Alfred was the youngest son of his father, the King of Wessex, and probably never thought he would rule. ![]() Was the only remaining kingdom not destroyed by the Vikings. We'll return to the Norman Conquest a little later, but first we need to take a look at some of the events that precede it.Ī man named Alfred came to the throne of Wessex, the southernmost part of England.įour independent kingdoms of England had been reduced to just one. Within only a few generations, the Norman descen-dants of these Viking settlers carried the Norman language (a Romance language with Germanic influence), and their Norman culture, across the English channel in 1066, when they became the ruling aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon England after the Norman Conquest. In return, Rollo swore fealty to Charles, converted to Christian-ity, and undertook responsibility for defense of the northern region of France against the incursions of other Viking groups. In 911, the French King, Charles the Simple, made an agreement with the Viking war leader Rollo, giving him the title of duke, and granting him and his descendants possession of Normandy. Scandinavian conquest and settle-ment of the region now known as Normandy. Grandsons, a string of Norse raids culminated in a gradual Toward the end of Charlemagne's reign, and throughout the reigns of his sons and Viking sagas date only to the 12th andġ3th centuries, and although they contain someĪccurate information about events that happened hundreds of years earlier (suchĪs Leif Eriksson's voyage to Newfoundland around 1000), it is often difficult to Scandinavia before its Christianization in the 11th century. Reason that we know so little about the reasons behind the changes in Vikingīehavior during this period, is that we have very little written evidence about This would certainly make attacks on monasteries a reasonable approach, since they were essentially undefended and the monks generally did not resist. ![]() And finally, it is even possible that for some reason, the slave trade became immensely more lucrative during those years, requiring raids in order to capture potential slaves. It is also possible that a simple decline in the profitability of old trade routes drove the Vikings to seek out new, more profitable ones. Still other historians think the Scandinavians, preferring sons, may have practiced selective procreation practices much as China does today, leading to a shortage of women, with the Vikings main motive for raiding being to acquire wives. Nobles who did not want to be oppressedīy greedy kin gs, emigrated overseas. Especially during periods of conquest and resettlement, there were internal struggles in Scandinavia resulting in progressive centralization of power into fewer ![]() Was too large for the peninsula and there was not enough good farmland forĮveryone, leading to a search for new lands. Other historians suggest that the Scandinavian population Surprised? Let's see how that happened, and we will uncover a number of other fascinating tidbits as well. For example, it may be a bit of an over-simplification, but the Vikings, to a large extent, both facilitated the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, but also contributed greatly to the demise of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries. Teasing out the chain of events sometimes reveals some surprising discoveries, and there is a great deal of satisfaction in arriving at an 'ah-ha' moment after a long and diligent search. A rather tangled web of cause and effect weaves its way through the events of these centuries, sometimes having profound and obvious effects on the Church and on religious belief, while at other times the consequences are subtle, late to manifest, or hidden. ![]() Since this is not a class in secular history, we do not go into great detail on secular subjects, but in the Medieval worldview, all things were colored by religious belief, and religious belief determined to a large extent the actions of kings, clergy, and laity.
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