Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merritt, and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the arrival of the Vikings, and by the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to recall that the Vikings invaded England from the 790s CE and we're given the Danelaw after the 878 CE Battle of Edington.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms, and our key terms for today are Anglo-Saxon, migration, Viking, raid, and Danelaw.

Anglo-Saxon, it relates to the Germanic inhabitants of England from the fifth century CE to the Norman Conquest.

Migration is the movement of people into a new area or country.

A Viking is a member of the Scandinavian seafaring people who raided Britain.

A raid is a surprise attack, and the Danelaw was the area of England in the north and east that was controlled by the Vikings.

Today's lesson will consist of three separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is looking at Anglo-Saxon England.

So let's get started.

In the eighth century, what we now think of as England was primarily made up of seven different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. While in Cornwall and Wales lived tribes of Britons and in Scotland, tribes of Picts and Scots.

The remains of Roman towns dotted the landscape.

But memories of who have built these structures had faded.

There was a wildly held belief that these monuments have been built by giants so advanced were the techniques needed to build them compared to those used by the people of eighth century England.

The Romans had left Britain at the beginning of the fifth century and had been replaced soon afterwards by invading tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

And these Germanic tribes pushed the Native Britain tribes the edges of Britain, and kept the Picts and Scots from migrating south.

The Germanic tribes mostly consisted of farmers and their villages were generally located close to good farmland, which was plentiful in England at this point in time, the Anglo-Saxons, as these new people came to be known, were mostly Christian and also frequently traded with the peoples of Europe.

As a result, by the eighth century, England was a rich and a relatively peaceful land, a quick check for understanding now.

So I'd like you to identify two tribes that inhabited England in the eighth century CE.

They're the Angles, the Sami, the Saxons, or the Thracians.

So make your choices now.

Okay, if you chose A and C then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

Another check for understanding now is a true or false statement.

So Britain had a great deal of diversity in the eighth century CE.

Is that true or is that false? All right, if you chose true, then congratulations, you are correct, but let's justify the answer now, why is that a true statement? Is it true because Britain was made up of a variety of tribes such as the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Britons Picts, and Scots? Or is it true? Because as the northern most Roman province, Britain hosted people from all over the Roman Empire? So make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose A, then well done.

That is the correct answer.

Right, this is our first task for today now, so I'd like you to write one paragraph detailing evidence of migration to and within Britain up to the eighth century CE.

So pause the video whilst you do this and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on okay with that task.

Let's think about then what you could have written.

So you could have said that there was a great deal of migration to and within Britain up to the eighth century CE.

The Romans left Britain at the start of the fifth century CE, which provided an opportunity for the Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes to emigrate to Britain.

In turn, this move forced the Native Britons to migrate to the edges of Britain, to Cornwall and Wales.

So if you've got a similar answer to mine, I use specific details there to support the point that I'm making.

I've referenced migration to Britain and also migration within Britain as well.

So hopefully your answer follows a similar structure to mine there as well.

Okay, let's move on then to our next learning cycle of the day, which is looking at the arrival of the Vikings.

So in 793 CE, disaster struck the coast of England, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne which is located off the Northumbrian coast, and was homed to a priory of monks, was raided by a group of unknown people.

These savage men arrived in long boats and plundered the holy relics and treasures of the priory, then took the monks to sell into slavery.

This was the first meeting of the Anglo-Saxons with Vikings, but it would not be their last.

The Vikings were from Scandinavia, which is Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

And they used their long boats to travel across open water, along coasts and up rivers to explore, trade and raid.

The long boat was an incredibly diverse tool.

It allowed for the Vikings to move across open bodies of water like the North Sea, but also allowed them to move up rivers as well.

Like for instance, the Seine.

They famously raided Paris at this point in time as well.

So because of their long boat, the Vikings had a huge amount of manoeuvrability around Europe at this point in time.

After their initial attack on Lindisfarne, Viking, raids became a seasonal occurrence, raiding parties would sail during the summer when the seas were calmer and attack targets along the coast or at rivers, and they would take goods and enslave people back home with them.

Eventually though, these cyclical migrations turned into immigration, raiding parties set up camps in Britain in order to extend their raiding season, and some permanently left Scandinavia.

There were several reasons for this behaviour, one being that the Viking homelands were becoming overcrowded and they were unable to support large populations.

For instance, the land in Norway was generally considered too hilly for farming, whereas in Sweden it was too thickly forested.

And in Denmark, the soil was too sandy, it could support populations, but these areas were becoming overcrowded.

It couldn't support larger populations than it was already supporting.

England, by contrast, had a great deal of excellent farmland and the temperate climates which made farming considerably easier.

As well as this, any available farmland in Scandinavia could only be inherited by the eldest son, meaning that any other sons would need to find their fortunes elsewhere.

For instance, by raiding or by trading.

England was an excellent target for raiding as it was mostly peaceful.

It was very wealthy and it had a large coastline, which provided plenty of targets for Viking Longboats.

By 871 CE, less than a century after first contact, the Vikings had conquered the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, given these invaders complete control of the east coast of England and the Midlands.

Okay, let's go for another check for understanding now.

So discussion question here.

I'd like you to think what made England an attractive place for the Vikings to raid at this time? And I want you to think about it in terms of push factors from Scandinavia, what's encouraging the Vikings to leave their homeland and also pull factors to England.

What's encouraging the Vikings to go to England? So pause the video whilst you do this, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back, I hope you got on okay with that task.

So let's think about push factors first of all.

So you might have thought about the fact that in Scandinavia there was poor quality farmland or just not enough decent quality farmland.

Certainly there's overpopulation and also there's a lack of opportunities for sons to inherit lands.

So hopefully you've got some of those answers there as well.

In terms of pull factors, why did they come to England specifically? Well, there was good farmland and there's a temperate climate.

It was economically rich, it was mostly peaceful, and there was a large coastline, so plenty of places to attack.

And once again, hopefully you've got at least some of those points on the screen there in front of you as well.

Right, another check for understanding now, I'd like you to choose two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that the Vikings had conquered by 871 CE.

So you can choose from Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, or Wessex.

So make your choices now.

Okay, if you chose A and B, then very well done, those are the correct answers.

Let's go for our next task for today now then, so it's a source analysis task, this one.

So I'd like you to pick out two features of the interpretation of the screen there in front of you that tell us why the Vikings raided Lindisfarne in 793 CE.

So you can see that the source itself is a picture, it's an illustration, and just looking at the provenance there, we can see that it says there's an illustration of the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 CE, smoke from the priory can be seen in the background, and monks being led away to slavery can be seen in the foreground.

So two features from the interpretation, that's the source and the provenance you could talk about there.

Pause the video whilst you do this and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back, I hope you got on okay with that task.

So that's the thing you could have said then.

So you could have said that one feature of the interpretation shows a Viking holding a decorated box and a richly carved Christian cross.

This suggests that the Vikings raided Lindisfarne because contained a great deal of wealth that they were wanting to plunder.

Another feature of the interpretation shows several monks being led away presumably to become enslaved or treated poorly.

This suggests that the Vikings raided Lindisfarne in order to capture people to sell.

If you've got different points to me that's absolutely fine, as long if you explained your point, that's the really key thing I'm looking for here as well.

Right, let's move on now into our third and final learning cycle for the day, which is looking at the Damelaw.

Now in 876 CE, the Vikings turned their attention to Wessex, and Wessex traditionally was one of the strongest of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. They began a brutal assault on the kingdom, forcing the king of the Wessex, Alfred, to fall back and hide in the Somerset marshes.

They'd had several battles up to this point, and Alfred had done fairly well.

He had won some of these battles, but the Vikings just kept coming and Alfred just couldn't stand up to them entirely.

Whilst in the Somerset marches on the Isle of Athelney, Alfred rebuilt his forces and began a gorilla campaign against the Vikings.

So short, sharp shocks, just very quick raids in and out and back to Athelney before they could really know what was going on.

In May 878 CE, Alfred defeated the Vikings great heathen army as it was known, led by Guthrum at the Battle of Edington, and which forced them back to their base at Chippenham, where Alfred's forces surrounded and starved out the invaders.

This was a genuinely incredible feat.

There wasn't really anybody in Anglo-Saxon England at this point in time other than Alfred who'd been able to stand up against the Vikings.

And although, as I said beforehand, he had won battles, they'd very quickly become overwhelmed by the influx of new troops into this great heathen army.

But to be able to actually destroy part of the great heathen army and then bring them to surrender was a genuinely incredible feat at this point in time.

The terms of surrender set by Alfred, who was later starred The Great, because he was able to drive back the Vikings and the great heathen army, they were designed to prevent further bloodshed between Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings.

And this is really, really clever.

It would've been very easy for Alfred just to impose a piece of on the Vikings, which won him some acclaim, certainly won him land, won him gold, but certainly would've angered the Vikings and then they want come back later.

But instead, Alfred was very clever and he thought, right, I need to make a peace which keeps the peace as well, and this is how we managed to do it.

Guthrum would have to convert to Christianity.

So Alfred actually became his godfather as well.

So they had this close religious tie from this point onwards, the Kingdom of Mercia was to be divided between Wessex and the Vikings.

So Mercia was now carved kind of in half with Wessex getting the south and western part of Mercia and the Vikings claiming the rest.

And Wessex would officially recognise that the Vikings had a home in England and the north and east of England were now Viking lands and would henceforth be known as the Danelaw.

So on the screen here in front of you now we can see a map of England with a breakdown of the kingdoms, some of the major kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons.

But that red dotted line, that is the Danelaw.

So everything to the north and east where it says Danelaw, that was now Viking land and everything else was basically controlled by Wessex.

Apart from, of course, Wales and Cornwall, they're part of the Britain lands.

The establishment of the Danelaw had a significant impact on England.

A great many Vikings settled alongside the Anglo-Saxons who already lived there.

The presence of so many Vikings actually reduced the number of Viking raids that took place.

And the reason being is that Vikings and Anglo-Saxons began coexisting peacefully.

Trading and intermarrying were common features of this period, even between Wessex and the Danelaw.

There's a lot of trade taking place fairly early on after the establishment of the Danelaw.

As well as reducing the frequency of the raids, the Vikings also contributed a great deal to England through their presence in the Danelaw.

They brought within their own law and customs, some of which were adopted by the Anglo-Saxons, who also lived in the Danelaw.

So effectively, these new laws, these new customs, they blended with the existing Anglo-Saxon laws and customs to create effectively a new culture.

New towns and villages were built, many of which still exist today.

So any English town ending in BY, which means homesteads, any town in by, that was a Viking town or a Viking homestead, any town ending in Thorpe, that's a Viking word for a new village, and any town ending in thwaite, that is a Viking word for meadow.

So all of these towns owe their existence to the Vikings, an incredibly diverse number of new words entered the English language too, such as law, dirt, sprint, and freckles, just to name a very random assortment of the many, many words that the Vikings brought to the English language.

They also positively contributed to the economy, which was a great surprise considering how they been interacting with the English economy up to this point.

But they developed the existing Anglo-Saxon trade routes, and the reason being is that the Vikings were great international traders.

So they extended and developed those existing Anglo-Saxon trade routes.

At the turn of the ninth century, the Vikings were taking everything they could from Britain, but by the beginning of the 10th century, they were contributing enormously to the culture of Britain.

Let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So in which battle did King Alfred the Great of Wessex defeat Guthrum room of the Great Heathen army of the Vikings? Was it the Battle of Bannockburn, the Battle of Edington, or the Battle of Tawton? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, the Battle of Edington, then very well done, that is the correct answer.

Let's another check for understanding now, it's a discussion question.

I want you to think, how did the establishment of the Danelaw affect England? So see if you can come up with a list, pause the video whilst you do that, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you got on okay with that task.

Let's think about what you could have said then.

So you could have said that it gave the Vikings a permanent recognised home in Britain.

It increased the trade between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons intermarried.

The Vikings created new towns.

They introduced new words into the English language.

They introduced new laws and customs, and also Viking raids decreased as well.

If you got anything else than that, then that's absolutely fantastic, but hopefully you got at least some of those that are on the screen there in front of you as well.

Right, let's go for our next task for today now then.

So I want you to think, which factor do you consider to be the most important in causing the Vikings to migrate to England? So do you think it was war or do you think it was economic resources? And what I would like you to do is to write one paragraph per factor with at least two pieces of evidence per paragraph, and then finally finish it off by answering with your overall judgments.

So tell me how war was an important factor in causing the Vikings to migrate to England and then tell me how economic resource was important, and then tell me which one of those two you think was the most important.

Pause the video now whilst you do that, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you've got on okay with that task.

Let's think what you could have written then.

So you could have said that the most important factor in causing the Vikings to migrate to Britain was war.

The Vikings success in warfare meant that they were able to conquer three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms within the space of a century, providing them with a solid base from which to engage in more warfare.

Although they were unsuccessful in their war with King Alfred The Great of Wessex, the Vikings prior success in war encouraged Alfred to accept their presence and establish the Danelaw.

On the other hand, the Vikings did initially migrate to England for economic resources.

In the eighth century, England was known as a rich and relatively peaceful land, as the Anglo-Saxons frequently traded with the people of Europe, the Vikings themselves were international traders, making the existing European trade routes in England an attractive pull factor.

Another pull factor for the Vikings was that England had excellent farmland, and the climate was temperate, which meant that the Vikings would have access to regular supplies in surplus.

In conclusion, although economic resources were an important factor in causing the Vikings to migrate to England, it was not the most important factor.

This is because England's economic resources were the initial reason for Viking migration, but it was their success in war that allowed them to succeed in this migration.

If you've got a different overall opinion to myself or if you've used different examples to me, and that's absolutely fine.

The key thing is that you've provided an opinion and you've justified that opinion as well.

So you've backed it up with a strong argument.

That's what I'm looking for there.

Okay, let's summarise today's lesson now then.

So a number of different people occupied Britain in the eighth century CE, the most numerous of which was Germanic Anglo-Saxon Tribes.

Viking raids on Britain started in 793 CE and continued for nearly a century due to variety of push and pull factors such as overpopulation in Scandinavia and the wealth of Britain.

By 871 CE, the Vikings controlled several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and attempted to conquer Wessex.

King Alfred The Great defeated the Vikings in battle and established the Danelaw.

The Danelaw recognised the Vikings' control over the north and east of England.

Vikings living in the Danelaw contributed greatly to the culture of Britain.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself.

Hopefully you learnt something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-Bye.