Invasion of The Great Heathen Army - 865-878

That moment when you ask for some help with the shield patterns and you get possibly the best edit of one of your pics you've ever seen...
Huge thanks to the magnificent  for being a generally awesome guy and helping me out with the editing of this.
Here you may find the original pic: Original Picture

From around the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th centuries AD, the British Isles had numerous times faced waves of Danish and Norwegian raids along the coastlines of Britain. These had mainly been raids though, with no intention of conquering land but to sack towns and cities from their valueables. All this changed in 865 AD when, what the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes as, a "hæþen here", a "heathen army" landed on the shores of East Anglia with the direct intention of conquering the four kingdoms of England: East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. A coalition army of several Viking leaders had gathered into a combined force under the leadership of such warriors as Halfdan Ragnarsson, Ubba and, most notibly, Ivar the Boneless (all must have lived sometime during the mid 800's) who all claimed to be sons of the legendary Viking hero Ragnar Lodbrok (legendary, unknown), who according to the Ragnars saga Loðbrókar (Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok) was captured and executed by king Ælla of Northumbria (-867 AD). The circumstances of this execution are generally unknown. Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok suggests he was thrown into a pit of venomous snakes by the Northumbrian king, but the British Isles are generally lacking of poisonous snakes. Who knows even how he died?

After making peace with East Anglia in return for horses, the vikings marched on towards the kingdom of Northumbria. In 867, they captured the kingdom and its capital, York, defeating both the recently deposed King Osberht (-867 AD) and the usurper, the previously mentioned king Ælla, whom legends tell was blood eagled by Ivar the Boneless. The Danes then placed a puppet king in Northumbria, Ecgberht I of Northumbria (-873 AD) who ruled under Danish supremacy. The army then headed off towards the kingdom of Mercia, where they captured the city of Nottingham the same year. The king of Mercia, Burgred (reigned 852-874) meanwhile asked the king of Wessex, Æthelred I (c. 847-871 AD) for help, and king Æthelred and his brother Alfred (later Alfred the Great, 849-899 AD) led their army against the Danes at Nottingham, but the vikings refused to leave their fortifications. King Burgred then negotiated peace with Ivar, with the Vikings keeping Nottingham in exchange for leaving the rest of Mercia alone.

The Heathen Army continued their march under Ivar the Boneless in 869. They returned to East Anglia and defeated there its king, Edmund the martyr (by tradition 841-869 AD) who was executed on the orders of Ivar and Ubba when he refused to renounce his Christian belief. Once again, the brothers Æthelred and Alfred attempted to stop Ivar by attacking the Danes at Reading and again they were repelled and suffered heavy losses. The West Saxons would however face the Danes again at the Battle of Ashdown (8 January 871) where Alfred defeated the Danes. The Great Heathen army then retreated towards Hampshire where another battle was faught, which the West Saxons lost. At the battle of Marton (22 of March 871) Vikings under the leadership of Halfdan Ragnarsson defeated the West Saxons again and killed bishop Heahmund (term 867/868-871) who himself participated in the battle.

On 23 April 871, King Æthelred died and Alfred succeeded him as King of Wessex. Due to him now having an army weakened by the conflict, he had to make a truce with the Danes. During this peace, the Danes instead turned to the north and attacked Mercia again, a campaign that lasted until 874 and was led by the viking leader Guthrum (- c. 890). The peace was however broken when Guthrum and the Danes decided to capture the fortresses of Wareham and Exeter. Two years later, Guthrum again attacked Alfred's armies. But the Danes were shortly after defeated by the West Saxons at the battle of Cynwit (878) and finally defeating Guthrum at the battle of Edington (May 878). As a term of surrender, King Alfred demanded that Guthrum would be baptised as a Christian, which he was under the new name of Æthelstan.

After the whole nasty business and the wars, the Danes were allowed by Alfred the Great to settle in the areas around northern and eastern England, known as the Danelaw, which would be around until 954 when York was finally re-captured by the Saxons.

Now, wasn't that confusing?