Hello and welcome to today's lesson on the Viking conquest.

This lesson is part of a broader inquiry looking at the impact of migration on England in the Mediaeval period.

In the course of this inquiry, we'll cover lots of different things, including the conquest of England by the Viking and Normans, but also the experiences, reasons for migration, and impact of migrants in the late mediaeval period, including Jewish migrants and merchants and craftspeople.

But for today, we're just going to be focusing on the Viking conquest.

Now, in order to do that, we're going to need a piece of paper and a pen.

If you don't have one, not to worry.

Just pause the video now, get everything you need, and then come back and press play when you're ready to go.

Great.

Now you've got everything you need, let's have a look at our lesson outcome and by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the reasons for and the impact of the Viking conquest of England, as well as the experiences of Viking settlers.

But in order to be able to do that, we're going to need some keywords.

And for today we've got five keywords.

The first is Scandinavia, which is the collective term for the countries of Northern Europe.

The second is the Danelaw, which is the area of England in the north and east that was controlled by the Vikings.

The third is migrants and migrants is the term used to describe people who move into a new area or country.

Autonomy is another one of our keywords and this is how far individuals or groups of migrants hold onto the culture, customs, and values of their homeland.

And finally, our last key word is assimilation and that is how far individuals or groups of immigrants adopt the culture, customs, and values of majority of people living in their new home country.

Great.

Now we've got our five keywords.

We'll see them again in the context of the lesson and they'll make even more sense when we see them then.

But for now, we can get started on our lesson and first we're going to be looking at why the Vikings settled in England.

So if we have a look at our slide, we'll see a map showing Viking migration.

And if you have a look almost in the centre of the map in that area highlighted in, we're gonna call it turquoise, that is the Viking homelands.

And that's because the Vikings were seafaring people from Scandinavia who sailed the seas around Northern Europe and by the 700s had grown to become a large population that ruled over much of Scandinavia.

However, as their population grew, their homelands became incredibly overpopulated and several Viking rulers looked for new, fertile land to raid and even potentially settle on.

Meanwhile, England had a slowly growing population Anglo-Saxons.

These were the Germanic inhabitants of England from the fifth century to the 400s, as well as vast amounts of fertile land and several wealthy monasteries.

It was Lindisfarne which we can see photographed here, an island of the coast of Northumbria that was first attacked by the Vikings in 793.

As they would often be paid off by Anglo-Saxon rulers to end their raids, the Vikings would continue to raid England for greater wealth and to slowly weaken the Anglo-Saxon hold on Northern England.

That was until 856 when the Vikings' Great Heathen Army decided to settle on England's fertile lands in the north as it was the main attraction to Viking communities who had overpopulated their own land.

Now, the Great Heathen Army would go on to fight many bloody battles to win control of Northern England.

It soon became clear to many Viking rulers that if they could take Northern England, they would not only gain wealth from their new fertile lands, but also through the new trade routes available to them.

And we can see that here.

If we look at the map of Viking trading routes which expanded after they took control of the Danelaw.

And the Danelaw was proof that their efforts were successful because the Anglo-Saxon king, King Alfred, was left with little choice but to grant them rule over the Danelaw, which was the north and eastern part of England.

Remember from our keywords.

This was following the victory at the Battle of Edington in 878.

So we can see here that they were attracted to England since their land was overpopulated, and they were attracted by the opportunity for wealth, but also because they knew that if they could settle on the land, they would also be expanding their trade routes.

And we can see how far west they're able to expand and that's helped by taking control of the northeastern parts of England.

Now, before we go on to look at what it was like, what the experiences were of Vikings in England, we're gonna pause, check our understanding so far, and put what we've learned into practise.

So firstly, I'd like you to have a think about what problems the Vikings face by the 700s.

So pause the video now and just jot down a couple of ideas for me.

So have a think, what problems did the Vikings face by the 700s? Pause the video now and when you've got a couple of ideas down, come back and press play.

Brilliant.

So, you might have said overpopulation and also the need for new, fertile lands.

Brilliant.

If you've got a slight variation of that, absolutely fine but essentially you need to know that the Viking population had essentially grown too big for their Scandinavian homelands and they needed new, fertile land to make money or also to settle on land.

Now, I want you to have a think.

Which of the following events happened in 793? Was it the Viking attack on Lindisfarne? Was it the Anglo-Saxon attack on Northumbria? The arrival of the Great Heathen Army in England? Or the Norman conquest of England? Pause the video now, have a think about what we just talked about, and then come back and press play when you've got an answer.

Brilliant.

We know that it was the Viking attack on Lindisfarne that happened in 793.

And then finally, which one of the following events happened in 856? Same list of events.

So it's either the Viking attack on Lindisfarne, the Anglo-Saxon attack on Northumbria, the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in England, or the Norman conquest of England.

Pause the video now and when you've made a decision, come back and press play.

Brilliant.

We know that it was an 856 that the Great Heathen Army arrived in England and it was the Great Heathen Army who would fight many battles to win control of Northern England, which proved to be successful where they were granted rule over the Danelaw.

Now let's put all we've learned into practise.

And in order to do that, I'd like you to write one paragraph to explain why the Viking settled in England in 856, making sure to include the following details in your response.

Overpopulation, Great Heathen Army, fertile land, trade routes, and Danelaw.

Pause the video now, give yourself five to 10 minutes to complete this paragraph, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Brilliant.

Now let's have a look at what your answer might have included.

By the 700s, the Viking population of Scandinavia faced overpopulation and needed new fertile land to settle on.

As a result, the Vikings first attack Lindisfarne in 793, continuing to raid England and weaken Anglo-Saxon rule until their Great Heathen Army arrived in 856.

This time the Viking Army looked to settle on England's fertile northern lands, taking advantage of the new trade routes available to them as they took control of the Danelaw.

If you got something similar down, really well done because it's important that we distinguish between them coming to raid England in 793 but changing their intentions in 856 to decide to settle on English land, taking advantage of the fertile land, but also the new trading routes available to them.

Really well done.

Now in the next part of the lesson, we're going to be looking at the experiences of Vikings in England.

When considering the experiences of Vikings in England, it largely depended on where in England they settled.

Typically, migrants were considered aliens in this period, but as Vikings came to control the Danelaw, these new migrants in Northern England experienced England as rulers, not as aliens.

But despite being rulers, historians have learned that the Vikings assimilated, so remember that's talking about adopting the local culture, assimilated into English culture.

They did this by adopting the religion of the local people, Christianity.

King Cnut was a Viking ruler who became king of England in 1016.

He supported the English church and embraced Christianity.

So, we know that there's evidence of assimilation, they're adopting the local culture of people in England but they're not experiencing England as aliens, not within the Danelaw that is.

So before we go on to consider what things may have looked like outside of the Danelaw, I'm just gonna pause quickly and check our understanding so far.

So what was the typical status of migrants in the Mediaeval period? Was it foreigners, aliens, or rulers? Pause the video now, think about the wording of the question.

Make a decision and then come back and press play when you're done.

Brilliant.

We know that migrants in this period were typically considered aliens.

The Vikings were an anomaly in that they ruled the northeastern part of England and therefore within the Danelaw experienced England as rulers.

And we know within the Danelaw there were signs of assimilation.

So for example, King Cnut adopting the local religion, that being Christianity.

Now, we do know that they're assimilated to a degree like I just said, King Cnut.

However, there's also evidence that the Vikings maintained a level of autonomy.

Remember that's holding onto the cultures and customs from your homelands.

And this is clearly seen in the coins found in Jorvik.

That's what the Vikings renamed York when they made it the capital of the Danelaw.

As the artefacts show, as you can see here on the slide, Christian symbols on the one side and they have pagan symbols on the other.

And this is evidence that the Vikings both embraced Christianity, but continued some of their traditional pagan practises.

So remember, putting all this together, depending on where you lived, you would've experienced England as a ruler rather than an alien, which was typical of migrants in this period.

If you were within the Danelaw, then you would've experienced England as a ruler.

And we've learned that within the Danelaw, there were signs of both assimilation, adopting the local Christian religion, but also autonomy, maintaining some traditional pagan beliefs.

Now, before we go on to consider what life was like for the Vikings outside of the Danelaw, we're just going to pause and check our understanding with a couple of questions.

So first, I'd like you to have a short discussion with the person next to you.

If you're doing this lesson by yourself, not to worry, just pause the video now and have a go at articulating a response out loud or jotting down some key ideas for me or both.

So, I'd like you to discuss or articulate out loud some examples of Viking assimilation.

That's one of our key words here.

So we're testing whether you can remember the difference between assimilation and autonomy.

Pause the video now and give yourself a couple minutes to get this discussion going or articulate it out loud.

Brilliant.

Hopefully in your discussion, you mentioned that Viking coins showed Christian symbols.

That's one example of assimilation.

Or you mentioned that King Cnut was Christian and supported the English church.

You might have mentioned more generally that the coins shows that ordinary Vikings adopted Christianity as well.

Absolutely.

Brilliant, really well done.

Now, I'd like you to have a look at this statement.

The Vikings showed no evidence of autonomy after settling in England.

Think about whether this statement is true or false then come back and press play when you've made a decision.

Brilliant.

We know that this statement is false but we need to think about why this statement is false.

Is it false because Viking coins had pagan symbols on one side suggesting continued pagan practises? Or is it true because most Vikings did not convert to Christianity and their pagan practises became common across England? Pause the video now, have a think, and when you've made a decision, come back and press play.

Brilliant, we know this statement is false because Viking coins also have pagan symbols on one side suggesting continued pagan practises.

So as we've said, depending on where you lived in England, as a Viking, your experiences would have differed.

And we know that Vikings often face little hostility within the Danelaw but the Danelaw was not across all of England and in the South as we can see on this map here.

Those red lines outline the Danelaw boundary.

So there were still Vikings living outside the Danelaw and the experiences of Viking migrants here was often very different.

Here they were treated as aliens.

And one example of extremely violent hostility was the St.

Brice's Day massacre.

On the 13th of October, 1002, the Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Aethelred, ordered the massacre of all the Vikings outside the Danelaw as he considered them a threat to his rule.

It's still unknown just how many Vikings were killed but almost 40 victims have been discovered by archaeologists.

Despite the massacre, such hostility would not have been the experiences of all Vikings in England.

So it's important for historians to understand that the experience of Vikings differed depending on where they settled.

Now, before we put what we've learned about Viking experiences into practise, we're going to pause and check our understanding one last time.

So I'd like you to have a think about that story I just told you of St.

Brice's Day massacre, the massacre of the Vikings by order of King Aethelred on the 13th of October, 1002.

Thinking about why he ordered it, what does it show? What can we learn from this event? What can we learn about the experiences of Vikings specifically from this event? So pause this video now, give yourself a couple of minutes to get this discussion going.

Remember, if you're doing this lesson by yourself, have a go at explaining it out loud and then maybe jotting down some key ideas.

Brilliant.

Hopefully you've said some key things like we can learn that the Vikings outside of the Danelaw experience great hostility.

We can also learn that Anglo-Saxon rulers used violence against Vikings as they considered them a threat.

But remember, this was not the experiences of all Vikings because their experience depended largely on where they settled in England.

Now let's put what we've learned into practise.

So firstly, we're going to read Andeep's description of the experiences of Viking settlers in England.

Andeep says, "In the mediaeval period, migrants were typically considered aliens.

However, as the Vikings ruled the Danelaw, they experienced England as rulers and so they had completely positive experiences in England.

They did not experience the hostility that migrants might typically have experienced in this period." Hmm, interesting take there.

So, I'd like you to explain why his description is an oversimplification of Viking experiences 'cause as we were reading, a few ideas probably popped into your head that there's clearly an omission of some of the key things we've learned in this part of the lesson.

So pause the video now and give yourself five to 10 minutes to explain why this description is an oversimplification.

So why is it too simple? What has Andeep missed out or misunderstood from this part of the lesson? Brilliant.

Let's have a look at what your answer might have included.

So you might have said Andeep's description is a correct explanation of the experiences of some Vikings.

However, it's an oversimplification of the experiences of all Vikings as it does not take into account those who lived outside of the Danelaw who were often treated as aliens and faced great hostility.

The most violent example of this hostility was the St.

Brice's Day massacre in 1002, where an estimated 40 Vikings were killed by the Anglo-Saxon King Aethelred.

Therefore, it is clear that the experiences of Viking migrants depended on where they settled in England.

Really well done because this answer hasn't said that Andeep was wrong, he's just missed out the experiences of some Vikings.

By generalising and saying that they all had completely positive experiences, he's missed out that the experience has depended on where they settled.

So we can't just paint them all with the same brush.

Really well done.

Now, the third and final part of our lesson, we're going to be thinking about what impact did the Vikings have on England? Now, the Viking migrants impacted both England's culture and economy.

Their impact on culture can be seen in the English language today, as many words and place names come from Scandinavia.

For example, ransack and glove.

Some days of the week are even named after Viking gods such as Wednesday, which is named after Woden, and Thursday, which is named after Thor.

In addition, place names that end in gate such as Coppergate in York are also of Scandinavian origin.

So here we can see the impact on culture.

When we talk about culture, we can mean lots of different things but here we're talking about the impact on language.

So the words we use today show the place of Vikings migrants in England's history, that they had enough of an impact in the mediaeval period to change the words and phrases they used even till today.

So we're gonna have a quick check of our understanding of the impact on culture.

So which two of the following words are examples of the Viking impact on the English language? Ransack, Thursday, or York.

Pause the video now, make a decision about which two of the words are an example, and then come back and press play.

Brilliant.

We know that ransack and Thursday are examples of the Viking impact on the English language.

Ransack is of Scandinavian origin, and Thursday is the day of the week named after the Viking god Thor.

Now, I've already said that Vikings also impacted the economy and one of the main ways that the Vikings impacted England's economy is their building up of Jorvik, York, as an economic centre with multiple trading links reaching far beyond the city.

Archaeologists have found Viking objects at Coppergate that came from Norway in Northern Europe, the Vineland in Western Europe, Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and the Red Sea, part of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia.

These items most likely came to York as a result of Viking traders.

The economic impact of the Vikings is most clear in the rule of King Cnut from 1016 to 1035.

Under his rule, the Viking raiding of England stopped and the country experienced a time of peace, which allowed the economy to grow.

And then in 1018, Cnut became king of Denmark and then in 1028, he became king of Norway.

This meant that England was now part of Cnut's North Sea Empire, which we can see on the map here, covering a huge amount of land.

And what this meant was that trade could now flourish even more, and the economy boomed.

This demonstrates one way that the Viking migrants had a positive impact on England.

So having looked at the impact on both culture and the economy specifically seen as England became part of Cnut's North Sea Empire, we're now going to pause, check our understanding so far, and then put what we've learned about the impact of Viking migration into practise.

So first I'd like you to tell me, what was the name of Cnut's Empire that enabled the English economy to flourish? Was it the Viking Empire, the Empire of Scandinavia, or the North Sea Empire? Pause the video now, make a decision, and then come back and press play when you've got an idea.

Brilliant, we know that it was the North Sea Empire that was the name of King Cnut's empire that enabled the English economy to flourish.

Now for our final task for today, I'd like you to have a look at a statement.

The most important impact of the Viking conquest was the impact on culture.

I need to have a think about how far you agree with this statement but I want your response to be a single paragraph in response, but considering both the impact on culture and the economy.

I know the statement only mentions culture but we need to think about both because we've looked at the Viking impact on both.

So pause the video now.

Give yourself 10 minutes to complete this task, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Great.

Now let's have a look at what your answer might have included.

So you might have said, I disagree with this statement as the impact on the economy would have brought greater change to more people in England.

The country experienced an economic boom as a result of the Vikings building up York as an economic centre and England becoming part of the North Sea Empire.

This would've benefited traders and merchants across the country.

Although the changes to culture were longer lasting, as we still use words and place names such as ransack and Coppergate, ultimately the impact on culture would have made less of a difference to people at the time compared to the booming economy.

And this is brilliant because you've clearly explained why you think the impact on the economy was greater by saying that it would've had a greater impact on people at the time, although culture was more longer lasting.

So really well done for your work today.

Before we finish off, let's have a look at a summary of what we've learned.

So we learned that the Vikings invaded Britain as it was a wealthy country, and Scandinavia was overpopulated by the 700s.

The invasion began with the raid on Lindisfarne in 793.

We also learned that the Great Heathen Army began to settle in England from 856, but it was the 878 Battle of Edington, where King Alfred defeated the Vikings, which led to the creation of the Danelaw.

And then finally, in 1016, King Cnut became king of England.

As king, he supported the church and brought economic prosperity as England became part of the North Sea Empire, and Viking York became an important trade centre.

Really well done for your work today.

I am very, very impressed.

You've worked really hard and done some brilliant work.

Really well done.