VI. THE LORD OF THE NORTH (914–923)
Beornwulf, sub-king of the East Angles
On the 4th of May, 914, Beornwulf departed from Nottingham to Colchester to legitimise his submission to the King of Wessex, with the ceremony concluding on the same month. Contemporary sources describe Beornwulf's inability to kneel due to the loss of much of his left leg below the thigh.
The following month, similar events transpired, as Beornwulf accepted a pledge of fealty from an independent Ealdorman named Ælfmær – who had come to rule a third, or þriðing of York, alongside southern Cumbria. The young Ealdorman had come to possess these lands as a result of a popular uprising against Húnthjófr, brother of King Ragnarr of Mercia. Ælfmær, much like his new liege, had managed to receive a more than favourable outcome in his submission, with charters describing his special privileges regarding tax collection, receiving a third more of the income collected than what was typical of the time.
During this period, Beornwulf became responsible for the handling of funds from the royal treasury in Winchester. It seems that his role as a proto-treasurer was merely ceremonial in practice, as his duties were informally delegated to a number of more skilled individuals under the watchful eye of Alfred.
Two months following the calm of Spring, Beornwulf had begun to dedicate more resources towards the conquest of Northumbria. Derby, once a possession of the very same Húnþjófr, had lost the borough in a wave of revolts against his rule during Northumbria’s wars against Mercia – with a prominent merchant by the name of Guret installed as the town’s new High-Reeve. Beornwulf had taken the opportunity to muster a force of 1,300 men to seize the borough. Under the command of the promising Ælfmær, the army had slaughtered a group of 150 peasants who attempted to resist the settlement’s seizure with farming equipment. Among these numbers, the Reeve Guret was apprehended, fragmenting any organised resistance to Derby’s capture – incorporating the town into the realm of the East Angles. A new High-Reeve of the settlement was appointed by Alfred in mid-July.
A similar situation occurred in York, as the populist revolt, installing a new ruler in the town was quickly captured and the settlement incorporated into the burgeoning realm. Northern England, at this point in time, was considered ungovernable, with the only semblance of order being within the boroughs themselves. This was a result of two decades of uninterrupted conflict between the Danes, the Northumbrians and the native Britons of the far north.
Level of Control in England, c. 915. Purple = No Control, Yellow = Middling Control, Grey = Total Control, White = Absolute Control
As the Anglo-Saxons were celebrating their victories in their generational struggle between themselves and the Danes, tragedy had once more struck the ailing Norse kingdoms of England. Upon King Haukr’s death in 915, he was succeeded by his nephew, Refill ‘Foul-Fart’ of York. While the new monarch was young – less than 31 years of age – his life had been plagued by health complications. Not only was Refill obese, but he had been diagnosed with Tuberculosis two years prior. He had died two months into his reign, leaving his 2-year-old nephew – Skjöldur – as the new Northumbrian monarch.
Many were left dissatisfied with the boy’s ascension to the throne – the fact Skjöldur was a toddler was the main issue many had with his ascension, believing that a child was unable to protect their land from Anglo-Saxon invasion. Their worst fears were realised in September of 916, as Beornwulf had opted to capture a vital Mercian settlement in retaliation for a Norse raid on Derby’s outskirts. Warwick had become an important centre of control for the Northmen since 901, as the late King Ragnarr had fortified the settlement to compensate for Eadmund’s capture of Lincoln and Stamford in the 890s. The boy’s regent – whose name has disappeared from the historical record – was supposedly the Jarl of Warwick during Skjöldur’s brief reign, and the king was kept within the borough’s walls until the town’s capture in September.
While Skjöldur’s ransom has been left unspecified, it was undoubtedly considerable, as the terms of the toddler-king’s safe return had caused much of the nobility to instead favour the boy’s cousin – the 23-year-old Sigriðr of Chester. In opposition to the toddler-king in Warwick, Sigriðr had been crowned Queen of Northumbria in Chester during the Spring of 917. This was unacceptable for many of Skjöldur’s supporters in Western Mercia, triggering a conflict between the Mercian and Northumbrian Danes.
Southern England and the Midlands, A.D 917
The politics of the West Saxons seemed to have taken a similar route. Following Alfred's coronation as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 904, his brother, Peter, remained dissatisfied with being overlooked for the position of king. His absence from the list of witnesses during royal charters between 904 and 916 affirm the lack of goodwill between the two brothers, and had formed into a rivalry beginning in 913, as Peter had refused his obligations to Alfred and began issuing his own charters in Lewes in 916. Despite lacking widespread support among the nobility, Peter declared his brother unfit to rule in August of 916 and raised an army of approximately 2,000 men to challenge his brother's authority. His forces were bolstered by a contingent of Norse mercenaries from Calais, recently conquered by Hákon Fairhair in 915.
As the two brothers’ forces met in Ashdown in late-October of 916, Beornwulf – with his recently raised fyrd – sat a mere 4 days’ march in Warwick from the battlefield. As brutal fighting ensued between West Saxon and Kentish armies for close to a fortnight, the sub-king had come to decide the fate of the battle. As fighting continued in the morning, 1,300 men of East Anglia pierced through the forests of Berkshire – which had caught Peter's army off-guard – decisively winning the battle for his over-king.
Ælfgar of Mercia, maimed after a battle in 932
A further two battles occurred during Petre’s Revolt, both victories for Alfred with the assistance of Beornwulf. The King’s brother was captured outside of Lewes on the 22nd of February, 918, with the revolt officially ending on the 27th. For his assistance, Alfred had awarded the governance of much of Mercia to Beornwulf in early-March. This was unexpected by much of the King’s nobility, as the son of Burghred – the last Mercian King – was alive, and had relinquished his title as King of the Mercians to Alfred for protection. For Ælfgar, the late Burghred’s son, this was an affront to his ancestors’ prestige. Not only had Eadmund and his children forced his family’s exile from Bedford, but had lost Ælfgar his chance to restore the Mercian kingdom from his seat in Hereford.
Eormenred of the Anglo-Saxons
On the 11th of March, 918, King Alfred had passed away at the age of 50. A Witenagemot had chosen to elect Alfred’s oldest living son – Eormenred – as the new monarch. In late-June, Beornwulf had met the new King in Bath to reaffirm his submission to the West Saxons, and throughout the year, had assumed more military responsibilities in Eormenred’s stead. It’s quite possible that Eormenred’s delegation of his own duties had played into his sub-king’s advantage, as Beornwulf’s grasp on England’s military apparatus had allowed him to effectively wage war on a recovering Norse kingdom in October.
The toddler-king of Northumbria had been deposed after a swift internal conflict amongst the Danes in 917, and Sigriðr, granddaughter of Halfdan Ragnarsson, had become monarch of both Northumbria and Mercia. Militarily, the young Queen’s realm had recovered at an alarming rate, and while wholly unable to oppose the West Saxons – in terms of able-bodied men, had comparable strength to that of the East Angles. Beornwulf had gathered an army of 1,400 men to acquire the eastern riding of York, which was under the control of a Jarl in Pocklington. Sigríðr had possibly felt that a burden was placed on her to protect those to whom Beornwulf would provide no mercy. Under the leadership of a group of Jarls, her army of 1,300 marched in defence of Pocklington on the 27th of October.
CORRECTION! Alfred, in this letter, is now known as Cerdic. Further explanation at the end of this chapter.
During Beornwulf’s northern campaigning, he had scored a number of political victories in the home front – chief among them being his second daughter, Æthelræda’s marriage to Eormenred’s eldest son, Cerdic. Less significantly, in mid-April, the East Anglian sub-king had been entrusted with the education of the King’s sister, Wulfhild. While for much of his reign, relations between East Anglia and Wessex had been quite chilled, this heralds a significant change in the relationship between the two families, restoring the cordiality the two realms once had prior to 885.
Alongside Beornwulf’s political moves in England, he had won two victories against a resurgent Northumbria in April and July of 919, with the Battle of Oakham being the most decisive. This victory caused the Northmen to cave and sue for peace. In August, to recognise the triumphs the Anglo-Saxons had achieved in northern England, Beornwulf hosted a feast in Luton, notably in his hegemon’s honour. While Alfred the Younger had taken a hands-off approach regarding the governance of his sub-king, Eormenred’s reign heralded a period of understanding and cooperation with the East Angles.
Stawell, close friend and Bishop of Beornwulf, had begun to describe the West Saxon King with reverence and respect, maintaining a stance in his writings that the two Anglo-Saxon monarchs had formed an “...unbreakable bond…”
After securing victory in a tournament within the Norwegian kingdoms, Beornwulf returned with a desire to reclaim Bernicia and northern Cumbria from the Northmen. In the Spring of 922, the East Anglian Lord had opted for war against King Ketill of Sweden. This war was not without any support, as Eormenred had provided Beornwulf with the capital necessary to wage war against an opposing kingdom.
Following Beornwulf’s capture of Dunholme at some point in early-923, Ketill had met the sub-king at Bretherdale Head, outside of Kendal, in March, engaging the East Angles in battle. While the Swedish had ultimately lost, it was not without great loss for Beornwulf, with comparable casualties on both sides. A second battle at Durham – alongside the wounding of the Swedish King in the fighting – had caused Ketill to sue for peace in October of 923. The series of victories Beornwulf had accrued against the Northmen during his lifetime were representative of the decline of the Scandinavian kingdoms in the 10th century, and the Battle of Durham was yet another example of the steady end of the Viking Age.
