Lesson video

Hello everyone and welcome to your third lesson on Vikings and Anglo-Saxons.

My name is Mrs. Tipping, And in this lesson we're going to tackle the question, what was the Danelaw? In this lesson, we will learn about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and how they coexisted.

How King Alfred defeated the Vikings, and how England was divided.

Now for this lesson, it's a good idea to make sure that you're sat somewhere comfortable, without any distractions so that you can capture all the knowledge from this lesson.

All you are going to need all three things; an exercise book or paper, a pencil or pen, and your fantastic brains.

So if you haven't got any of those things now, go and get them.

Good job.

Okay.

So, first of all I'm going to start by talking through some key words.

And then we are going to talk about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and how they co-existed.

Then, we're going to think about how King Alfred defeated the Vikings at the battle of Eddington and brought peace.

Finally, we'll talk about how England was divided under the Danelaw.

And we'll finish with our end of lesson quiz which we'll do at the end of every lesson.

So let's take a look at the key words for this lesson.

The first word is conquer, my turn your turn, conquer.

To conquer means to take control of a place by military force.

So by an army, or by people who are armed with weapons.

The second word is fort, my turn your turn, fort.

A fort is a series of defensive walls built to strengthen a place against an attack.

And the next word is treaty, my turn your turn, treaty.

A treaty is a formal agreement.

So let's take a look at how the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons co-existed.

The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings became neighbours in Britain, but they did not always get along peacefully.

In 865 AD, the Vikings took on a new focus.

They tried to conquer the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms instead of just raiding.

The two formidable brothers, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless, as well as King Guthrum led the combined forces known as the Viking Great Army.

So let's just take a quick pause.

In 865 AD, the Vikings main focus was to raid.

Is that true or false? Was that the Vikings main focus? So say your answer out loud, point to the screen or you can write it down.

Is it true or false? Hmm.

It is false.

It's false because the Vikings decided to try and conquer the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and take over England instead of just raiding.

Okay.

So.

In 871 AD, a series of bloody clashes between the armies of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, under Ethelred and his brother Alfred, took place at Reading Ashdown in Berkshire.

But none of these battles were decisive which means no particular side won.

Ethelred died during the battle, and Alfred became King of Wessex.

In the winter of 873 to 874 AD, the Vikings occupied the Royal Monastery of Repton on the river Trent.

Their army then moved South from Repton into Mercia, where they were met by King Burhred.

The King was driven overseas and died in Rome.

By 874, the Vikings had conquered all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except for Wessex.

In January 878 AD,the Vikings succeeded in taking Wessex.

Alfred, King of Wessex and his family, were at Chippenham celebrating Christmas, when an attack was launched.

Alfred and his family and a few followers fled and took refuge in the marshes of Athelney Somerset.

Marshes are shown in this picture here and in the dark it would've been a great place for Alfred and his family to hide from the Vikings.

You can see they could've hid in the reeds there, and it would have been a good place for them to not be found by the Vikings.

Okay I'd like you to pause your video in a moment now to have a go at this task.

Why was it important for the Vikings to gain control of Wessex? So you could start your answer with, 'it was important to gain control of Wessex because.

' Why was that important? Have a think and we start when you're finished.

Okay, hopefully you had a good go at that question.

And here's an answer.

It was important to gain control of Wessex because it was the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom and it was not Viking control.

If the Vikings controlled Wessex they would control all of England.

So is quite an important piece of the puzzle.

If they had Wesssex then they had the majority control of England.

Now let's explore how King Alfred defeated the Vikings and brought peace.

In the marshes of Athelney, Alfred built a Fort, which he used as a base whilst building up his forces.

In may 878 AD,he rode out to challenge the Danes under King Guthrum at Edington outside the now Danish held fortress of Chippenham.

And here's a picture of what a fort might've looked like with those big, wooden walls.

Alfred's warriors fighting on foot, confronted the Danes with a dense shield wall.

King Alfred was victorious.

The battle of Edington forced King Guthrum to withdraw from Wessex and agree to the division of England.

Okay I'd like you to have a go at this task.

I'd like you to complete this passage using the words below.

So fill in the gaps using those words.

At the battle of.

King Alfred challenged.

Alfred's warriors created a dense, two words.

The baffle forced Guthrum to withdraw from.

He agreed to the.

of England.

So lots of gaps there can you fill them incorrectly? And when you have, we start the video.

Okay hopefully you've had a go at that here are the answers.

At the battle of Edington, King Alfred challenged Guthrum.

Alfred's warriors created a dense shield wall.

The battle forced Guthrum to withdraw from Wessex.

He agreed to the division of England.

Good job if you got those correct.

In 886 AD, Alfred drove the Vikings from London and secured it.

And shortly afterwards he arranged the marriage between his eldest daughter Ethelfled, and the King of Mercier, Ethelred.

The treaty that was drawn up between King Alfred of Wesssex, Guthrum And the Danes divided England.

You can see on the map here that Alfred's Wessex is the pink and he controlled the South and the West.

And the Viking Danelaw control the North and Northeast and East.

So this is the blue section here.

Guthrum and 30 of his chieftains were baptised as Christians as part of the treaty.

And they swore not to raise arms against Wessex again.

Guthrum took the name Athelstan and Alfred served as his godfather.

So pause the video in a moment to have a go at this task, write out the sentence with the correct response.

So here's the sentence and you have two options to finish the sentence off you need to choose the correct one.

Alfred challenged Guthrum at Edington in.

Was it 878 AD or 886 AD? The battle of Edington for Alfred was a success or was it a failure? Alfred control the South and West or the Northeast and East.

Don't forget to put a full stop at the end of your sentence and restart when you're finished.

Okay, here are the answers.

So Alfred challenged Guthrum at Edington in 878AD.

The battle of Edington for Alfred was a success.

And Alfred controlled the South and West.

Good job if you got those correct.

So now let's look at how the Danelaw was split.

Although Vikings kept their word and stayed clear of Wessex The treaty, was in no way demanding that the Vikings had to leave Britain.

The Vikings settled in the Danelaw.

It covered all of Eastern England between the River Tees and River Thames and part of Northeastern England.

So you can see here on the map, the Danelaw is the pink section here and you can see that it was the kingdom of Guthrum there.

Have a Look.

Now, there were three main areas where the Vikings lived, Northumbria which included modern day Yorkshire, East Anglia and the five Boroughs.

In the east ,The area of Danish Mercier was ruled by five Danish armies who settled in the area.

Have a look on the map.

Can you see there where Danish Mercier is ? Now those armies introduced their native laws and customs and holding onto the five boroughs which served as important territory and basis for power.

A Borough was a town and the five towns where Leicester, Nottingham, Derby Stamford, and Lincoln.

The towns were surrounded by walls which protected residents from attacks.

Can you remember what they were called when something was surrounded by walls? Yeah.

It was a fort.

Well done if you've remembered that.

Okay, so I'd like you to pause the video in a moment have a go at these questions.

Which three main areas of England did the Vikings have control of? How were the Viking towns protected? Where did the Vikings have to stay clear of? Where were they not allowed to go? So when you're done restart the video.

Okay, here's some answers.

Which three areas did the Vikings have control of that was Northumbria, East Anglia, and the five Boroughs.

How were the Viking towns protected? They were protected because there was surrounded by walls.

And if you put forts, very well done.

And where did the Vikings have to stay clear of? They had to stay clear of Wesssex.

So let's take a look at the Danelaw in more detail.

In total the Danelaw would expand to around fifteen shires.

Some of those included Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Cambridge.

And you can see that Cambridge and Leicester on the map.

Now in the following years these areas would become parts of important parts of the country where its leaders held great influence.

Each Borough Was ruled as a Danish Jarldom.

With power to control the lands of the walled towns whilst answering to Overlords in the Viking kingdom of York, also known as Yorvik.

Here's a picture of York modern day York today.

The most important city in the Dane law was the city of York.

Over 10,000 people live there and it was an important place to trade goods.

Many towns in cities, in Britain were founded by the Vikings and they can be spotted today.

Towns places that end in 'by', 'Thorpe' or 'I' were almost certainly Viking towns.

So Let's do a quick pause now, what was the most important city in the Danelaw? Was it Leicester, Wessex, York or Norfolk.

Have a think, point to the screen, say your answer out loud or write it down.

Which one is the most important city? The answer is York or Yorvik as the Vikings called it.

Okay I'd like you to have a go at this task now.

So, what do you think ,should King Alfred have given land to the Vikings to achieve peace? So he gave the Vikings the Danelaw When he divided up England, he kept Wessex and the South and West, and he gave the Vikings the area in the Northeast of England and also the East.

But should he have given the land to the Vikings? So think about drawing out a table or writing a reason for or a reason against.

You could start your answers like this.

So the for 'I think King Alfred should have given land to the Vikings because'.

Why would that be a good thing? And your other reason 'I think King Alfred should not have given land to the Vikings because.

' Why would it have been a bad reason a bad idea? When you'll finish restart the video.

Okay answers you could've put could be like this.

'I think King Alfred should have given land to the Vikings because they could share England and live peacefully'.

It would have been a good idea to live in peace.

But a reason against might be 'I think King Alfred should not have given land to the Vikings because it was not his to give.

Anglo-Saxons may have lived in the Danelaw` and they did not want it controlled by Vikings.

And when it was given to the Vikings those Anglo-Saxons living there would have lost that control'.

So well done if you wrote answers like that or maybe you had other ideas to justify your thoughts.

Okay that's the end of our lesson today.

We have covered a lot.

So well-done for working so hard.

Now thank you for joining me and I really hope to see you in the next lesson on Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, until then, goodbye and take care.