Vikings in England
Analysis
Commense of Viking Raids
Before the vikings attacked England for the first time, the Romans had abandoned England and taken all the knowledge and money with them. Later they were also invaded by the Anglo Saxon and suffered a huge damage. England resulted being a poor and weak country, both in defense and in economy. With time those who had invaded England became Christians; now the church became both rich with an authority of great importance and political power. Their wealth was shown in the ecclesiastical finery of gold, jewellery and relics their churches contained. This made the churches and monastaries the main target for the Vikings. But they still had a weak defense because the people that ruled England at that time weren’t a fully united people. The wealth of the churches and monastaries was not the only reason for the success of the Vikings in the area. There were also great conflicts between the different districs in the British Isles that made the people weak and tired and easy to manipulate. The Vikings first big and well known attack against England was the attack on the island Lindisfarne in the year 793 AD. But it’s believed that it wasn’t the first time England was attacked because there have been foundings of Viking civilization on small isles outside of England, and that Viking raids departed from this isles, plunderings the coast of Scotland and England.
England lost their power, reflecting the civil war then raging in Scandinavia, but towards the end of the century raids from Denmark increased. On the other hand the Vikings were interested in taking over France because during that time Paris was a big, free trading centre. So they have to have known something about trade. Under the Charlemagne and his successor, Louis the Pious, the Carolingian Empire proved to be too strong for the Vikings, but after his dead they raided the areas round the Seine and the Loire. As England, France were prepared to be bought off by ‘Danegeld’ (meaning ‘Dane Debt’ or Dane payment). The Vikings managed to take over the control of France, including the whole trading route. To take control of the whole nation they had to take over the power from the king, whom lived in Paris. Once again they managed to do this because the king had more importanat problems to worry about (such as family issues, his brother).
Goals for Attacks
The reason why the Vikings plundered England was because of the wealth they knew existed in the monasteries, and they used the weak defense around the churches to succeed with their attacks. The English trusted that nothing would happen to them because the rest of europe was as weak as them at that time, but also they believed that Europe’s popaulation was Christian and didn’t think that anyone would attack their own church. But what they didn’t know was that Scandinavia was populated by people who neither belived in God nor Jesus. The Vikings wanted to the power over England. They wanted to rule over the land. This is a similar goal to the goal that the Vikings had when they occupied parts of France, but these Vikings wanted to control Paris because the city was the heart of the trading in Europe. When the Vikings got the power over Paris, they had total controll of the trading in europe and this made them the most powerful. The Vikings also wanted to own land so that they could settle down and live in the country as farmers but also to get closer to other countries that they wanted to colonize. They were not only warriors and pirates, however, but also merchants, famers and skilled craftsmen.
Tactics
When the Vikings started to plunder France, they raided the small towns along the coast line which resulted in a weaker French defense. And they realized that the closer they came to Paris, the richer the towns were. The French king, Carl the Great died and that made the defense even more weak. The Vikings took the opportunity to attac whenever a country was at its weakest point (e.g. a royal tragedy or a civil war). They managed to take control of Paris because the king had more important issues to worry about at that time (he had disagreements with his brother). And they were able to take over England because the nation was divided into small regions which fought with each other. This made the people weak, tired and easy to manipulate. As other colonizers, the Vikings had certain techniques for their attacks. They usually attacked a country by its coastline (rivers, sea) using their special constructed ships for such landbased occupations. The Vikings used to attack England each year and plunder, but realizing that England had a weak defense, they settled down in small regions. The weak English defense made it easy for the Vikings to disembark and walk straight into the city or land that they wanted to plunder. Another tactic they used was to present themselves as traders, but as soon as they had the opportunity to attack they put down their „scales“ and drew their swords.
Methods Used for Taking Over Land
In the beginning of the 10th century, France was ravaged by a ruthless Viking leader named Rollo (also called Rolf/Rollon). Rollo started to negotiate with the French king about a bit land to settle down in. The French king Carl the Foolish invited Rollo and his men to settle down in north-west France, which was and still is Normandy. Rollo accepted the French king’s offer and year 911 Rollo got Normandy which made him the
leader of that area, he also had the responsibility to protect it. The French king was not as foolish as he seemed to be, because now that Rollo was the leader of Normandy he had a great protection against Vikings, because other Vikings didn’t attack areas that had already been occupied by other Vikings. They thought it would be an attack against there own people. But some other Vikings did attack France and they attacked the cities by burning them down to the ground and those Vikings were not so peaceful as Rollo. They did not ask the king for permission to go on land. In England they plundered instead of negotiating.. They did not do as Rollo. They just went in and took over the land with violence. Then when they discovered that the country were easy to take over they settle down and started to build up there own community, the Danelaw. There were also other districts in England, and the biggest one was the Anglo Saxons territory. The Vikings discovered that Anglo Saxons’ territory was easy to take over because that area was not so well organized. That made it easy for the Vikings to explore new territories in different parts of the country.