the Welsh frontier in the summer of 876, his army reaching as far as Stafford, defeating another swiftly assembled host of Danes outside of the walls of the city. Reeling from the loss of the Earl – and the defeat or dissolution of a good deal of Danish Mercia's soldiers, Guthrum responded instead, calling his banners. Enslaving it's population and burning Stafford, Rhodri fled back behind the Welsh frontier, manning the hill forts along the Powysian border. Danish and Norse longships continued to raid the coast of Wales, but Guthrum made no moves against Rhodri until the summer of that year, a Viking host led into Powys, which would be defeated by Rhodri upon the frontier. Bitter from defeat, Guthrum signed a treaty with Rhodri, promising to cease Danish raids into Gwynedd from Danish Mercia.

In the north, the Danish Kingdom of York warred against the Picts. As early as 866, brothers Amlaíb and Auisle brought an army into the Lowlands, obtaining tribute and hostages from the Picts. This included the daughter of Cináed mac Ailpín who was king of the Picts, who wed Amlaíb in 867. Auisle would be slain in 869, his army passing onto his brother Ivar who proceeded to wage war in Bernicia against the Saxon lords yet there. Amlaíb would raid Dublin itself in 867, and venture northwards to the river Clyde and lay siege to Dumbarton Rock, hold of the Britons in the north. The siege drawing out for a protracted length of time, Amlaíb died, all his armies and wealth passing down to his brother Ivar who would eventually establish the house of Uí Ímhair and continue his brothers forays into Pictavia. Continuing the same siege of his brother, Dumbarton Rock fell to the Norse in 871, with the King of the Rock being executed by Ivar. Drawing upon local manpower, Ivar continued his wars further along the west coast of Scotland and the Irish Sea, eventually coming to become the Norse king of Bernicia and Strathclyde in 877.


Now, the following map depicts the situation in England as it is in 876, prior to the Welsh frontier wars. Dark red indicates area's of the Danelaw. If you read carefully and look closely, you'll be able to make out this ATL's Great Armies' route. The map is kinda crappy, but it's just a rough representation really.

danelaw.png



 
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I like the font on your map.

Just how Danish will Britain get? Will the English end up like the Welsh, holding on in a little enclave?
 
The idea is that the Danish likely wouldn't be interested in any real empire building in England, but simply holding onto the territory they have so far and raiding from there. In the case of Wales, it's obvious at this point to Guthrum that it'd be difficult to conquer, enough so that he won't bother. Wessex on the other hand, I've not yet decided, still need to do a bit more research on that, but they oughta have enough manpower to repel or at least keep the Danes at bay in Wessex itself.
 
The five boroughs were settled quite extensively by Danes and Norsemen by 877, such that they were known by then as the five Jarldoms. Mercia having been subjugated by the Danish, the five Jarldoms faced a dilemma. All had little in the way of targets for raids except other Danes. Whilst most local chieftains had little qualms with committing such action, it was well known in 877 that Guthrum would do what he could to maintain the peace in the Danelaw. Despite it, facing a terrible harvest in the autumn of 877, the local ruler of Nottingham launched raids against the chiefs in Derby and Repton, seizing a good deal in the way of grain, gold, and slaves. Tensions loomed, and a brief war broke out in the five Jarldoms as Jarl of Derby, Ragnar Svendsson, known in some circles as 'Welshlàd' for his part in the frontier wars, joined his forces with those of the Leicester, laying siege to Nottingham. Refusing to give battle, Harald Thorvsson sat within his fortifications. Coming up from London and East Anglia with his own host, Guthrum slew Ragnar and his host against the walls of Nottingham, deposing of Harald as soon as he could. Claiming it as an example for future would-be rebels, the heads of both leaders were hoisted above the ramparts of the city walls.

Harald's land was seized by Guthrum himself, and eventually handed over to another prestigious chief, whilst Ragnar's land went directly to his son, Gunndred. The West Saxons were not entirely idle either, they launching forays and raids into the Danelaw almost as often as the Vikings did into Wessex. Dying in 878, Burgred would be succeeded as King of Wessex by a distant cousin, Ceolwulf. Burning Wallingford in 879, and then Cirencester in 880, Ceolwulf took a deal of land back from the Danes in Gloucestershire, signing treaty with the local rulers there for tribute. Crossing the Thame in the summer of the same year, Ceolwulf attempted to ride to London itself, but was repelled by a Danish host under Halfdan the Elder of Colchester. Pursuing the Saxons, Halfdan would reach Winton in February of 881. Riding out in sortie, Ceolwulf broke Halfdan's army outside the capital of Wessex, and would maintain the peace until Guthrum rode down from London and captured Winton in the Autumn of the same year.

Consigning himself to a treaty, Ceolwulf agreed to give up Winton to the Danes, and nullify the treaty he had signed a year before with the Gloucester chieftains. Agreeing, Guthrum promised peace with Wessex, Ceolwulf settling back down into war preparations. Further troubles would follow though, especially with the Saxons in Sussex and Kent. Suffering from constant Danish raids up until the eventual conquest by Ivarr and then Guthrum, most nobles in Sussex and Kent were still Saxon, swearing fealty to the Danes in Londen and York. In the Spring of 881, a Saxon noble, Eohric of Chichester organized Saxons in Kent against the Danes, not paying the annual tribute in 881, and again in 882 when the Danes offered no response. Guthrum sent Halfdan the Elder down from London with an army two thousand strong against the eight hundred rallied by Eohric. Defeating the majority of the Saxons, the Danes burnt the monastery in the city, sacked the hill fort, and followed Eohric in his retreat east into Kent. Though Eohric fled to France before he could be killed, his attempt at rebellion did quite a deal in the way of assimilation. Halfdan was installed as the Jarl of Kent and Sussex, the vast majority of his army settling down in the area, a generation of Saxon-borne Danish-fathered babes swelling the population.

Halfdan would wreak a great deal of havoc amongst the Christians in Sussex though, the traditional churches and monasteries established inWinton and Burne burnt, gold stolen, and clergymen killed. In the meantime, the Saxons in the west would begin to wage a frontier war against the Cornish to their west, the assorted chieftains of Kernow raiding the western border of Wessex. The Danes would remain quiet in 883 and 884, the occasional raids and forays into Pictavia by the Danish Kingdom of York made, but Rhodri and Guthrum both kept their oaths and maintained the peace between Gwynedd and the Danelaw.
 
"Danelád":confused:

Googling this, the only results with this spelling in the first 6 pages with the accent were your TL.

IIRC, the word was more like Danelög or some such. Can't be bothered looking it up ATM.

(No I have no idea why this is in a BLACK font. the edit box claims this is unbolded Arial...)
 
Welcome to the boards, and interesting start, Rousseau!

I'm interested in a good Danelaw TL, wank or not. Can't attest to the plausibility as it's not my area of expertise, but seems good so far...watching this one.
 
"Danelád":confused:

Googling this, the only results with this spelling in the first 6 pages with the accent were your TL.

IIRC, the word was more like Danelög or some such. Can't be bothered looking it up ATM.

I think it's supposed to be Danelag. Or Danelagen (which more accurately means the Danelaw, rather than just Danelaw).
 
"Danelád":confused:

Googling this, the only results with this spelling in the first 6 pages with the accent were your TL.

IIRC, the word was more like Danelög or some such. Can't be bothered looking it up ATM.

(No I have no idea why this is in a BLACK font. the edit box claims this is unbolded Arial...)

Danelád is a compound word in Saxon meaning 'Danish Journey'. It's just a title term I've put together.
 

Deleted member 5719

This is good Rousseau, you can't leave it at just that. We need more early middle ages timelines, and less "what if, in 1807, Maryland blablabla"

All t'best.

BNS
 

Deleted member 5719

Fascinating, but I'm curious. Couldn't they just raid France?

It's quite a way from the midlands to France, and not all the boroughs have access to navigable stretches of the Trent. Could be done, but it wouldn't be a trip to the cornershop.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Fascinating, but I'm curious. Couldn't they just raid France?

Good question, the trouble are that if there are a weak central authority, it easier to raid your neighbours*, while if it strong it's a lot healthier to raid France (plus your home are protected from raids from your neighbours). My guess are that while we see the central authority grow more far of raiding will be common.

*and smarter it mean that you aren't as far away from home, and can better protect it.
 
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