England Before England | The Viking Kings of East Anglia

Before England was one kingdom, it was a land divided. The island that the Romans had once called Britannia had fractured into a patchwork of rival peoples and competing realms. In the east, along the coast of the North Sea, new settlers arrived from across the water, Angles, Saxons and Jutes seeking land, power and a future of their own. From these migrations emerged the Kingdom of East Anglia. Across those mist-covered fields, forests and waterways, a new royal dynasty rose to power. They were the Woofingers, the Kings of East Anglia. Their origins are wrapped in legend. Like many early Anglo-Saxon royal houses, they traced their ancestry back beyond mortal kings to the god Woden. Such claims were not simply stories told for entertainment. They gave a dynasty sacred authority. A ruler descended from Woden was not merely a successful warrior. He belonged to a line chosen by the divine powers of the old world. The first king of the East Anglians would be remembered as Weher. Very little is known about him. He stands at the edge of recorded history, a shadowy ruler whose life survives only through later genealogies. He may have helped unite the scattered Anglian communities of the region, gathering local leaders beneath the authority of a single royal house. After Weher came Woofer, a king from whom the dynasty took its name. Redwald was the greatest of the East Anglian kings, being recognised as Brettwalder, the Britain ruler or wide ruler. He ruled at a time when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were locked in a ruthless struggle for supremacy. His wealth and power may still be reflected in the magnificent ship burial at Sutton Hoo, where weapons, gold and treasures from across Europe were laid beside a dead king. He was also one of the first East Anglian rulers to encounter Christianity, but his conversion was far from complete. According to the historian Bede, Redwald kept both a Christian altar and altars to the old gods within the same temple. The generations that followed would face the same choice, preserve the traditions of their ancestors or accept the new faith spreading across Britain. Missionaries arrived, churches were founded and East Anglia gradually became a Christian kingdom. Its kings were no longer merely descendants of pagan gods, they were expected to rule beneath the authority of the Christian god. But conversion did not bring peace. By the 9th century, the wealth of England's monasteries and kingdoms had attracted a new enemy from across the North Sea. What began as scattered coastal raids, soon became something far more dangerous. In the year 865, the Great Heathen Army landed in England, not simply to plunder, but to conquer. Among its leaders were one of the most feared figures of the Viking Age, Ivar the Boneless. And standing in his path was Edmund, the Christian king of East Anglia. Their confrontation would end a royal dynasty, destroy a kingdom and transform Edmund from a defeated king into one of medieval England's most revered saints. In the year 865, the Great Heathen Army arrived in Anglo-Saxon England. Unlike the Viking raiders who had struck the coast and then disappeared across the sea, this was a large organised force that had come to remain and to conquer. The Vikings established their winter quarters in East Anglia. King Edmund and his people appeared to have made peace with the invaders, perhaps because they lacked the strength to resist them. During their stay, the Vikings obtained horses, transforming themselves from a force of seaborne warriors into a fast-moving mounted army capable of campaigning deep inland. In the following year, they rode north into the divided kingdom of Northumbria, its rival kings Osbert and Aella temporarily united against the invaders, but their resistance ended in disaster. The Vikings captured York and both Northumbrian kings were killed, Northumbria's political independence was broken and a puppet ruler was installed in the surviving part of the kingdom. In the year 869, the army returned south, it crossed Mercia and came again into East Anglia, establishing winter quarters at Thetford. The relationship between the invaders and the East Anglians had now changed completely. A few years earlier, Edmund had been able to purchase peace by providing horses and supplies. The Vikings had since defeated Northumbria, intimidated Mercia, and gathered the confidence and resources of repeated success. They were no longer passing through East Anglia as temporary guests, they had returned to conquer it. Later tradition particularly associates this invasion with Ivar the Boneless and Ubber. In the later martyrdom traditions, Ivar became the central enemy of the East Anglian king. Edmund gathered his warriors and attempted to resist the invasion, but the East Anglian army was defeated. Edmund was killed, either during the fighting or after being captured. His death marked the effective end of the independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia. The Vikings gained control of the region, its land, settlements and resources. The earliest surviving account of these events is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, its description is brief. It states that the army rode across Mercia into East Anglia, established winter quarters, and fought against King Edmund. The Vikings defeated the king, killed him, and conquered the whole kingdom. The chronicle says nothing about Edmund being tied to a tree, shot with arrows, or beheaded after refusing to abandon Christianity. It does not describe a conversation between Edmund and Ivar, nor does it portray his death as a deliberate imitation of the suffering of Christ. These details come from a later religious tradition rather than from a contemporary battlefield account. The most famous version of Edmund's martyrdom was written more than a century after his death by Abbo Efluri. According to this later tradition, the Viking leader Ivar sent a demanded that the king submit to him, hand over his wealth, and continue ruling only as a subordinate. Edmund would keep the title of king, but he would no longer possess true independence, his authority would depend entirely upon the will of the Viking conqueror. Edmund consulted one of his bishops, who advised him that it might be better to submit, rather than to allow more of his people to die. Edmund however refused to accept Ivar's conditions. He would not divide his treasure with an invader, betray his kingdom, or rule as the servant of a pagan warlord. In Abbo's telling, Edmund also refused to abandon Christianity. Edmund laid aside his weapons, presenting himself as a ruler who would rather die than cause further bloodshed or renounce his faith. The Viking warriors seized him, they mocked, insulted, and beat him before dragging him to a tree. There they bound him and whipped him. Abbo deliberately compared Edmund's suffering with the passion of Christ. Like Christ, Edmund was stripped, bound, humiliated, and tortured by his enemies. Throughout the ordeal, the king continued to call upon the name of Jesus. His refusal to submit enraged the Vikings. They began shooting arrows into his body, treating him as a target for their weapons. Arrow after arrow struck the helpless king. Abbo described Edmund as being so completely covered in missiles that he resembled a hedgehog, its body bristling with spines. Even then, according to legend, Edmund did not curse his attackers or beg for mercy. He continued praying and declaring his faith. When Ivar saw that Edmund would not be broken, he ordered that the king be killed. One of the Vikings then cut off Edmund's head. His body was abandoned, while the severed head was carried away and thrown deep into the surrounding woodland. The Vikings left the area, but Edmund's followers eventually returned in search of their king. They discovered his headless body, but could not find the head. The woodland was thick and difficult to search, but the king's companions feared that the animals might have carried it away. According to legend, they spread through the forest, calling to one another as they searched. Then, from somewhere among the trees, they heard a voice answering them. It seemed to say, hear, hear, hear. Following the sound, they discovered Edmund's head lying between the paws of a great wolf. Rather than consume it, the animal had guarded the sacred remains against other beasts. When the Christians approached, the wolf quietly surrendered the head and followed the funeral procession for a time before disappearing back into the forest. Edmund's followers carried the head to his body, where the two were placed together. The body was buried at Bury St Edmund's. The monastery grew around the shrine, and a cult of the martyred king became one of the most important religious traditions in medieval England. Stories of miracles multiplied. The sick were said to have been healed at Edmund's tomb. Kings, nobles and ordinary pilgrims travelled to honour him. At the time of his death, however, the immediate consequences were disastrous. East Anglia fell into political confusion, its native royal dynasty disappeared from effective rule, and its old institutions came under the authority of a conquering army. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia had not vanished geographically, but it had ceased to exist as an independent native monarchy. The land was now controlled by Viking leaders and the warriors who followed them. Estates were seized, tribute was collected. Over time, Scandinavian settlers began making permanent homes in the region. The conquest did not mean that every English inhabitant was killed or expelled. A new society gradually emerged. Danish warriors settled among Anglo-Saxon farmers and townspeople. Scandinavian personal names and place names appeared across the landscape. Old Norse words entered the local language, while new forms of trade and political organisation developed. East Anglia became part of the wider region later known as the Danelaw. This name described those areas of England where Danish settlement and Scandinavian legal customs were particularly strong. It included East Anglia, much of Northumbria, and important regions of the East Midlands. The Danelaw was not a single unified Viking nation with one permanent ruler. It contained separate kingdoms, armies, fortified towns and communities. Nevertheless, its existence marked a profound division and change within England. In the South and West, Wessex survived under Alfred the Great and his successors. In the North and East, Scandinavian rulers controlled extensive territories in which Danish customs influenced law, landholding, and government. East Anglia now belonged to this Viking-controlled world. In the final decades of the 9th century, England came closer to destruction than at almost any other moment in its history. Three of its four great Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had fallen before the Viking armies. Northumbria had been conquered, East Anglia had been overrun, Mercia had been divided and reduced to submission. Only Wessex remained, and leading the final Viking attempt to destroy it was a man named Guthrum, a pagan warlord whose origins remain mysterious, whose campaigns almost ended the kingdom of Alfred the Great, and whose eventual conversion helped create a new political order across England. Guthrum would begin his recorded life as an invader, he would end it as Æthelstan, Christian King of East Anglia. And between these two identities lies one of the most remarkable stories of the Viking Age. Nothing certain is known about Guthrum's birth, later writers have sometimes placed it in around the year 835, and described him as a Danish nobleman, but no contemporary source gives us a date, a birthplace, or the names of his parents. We do not know whether he came from Denmark itself, from one of the Danish controlled regions around the North Sea, or from a family already involved in Viking warfare overseas. By the early 870s, the old political order was collapsing, Ivar the Boneless disappears from the English record after the first phase of the conquest. Abba was later killed campaigning in the west, halved and established himself in Northumbria, where his followers divided land and began transforming themselves from a campaigning army into settlers. The Viking host was no single national army under one permanent king, it was a shifting coalition, able to divide, reunite, and accept fresh leaders. Warriors followed commanders who could provide treasure, land, and victory. It was within this changing military world that Guthrum rose to prominence. Guthrum appears clearly in the English record during the 870s. In the year 874, the Viking army drove King Buchered of Mercia overseas and replaced him with Sealwolf, a ruler who governed under Viking pressure. When the great heathen army divided and the Ragnarssons went their separate ways, Guthrum emerged as the commander of the Viking forces operating against southern England. His objective was Wessex. The West Saxons had already endured years of warfare. Alfred had become king in the year 871 after the death of his brother Æthelred. During that year alone, the West Saxons fought a series of major battles against Viking armies at Reading, Ashdown, Basing, and Merton. Alfred survived, but he had not destroyed his enemies. The Vikings continued to probe the borders of his kingdom, seeking the moment when Wessex might finally break. In the year 876, Guthrum's army slipped into Wessex and occupied Wareham in Dorset. The position gave the Vikings access to the coast and placed them inside Alfred's kingdom. Alfred attempted to negotiate, hostages were exchanged, and the Viking leaders swore oaths that they would leave Wessex. According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, they swore on a sacred ring, an object associated with their own religious traditions. But the agreement did not hold. Under the cover of darkness, a mounted Viking force escaped from Wareham and rode west to Exeter. Alfred pursued them, but was unable to prevent the occupation of the town. A Viking fleet intended to support the army, but was then struck by a storm at sea. Many ships were lost, weakening Guthrum's position. In the year 877, another peace was arranged, and the Vikings withdrew into Mercia. Once again, Wessex appears to have survived, but Guthrum did not abandon his ambition. He had discovered that treaties could buy time, that fortified towns could shelter his army, and that Alfred's kingdom could be penetrated by speed and surprise. His next attack would come when the West Saxons least expected it. In January of the year 878, during the Christian festival of Twelfth Night, Guthrum launched a sudden assault on the royal estate at Chippenham. It was a devastating move. Alfred appears to have been caught with only a small household force. The timing may have been deliberate. The king and his followers were celebrating a religious feast, while much of the West Saxon army had returned home. Guthrum seized Chippenham and overran much of Wessex. Many inhabitants submitted, others fled. Alfred escaped with a small band of followers into the marshes of Somerset. From a base at Athelne, surrounded by wetlands and difficult country, he began organising resistance. For a time, Guthrum seemed to have won. Northumbria had fallen, East Anglia had fallen, Mercia had fallen, and now the King of Wessex was a fugitive. Had Alfred been captured or killed during the winter of the year 878, Guthrum might have become the master of almost all Anglo-Saxon England. But Alfred remained alive. During the spring, messengers moved secretly through the West Saxon shires. Alfred summoned the men of Somerset, Wiltshire, and Western Hampshire to meet him. They came. To the West Saxons. Alfred's reappearance must have seemed almost miraculous. The king who had vanished into the marshes was alive, armed, and ready to fight. Alfred marched against Guthrum and met the Viking army at the Battle of Eddington. We are told that Alfred fought with the united strength of his forces and defeated the Vikings. Guthrum's army withdrew into a fortified stronghold. Alfred surrounded it. For fourteen days, the Vikings remained trapped, their supplies diminished, and hunger began to spread through the camp. Unable to escape, and unable to defeat Alfred in another battle, Guthrum asked for peace. He offered hostages, and promised to leave Wessex. But this time, Alfred demanded something more. Guthrum would become Christian. Several weeks after his surrender, Guthrum travelled with thirty of his leading warriors to Allor in Somerset. There he was baptised. Alfred stood as his sponsor, and received him as his spiritual son. Guthrum was given the Christian name Æthelstan, the name of an earlier West Saxon prince, and a name carrying unmistakably English royal associations. He and his companions then remained with Alfred for twelve days, during which they were honoured with gifts. This episode was both religious and political. Baptism brought Guthrum into the Christian community, but it also created a personal bond between the two kings. Alfred was no longer dealing only with a pagan enemy, who might swear an unfamiliar oath and later break it. Guthrum had accepted a Christian identity, and Alfred had become his ceremonial godfather. For Guthrum, Christianity offered legitimacy over a population that was still overwhelmingly Christian. For Alfred, Guthrum's baptism provided a new language through which peace might be maintained. The agreement made after Eddington is called the Peace Treaty of Wendmore, although no written document from that settlement survives. It should not be confused with the later written treaty of Alfred and Guthrum. In the year 879, Guthrum would move to East Anglia. Guthrum was not the first king in the history of East Anglia, its native dynasty had ruled for centuries before the Viking conquest. He was, however, the first securely recognised Danish king of Viking East Anglia. The old kingdom had been devastated by war, King Edmund was dead, the native royal line had disappeared from power, and Danish settlers now controlled much of the region. Guthrum transformed himself from a leader of a mobile warband into a territorial ruler. As king, he used his baptismal name, Æthelstan. Coins were issued in that name, following Christian and Anglo-Saxon royal traditions. Some of his coinage closely resembled that of Alfred, and the two kings may have even shared moneyers or minting arrangements. This suggests that their relationship became more complex than a simple division between Viking and Saxon. At some point after Guthrum's baptism and before his death, Alfred and Guthrum agreed to a written treaty. Its opening names them both as kings and states that the agreement was accepted by the leading men of the English and by the people living in East Anglia. The treaty established a frontier. It also addressed killings, compensation, trade, hostages, and movement between the two territories. This agreement is often described as the foundation of the Danelaw. The word Danelaw itself became common later, and neither Alfred nor Guthrum sat down to create a modern state with fixed national borders. The Danish-controlled territories were not a single perfectly united kingdom. They included different rulers, armies, towns, and settlement zones, from across East Anglia, the East Midlands, and Northumbria. Nevertheless, the treaty gave formal recognition to a divided England. To the south and west lay Alfred's kingdom. To the north and east lay lands ruled or occupied by Scandinavian leaders, and governed increasingly according to Danish customs. The frontier did not bring complete peace. Other Viking forces continued to raid England, and Alfred continued strengthening his towns, navy, and army. But Guthrum appears to have honoured this central agreement. When another Viking army arrived in England during the 880s, Guthrum did not resume his great war against Wessex. The pagan commander who had once driven Alfred into hiding became a settled Christian king with a realm of his own. Guthrum ruled East Anglia until his death in approximately the year 890. There is no detailed account of his final illness or death. We do not know whether he left sons, although a later ruler named Eoric succeeded him in East Anglia. Eoric would become one of the most obscure kings in English history, a man whose birth, ancestry, and ascension were never recorded, but whose final decision helped plunge southern England back into war. For more than a decade, Eoric ruled a Danish kingdom surrounded by uneasy enemies. Almost nothing is known about his early life. No surviving source gives us a year or place of his birth. The identities of his parents are unknown, and there is no reliable genealogy connecting him to Guthrum or to the famous Viking leaders of the Great Heathen Army. He may have belonged to the warrior aristocracy that settled in East Anglia after the year 879. He could have been chosen by the army, raised to power by a group of leading landholders, or recognised because of some relationship with Guthrum. Later king lists frequently place Eoric's ascension in the year 890, immediately after Guthrum's death. This is a reasonable reconstruction, but it is not confirmed by a surviving account of a coronation or succession. What can be said with confidence is that by the beginning of the 10th century, Eoric was recognised as the king of the East Anglian Danes. When the Anglo-Saxon chronicle described his death, it called him their king, the king of the East Anglian army. They did not enter an empty land. They took control of an inhabited Christian kingdom containing estates, churches, trading communities, and established systems of taxation and coinage. The conquerors therefore had to adapt. Guthrum's coins were issued under his Christian name Æthelstan. After his death, however, East Anglian coinage largely ceased to name its living ruler. Instead, many coins carried the name and symbols of Saint Edmund, the very king killed during the Viking conquest. This was a remarkable development. Within a generation of Edmund's death, Scandinavian-controlled East Anglia was producing money in honour of the Christian martyr. It may indicate that Danish rulers recognised Edmund's popularity among their English subjects. It may also reflect the conversion of some settlers and the merging of Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon religious traditions. Eoric's realm formed part of the region later remembered as the Danelaw. Thetford was becoming an important settlement and was well placed near the centre of Danish East Anglia. Norwich and Ipswich were also significant communities, yet no surviving source identifies Eoric's principal hall, court, or burial place. His kingdom existed beside that of Alfred the Great, with a frontier broadly defined by the earlier agreement between Alfred and Guthrum. For much of Eoric's reign, peace appears to have held. That does not mean the border was quiet or that all hostility had ended. Viking fleets continued to appear in England and Alfred spent the final years of his life defending Wessex against renewed attacks. But Eoric is not named as one of the leaders of those campaigns. He may have avoided joining the new Viking armies that attacked Alfred during the 890s. Perhaps he respected Guthrum's agreement, perhaps he was occupied with consolidating his rule, or perhaps the silence of the sources simply conceals his involvement. Whatever the truth, the decisive crisis of Eoric's reign began not with a new invader from Scandinavia, but with a prince born inside the royal house of Wessex. In the year 899, Alfred the Great died. His son Edward, later known as Edward the Elder, succeeded him. But Edward was not the only man with a claim to the West Saxon throne. His cousin Æthelwold was the son of King Æthelred, Alfred's elder brother and predecessor. Æthelwold could argue that his own father had been king before Alfred and that he possessed a legitimate place within the royal succession. When Æthelred had died in the year 871, his sons had been children, Alfred had taken the throne during a period of extreme military danger. By the time Alfred died almost thirty years later, his own adult son was prepared to succeed him. Æthelwold was left outside power. He responded by seizing the royal estates at Wimborne and Christchurch in Dorset. At Wimborne, he took possession of a fortified position associated with his father's burial place and declared his intent to remain there. Edward gathered an army against him. Æthelwold's support collapsed and he fled during the night. He abandoned a woman whom he had reportedly taken without royal permission, and he escaped from Wessex. But the rebellion was not over. Æthelwold travelled north, into the Scandinavian-controlled territories. One version of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle states that the Northumbrian Danes accepted him as king. For the Vikings, he offered an extraordinary opportunity. Æthelwold was not merely another raider or mercenary, he was a member of the West Saxon royal dynasty. With Danish military support, he might defeat Edward and claim Wessex from within its own ruling family. A successful Æthelwold could become a dependent ally of the Danelor, or perhaps the ruler who finally brought Alfred's kingdom into the Scandinavian political world. Æthelwold eventually returned south with ships and established himself in Essex. There he drew closer to the East Anglian Danes and to King Eoric. Why Eoric chose to support him is unknown. The alliance may have offered land or plunder, it may have been intended to weaken Edward before Wessex became powerful enough to attack the Danelor. Eoric may have believed Æthelwold was the rightful king, or simply that he would be a more useful neighbour than Alfred's son. There may also have been internal pressure. A Viking king at the time could not necessarily command his warriors as an absolute monarch, his authority depended upon his reputation, his ability to reward followers, and willingness to protect their interests. If powerful men within East Anglia wanted war, Eoric may have found it dangerous to refuse them. In around the year 902, Æthelwold persuaded the East Anglian army to break the peace. Eoric had ruled for perhaps twelve years without appearing prominently in the surviving record. Now with a single decision, he placed his kingdom at the centre of a dynastic war for Wessex. Eoric's East Anglian army marched westward with Æthelwold. They crossed into English Mercia, ravaging the country as they advanced. The campaign penetrated deeply into Edward's territory. Settlements were attacked, livestock driven away, and moveable wealth seized. The invaders were doing more than collecting plunder, they were demonstrating that Edward could not protect the lands that had passed to him from his father. But Edward did not immediately force them into battle. By the time he assembled his army and began the pursuit, the East Anglians were already withdrawing towards their own kingdom. Edward therefore changed his strategy. Instead of continuing to chase the raiders, he invaded East Anglia itself. His army crossed the frontier and ravaged Eoric's lands, between the defensive earthworks traditionally identified as the Devil's Dyke and the River Ouse, advancing northwards toward the Fens. The campaign was an act of calculated retaliation. If Eoric could burn and plunder Edward's kingdom, Edward would do the same to his. The East Anglian army was forced to turn back and defend its own territory. Edward eventually ordered his forces to withdraw from East Anglia. The king sent instructions throughout his army that every contingent should retreat together. Most obeyed, the men of Kent did not. Edward reportedly sent seven messengers ordering them to withdraw, but they remained behind. Why they disobeyed is uncertain. They may have been delayed while gathering plunder, they may have not believed themselves to be in immediate danger. Whatever the reason, the Kentish contingent became separated from the main West Saxon army. Eoric and Aethelwold recognised their opportunity. The East Anglian forces surrounded the isolated men of Kent at a place the chronicle calls home. There on the 13th of December of the year 902, according to the traditional dating, the two armies fought. We do not know how many warriors stood on each side. We do not know whether Eoric commanded from horseback or fought on foot within a shield wall. Nor do we know whether Aethelwold carried the symbols of a West Saxon prince into battle beside Danish banners. The chronicle preserves only the result and the names of some of the dead. The chronicle states that the Danes remained masters of the field, suggesting that they won the immediate battle. The Kentish force had been defeated and Eoric's warriors held the place of slaughter, but their victory came at a catastrophic price. Eoric was killed. Aethelwold was killed beside him. The East Anglians had won the field, but lost both their king and the prince for whom the war had been fought. The Battle of Holme ended Aethelwold's rebellion. With Aethelwold dead, no rival remained who could challenge Edward with an equally strong claim throughout the West Saxon royal house. Eoric's death was equally important. The obscure Danish king had committed East Anglia to war, intended to weaken or overthrow Edward. His forces had defeated the Kentish contingent, but the campaign had failed to remove the West Saxon king. Edward remained alive, while East Anglia had lost its ruler and many of its leading warriors. In the year 906, Edward reached a peace with the armies of East Anglia and Northumbria. The surviving account says that he did so from necessity, suggesting that the Danes remained powerful despite their losses. Eoric's death did not immediately end Viking rule in East Anglia. For another 15 years, the region remained outside Edward's direct authority. We possess no description of Eoric's appearance, personality or court. We do not know whether he was born a pagan or raised as a Christian, whether he spoke English, or whether he considered himself the successor of Guthrum, Edmund or both. After the death of King Eoric at the Battle of Holm, the Danish kingdom of East Anglia passed into the hands of another ruler. His name was Guthrum, remembered by later historians as Guthrum II to distinguish him from the famous Viking king defeated and baptised by Alfred the Great. Guthrum II inherited a kingdom created through invasion, settlement and compromise. The new king ruled an increasingly Anglo-Scandinavian society. Danish warriors lived beside Christian English farmers and townspeople. Scandinavian customs survived, but Christianity was becoming more firmly established among the settlers. Almost nothing is recorded about the birth or ancestry of Guthrum II. He may have belonged to the Danish military aristocracy established in East Anglia after the settlement of Guthrum's first army. He may have been related to one of the earlier kings, or he may have risen through his own reputation among the warriors and landholders of the kingdom. In the year 906, peace was made between Edward and the Danish powers of East Anglia and Northumbria. This agreement brought a temporary end to the fighting and allowed Guthrum II to strengthen his position. The settlement has traditionally been connected with the legal text known as the Laws of Edward and Guthrum. The document describes an agreement between King Edward and King Guthrum and attempts to establish common rules for English and Danish communities. But Edward the Elder was determined to continue the work begun by his father. Alfred had saved Wessex from destruction and created a system of fortified towns known as boroughs. Edward transformed that defensive network into a weapon of conquest. He was assisted by his sister Æthelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians. After the death of her husband Æthelred, she governed English Mercia and became one of the powerful rulers in Britain. Together Edward and Æthelflaed constructed and strengthened fortifications along the borders of the Danelaw. Each new borough protected English territory, while placing nearby Danish lands under pressure. The strategy was slow, organized and highly effective. Instead of depending upon a single great battle, the West Saxons and Mercians advanced one fortress at a time. Roads, river crossings and agricultural districts were brought under their control. Danish strongholds gradually became isolated. Local rulers faced the choice between resisting Edward's armies or submitting before their lands were devastated. For several years, Guthrum maintained the independence of East Anglia, while Edward concentrated upon the territories of the Midlands. But the frontier was moving steadily eastward. The Danish armies were still dangerous. They launched attacks upon English positions as they attempted to destroy the fortifications before they could be completed. However, Edward's forces were increasingly capable of holding their ground. In the year 911, the English defeated an Northumbrian Viking army at Battle of Tettenhall. Several important Danish kings and commanders were killed. The victory weakened Scandinavian military power and reduced the possibility that East Anglia could depend upon a large-scale assistance from the north. Æthelflaed then expanded Mercian power toward the Danish towns of the Midlands. The peace established earlier between Edward and Guthrum could not last indefinitely. Edward no longer saw the Danish territories as merely neighbouring kingdoms. He increasingly presented himself as the protector and overlord of the English people living under Viking rule. This gave his campaign both political and religious purpose. To his supporters, Edward was not simply conquering foreign territory. He was recovering lands that had once belonged to Christian Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. For Guthrum and the East Anglian Danes, the same campaigns represented a direct threat to the society they had built. Many of the settlers had lived in England for decades. Some had been born there. East Anglia was no longer merely conquered territory, it was their home. The decisive struggle came in the year Edward launched a major and carefully coordinated campaign against the remaining Danish strongholds. His armies moved through eastern and central England, constructing fortifications and attacking enemy positions. The East Anglians responded with force. Danish troops attacked English boroughs and attempted to halt Edward's advance before it reached the heart of their kingdom. One East Anglian force joined warriors from other Danish territories in attacking a newly established English position. The attack failed and many Danish fighters were killed. Another army attempted to strike Edward's forces near Bedford, but were also defeated. The English fortifications held and the Danish commanders could not prevent Edward from tightening his control over the region. Edward then moved against East Anglia itself. The fortified position at Witham allowed West Saxon forces to operate close to the kingdom's frontier. From there, Edward could threaten important routes leading towards the East Anglian interior. The Danish armies fought to defend their independence, but the balance of power had shifted. Edward possessed an organized system of fortresses, supplies, and regional armies. Guthrum's forces could still raid and fight, but they could not easily destroy the network surrounding them. As the English advance continued, communities within Danish territory began to submit. Edward offered protection to those who accepted his authority, weakening the ability of the Viking leaders to maintain a united resistance. Guthrum's kingdom was eventually subdued. The final submission of East Anglia came during the campaigns of the year 917. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that the army of East Anglia accepted Edward as its lord and promised to obey him and protect everything he protected. This marked the end of the independent Danish kingdom founded by the first Guthrum. The details of Guthrum II's final fate are not recorded. He may have died during the campaigns, perhaps fighting against Edward's advancing forces. He may have been removed when the East Anglian army submitted, or he may have accepted Edward's overlordship and retained a lesser position for a time. Traditional accounts often place his death in around the year 917 or 918, connecting it with the fall of his kingdom. Whatever happened to him personally, his power as an independent king had ended. Edward did not destroy the Scandinavian population of East Anglia. The Danish settlers remained upon their lands, and their descendants continued to shape the language, customs, and identity of the region. The former subjects of Guthrum became subjects of Edward. Danish warriors and landowners were gradually incorporated into the same political system as the Anglo-Saxon population. This process would continue beneath Edward's son Æthelstan, who eventually became the first king to exercise authority over almost all of England. Guthrum II stands at the end of the independent Danish monarchy in East Anglia. East Anglia had passed from an Anglo-Saxon kingdom to Viking conquest, from the rule of the Wüffingers to the kings of the Danelaw, and finally into the United Kingdom of England. Its independence disappeared, but its mixed Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian inheritance endured, preserved in its towns, its language, its legends, and the memory of its kings such as Redwald, Edmund, and Guthrum. I would like to give a huge thank you to all of my members, your contribution really helps make all of these videos possible. A special thank you to Stephanie Hassan, Theresa Laux, and John Sites. If you enjoyed the video, be sure to like, subscribe, and share, and I'll see you all soon for another history profile.