Viking invasion of the British isles
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this event you can find it here:All Statistics
Was the Viking invasion of the British Isles that started with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in 865 and resulted in the establishment of the Danelaw, the part of England dominated by the Danes.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
January 875: Repton was conquered in 873/874 by the Great Heathen Army led by the Viking leaders Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson, and Guthrum. This victory marked the expansion of the Danelaw territory in England.
November 865: The Viking army moved north across the Humber into Northumbria, which was torn by disputes over the throne, and took its capital York on November 1. Northumbria with its capital York subsequently became a Scandinavian-dominated kingdom.
January 878: In 877 the Danes seized the eastern part of Mercia, which became part of the Danelaw.
April 878: In 878 the Danes invaded Wessex again, using Chippenham as a base and taking control of much of Wessex.
November 874: The main army moved to Cambridge in 874. From there another attempt was made in 875 to conquer the last remaining Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Unopposed, the army made it as far as Wareham on the Channel coast, where it spent the following winter.
January 871: In 870, the Anglo-Saxon King Edmund was martyred by the invading Danish army led by Guthrum. The Danes then took control of Reading, an important town on the Thames River, as part of their conquest of the region known as Danelaw.
January 903: 902: Essex submits to Æthelwald.
April 865: Arrival of the Great Danish Army in East Anglia in 865.
December 865: In the same year, the Viking army moved north across the Humber into Northumbria, which was torn apart by disputes over the throne, and took its capital, York, on November 1st.
March 867: The rivals for the Northumbrian throne Osberht and Ælle combined their forces against the Vikings, but were defeated on March 21, 867. Halfdan Ragnarsson was a Viking leader of the Great Heathen Army which invaded England in 865. He allegedly wanted revenge against Northumbria for the death of his father, who was supposedly killed by Ælla of Northumbria. While he himself only ruled Northumbria directly for about a year in 876, he placed Ecgberht on the throne as a client-king, who ruled from 867 to 872.
December 869: In 869, the Danes continued their invasion by occupying East Anglia (winter quarters in Thetford), defeated King Edmund of East Anglia near Hoxne in November 869 and thus finally annexed his kingdom to their possessions.
January 872: The Vikings retreated to London after a truce wit the king of Wessex.
January 872: A new Danish fleet entering the Thames in 871 reinforced the Great Army at Reading. Alfred, who had taken over the regency of Wessex from his brother Æthelred, who died in 871, was unable to gain a decisive advantage despite nine further battles, and the exhausted opponents concluded a truce.
January 873: Torksey conquered by Danelaw.
January 876: Both Orkney and Shetland saw a significant influx of Norwegian settlers during the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Vikings made the islands the headquarters of their pirate expeditions carried out against Norway and the coasts of mainland Scotland. In response, Norwegian king Harald Fairhair annexed the Northern Isles, comprising Orkney and Shetland, in 875.
January 877: The Danish army moves to Exteter.
January 878: After negotiations, the Danes withdrew to Gloucester in Mercia in 877.
November 878: In the spring of 878, Alfred and his now assembled army defeated the Vikings at Edington so badly that after the subsequent siege of their Chippenham headquarters, they agreed to negotiations that led to the Treaty of Wedmore. The Viking leader, Guthrum, was baptized with thirty of his followers, provided hostages and moved from Wessex to Cirencester in Mercia during the year.
January 881: In the Middle Ages, Caithness came under the control of the Norwegian Jarle of Orkney. […] According to the Landnámabók, Thorstein Olafsson (fl c. 850-c. 880) and Sigurd Eysteinsson “conquered Caithness, Sutherland and Moray, and more than half of Argyll [and] Thorstein ruled over these territories as King”.
January 881: Sutherland was part of the Caithness mormaerdom for most of this title's history.
January 885: In 884, Guthrum, a Viking leader of the Great Heathen Army, attacked Kent.
February 885: In 884, Guthrum, a Viking leader of the Great Heathen Army, attacked Kent but was ultimately defeated by the English forces led by King Alfred the Great of the Kingdom of Wessex.
January 896: According to the Orkneyinga Saga, in about 872 Harald Fairhair became king of a united Norway and many of his opponents fled to the islands of Scotland including the Hebrides of the west coast, and the Northern Isles. Harald pursued his enemies and incorporated the Northern Isles into his kingdom in 875 and then, perhaps a little over a decade later, the Hebrides as well.
January 904: Æthelwald incited the East Anglian Danes into breaking the peace. They ravaged Mercia before winning a pyrrhic victory that saw the death of Æthelwald and the Danish King Eohric.
February 904: Æthelwald incited the East Anglian Danes into breaking the peace. They ravaged Mercia before winning a pyrrhic victory that saw the death of Æthelwald and the Danish King Eohric.
January 918: In return for peace and protection, the Kingdoms of Essex and East Anglia accept Edward the Elder of Wessex as their suzerain overlord.
July 918: In return for peace and protection, the Kingdoms of Essex and East Anglia accept Edward the Elder of Wessex as their suzerain overlord.
January 955: The Kingdom of Jórvík was invaded and conquered for short periods by Anglo-Saxons between 927 and 954 before eventually being annexed by them in 954.
