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The Frankish Empire, England & Ireland
ABOUT DENMARK
ABOUT DENMARK
History
The Viking Age
The Unification of the Country & Royal Power
Centralised Power Structure
The King's Income & the Size of the Kingdom
The Viking Expeditions
The Frankish Empire, England & Ireland
Trade & Towns
The Introduction of Christianity
The Structure of the Peasant Society
Farming
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The Frankish Empire, England & Ireland
From around 830, internal strife in the Frankish empire allowed Danish chieftains, who were often exiled members of the Danish royal family, to demand tributes from the Franks; others chose to fight alongside the Franks against other Vikings, or to take part in their internal battles.
The Viking raids culminated in the 880s with a prolonged siege of Paris. A number of chieftains were granted fiefs near the mouths of rivers in exchange for preventing other Vikings from gaining access to the waterways. Only a single fief, Normandy, was to last.
England and Ireland were regularly visited by Vikings from around 800. To begin with, they simply pillaged the area and disappeared again, but in time they stayed through the winter and took part in local conflicts as political parties, not least in Ireland.
In England, a Viking army managed to conquer three of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms 865-80, and the Danes settled here for good.
Place names point to a strong Danish influence in North and East England, even though the Danes in large parts of the area came under English kings before 920.
Renewed Viking raids on England towards the end of the 10th century finally allowed the Danish kings to conquer the country.
Svend Forkbeard (Svend I) began to demand tributes shortly after he became king of Denmark. He was quickly joined by other Viking chieftains from both Denmark, Norway and Sweden. He died in 1014 shortly after having conquered England, but Knud the Great reconquered the country in 1016. He became king of England, Denmark and Norway and even managed to gain some control in Sweden, but never managed to establish a lasting empire.
Niels Lund, Gyldendal Leksikon
Trade & Towns
Denmark traded extensively with the rest of Europe during the time of the Viking expeditions.
