The Vikings and the struggle for England
History · Key Stage 2 · The School
Raiders, then settlers
The raid on Lindisfarne in AD 793 opens the Viking age in Britain. Monasteries were targeted because they were rich, undefended and on the coast. But raiding turned into settling. Within a century Scandinavians were farming here. They were trading and governing too. York became a major Viking city. And Norse words entered English and stayed: sky, egg, knife, they, husband.
Alfred and the Danelaw
By the 870s Viking armies had taken most of England. ALFRED of Wessex survived. He regrouped, and he won at Edington in 878. The settlement that followed divided the country. Alfred kept the south and west. The Scandinavians held the north and east, under their own law. That was the DANELAW. Alfred built fortified towns and promoted learning. He is the only English-born monarch called the Great.
One kingdom, and then 1066
Alfred's successors pushed north. Under his grandson Æthelstan, one kingdom of England existed for the first time. It was never simple after that. Cnut, a Dane, ruled England from 1016. Edward the Confessor died in 1066 with no clear heir. The argument over who should succeed him ended the Anglo-Saxon period entirely.
Follow one place on the Yorkshire coast. In the 600s a monastery was founded there. Its Anglo-Saxon name was Streaneshalch. In the 800s the monastery was abandoned. English Heritage says Viking raids from Denmark were probably the cause, followed by Danish settlers. By 1066 a town called Whitby stood by the harbour. Whitby is a Norse name, and by is Old Norse for a farm or village. Today people say Whitby, not Streaneshalch. Historians treat names like this as one clue that Norse speakers settled. They still argue about how many came. So Whitby fits the story of raiding that turned into settling.