Battle of Maldon, 991 – The first time Anglo-Saxons paid ‘danegeld’ to the Vikings

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🚩 Battle of Maldon (991) is described as “a story of guts and glory; patriot versus enemy”. The aftermath of this hard fought battle was the first time that ‘Danegeld’ was paid to the Vikings, which marked the beginning of a new era of Viking raids in England. Bribe in exchange for peace motivated an evergrowing number of Viking raiders, which eventually led to the full conquest of England by Cnut the Great in 1016 – you can also watch that video here: https://youtu.be/HZ4-1E9ep3s

📢 Narrated by David McCallion

🚩Special thanks to Bert’s Battles for providing the source for this video: https://www.youtube.com/@BertsBattles

🚩Animated hand and knife by “Crude Animation”: https://youtu.be/CVA-FcOC5uY

🎼 Music:
Epidemic Sounds
Filmstro

#history #documentary #medieval

The unusually cold North Sea wind slices inland  on the morning of August 11 991, as Byrhtnoth,   Ealdorman of Essex, rides hard towards a  suspected landing point of a Viking army.   Alongside him are his Saxon household troops and  his thegns with their retainers. In full armor,  

Weapons and shields, these men  form the vanguard of an army of   local farmers armed with rudimentary weapons. With the port town of Maldon disappearing in the   distance behind him, Byrhtnoth continues  towards the Blackwater estuary. There,   his scouts spotted a Viking host that  disembarked on the Northey island.  

At low tide the Blackwater River exposes a  natural causeway that connects the island to   the mainland. Such natural defenses made  for a good temporary base that Vikings   often looked for and used in their raids, for it  provided protection to their ships and camp.  

The Viking leader Olaf starts gathering  the norsemen along the shoreline,   intending to push across the causeway and  proceed northwest to raid the town of Maldon.   But as the water subsides, on the other side of  the land bridge the Saxon host emerges from the  

Treeline and moves to block the crossing. Byrhtnoth is leading his men from the front,   ready to cut down the first Viking that sets foot  across the causeway. TOWERING well over 6 feet in   height, his long swan-white hair swirling in the  wind, the ealdorman is an imposing figure.  

Facing him across the narrow land bridge, Olaf  addresses the Saxons and promises to leave England   if the earl paid him with gold and armour. Byrhtnoth remains stone-faced and replies   that he WILL pay him, but with  spear tips and sword blades.  

The days when the Great Heathen army under  the iconic sons of Ragnar Lothbrok terrorised   the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were long over. The  last Viking king in England, Eric Bloodaxe,   had been driven out of Northumbria in 954. But in 975 the young kingdom of England suffered  

The premature death of its capable king Edgar,  aged just thirty-two. Nicknamed “the Peaceful”,   his sixteen-year reign was marked by relative  stability and peace from Viking attacks.   But if Edgar’s reign had overseen a period  of calm, his own successors would oversee  

A bloody period of decline. His son by his  first wife, the thirteen-year-old Edward was   crowned King of the English, supported  by many great men of the kingdom.   But the late king had married multiple times.  His third and final wife Ælfthryth had borne  

Him another son Æthelred and she was keen for  HIM to succeed her husband instead of Edward.   In the coming years she used her status as Edgar’s  widow to split the support amongst the nobles.   Complicating matters was the possibility  that Edward was in fact illegitimate,  

Which (if true) would have emphasised  Æthelred’s stronger right to the throne.   Worse, Edward’s hold on power was further  undermined by his own fiery conduct,   the temperamental teenage king being prone  to violent outbursts, which alienated   many of his supporters. Over the next three years,  

The rival factions were unable to come to  an agreement, with political intrigue and   division rife and the threat of civil war  itself looming large over the kingdom.   But on the 18th of March 978, the matter  of succession was decided conclusively  

And bloodily at Corfe Castle, where  Edward came to meet Ælfthryth.   Arriving at the gate with other senior men by his  side, Edward was offered a cup of mead (possibly   by Ælfthryth herself), which provided the  distraction and the cue for one of the men in her  

Entourage to stab the young king from behind. In the ensuing commotion Edward’s horse bolted,   causing the dying young king to  be dragged off as he bled out.   This shocking and bloody March Day marked  the beginning of Æthelred’s reign. Although,  

He was just twelve-years-old at the time and  played no part in his half-brother’s demise.   The real power behind the throne was his mother,  Ælfthryth. And it wasn’t until Æthelred reached   his majority six years later in 984 that he began  ruling the kingdom independently. But after YEARS  

Of poisonous political intrigue the king’s reign  began in an atmosphere of suspicion. The prestige   of the crown was damaged and would not be restored  throughout his reign, which hampered his ability   to govern the kingdom effectively. This would  earn Æthelred his notorious nickname “Unraed”,  

Usually mis-translated as “the Unready”, but more  precisely as “no counsel” or “ill-advised”.   Worse, throughout the 980s the Danish  raiders had returned. Small-scale   Viking attacks along the south-eastern and  southern coasts became more frequent.   Although lacking support to  mount a unified response,  

Æthelred did respond upon learning that across  the English channel the Normans offered shelter   to the Danes returning from raids on England. He landed in the Cotentin peninsula and challenged   Richard I of Normandy. Open hostility was only  avoided thanks to papal intervention and a  

Peace treaty was ratified in 991. Although no major battle occurred,   Æthelred’s expedition showed that he  is QUITE “ready” to act when necessary,   despite his nickname suggesting otherwise. However, in the summer of 991, a large fleet   of dragon-headed longboats appeared off the shores  of Kent. They ravaged Folkstone, before proceeding  

Around the southeast coast of England. Their  next target was the bustling town of Ipswich.   The fleet of nearly 100 ships was possibly  commanded by none other than Olaf Tryggvason,   the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair  and future king of Norway.   Around mid-July Ipswich was viciously  sacked. The ships carrying 4000 norse  

Warriors then worked their way down the  Essex coast to the Blackwater estuary.   It was here on Northey island that the  raiders paused, with their next target being   the busy and prosperous town of Maldon. Their leader Olaf may have been shocked to  

Learn that an English host was waiting  for them nearby on the mainland.   Byrthnoth, ealdorman of Essex had  assembled his own household of warriors,   which were complimented by the local fyrd,  called to defend their lands. In all, Byrthnoth   mustered around 3000 men. But this ealdorman was  certainly no pampered Anglo-Saxon aristocrat.  

The “white haired” Byrthnoth, though around 60  years old, was a towering presence that day,   standing at over six feet in height. He had  holdings in ten shires, making him – after   King Æthelred himself – the second or  third most important man in England.  

Olaf, however, wrongly assumed that  he was confronted by a spineless   leader and brazenly demanded tribute  from the stony-faced Saxon host.   The island on which the Norse camped was connected  in low tide to the mainland by a small land  

Bridge. Although the Viking position was strong  from a defensive standpoint, Olaf’s host was   not in the business of conquest. They would have  preferred to avoid a battle and ferry their loot   back home at minimal loss of life and limb. But Byrthnoth had the home advantage and  

Was in no rush to confront Olaf’s  raiders. But confront them he would,   for there would be NO tribute paid that day. Left with no choice but to TEST the resolve of the   defenders, the Norse readied their blades. As the tide ebbed, Olaf’s men RUSHED across   the causeway. Byrthnoth checked  

The advance of the enemy by sending in his  own retinue of elite troops to hold them.   As the first blows were exchanged  on the wet sand of the causeway,   the Saxons had the better of the fighting. The initial Viking attack was indeed beaten back,  

With Olaf hastily ordering a retreat back to  Northey to avoid further unnecessary losses.   The Saxons cheered seeing the  invaders returning to the island,   their morale boosted by the quick victory. At this point it would’ve been perfectly   reasonable for the Viking leader to cut his  losses, board his longboats and select another  

Viable, less well-defended town to raid.  Why risk funnelling his warriors down a   narrow causeway to break on the shields of the  angry and now emboldened local defenders?   Amazingly, he didn’t need to. Olaf brazenly  shouted a challenge to Byrthnoth that he  

Should allow his Norsemen to cross the causeway  to decide the contest on equal ground, like   “REAL” men. Unbelievably, Byrthnoth agreed. Whether it was bravado, or perhaps a calculated   decision on the East Saxon leader’s part to allow  the crossing so as to destroy the raiders once and  

For all before they could do anymore damage  elsewhere will never be truly known.   Whatever the case, Olaf and his troops  eagerly streamed across the land bridge,   screaming their battle cries. It was then that the two forces   clashed in the traditional manner: two great  shield walls splintering against one another,  

Each man attempting to hack an opening that could  be exploited and widened to break the enemy.   Perhaps shockingly to Olaf, Byrthnoth’s mostly  fyrd militia held their own and more than posed   a tricky challenge to the axes and blades of the  Norse contingent, killing many where they stood.  

The Vikings were well and truly suffering a proper  beating. But despite the valiant effort of the   defenders, the decisive moment came when the East  Saxon commander himself was fatally wounded, while   masterfully wielding his golden-hilted sword. Byrthnoth sunk beneath the shields of his host,  

His loyal companions forming around him to defend  his body and ultimately falling at the side of   their lord. Another man known as Godric,  however, who had also received Byrthnoth’s   gifts and favours took this opportunity to  shamefully flee on his own lord’s horse,  

Sealing his fate to death and legend. Many men who knew the horse, erroneously assumed   that Byrthnoth himself had fled and panic began  to crumble the East Saxon shieldwall. Yet even   then hope remained: a simple fyrdsman, known as  Dunnere remarkably managed to rally a significant  

Number around him to fight on. However, defeat  was by then inevitable as the Norse began   exploiting the cracks in the Saxon line. In a last stand, a certain Edward the   Tall – another loyal retainer of Byrthnoth – broke  out of his own shieldwall to hack desperately at  

His foes in an attempt to avenge his fallen  lord, but was – in his turn – cut down.   The savage battle finally ended, with  losses on BOTH sides so high that Olaf,   despite breaking the English lines, withdrew  from his attack on Maldon itself. This was no  

Doubt a consolation for the locals, whose  blood had reddened the earth that day.   The locals waited until the next day to retrieve  the body of Byrthnoth. They found his head was   cut off and taken, but the Vikings left  his golden-hilted sword by his side.  

This set-back for Olaf was only a temporary  respite overall, with Viking raids continuing   in later months. The raiders later  defeated a fleet sent from East Anglia   and the only solution was to buy them off. It was Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury,  

Who suggested the payment of a tax  to the Danes in exchange for peace,   which would become infamously known as the  “Danegeld.” King Æthelred paid Olaf a colossal   amount to leave England, some 10,000 Roman  pounds of silver, which is around 3,3 tons.  

But the price of temporary peace for the  kingdom only grew. Viking raids of 994,   1002, 1007, and 1012 resulted in  progressively higher danegelds.   Worse, such appeasement only  exacerbated the problem,   with ever increasing raids eventually giving  way to full-blown conquest by Cnut the Great.  

After defeating Æthelred’s son  King Edmund Ironside at Assandun,   Cnut collected 27 tons of silver from all over  England, as well as additional 3.9 tons of silver   from the city of London alone. Cnut’s victory led to the full   Danish conquest of the Anglo-Saxons and the  dispossession of the native House of Wessex.