1. Northumbria Mercia Wessex
Map Link: British Isles about 802:
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british_isles_802.jpg>

2. 730-825 Mercia dominant state in England
793 Vikings sack Lindisfarne
Egbert of Wessex (r ) defeats
Mercians (825), conquers Mercia (829),
defeats Welsh (830)
víking
830s Vikings attack England víkingr
850s Vikings start settling in England

3. Map Link: Suggested Viking Routes: from 8th-11th Cent. CE:
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vikingroutes.jpg>

4. 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 )

5. 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

6. Map Link: England after 886:
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england_after_886.jpg>

7. Alfred’s Reconstruction of England
System of burhs Peterborough
Edinburgh
Re-organising army
Establishing navy
Wessex repels Viking attacks

8. Edward the Elder (r. 899-924) Aethelstan (r. 924-39) shires
Map Link: England during the reign of King Aethelstan
(924-39):
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9. 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

10. Local courts:
Meet regularly at county courts
Each headed by ealdorman, sheriff, bishop
Using customs, rites of compurgation and
ordeal
Monetary penalties, mostly…

11. 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

12. 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

13. Beowulf
One manuscript from
c in Old
English (W. Saxon)
Probably from Mercia or
Northumbria, c. 700
Set in Scandinavia,
5th-6th c.

14. 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:
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Beowulf_geography_names.png>