When the Norse started raiding the English coast in search of gold and riches, they were
driven by their own greed and lust for warfare.
But when the Vikings started to settle the British Isles, they were driven by the necessity
to survive.
There wasn’t enough land in the overpopulated Scandinavia to feed everyone.
Thus, the Vikings colonized parts of England, establishing what is known today as the Danelaw.
Today, we are going to analyze how the Norse founded their settlements, developed their
towns, and defended themselves from Anglo-Saxon counter-attacks.
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Contrary to the common belief that the English countryside was unsettled, when the Vikings
arrived at the British Isles, they found England intensively farmed, with few open spaces where
they could establish their own villages.
This meant that they could only take the land by conquest.
The Norse staged invasion after invasion, gaining control of entire English estates
with the established administrative structures.
Some Viking leaders also purchased estates from the Anglo-Saxons, especially in northwestern
England, where many places have names like Copeland, which means bought land in Old Norse.
Once the Vikings had successfully acquired the lands, the leaders would then divide the
estates amongst their followers in reward for military service, and they would expect
to receive tribute whether the land was held by Norsemen or by Anglo-Saxons.
The Vikings started the development of their settlements, with the most important towns
being York and the Five Boroughs[1].
Probably the most important town of the Danelaw, York was first captured in the late 9th Century
by the large Danish army known today as the Great Heathen Army.
With the fall of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, the Vikings established themselves
in the port of Eoforwic, the southern capital of the realm.
They then renamed the town to Jorvik, which developed with time into modern York.
During Viking rule, York is described as a large compost heap, composed of rotting wooden
buildings with earth floors covered by decaying vegetation, surrounded by streets and yards
filled by a mix of discarded building materials, food remains, and human waste, creating a
huge sanitarian problem for the Vikings.
Yet although the exterior of the properties were foul and disgusting, their insides had
been tolerably cleanly maintained.
Around their capital, many Danish and Norse settlements were then founded, mostly small
farms.
But despite their size, they had a huge effect on English society, shown by the introduction
of a large number of Scandinavian words associated with farming into the English language.
Some of the Danish farmers then sailed up the rivers of the East Midlands and found
sparsely settled arable land.
Many villages were then settled, with names of a recognizable Scandinavian origin ending
in the prefixes –by, which means village, and –thorpe, which means farm.
For example, Derby means deer village in Old Norse.
Among the ruins of Roman-era stone buildings, the Vikings erected their characteristic timber
buildings, taking advantage of Roman defenses in the area.
In the case of York[2] for example, the Viking rulers apparently renovated its defenses so
as to enclose an area bounded by the Roman walls to the north and west, and the rivers
Ouse [ooz] and Foss to the south and east, thereby enclosing the riverside area to the
east of the Roman fortress.
An earthen bank surmounted by a palisade was then constructed along the northeast and north-west
sides of the fortress, and was probably extended down to the rivers.
It has been suggested that the Viking royal palace may have been sited near the south-east
gate of the legionary fortress in King’s Square, known to the Norsemen as Konungsgurtha,
and there may also have been a defended bridgehead east of the river Foss, as there was occupation
and industrial activity in the Walmgate area.
Even excluding this settlement east of the Foss, the total enclosed area of Viking York
was some 87 acres, making it larger than the major Scandinavian towns at Hedeby and Birka.
Southwest of the river Ouse, the area of the former Roman colonia was also occupied and
defended by medieval walls.
There, a new bridge was built across the Ouse to the east of the Roman one, with Micklegate
street diverging from its Roman course heading for the new crossing.
In Lincoln, we can see that when the Danes arrived they maintained the existing framework,
but they also laid out new streets and houses, including Flaxengate and Grantham Street.
The same applies for York, where we have a wide variety[3] of Norse streets including
the aforementioned Micklegate and Walmgate.
Timber buildings and rubbish pits have been found along Micklegate and on Skeldergate,
and there’s evidence that the Viking thoroughfare across the Ouse was focused on the Coppergate,
Ousegate, and Pavement[4] areas.
There, evidence for intensive occupation have been found at High Ousegate, including cellared
buildings once thought to be plank-lined tanning pits, and there’s also evidence of timber
buildings housing leather workers excavated within the basement of Lloyd’s Bank in Pavement
street.
Lastly, we can describe Coppergate as a street with a series of long narrow tenements defined
by wattle fence alignments running back down towards the Foss.
On the four tenements of Coppergate, post and wattle buildings were erected on the street
frontage with their gable ends facing the street.
Their backyard areas were riddled with pits acting as wells, latrines, and cesspits, with
some of the pits also being used for storage.
Within the buildings there is evidence that iron working and other crafts were carried
out on a commercial scale, with two of the tenements used for metalworking, including
copper and lead alloys, silver and gold, as well as iron.
Going southwards, we can find a collection of burgs in the East Midlands called the Five
Boroughs, which were ruled by some semi-independent Jarls, although they were probably vassals
of the neighboring Kingdom of Jorvik.
The burgs were towns that didn’t originate as trading sites, but as defended forts instead.
The Anglo-Saxons built burgs to defend themselves from the Viking threat, and the Norsemen did
as well to defend their recently conquered territory.
Most of the Viking towns held a number of characteristics in common, including their
position on navigable rivers[5].
In comparison with York or the towns in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex, the Danish
burgs were small-sized, ranging from 20 to 65 acres.
The only exception was Lincoln, which was almost as big as York if we count the remains
of the Roman town that extended down the river.
Such as the latter, Derby and Leicester had been Roman fortifications before the arrival
of the Danes, but some of the other towns were first established by Anglo-Saxons in
the 7th Century.
At Nottingham and Stamford for instance, there is evidence of Anglo-Saxon fortified estate
centers.
On top of them, the Vikings built their burgs and defended them with major ditches 6m wide
and 3.5m deep.
As such, ditches were one of the main defense systems that the Vikings used in those towns
that lacked Roman-era fortifications.
Of all the Danish burgs, Leicester was one of the more formidable.
This was because the Vikings took advantage of the strong Roman walls and large ditches,
employing these for the defenses of the town.
Allegedly, these Roman walls were so formidable that King Henry II in the 12th Century ordered
their destruction so as to prevent any new rebellion being launched from within them.
Yet although these defenses offered strong protection for the Vikings, the town appears
to have developed outside the Roman walls, mainly to the north and east[6].
Many Roman-era buildings were still standing when the Danes arrived, and some of them might
have been demolished when the Viking town was built.
By the early part of the 10th century the mint at Leicester was turning out coins to
help support the increase in trade.
At Southgate Street for example, the founding of a pottery kiln of the late 10th Century
suggests that the town was a manufacturing and commercial center, but no other evidence
has so far been found.
In Derby, we can find a fortified settlement protected to the east by the Derwent River
and to the south and west by one of its tributaries.
The northern approach between the two rivers was defended by a ditch, and the Vikings further
fortified the town by erecting an earth bank with a wooden palisade on top.
By the 10th Century, Derby developed into a trading town, with a mint, a market, and
some craftsmen working with copper and wood.
South of Derby, the Vikings also had a small settlement at Repton, which was used as a
wintering place for the Danish armies.
There, the Norse invaders took advantage of the pre-existing church as a gatehouse and
constructed a D-shaped wall about 8m wide and 4m large [not sure what that means?].
In the case of Nottingham, the town was developed around the Trent River, and the first bridge
crossing was constructed there by the Norse settlers.
Also, a number of Viking Age structures have been encountered at Drury Hill, Fishergate,
and Woolpack Lane, and there’s evidence that pottery was being manufactured at Halifax
Place.
In Stamford, timber buildings have been found fronting onto the High Street, with wooden
fences dividing one property from the next.
There is little evidence of urbanization in Viking towns, yet what we have suggests that
most of the burgs didn’t come until the late 10th Century.
The best evidence for urban activity within the Five Boroughs comes from Lincoln, where
there was riverside activity and land reclamation in the 10th century.
Alongside Flaxengate, the buildings were probably single-storey, built of timber with thatch
or shingle roofing, and the walls might have been constructed of horizontally laid planks
pegged into circular timber uprights.
As the material was of perishable nature, it’s believed that the buildings needed
to be replaced every 20 or 30 years.
Some of the buildings were divided into rooms but most of them were left as open halls of
about 10 to 16m long and 5m wide.
Although gloomy and smoky, these buildings would have been dry and cozy during the winter.
The Flaxengate site must have been under common ownership, because there is evidence, such
as extensive levelling dumps, that a bunch of these buildings were grouped into single
properties 30m long and 18m wide.
Industry-wise, archaeologists found remains of successive workshops, as the Vikings made
finger-rings in green and yellow glass, followed by copper-working on the same site.
In Lincoln as well as at the other Viking burgs, iron smelting and pottery production
were important industries, although both were dependent upon the rural hinterland for their
raw materials.
Some of the objects made were brooches, ingots, clasps, finger-rings, and pendants.
Spinning and weaving tools showed that textiles were produced, although no cloth survived
owing to the dryness of the soil.
The goods manufactured at Flaxengate could then be sold or exchanged for food and wool.
The town of Lincoln was actually very well situated for local, national, and international
trade, as it stood at the junction of two major Roman roads[7] and as it had waterway
links via the Foss Dyke and the Witham River to the Humber and the east coast of England.
Much like Derby and Leicester, Lincoln also housed a large mint, at the time second in
number of moneyers in all of the British Isles.
Furthermore, many of the objects found at Flaxengate demonstrate Lincoln’s role in
international trade, such as pottery vessels from France, the Low Countries, and the Rhineland.
Luxury goods were also imported, for example wine and furs from the Baltic.
Outside the area of the Five Boroughs, there were some Viking settlements in the Danish
Kingdom of East Anglia, like Thetford and Colchester, and there were also a collection
of southern burgs to the south of Leicester, with the most prominent being Northampton.
In the case of Thetford, the town was used as a wintering place for the Danish invaders.
Being connected by river to the Wash and the North Sea, Thetford was an ideal place for
settlement for the Vikings.
The first defenses were constructed on the south bank of the Little Ouse[8] and, as the
settlement expanded rapidly, Thetford extended beyond its defenses, eventually occupying
an irregular area of some 135 acres south of the river, and 34 acres to the north.
The interior of the town was divided up into a number of properties demarcated by long
boundary ditches, although the street frontages were not built up.
Both sunken and surface buildings were erected within the properties, wells were sunk, and
rubbish pits were dug along the boundaries.
And for its industry, Thetford employed some pottery kilns and a mint.
Thus, the town retained an open plan and was never fully built up, but it also developed
as the biggest commercial center in Viking East Anglia.
As Thetford was being developed, Norfolk and Suffolk were heavily settled by the Vikings,
proved by the density of Norse place names there.
Further south at Essex, the area saw the establishment of many Danish villages as well, like Kirby-le-Soken
and Thorpe-le-Soken.
The main town there would be Colchester, although this would only be used as a wintering place
and wouldn’t be developed as a burg.
As for Northampton, the Vikings settled in an area of around 59 acres enclosed by a wide
ditch.
Within this area there is no evidence for the deliberate laying out of a street plan,
but a number of buildings were erected in a fairly loose settlement pattern, comparable
to that at Thetford.
In the 10th century, the town became the base for a large number of craftworkers, including
those working in iron, copper and silver, bone and antler, and textiles.
It is believed that Northampton was initially built by the Danes as a military base from
which to conduct attacks on the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, but it instead rapidly
developed into a successful town.
Around Northampton, the towns of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Tempsford, and Bedford were also
settled by the Vikings as military bases from which to raid into Anglo-Saxon territory.
These however, didn’t develop like Northampton did because they would be subjected to retaliations
by the Anglo-Saxons.
In conclusion, the Vikings had a great impact on the development of Medieval England.
The towns they settled and developed would become major trade centers like York, Leicester,
and Lincoln.
The Danish invasion also caused both the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons to build defensive burgs.
And their colonization of the English countryside also put some of the Viking centers in contact
with international trade coming from Northern and Western Europe, something which would
remain for long after the Norsemen had been expelled from the British Isles.
We can be certain that the arrival of the Norse people laid the foundations for what
we know today as Medieval England.
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