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Gunhild, the daughter of Emma of Normandy
Gunhild was the only daughter of Canute, who became King of England (by conquest) in 1016, of Denmark (by inheritance) in 1018 and who was, for a time, King of Norway too. Her mother was Emma of Normandy, the daughter of Duke Richard I and his second wife Gunnor. For both parents, this was their… Continue reading
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Ragnar, the Viking who sacked Paris.
The legendary Ragnar Lothbrok is surely the most famous viking of them all. Historical Ragnars are a bit thin on the ground in the 9th Century which is when he’s supposed to have lived, but one man did achieve the necessary level of notoriety. This is the Ragnar who led the first viking raid on… Continue reading
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The women of King Canute: Ælfgifu of Northampton and Emma of Normandy
November 1035 … King Canute is dead. The unchallenged ruler of England and his native Denmark, he leaves behind two sons by two different women. These royal mothers now lock horns to see whose son will mount the English throne. We know a great deal about one of the women. This is Emma (c.992-1052) the… Continue reading
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How England got its name
Why did it become Angle-land rather than Saxon-land when it was the West Saxon kings who eventually unified the old kingdoms into one? And how do the Anglo-Saxons fit into the overall picture? ‘England’ and ‘English’ are not names that evolved organically among the population. Rather, they are names that were imposed top-down on the… Continue reading
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A Face from the Past: Yaroslav of Kyiv.
Yaroslav, Prince of Kyiv from 1019 to 1054, is important to Ukraine and to Russia who both claim bragging rights to his historical legacy. A cultured man who read many books and sponsored translations from Greek to his native Slavic, history remembers him as ‘Yaroslav The Wise’. In modern Russia, Yaroslav is remembered as the… Continue reading
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Finding Sutton Hoo: May 1939
On the eve of World War 2, the Sutton Hoo estate was the property of a wealthy widow, Mrs Edith Pretty who was curious about the mounds visible through the window of her house. These were a mysterious presence in the landscape, rising proud above a bluff of land that overlooks the tidal reaches of… Continue reading
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The Watlington Hoard … and what Guthrum did next.
A selection of objects from the Watlington Hoard – almost certainly buried by one of Guthrum’s men in 879 or 880. The hoard was discovered in an Oxfordshire field in 2015. In May 878, King Alfred of Wessex defeated Guthrum and the Danes at the battle of Edington (Wiltshire). Afterwards, the defeated side gave hostages… Continue reading
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Guthrum and Alfred the Great
Alfred of Wessex, as played by David Dawson in the TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Saxon’ stories. In 878, Alfred and Guthrum met at ‘Ethandune’. At the beginning of 878, Guthrum and his viking warbands ambushed King Alfred of Wessex and forced him into hiding in the waterlogged Somerset Levels. This is described in Part… Continue reading
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Guthrum and the Great Heathen Army
Thomas W. Gabrielsson as an enigmatic Guthrum, in the televised version of ‘The Last Kingdom’ In the early 9th Century, viking ships raided the English coast in summer and returned to their winter bases in Ireland, Frisia or Scandinavia. In 855, things took an ominous turn (from the English point of view). Looking back, the… Continue reading
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Elephants and Ivory in the Early Middle Ages
A detail from the Barberini Ivory, probably commissioned for the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527-565). The East offers an elephant and an ivory tusk as tokens of its riches. The ivory trade in the West has a long history that goes back to the Ancient Egyptians. Until the 5th Century AD, the majority of tusks reaching… Continue reading
WELCOME TO A BLOG ABOUT THE BEST PERIOD IN HISTORY!
The Early Middle Ages 