The First English Standard

Abstract

In its entry for 793 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the first major Viking raid against the north-east coast of England, for in that year the Danes ravaged the monastery at Lindisfarne. In the following year Jarrow, Bede’s former home, was sacked, and in 795 the monastery at Iona, on the other side of Britain, was plundered. These raids were to become more frequent as the ninth century progressed and of all the English kingdoms it was Northumbria that initially bore the brunt of the attacks, because it had a long eastern coastline and perhaps also because it had many rich monastic foundations on or near the coast which provided tempting targets to the raiders from over the sea. To start with these attacks were no more than raids to win booty; it was only in the second half of the ninth century that the Danes and the Norwegians began to think seriously of conquest and settlement. However, these assaults undermined the power of Northumbria and they confirmed the growing strength of Mercia, which had already in the eighth century become the most powerful kingdom in England. The boundaries of any kingdom are difficult to define at this period, and how far Mercia extended in the eighth and ninth centuries is uncertain. Probably it included much of what we now delineate as the West Midlands and extended eastwards to include counties like Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. However, its centre appears to have been more in the west than the east, although this may partly be explained by the destruction of many eastern towns and monasteries by the Vikings. It is from the west that most of what sources which can be described as Mercian come.