Northumbria Mercia Wessex Map Link: British Isles about 802: <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/ british_isles_802.jpg>
730-825 Mercia dominant state in England 793 Vikings sack Lindisfarne 825-30 Egbert of Wessex (r. 802-39) defeats Mercians (825), conquers Mercia (829), defeats Welsh (830) víking 830s Vikings attack England víkingr 850s Vikings start settling in England
Map Link: Suggested Viking Routes: from 8th-11th Cent. CE: <http://www.roebuckclasses.com/maps/histmap/ vikingroutes.jpg>
851 Vikings sack London 860s and 870s Vikings receiving tributes from English kingdoms 876 Vikings settle in Northumbria 877 Vikings take eastern Mercia 878 Vikings invade Wessex Danelaw Alfred the Great of Wessex (r. 871-99)
878 Alfred defeats Vikings at Edington 885 Alfred and Vikings make peace Alfred: Lands south of Thames, (W. Mercia), Christianisation of Danes Danes: E. Anglia, E. Mercia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire
Map Link: England after 886: <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/ england_after_886.jpg>
Alfred’s Reconstruction of England System of burhs Peterborough Edinburgh Re-organising army Establishing navy 892-96 Wessex repels Viking attacks
Edward the Elder (r. 899-924) Aethelstan (r. 924-39) shires Map Link: England during the reign of King Aethelstan (924-39): <http://www.anglo-saxons.net/images/mapAthelstan.jpg>
Government of Anglo-Saxon State King: Theoretically elected Holds lands all over England Right to military support Receives judicial fines Represented by shire-reeves/sheriffs Appoints bishops and abbots Witangemot: Assembly of important men Chancery office: Issuing royal letters
Local courts: Meet regularly at county courts Each headed by ealdorman, sheriff, bishop Using customs, rites of compurgation and ordeal Monetary penalties, mostly…
Social Classes in Anglo-Saxon England Warrior nobility incl. ealdormen Ceorls - free peasants (by 9th c. more semi-free peasants and slaves) Churches as landowners, also expecting tithe and (on royal lands) Peter’s Pence/ church-scot
Alfred’s Intellectual Reforms Encouraging reading, writing, translation Four books “most necessary for all men to know:” Gregory I, Pastoral Care Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy Psalms 1-50 Bede, Ecclesiastical History Law Code
Beowulf One manuscript from c. 1000 in Old English (W. Saxon) Probably from Mercia or Northumbria, c. 700 Set in Scandinavia, 5th-6th c.
Geatish hero Beowulf comes to Heorot, hall of Danish king, to help defeat Grendel Kills Grendel and Grendel’s mother Rules home kingdom for 50 years, then kills dragon, dies in process. Funeral Map Link: Approximate map of Germanic tribes around Jutland at time of Beowulf: <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/ Beowulf_geography_names.png>