Edward’s son Æthelstan (r.924–39) advanced still further: in 937 he destroyed a coalition of Vikings and Scots, and became known as ‘Ruler of All Britain’. Its leader, Guthrum, accepted Christian baptism, and agreed a treaty which allowed the Vikings to control much of northern and eastern England – the Danelaw.īut from the 910s King Edward the Elder (r.899–924) and his sister Æthelflaed, the ‘Lady of the Mercians’, conquered the Danelaw south of the Humber. King Alfred of Wessex (r.871–99) defeated the Viking army decisively at Edington (878). Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia all fell, leaving only Wessex to fight on. Then in 865 an invading ‘Great Army’ began plundering from kingdom to kingdom, extorting protection money. Sporadic Viking raids began in the 790s, Lindisfarne Priory in Northumbria was an early victim. But by the 650s, almost all the lowlands were under English control. In independent kingdoms across the north and west, the British also resisted the repeated onslaughts of the peoples who were later called ‘English’. This British victory halted the Saxon advance for half a century. Only the last, in about 500, is confirmed in earlier sources – but it makes no mention of Arthur. A record made three centuries later credits him with 12 battles, from Scotland to the south coast. It’s during this early period that the figure of Arthur – possibly completely legendary – emerges. The Britons successfully counter-attacked, however, at first under Ambrosius Aurelianus, ‘the last of the Romans’. We don’t know exactly how they invaded or settled in England, but by AD 500 Germanic speakers seem to have settled deep into Britain. Later, Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived from across the North Sea. At first, the chief enemies of an independent Britain were Irish raiders from the west and Picts from the north.
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