The Viking Conquest of England

The Viking Conquest of England is one of the darkest yet most exciting periods in medieval history, when Danish armies violently overthrew the existing English monarchy just fifty years before the Norman Conquest. This remarkable but understudied era is full of political intrigue and violence, featuring bitter succession disputes, battles, rebellions, and massacres. At the end of it all, four Danish kings sat on the throne of England from 1013 to 1042. Viking attacks on the British Isles date back to the eighth century and were commonplace in much of western Europe. As the kingdoms of England and Denmark began to emerge in the tenth century, though, the armies became larger and the stakes became higher. In the early eleventh century, Danish leaders like Thorkell the Tall and King Swein Forkbeard pushed English defences to their breaking point. The dramatic years of 1013 to 1016 saw constant back and forth between the Danish invaders and English defenders, where one side would gain the upper hand only to lose the advantage again. By the end of 1016, though, two English kings were dead and a Danish prince, Cnut, had solidified the conquest of England. He and his sons would hold sway there for a generation.