Battle of Edington
Who Fought
Wessex: 2,000-6,000; Great Heathen Army: approximately 4,000
History & Significance
The Battle of Edington or Battle of Ethandun was fought in May 878 between the West Saxon army of King Alfred the Great and the Great Heathen Army led by the Danish warlord Guthrum. The battle took place near Edington in Wiltshire, where Alfred secured a decisive victory that halted the Viking advance into Wessex.
The engagement followed a period of sustained Danish incursions into Anglo-Saxon territory. In early 878, Guthrum launched a surprise attack on Chippenham, forcing Alfred into hiding in the marshes of Athelney. After rallying local forces, Alfred confronted and defeated Guthrum at Edington, then laid siege to the Viking position, compelling their surrender.
Following the battle, Guthrum agreed to terms that included his baptism, withdrawal to East Anglia, and the establishment of peace through the Treaty of Wedmore. The outcome preserved Wessex as an independent kingdom and marked a turning point in the Viking wars, laying foundations for the eventual unification of England.
The first Viking raid on Anglo-Saxon England is thought to have occurred between 786 and 802 at Portland in the Kingdom of Wessex, when three Norse ships arrived; their men killed King Beorhtric's reeve. The Peterborough Chronicle says the year of the raid was 789. At the other end of the country, in the Kingdom of Northumbria, the island of Lindisfarne was raided in 793.
This year dire forwarnings came over the land of the Northhumbrians, and miserably terrified the people; these were excessive whirlwinds, and lightnings; and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these tokens; and a little after that, in the same year, on the 6th before the Ides of January, the ravaging of heathen men lamentably destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne through rapine and slaughter.
After the sacking of Lindisfarne, Viking raids around the coasts were somewhat sporadic until the 830s, when the attacks became more sustained. In 835, "heathen men" ravaged Sheppey. In 836, King Ecgberht of Wessex was defeated at Carhampton, but in 838 he conquered a combined force of Vikings and Cornishmen at the Battle of Hingston Down in Cornwall.
The raiding continued and with each year became more intense. In 865–866 it escalated further with the arrival of what the Saxons called the Great Heathen Army. The annals do not report the size of the army, but modern estimates suggest between five hundred and a thousand men. It was said to have been under the leadership of the brothers Ivar the Boneless, Ubba, and Halfdan Ragnarsson. What made this army different from those before it was the intent of the leaders. These forces began "a new stage, that of conquest and residence". By 870, the Northmen had conquered the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia, and in 871 they attacked Wessex. Of the nine battles during 871 mentioned by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, only one was a West Saxon victory, the Battle of Ashdown. The victory did not halt Viking raids in Britain. Alfred succeeded his brother Æthelred, who died after the Battle of Meretun.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Edington lies on Inferior Oolite Group, bedrock that formed in the Bathonian. The rock here is limestone, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of Edington · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Edington · Wikipedia