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Initially, the Vikings limited their attacks to "hit-and-run" raids. However, they soon expanded their operations. In the years 814–820, Danish Vikings repeatedly sacked the regions of Northwestern France via the Seine River and also repeatedly sacked monasteries in the Bay of Biscay via the Loire River. Eventually, the Vikings settled in ...
Ermentar records the first Viking raid on continental Europe against his monastery in 799. According to him, from 819 the monks were forced to spend summers on the mainland because of the Vikings. In 836, they finally relocated inland permanently and in 843 the Vikings took over Noirmoutier and made it their base for a series of raids into France.
Medieval monasteries and abbeys were frequently the target of Viking raids because they were wealthy landowners, [3] and stored vast amounts of gold and other precious materials. Vikings plundered abbeys, like Iona Abbey, for riches, food, and even their holy texts—which were, at the time, often inscribed with gold leaf.
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The first monastery to be raided was in 793 at Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described the Vikings as "heathen men". [15] Monasteries and minster churches were popular targets as they were wealthy and had valuable, portable objects. [ 16 ]
As a result, the Vikings set all the buildings of the monastery on fire. The abbey burned down to the ground, "since there was no one left alive to fight the fire" . [ 14 ] Among the monastery's greatest treasures was one of the most precious relics of Western Christianity , the Sandals of Christ , which were carried to safety before the Viking ...
Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to the 11th centuries CE, when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid, conquer, settle and trade. They are generally referred to as Vikings , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] but some scholars debate whether the term Viking [ a ] represented all Scandinavian settlers ...
Vikings had been raiding Britain since the late eighth century. In 793, the monastery at Lindisfarne was sacked. [2] Iona Abbey was also repeatedly attacked by Vikings: In 802, the Annals of Ulster note that "Iona was burned by the heathens", in 806 it states that "the community of Iona, to the number of sixty-eight, was killed by the heathens" and in 825 the monk Blathmac was brutally killed ...