Battle of Tettenhall
Who Fought
Combined Mercian and West Saxon army versus Northumbrian Viking army
History & Significance
The Battle of Tettenhall (sometimes called the Battle of Wednesfield or Wōdnesfeld) took place, according to the chronicler Æthelweard, near Tettenhall on 5 August 910. The allied forces of Mercia and Wessex met an army of Northumbrian Vikings in Mercia.
After successful raids by Danish Vikings, significant parts of northeastern England, formerly Northumbria, were under their control. Danish attacks into central England had been resisted and effectively reduced by Alfred the Great, to the point where his son, King Edward of Wessex, could launch offensive attacks against the foreigners. Edward was allied with the Mercians under his sister Æthelflæd, and their combined forces were formidable. The allies launched a five-week campaign against Northumbrian Danes in 909.
The Vikings quickly sought retaliation for the Northern excursion. In 910, King Edward was in Kent waiting for a fleet he had summoned, and the Vikings, believing that most of the king's troops were on board ship, launched an invasion of Mercia. They raided as far as the Avon near Bristol, and then harried along the Severn until they reached the Bridgnorth area. They now moved east, followed by a joint Mercian and West Saxon army, which caught up with the Vikings near Tettenhall. The raiders were annihilated and three kings were killed: Ingwær, Eowils and Halfdan.
With the Northern Danes subdued, the forces of Wessex and Mercia could be focused against the Vikings who had settled further south, and there was no further incursion from the north for a generation.
Sean Miller, "Edward the Elder", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Tettenhall lies on Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Triassic. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.
The Viking army, confident that King Edward's troops were aboard ship in Kent, swept deep into Mercia, raiding to the Avon near Bristol and harrying along the Severn before turning east -- yet this boldness proved their undoing, for a joint Mercian and West Saxon force pursued them relentlessly and caught them near Tettenhall, annihilating the raiding army and killing three of their kings, Ingwær, Eowils, and Halfdan, in a single devastating engagement.
- Three Viking kings killed (Ingwær, Eowils, Halfdan); Viking army annihilated
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of Tettenhall · Wikipedia
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