In the autumn of 866 the Great Heathen Army, a Viking force that had landed in East Anglia in 865, marched north into the Kingdom of Northumbria. Led by Ivar the Boneless and Ubba, the army exploited a bitter civil war that had left the kingdom divided between two rival kings, Osberht, who had been driven from the throne by force, and Ælla, who had seized power in his place. On 1 November 866 the Vikings captured York, known to the Anglo-Saxons as Eoferwic, with little difficulty. The ancient Roman walls still stood around the city but were crumbling and in disrepair, and the political disarray of Northumbria left the Vikings a clear path to its capital.
The following spring, Ælla and Osberht set aside their quarrel and united their forces in an attempt to retake the city. On 21 March 867 the Northumbrian army attacked and initially broke through the city's defences. According to one account the Vikings were caught between the attacking Northumbrian forces and a garrison still holding part of York. However, the Vikings rallied, and the narrow streets of the city negated any advantage of numbers the Northumbrians may have enjoyed. The experienced Viking warriors turned the battle decisively, and both Ælla and Osberht were killed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records simply that both kings were slain on the spot, while the Irish Annals of Ulster note that the dark foreigners won a battle over the northern Saxons at York in which Ælla, king of the northern Saxons, fell. Norse tradition holds that Ivar and Ubba subsequently subjected Ælla to the ritual of the blood eagle, though this is not corroborated by the Anglo-Saxon sources.
Following the battle, the surviving Northumbrian leaders made peace with the Danes. The Vikings installed a compliant native prince, Ecgberht, as a puppet king of Northumbria, a role he held until 872, when a local revolt drove him into exile in Mercia. The Vikings regained control and the process continued until Halfdan Ragnarsson returned in 875 or 876, partitioned the southern part of Northumbria known as Deira among his followers, and established what would in time become the Kingdom of Jorvik, centred on York. That kingdom persisted under Viking rule, with intermissions of Anglo-Saxon control, until 954, after which it was subjected to the rule of Wessex. No future attempt was made to re-establish the Kingdom of Northumbria.
The crumbling state of York's ancient Roman walls is one of the most striking details of the entire episode. The walls had stood since the days of the Roman Empire, and by 867 they were so far decayed that they offered the Northumbrians little real protection. Yet those same dilapidated fortifications worked against the Northumbrians when they stormed back into the city in the spring of 867: having broken through the defences, they found themselves fighting in the narrow streets of York, where the Viking warriors, seasoned and disciplined, could negate any Northumbrian advantage of numbers. The very walls that had failed to keep the Vikings out now helped to trap and destroy the army that came to expel them.
Both Northumbrian kings Ælla and Osberht killed; remaining forces made peace with the Danes. Viking casualties not recorded.
not recorded
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