Battle of Benfleet
Who Fought
History & Significance
The Battle of Benfleet was an 894 battle between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons commanded by Edward the Elder and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, the son and son-in-law of Alfred the Great respectively. The battle was part of a campaign started by the Vikings in 892 to raid and potentially occupy lands in England, having been defeated by the armies of France. As part of this campaign the invaders were supported by those Vikings who had settled in England following an earlier invasion launched in 865. The battle was a victory for the Anglo-Saxons who successfully captured a number of women and children, as well as capturing or destroying the Viking ships.
After their defeat the Vikings continued to raid England until they disbanded in 895 after being forced to abandon a series of camps. The rest of Alfred's reign was peaceful, and he was succeeded by Edward as King of Wessex in 899. In time Edward would become the ruler of Mercia, uniting the two kingdoms.
Following the victory of Alfred the Great over Guthrum at the battle of Eddington in 878, Guthrum became King of East Anglia and his army settled in that area. This marked the end of the campaigns of the Great Heathen Army of Vikings who had first attacked England in 865. Added to the land of East Anglia were those of Essex and south-east Mercia, forming Guthrum's kingdom, while Northumbria had been broken up, with the richest part forming the Viking kingdom of York under Halfdan, while the northern part survived under a local ruler, Eadwulf, ruling from Bamburgh. Mercia had also been broken up with the area west of Watling Street ruled by Aethelred, Alfred's son-in-law, and the area east of this but west of Guthrum's realm was controlled by a series of towns under Viking rule acting as independent states, and became known as the Five Boroughs. The area under Viking control became known as the Danelaw, signifying the Danish influence of the Vikings upon the local laws. Alfred then reorganized the defence of his kingdom, creating fortified towns known as burhs to defend major sites and lines of communication. He also reorganised the fyrd, the ad hoc levy of men for military service, into a mobile standing force. Together these changes allowed Alfred's armies to simultaneously defend against attacks from multiple directions, as would occur in the period 892–895.
Following the peace between Alfred and Guthrum, Wessex was mostly free of Viking raids from the north. The potential for a renewal of war between Wessex and the Vikings was increased when Guthrum died in the 880s and was further enhanced when the Vikings in France suffered crushing defeats against the French armies. The Vikings left France in 892 loading their families, animals and equipment into 250 boats, landing in the area of the Rother river in south-east England. These Vikings rapidly overran Alfred's fortified town of Eorpeburnan before moving to Appledore in Kent where they built a small fortified town. At this point a second Viking fleet, led by Haestan and consisting of 800 men, sailed up the Thames and landed at Milton Regis, near the Isle of Sheppey. Unable to face both armies at once, Alfred negotiated a peace agreement with Haestan whereby both the Viking's sons were baptised and he agreed to leave Wessex in return for a sizeable payment. After this, Haestan withdrew to Benfleet in Essex.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Benfleet lies on Thames Group, bedrock that formed in the Eocene. The rock here is clay, silt, sand and gravel.
- Vikings: Combat losses unknown; Women and children captured; Ships lost
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Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Benfleet
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- Battle of Benfleet · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Benfleet · Wikipedia