The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Chapter Eleven
The Scandinavian presence
Julian D.Richards
BACKGROUND
For three centuries, beginning shortly before AD 800, the British Isles were subject to raids
from Scandinavia. Initially these were hit-and-run affairs, targeted against vulnerable coastal
sites, principally monasteries, such as Lindisfarne, Monkwearmouth and Iona. As the raiding
parties gained in size and confidence, and as the need for reward increased, they seized land as
well, although the rate at which raiding turned to settlement varied from area to area. Norse
colonies were founded in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland, and on the Isle of Man,
although Wales appears to have avoided permanent occupation on a significant scale. For Late
Saxon England, however, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides a near contemporary, if onesided,
account of raids, annexations and Scandinavian invasions. It records the presence of a
highly mobile Danish ‘great army’ in England from AD 865. Having captured York in AD 866,
this army seized territory in Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. Within these areas, which
became known as the Danelaw, many Scandinavians settled, although the raids resumed in the
980s, culminating in the invasion of England by a new army under the Danish king Svein
Forkbeard in AD 1013.
Despite living in a war zone, or perhaps because of it, this was also a period of major social
and economic change for the Anglo-Saxons. A network of fortified towns, or burhs, was founded
in Mercia by King Offa, and in Wessex by Alfred and his successors. As places of royal control
and protection, these towns were centres of minting and taxation, and trade and industry were
encouraged to develop under their ramparts. Rural craft production of precious items gave way
to semi-industrialized mass-production of standardized forms, often imitating Scandinavian artistic
tastes. After some initial disruption and a shift to more easily defendable areas, the Middle Saxon
wics, such as Hamwic (Southampton), London, Norwich, Ipswich and York also prospered. Most
burhs and wics continued beyond the Norman Conquest to expand into fully fledged medieval
towns (see Chapter 12). In the countryside, rural settlement was also reorganized. In many parts
of England, Scandinavian settlement hastened the process of disintegration of those large estates
that had been under direct royal or ecclesiastical control. Although some historians are reluctant
to identify feudalism before the Norman conquest, many agree that the laying out of villages in
the tenth century represents the beginnings of a manorial system (see Chapter 14). The
contemporaneous boom in church building probably reflects the associated construction of private
chapels attached to early manor sites (see Chapter 13).