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It was during the reign of Æthelred that Vikings resumed their raids, led by Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. London was attacked unsuccessfully in 994, but numerous raids followed. In 1013, London underwent a long siege and Æthelred was forced to flee abroad. Æthelred returned with his ally the Norwegian king Olaf and reclaimed London.
Modern-day Denmark has no such runestones, but there is a runestone in Scania which mentions London. There is also a runestone in Norway and a Swedish one in Schleswig, Germany. [citation needed] Some Vikings, such as Guðvér, did not only attack England, but also Saxony, as reported by the Grinda Runestone Sö 166 in Södermanland: [22]
The Vikings had been defeated by the West Saxon King Æthelwulf in 851, so rather than land in Wessex they decided to go further north to East Anglia. [ 20 ] [ 34 ] [ 36 ] Legend has it that the united army was led by the three sons [ c ] of Ragnar Lodbrok: Halfdan Ragnarsson , Ivar the Boneless (Hingwar), and Ubba .
Many of his subjects did not like this idea, and shortly before 988, Sweyn, his son, drove his father from the kingdom. [123] The rebels, dispossessed at home, probably formed the first waves of raids on the English coast. [123] The rebels did so well in their raiding that the Danish kings decided to take over the campaign themselves. [124]
Henry sent a force under the Earl of Northumberland to capture Richard, which they did by a trick on 15 August. [62] Richard was taken to London and on 29 September was forced to abdicate. On 30 September Henry was proclaimed king at Westminster Hall, the first of the Lancastrian kings. [63]
Edmund then returned south to London, where Aethelred died on the 23rd of April. The English nobility present in London elected Edmund king, while the rest of the nobility meeting in Southampton, declared their allegiance to Cnut. Edmund hastened to Wessex to levy an army while the Danes laid siege to London on the 7th of May.
Most of the Viking ships were also captured, with many being sent to London or Rochester. [9] The rest were broken up or burnt. The surviving Vikings were joined by Haestan at Shoebury, where they made a new camp. The battle of Benfleet was one of the most complete victories gained over the Vikings on English soil up to that point. [10]
Beginning in the year 886 [4] Alfred the Great reoccupied London from the Danish Vikings and after this event he declared himself King of the Anglo-Saxons, until his death in 899. During the course of the early tenth century, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united by Alfred's descendants Edward the Elder (reigned 899–924) and Æthelstan ...