Sweyn Forkbeard Invades, Viking Invasions

Caught in the St. Brice’s Day massacre was a woman named Gunhilde, the sister of the Danish warlord Sweyn Forkbeard. Just as the sons of Ragnar invoked their right to vengeance after their father’s death, so did Sweyn. The Viking had heard that the English king was weak, obsessed with wine, women, and his own bed, and whilst raiding with Olaf, he saw with his own eyes the country’s wealth. He took the opportunity, and in 1013 his massive fleet left Denmark, bound for British shores, plunder, and conquest. 

The realm cleaved in two. Sweyn took East Anglia without a fight, and Northumbria declared for the Vikings, seeing more in common with the Danes than their Wessex kings. Aethelred called his witan, attended by his Norman son-in-law Richard. They advised him to flee to safety in Normandy. In late 1013, Aethelred left for exile on the continent.

With its king gone, Sweyn conquered all of England. The Chronicle makes a big deal of this, describing the great oppression meted out on the Saxons by Sweyn. It relates how the rapacious Viking had towns bring all their wealth to their square to load onto wagons bound for Denmark. This was clearly a traumatic moment for the Saxon people. Luckily, it was not to last.

Sweyn died just five weeks into his reign. An irresistible story from William of Malmesbury tells of Edmund the Martyr making a cameo. It’s said that Sweyn had a splitting headache, and through the pain, had a vision of Edmund. The saint scolded the Viking, telling him that if he didn’t leave the English in peace, he would regret it. Sweyn responded with insults, and so Edmund hit the Viking over the head with a crucifix, promptly killing him. 

With Sweyn dead, Aethelred saw his chance and boarded a boat for England. The Saxon nobles agreed to accept him as king, as long as he agreed to rule under the guidance of his witan. Aethelred agreed, and installed a series of allies as earls of the major English regions, including one Eadric over Mercia.

Canute, Sweyn’s son, left England for Denmark after his father’s death, but returned in 1015. Again, the south declared for Aethelred, the north for the Danes. The invaders found a demoralised and disunited realm, and as they moved through Mercia, Eadric gave each of his towns up without a fight. By 1016, Canute had surrounded the walls of London. 

Aethelred died that winter. After a reign of thirty-five years, he left his kingdom on the brink of collapse, divided against itself and exhausted from a decade of warfare. Whether Aethelred deserves his bad reputation is hard to say. He came from a long line of extremely gifted rulers and was expected to continue their legacy. Whilst he clearly didn’t have the abilities of an Alfred or an Aethelstan, he also found himself in a difficult position, ruling a large realm that still hadn’t got used to the idea of Wessex’s overlordship, suffering a resurgence in Viking raids. Aethelred approached his situation with a prudent strategy, paying the Vikings off and pitting them against each other. 

Yet, when push came to shove, when Sweyn and Canute invaded and wouldn’t accept gold to go away, his strategy failed. He was unable to rally the Saxons to the defence of their realm. Aethelred’s military weakness, his blind trust in clearly dubious characters like Eadric, and his tendency to resort to massacres have left a stain on his record that’s hard to scrub out. 

There’s still hope for the Saxons. Aethelred’s son, Edmund Ironside, comes off the ropes and hits back at Canute. Now, two sons, matched in skill and ambition, begin an epic rivalry inherited from their fathers. Will Edmund come back from certain defeat like Alfred? Or will Canute prevail, and forge a Viking England? Find out next time!