Medieval Scandinavia
(AD 410-1397)
- Scandinavian England (410-1066)
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
- -410: after pirating the North Sea for a century, the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes migrated from Jutland (Denmark) and northern Germany to eastern Britannia; these Germanic tribes conquered the Romanized Celts, establishing several kingdoms and an Anglo-Saxon culture.
- -with the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, the Celts were pushed westward; the strongest Celtic kingdoms were in Cornwall (West Wales), in southwest England; Wales, in west England; and the Scots, in northern Britain.
- -519: Cerdic, a West Saxon warlord, established the kingdom of Wessex in southern England, east of Cornwall.
- -616: Edwin, king of Deira, defeated and killed Ethelfrith, king of Bernicia, and united the kingdoms to form Northumbria in northern England and southern Scotland; the title Bretwalda (ruler of Britain) was given to his powerful successors.
- -688: Ine, a descendent of Cerdic, became king of Wessex, in southern England; he centralized power, which had often been in the hands of other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and turned Wessex into one of the strongest kingdoms in Britain.
- -757: Offa became king of Mercia, in central England; he centralized power, gaining control of minor Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in southeastern England and unifying much of England; the title Bretwalda here passed to Mercia.
- Christianity
- -596: King Ethelbert of Kent married Bertha, a Frankish princess; because Bertha was Christian, Pope Gregory I sent the missionary St. Augustine to convert Ethelbert as well; Ethelbert was soon baptized, Kent was soon Christian, and Augustine became the first archbishop of Canterbury.
- -635: St. Aidan, a Celtic Christian from Scotland, founded the monastery of Holy Island in Northumbria; Celtic Christianity differed from Catholicism in its structure, but not in its teachings, so England's culture still remained the same.
- -664: King Oswy of Northumbria was baptized and converted his kingdom to Christianity.
- -668: Theodore of Tarsus became archbishop of Canterbury and created dioceses and parishes all over England, giving it a unified religion.
- -the mixture of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Catholic culture mixed well and produced a wide variety of scholars including the Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian Monk, who wrote the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" and Alcuin of York, a monk, who was chosen by Charlemagne to head his palace school.
- Rise of Wessex
- -802: after being exiled at Charlemagne's court by King Offa of Mercia, Egbert, a descendent of Cerdic, returned to England and claimed the throne of Wessex.
- -825: Egbert defeated Offa at the Battle of Ellendun; he proceeded to conquer all of Offa's territories, Mercia, Cornwall, Kent, East Anglia, Sussex, and Surrey, and he united them under his rule.
- -830: Egbert conquered Northumbria, uniting all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms under his rule, and took the title Bretwalda.
- -839: Egbert died and his son, Aethelwulf, succeeded him as king of Wessex.
- Alfred the Great and Danelaw
- -871: Alfred the Great, the son of Aethelwulf, succeeded his brother Aethelred I as king of Wessex; because the Danes were invading, Alfred quickly made peace with Denmark and temporarily ended the invasion.
- -876: the Danes resumed their English invasion and conquered all of eastern England, which became known as Danelaw, because the Danes lived there under their own laws.
- -878: Alfred assembled an army at Aethelney and proceeded to Edlington, the Danish stronghold; he defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edlington, halted their invasion, and then turned his attentions to the affairs of England.
- -886: after conquering much of Danelaw, Alfred proceeded to conquer London; after conquering London, Alfred was officially recognized as king of all England.
- -893: the Danes resumed their English invasion and, because Alfred was the only ruler able to resist them, he became the one that all other Saxons looked to for help.
- -Alfred became a patron of the arts; he invited educators like Asser, from Wales, and John Scotus Erigena, from Ireland, to come and establish schools, libraries, and to translate classical and contemporary books; Alfred also issued dooms (laws) which equally applied to both the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic peoples of England.
- -899: Alfred died and was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder, who continued to conquer back Danelaw.
- -937: Aethelstan, the son and successor of Edward, defeated the last of the Danes at the Battle of Brunanburh; this victory ended the warfare and allowed for England to prosper and expand.
- -Aethelstan ruled along with the witenagemot (council of wise men), which issued dooms and oversaw the selection of kings; he created about forty shires (counties), each led by a sheriff and a shiremoot (court).
- Danish Rule
- -978: Aethelred the Unready, a descendent of Alfred, became king of England; because he was threatened by the Danes, Alfred made peace with the Danes in Normandy by marrying Emma, the sister of Richard II, duke of Normandy.
- -991: in order to pay tribute to Denmark, Aethelred forced all his sheriffs to collect the Danegeld, the first land tax in Europe.
- -1013: despite the Danegeld, Denmark invaded and plundered England, forcing Aethelred to flee to Normandy.
- -1016: Aethelred died and was succeeded by his son Edmund II Ironside; he won many victories against Canute II, king of Denmark, including at London; because Canute had the support of the witenagemot and of Edmund's brother-in-law, Edric, Canute defeated Aethelred at the Battle of Ashington and became king of England.
- -Canute II of Denmark also became Canute I of England; he married Aethelred's widow, Emma, supported the Catholic Church, and divided England into the four earldoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumberland, and Wessex.
- -1035: Canute I died and Harald I Harefoot, the illegitimate son of Canute, claimed the English throne despite Canute's designation for Hardicanute, the legitimate son of Canute, as successor; to settle the claims, the witenagemot gave all of England to Harald except for Wessex, which was given to Hardicanute, but remained loyal to Harald because Hardicanute remained in Denmark.
- -1040: Harald I died and ended the constant feuds between he and his half-brother; because Hardicanute was unpopular in England, he left control over England to the powerful Godwin, earl of Wessex.
- -1042: Hardicanute died and the witenagemot choose Hardicanute's half-brother Edward the Confessor, the son of Aethelred II and Emma, Hardicanute's mother, to be king of England; this ended Danish rule in England and gave it independence.
- End of Anglo-Saxon England
- -Edward the Confessor was dominated throughout his reign by the Godwin, earl of Wessex, and then his son Harold; this close tie also led to Edward's marriage to Edith, the sister of Harold.
- -1051: Edward met with his cousin William, duke of Normandy, and agreed that if he should not produce an heir, William would succeed to the English throne.
- -1064: Harold, earl of Wessex, was shipwrecked off the coast of France and was captured by William, duke of Normandy; in return for his life, Harold swore his rights to the English throne to William, who sought to strengthen his claim.
- -1066: Edward the Confessor died heirless and the witenagemot elected Harold II to become king of England; an angry William allied with Tostig, the brother of Harold, and Harold III, king of Denmark, in order to assert his claim to the throne.
- -1066, October 14: after the defeat and deaths of Tostig and Harold III, William led his own invasion in Sussex; William defeated and killed Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, and he was crowned William I the Conqueror, king of England, which ended the Anglo-Saxon line and began Norman rule.
- Medieval Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (640-1397)
- Viking Era of Disunity
- -640: Halfdan I Whiteleg united most of the twenty-nine small Germanic kingdoms in Norway under the nominal rule of the Yngling dynasty; without a strong hold of Norway, the country was still very disunited.
- -780: disunity failed to support the growing population in Scandinavia and many farmers were forced to seek land in Europe; these expert sailors, called Vikings, built long war ships, capable of traveling inland by rivers
- -850: the Vikings plundered towns and churches all over Europe; the Norwegians established settlements in Ireland, Britain, and Iceland; the Swedes explored, raided, and traded along the Dnieper Rivers in Eastern Europe, traveling as far south as Constantinople; and the Danes settled in eastern England and northern France.
- -863: Harold I Fairhair, of the Yngling dynasty, inherited large portions of eastern, western, and central Norway; he proceeded to unite all of the small kingdoms in Norway under his rule.
- -911: after plundering northern France for so long, Charles III, king of the Franks, gave part of northern France, called Normandy (land of the North men) to Viking raiders from Denmark.
- -930: Eric I Bloodaxe succeeded his father Harold as king of Norway; when he and his brothers warred against each other for power, the kingdom of Norway divided and went into a period of constant civil war.
- -985: Eric the Red led Norwegian Vikings from Iceland to Greenland, establishing settlements on its coast.
- Christianity
- -960: Harold I Bluetooth, king of Denmark, was baptized and began converting Denmark to Christianity.
- -995: Olav I, the grandnephew of Eric I, became king of Norway; because he had spent his childhood in England, he was converted to Christianity, and when he came to Norway, he greatly succeeded in converting the kingdom; from Norway Christianity spread to Sweden.
- -999: Olav I sent Leif Eriksson, the son of Eric the Red, to Greenland in order to convert the settlers there to Christianity; while sailing to Greenland, his ship was blown off course and he landed in Newfoundland in North America.
- -1000: King Sven I of Denmark defeated and killed Olav I at the naval Battle of Svold; Sven I ruled Norway from Denmark and without a strong unity, Norway divided into various small kingdoms.
- -1014: Olav II reunited Norway and made himself king; he continued the conversion to Christianity and even used force to baptize dissenters.
- -1028: Canute II, king of Denmark and England, and many of the Norwegian nobles, felt that Olav II was to powerful so they drove him of into exile in Russia and Canute ruled Norway; when Olav returned, he was killed in battle and soon after, canonized as St. Olav II.
- Prosperity
- -1035: when Canute II died, the Norwegian nobles called back, from exile in Russia, Olav's son, Magnus I, to rule as king.
- -1042: Canute III the Hardy, king of Denmark, died and by an agreement he had made with Magnus (because Canute had no sons), Magnus became king of Denmark and united the two kingdoms under his rule.
- -1047: Harald III Hard-ruler succeeded his nephew Magnus I as king of Norway, but lost the right to Denmark to Sven II.
- -1066: after warring with Denmark for many years, Harald went to England to fight King Harald II of England; he was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge and Norway went into a period of conflict.
- -1150: Eric IX became king of Sweden; he established trade with Russia and Eastern Europe, conquered Finland and forced Christianity on the Finns, and turned Sweden into a strong European power; he was later canonized as St. Eric.
- -1202: Waldemar II the Victorious became king of Denmark; he conquered a large part of the southern and eastern Baltic coasts, and he established Denmark as a wealthy European power.
- -1217: Haakon IV the Old became king of Norway and reestablished the Yngling dynasty after a brief period of civil war; he built a strong monarchy, took power from the nobles, and annexed Iceland to his kingdom.
- -1282: the angry Danish nobility forced Eric V, king of Denmark, to sign the "Danish Magna Carta," which made the king subordinate to the law and created the Danehof (assembly of lords) as an administrative institution.
- Scandinavian Unity
- -1319: Haakon V, a descendent of Haakon IV, died without any male heirs; the throne passed to Sweden and the two kingdoms were united.
- -1380: Olav II, king of Denmark, conquered Denmark and annexed it from Sweden; along with Denmark came power as well as the islands of Iceland and Greenland.
- -1387: Olav II died and his mother, Margaret I, became queen of Denmark and Norway.
- -1389: the Swedish nobles forced Albert of Mecklenburg, king of Sweden, to abdicate the throne in favor of Margaret I, queen of Denmark and Norway; she united the three kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark under her rule.
- -1397: Margaret I initiated the Union of Kalmar, by which the three kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were official united as a single nation under the rule of Denmark; Norway and Sweden became provinces of Denmark and their individual welfare and cultures began to decline.
