The Danes of Sherwood and the

origins of Nottinghamshire

England

Kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria

Rædwald of East Anglia (599-624)Edwin of Northumbria (616-633)Offa of Mercia (757-796)Alfred of Wessex (871-899)

Sherwood

Land that later became Nottinghamshire had become part of Mercia by the 7th Century

England793 First recorded Viking raids on Northumbria

865 Danish 'Great Army' invades

869 Danish army moves on to York then East Anglia (870)

871 Alfred becomes King of the West Saxons

Sherwood

868 Danish army wintered in Nottingham

872 Danes return to Torksey and Repton (in 873)

877 Danish army divides Mercia, colonising the east

886 Treaty of Wedmore – East Midlands comes under the control of York

The Treaty of WedmoreThe agreement made between King Alfred and the Danish leader Guthrum at Wedmore proved a turning‐point in the Danish wars. From their fortified position at Chippenham the Danes had threatened to overrun all Wessex, but Alfred emerged from his refuge at Athelney, inflicted a severe defeat on the Danes at Edington, and forced peace on Guthrum on condition that he would himself accept baptism and that his army would leave Wessex. The Danes kept the substance of the arrangement, moving the army back to Cirencester and ultimately to East Anglia.

fromViking Age EnglandJulian D Richards

England

899 Death of Alfred. Edward (the Elder) becomes King of West Saxons.

910 Danes defeated at Tettenhall, Staffs. The Danes of York weakened. East Midlands left to defend itself

Sherwood899 Edward's rival Æthelwold becomes King of York

902 Norse control of York resumes

C10 S herwood Fores t extended at leas t 7 miles north of Mediaeval boundary (S tenton)

England

924 Death of Edward. Æthelstan becomes King of Wessex and Mercia

927 Æthelstan acknowledged as King of all England

Sherwood

918 Nottingham's defences reenforced by King Edward and manned with both English and Danes as defence against Norsemen from west

920 Borough of Nottingham established by the English

England

937 Norse Viking leader Olaf Guthrithson defeated at Brunanbugh

939 Olaf becomes King of Northumbria

939 Death of Æthelstan. Edmund his half-brother and brother of Edward the Elder becomes King of England

Sherwood

939 – 942 East Midlands submit to Norse Kingdom of Dublin and York but soon welcome back King Edmund

940 Five Boroughs of Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, Lincoln and Leicester established as a buffer against the north

England

946 Death of Edmund, murdered in a brawl. Eadred his brother becomes King of England

947 Kingdom of York comes under Norse control with Eric Bloodaxe as king

954 Eric Bloodaxe expelled from York

955 Death of Eadred. Eadwig his nephew and son of Edward the Elder becomes King of England

Sherwood

(East Midlands remains under West Saxon rule)

England

957 Edgar becomes King of Mercia and Northumbria, his elder brother Eadwig continues as King of Wessex.

957 Death of Eadwig. Edgar becomes King of all England

975 Death of Edgar. His son Edward (the Martyr) becomes King of England

978 Death of Edward., murdered by supporters of his younger half-brother Æthelred who then becomes King of England

Sherwood

960s King Edgar acknowledges autonomy of Danelaw in legislation. (e.g. in 962 he recognises wapentakes as means of governance)

England

991 First payment of Danegeld by Æthelred following the Battle of Maldon

993 Danes raid South Yorkshire and Lindsay

994 Danish raids increase, extorting payment in silver.

1002 Æthelred orders St Bride's day massacre of Danish men in England. Amongst those believed to have been killed are Gunhilde, the sister of King Sweyn of Denmark.

Sherwood

993 Five Boroughs not raided by Danes raising questions about their loyalty to English Crown

997 The Wantage Code mentions confederacy of the Five Boroughs

1002 No massacre in Danelaw

The Wantage CodeKing Æthelred of England issued this Old English law-code for the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw in 997, probably as part of a legislative pair with his Woodstock code which covered areas under English law. The Wantage code has a peculiarly Scandinavian vocabulary which probably reflects usage in that area. The code is chiefly concerned with the penalties for breach of peace, and includes regulations on the conduct of ordeals, arbitration and the clearance of condemned thieves. It includes perhaps the earliest description of a jury of presentment.

A superficial account of the events of 1012-1016!

The characters ...

Æthelred (the Unready) – King of EnglandEdmund (Ironside) – Æthelred's sonEadric (the Acquisitive) – Æthelred's son-in-lawSwein (Forkbeard) – King of DenmarkCnut (the Great) – S wein's second sonThorkell (the Tall) – Danish military leader

1012

Danish raiders defy leader Thorkell and kill Archbishop of Canterbury after Eadric has negotiated ransom

Thorkell loses authority over his men and goes over to Æthelred along with 45 ships

1013

Danish army returns under Swein, based at Gainsborough

Northumbria, Lindsey and the Five Boroughs submit to him

Danes move into rest of Mercia and beyond, towns submit apart from London which is held by Æthelred and Thorkell

Swein return to Gainsborough from Wessex

Æthelred flees to Normandy

Swein recognised as King of England

1014

Swein dies on 3rd February

Danish army pledges allegiance to Cnut

Leading Englishmen ask Æthelred to return on their terms stating that he should rule more justly

Cnut withdraws, leaving kingdom of Lindsay to be harried by Æthelred in revenge

Resentment in the Five Boroughs and the North against Æthelred and also Cnut for abandoning them

Thorkell rejoins Cnut in Denmark

1015

Edmund rebels against Æthelred and is accepted as their lord by the Five Boroughs

Cnut returns, ravaging Wessex

Eadric and Edmund join forces to oppose Cnut despite being enemies

Eadric changes sides leaving Cnut in control of West Mercia

Edmund devastates Eadric's land in Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire

Cnut moves into the Danelaw, Northumbria submits to him

1016

Æthelred dies in London on 23rd April

Edmund chosen as his successor

Cnut does not gain London despite long siege

Edmund gains control of Wessex

Cnut withdraws to East Anglia where he is defeated by Edmund at Otford

Eadric changes sides again to support Edmund but at the Battle of Ashington he takes flight and Edmund is defeated

1016 cont...

Edmund's supporters persuade Cnut to come to terms, giving Edmund Wessex and lands to the north of the Thames to Cnut

Edmund dies on 30th November

Wessex accept Cnut as king, making him ruler of all England

The Five Boroughs become part of the region controlled by Eadric but he is killed in 1017 on Cnut's orders

The Five Boroughs were re-organized into the four shires of Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham and Derby

1016 - First mention of Nottinghamshire in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle -

“Then prince Edmund rode to Northumbria to earl Uhtred, and everybody imagined that they would collect levies to oppose king Cnut, but they went into S taffordshire , and to S hrewsbury and to Ches ter, and harried on the ir s ide and Cnut on his . He went through Buckinghamshire into Bedfordshire , thence to Huntingdonshire , and so into Northamptonshire , and along the fen to S tamford, then into Lincolnshire , and thence into Nottinghamshire, and so to Northumbria towards York.”

The freemen of Sherwood

There are several possible reasons for there being more freemen within the Danelaw than elsewhere in England. Freedom may have been granted under Danish rule, the freemen may have been members of the Danish army, the freemen may have been Danish migrants following the colonisation of eastern England or there may have been more freemen throughout England but their rights were lost under Wessex and Mercian rule during the 10th century.

The following table taken from the Domesday survey of 1086 shows the status of the head of households in settlements in Bassetlaw within 10 kilometres of Thynghowe.

Across England the villagers were the largest group of unfree peasants otherwise known as villeins. Smallholders were also unfree peasants holding less land than the villagers. Freemen made up 14% of the English population in 1086 with highest figures in the counties that were part of the Danelaw. The local figure of 33% is well above the national average but well below the level of Lincolnshire. In 'The Free Peasantry of the Northern Danelaw ' F. M. Stenton calculated the average for Bassetlaw as 25.3%.

Location Households Villagers Freemen Smallholder Priest

Gleadthorpe 4 4

Budby -

Warsop 34 15 6 11 1

Cuckney 28 10 3 5 1

Clipstone 15 12 3

Rufford 10 10

Edwinstowe 5 4 1

Ollerton 15 4 11

Crastell 24 22 2

Eakring 19 4 9 5 1

Thoresby -

Perlethorpe 9 5 4

Carburton -

Walesby 7 1 11

Kirton 10 4 8 1

Bilsthorpe 19 13 6

Total 199 87 65 41 4

% 44 33 21 2

Domesday survey of 1086 - the status of the head of households in settlements in Bassetlaw within 10 kilometres of Thynghowe

Like the unfree peasants these freemen still owed allegiance to their lord who initially may have been their leader on the ship with whom they initially travelled across the North Sea. However, they would only have an obligation to work for their lord at certain times of the year and they had the right to dispose of their land as they wished.

Although many freemen retained their free status following the Norman conquest this did not protect them from falling into poverty and the loss of their independence. We can speculate whether their expectations of rights and freedoms influenced their attitude towards the increasingly oppressive regimes of the Plantagenet kings.

In the 13th century independent landowners were still giving Danish names to their children in the land of the former Five Boroughs ('Anglo-S axon England ' F. W. Stenton, p254)