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DANELAGH

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 804 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DANELAGH , the name given to those districts in the See also:

north and north-See also:east of See also:England which were settled by Danes and other Scandinavian invaders during the See also:period of the See also:Viking invasions. The real See also:settlement of England by Danes began in the See also:year 866 with the See also:appearance of a large See also:army in East Anglia, which turned north in the following year. The Danes captured See also:York and overthrew the Northumbrian See also:kingdom, setting up a puppet See also:king of their own. They encamped in See also:Nottingham in 868, and See also:Northern See also:Mercia was soon in their hands; in 87o See also:Edmund, king of the East Anglians, See also:fell before them. During the next few years they maintained their hold on Mercia, and we have at this See also:time coins minted in See also:London with the inscription " Alfdene rex," the name of the Danish See also:leader. In the See also:winter of 874-875 they advanced as far north as the See also:Tyne, and at the same time See also:Cam-See also:bridge was occupied. In the meantime the See also:great struggle with See also:Alfred the Great was being carried on. This was terminated by the See also:peace of See also:Wedmore in 878, when the Danes withdrew from Wessex and settled finally in East Anglia under their king See also:Guthrum. This peace was finally and definitely ratified in the document known as the peace of Alfred and Guthrum, which is probably to be referred to the year 880. The peace determined the boundary of Guthrum's East Anglian kingdom. According to the terms of the agreement the boundary was to run along the See also:Thames See also:estuary to the mouth of the See also:Lea (a few See also:miles east of London), then up the Lea to its source near See also:Leighton See also:Buzzard, then due north to See also:Bedford, then eastwards up the See also:Ouse to Watling See also:Street somewhere near Fenny or Stony See also:Stratford. From this point the boundary is See also:left undefined, perhaps because the kingdoms of Alfred and Guthrum ceased to be conterminous here, though if See also:Northamptonshire was included in the kingdom of Guthrum, as seems likely, the boundary must be carried a few miles along Watling Street.

Thus Northern Mercia, East Anglia, the greater See also:

part of See also:Essex and See also:Northumbria were handed over to the Danes and henceforth constitute the See also:district known as the Danelagh. The three See also:chief divisions of the Danelagh were (1) the kingdom of Northumbria, (2) the kingdom of East Anglia, (3) the district of the Five (Danish) Boroughs—lands grouped See also:round See also:Leicester, Nottingham, See also:Derby, See also:Stamford and See also:Lincoln, and forming a loose confederacy. Of the See also:history of the two Danish kingdoms we know very little. Guthrum of East Anglia died in 890, and later we hear of a king See also:Eric or Eohric who died in 902. Another Guthrum was ruling there in the days of See also:Edward the See also:Elder. The history of the Northumbrian kingdom is yet more obscure. After an See also:interregnum consequent on the See also:death of Healfdene the kingdom passed in 883 to one Guthred, son of See also:Hardicanute, who ruled till 894, when his See also:realm was taken over by King Alfred, though probably only under a very loose See also:sovereignty. It may be noted here that Northumbria north of the Tyne, the old See also:Bernicia, seems never to have passed under Danish authority and See also:rule, but to have remained in See also:independence until the See also:general submission to Edward in 924. More is known of the history of the five boroughs. From 907 onwards Edward the Elder, working together with 'See also:Ethelred of Mercia and his wife, worked for the recovery of the Danelagh. In that year See also:Chester was fortified. In 911-912 an advance on Essex and See also:Hertfordshire was begun.

In 914 See also:

Buckingham was fortified and the Danes of See also:Bedfordshire submitted. In 917 Derby was the first of the five boroughs to fall, followed by Leicester a few months later. In the same year after a keen struggle all the Danes belonging to the " See also:borough " of See also:Northampton, as far north as the Welland (i.e. the border of See also:modern Northamptonshire), submitted to Edward and at the saw time See also:Colchester was fortified; a large portion of Essex submitted and the whole of the East Anglian Danes came in. Stamford was the next to yield, soon followed by Nottingham, and in 920 there was a general submission on the part of the Danes and the reconquest of the Danelagh was now See also:complete. Though the See also:independent occupation of the Danelagh by Viking invaders did not last for more than fifty years at the outside, the Danes left lasting marks of their presence in these territories. The divisions of the See also:land are See also:foreign not native. The grouping of shires round a See also:county See also:town as distinct from the old See also:national shires is probably of Scandinavian origin, and so certainly is the See also:division of See also:Yorkshire and See also:Lincolnshire into " See also:ridings." In See also:Derbyshire, See also:Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, part of Northampton-See also:shire, See also:Nottinghamshire, Rutlandshire (of later formation) and Yorkshire we have the counties divided into " wapentakes " instead of " hundreds," again a See also:mark of Danish See also:influence. When we turn to the social divisions we find in Domesday and other documents classes of society in these districts bearing purely Norse names, dreng, karl, karlman, See also:bonde, See also:thrall, lysing, hold; in the See also:system of See also:taxation we have an See also:assessment by carucates and not by hides and virgates, and the duodecimal rather than the decimal.system of reckoning. The highly See also:developed Scandinavian legal system has also left abundant traces in this district. We may mention specially the institution of the " lawmen," whom we find as a judicial See also:body in several of the towns in or near the Danelagh. They are found at See also:Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York and Chester. There can be no doubt that these " lawmen," who can be shown to See also:form a See also:close parallel to and indeed the ultimate source of our See also:jury, were of Scandinavian origin.

Many other legal terms can be definitely traced to Scandinavian See also:

sources, and they are first found in use in the district of the Danelagh. The whole of the See also:place nomenclature of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Northern Northamptonshire is Scandinavian rather than native See also:English, and in the remaining districts of the Danelagh a goodly proportion of Danish place-names may be found. Their influence is also evident in the dialects spoken in these districts to the See also:present See also:day. It is probable that until the end of the See also:roth See also:century Scandinavian dialects were almost the See also:sole See also:language spoken in the district of the Danelagh, and when English triumphed, after an intermediate bilingual See also:state, large See also:numbers of words were adopted from the earlier Scandinavian speech. See The Anglo-Saxon See also:Chronicle, edited by See also:Earle and Plummer (See also:Oxford, 1892–1899) ; J. C. H. R. Steenstrup, Normannerne (4 vols., 1876-1882); and A. See also:Bugge, Vikingerne (2 vols.). (A.

End of Article: DANELAGH

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