Jórvik (York)
The Scandinavian centre of northern
England
There is an accompanying York chronology, with references to
source material.
Violence
The earliest
recorded Viking raid in Britain was the attack on Lindisfarne in AD 793. The
early Scandinavian raiders generally picked largely undefended, wealthy targets
such remote monasteries. The Norse raiders quickly learned that ecclesiastical
centres provided easy and plump reward.
The more
substantial Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia on the east coast of
England in 865 CE, but soon turned northwards.
In 866 CE,
Northumbria was in the midst of internal struggles
when the Vikings raided and captured Eoforwic.
As a thriving Anglo-Saxon metropolis and prosperous economic hub, Eoforwic was an obvious target for the Scandinavian
invaders. Led by Ivar the Boneless and Healfdan,
Scandinavian forces attacked the town on All Saints' Day, Friday 1 November 866
CE. Launching the assault on a holy day proved an effective tactical move. Most
of York's leaders were in the cathedral, leaving the town vulnerable to attack
and unprepared for battle. It is possible that its gates were open to let in
people from the surrounding countryside.
The
Northumbrian Kings, Aelle and Osberht, were not killed and the invading army
wintered on the Tyne before a second attack on the city on 21 March 867 CE when
both kings were killed.
Ragnarssona þáttr (The Tale of Ragnar's
sons) tells legendary accounts of the Viking conquest of York. This
associates the semi-legendary king of Sweden Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons,
Hvitserk, Björn Ironside, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Ivar the Boneless, and Ubbe
with the battles for York. According to the stories, Ragnar was killed by Ælla, and the army which seized York in 866 CE was led by
Ragnar's sons who avenged his death by subjecting Ælla
to the blood eagle. The story is the theme of the somewhat adapted Prime mini series, the
Vikings.
Scandinavian
settlement
By 876 CE
the Anglo
Saxon Chronicle suggests that the Scandinavian leader, Healfdan
shared out the lands of the Northumbrians and they proceeded to plough and
to support themselves. The History of St Cuthbert, written in Durham in the
eleventh century also recorded that the Scandinavian settlers rebuilt the
city of York, cultivated the land around it, and remained there. By the end
of the ninth century, the Norsemen had established themselves in York. And so
Anglo-Saxon Eoforwic became Scandinavian Jórvik. It became the capital of Norse territory in
Britain, and at its peak boasted more than 10,000 inhabitants. This was a
population second only to London.
Jórvik became an important economic and
trade centre. The city was well connected through river traffic along the Ouse,
which linked it via the North Sea to the Scandinavian trade networks which
spanned much of the world as it was known at that time. Artefacts from as far
away as Afghanistan have been found in York. There’s also evidence from the Coppergate site of industrial production including
woodwork, crafting with copper, iron, silver, gold, and even glassmaking. The
raw materials came from far afield. Some were brought across the Pennines.
There was tin from Cornwall. Bones and antlers for combs and pins were imported
from Greenland and Iceland.
There were
master craftsmen within the Jórvik community, with
weapon makers enjoying the highest status. Smiths in Coppergate
worked on hammers, tongs, bellows, needles, nails and intricate padlocks. Iron
alloy bars were smelted by blacksmiths from iron ore outside the city, creating
varied qualities of hardness and brittleness.
Display
case at the Jorvik museum which includes dress pins from Dublin (1); silver
penny from Æthewulf’s Anglo Saxon Kingdom of Wessex
(2); pottery from Lincolnshire (3); a bear’s claw (4) and walrus ivory gaming
pieces (5) both from Scandinavia; a silver coin from the court of Charles the
Bald in Francia (7); wine vessels from the Rhinelands
(8); and shells and coins from the Red Sea and Samarkand (9).
Norse
coinage was created at the Jórvik mint,
established by the early tenth century CE. The coinage mixed Christian and
Anglo-Saxon with pagan references which suggest an increased integration of
Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian society. The growth of a new service of those who
leant and dealt in money evidence the city’s economic growth.
This
women from Coppergate was
aged about 45. She was about 1.6 metres tall and her upper
body was robust. She was born with a severe misalignment of her hip bone, so
that she hardly used her right leg and would have limped. She was discovered in
a shall greave near the river Foss. She was probably buried wrapped in a
shroud. Sciemntfic evidence has identified her diet.
She did not originate in Jórvik but probably lived in
childhood in northern Scotland or possibly Scandinavia.
This man
was over 46 when he died and buried in an oak coffin. He was probably of
African or mixed ancestry, but likely to have been born in the British isles. He was probably a man of some status. He was
generally in good health.
The Life
of St Oswald written in about 1,000 CE recorded that the City of York is
the capital of the whole people of the Northumbrians. Formerly it was nobly
built and constructed with strong walls, which have been left to the ravages of
age. The city rejoices, however, in the multitude of its population which counting
men and women but not infants and children, numbers not less than 30,000. The
city is crammed beyond expression, and enriched with treasures of merchants,
who come from all parts but above all from the Danish people.
Archaeologists
have found evidence of a variety of craft workshops around the town's central Coppergate area. These demonstrate that textile production,
metalwork, carving, glasswork and jewellery-making were all practised in Jórvik. Excavations at Coppergate
have revealed a dense network of occupation.
Coppergate archaeology at the Jorvik Museum
The early
Scandinavians were pagans, but they appear to have adopted Christianity quickly
and they developed an Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian culture which assimilated the
indigenous traditions. The tenth century gravemarker
known as the
Middleton cross illustrates the mixing of pagan and Christian traditions.
It depicts a Viking age warrior and a mythical serpent carved onto a Christian
cross.
By about 900
CE Coppergate was a place of long narrow properties
which comprised single storey post and wattle buildings with back yards. They
had earthen floors and thatched roofs. Tree dating suggests a sudden
abandonment of these buildings between about 955 to 960 CE, the time of Eric Bloodaxe’s expulsion. There was renewed building activity
after 960 CE when two storeyed buildings were erected, with sunken elements cut
into the slope of the land.
In about 910
CE a Scandinavian from Ireland called Ragnall,
captured York. He was succeeded by his relative Sihtric
Caoch “the Squinty” when Ragnall
died in 921 CE. By 926 CE, on Sihtric’s death, the
Scandinavian domain of Jórvik was brought
under the overlordship of King Æthelstan. He was the
first King of all England to visit York. When he died in 939 CE a dispute arose
between his son Edmund, and the Scandinavian claimant Olaf Guthfrithsson.
For the next few decades, overlordship of York was disputed between the
Anglo-Saxon kings and the Scandinavian kings of the Irish Uí Ímair dynasty.
The last
ruler of an independent Jórvík, Eric Bloodaxe, was driven from the city in 954 CE by King Eadred
in his successful attempt to complete the unification of England. York was
absorbed into the English kingdom.
In 980 CE
Scandinavian raids resumed spearheaded by Svein Forkbeard of Denmark from 1003.
When Svein died in 1014, possibly buried in York, his son Cnut was accepted as
King of England. Cnut gave the earldom of Northumbria to Eric of Hlathir and when Eric died the overlordship fell to Siward.
When Siward died in 1055, he was probably buried at St Olaf’s church. Siward
was replaced by Tostig of the powerful family the Godwins,
and his story is picked up in the
Kirkdale sundial. The oppressive Tostig was expelled by the Northumbrians
in 1065 and he fled eventually to Harold Hardrada.
By 1066 the
estimated population of York was about 15,000.
Normans
In 1066 the
Danes, led by the Norwegian King Harold Hardrada, sailed up the Ouse, with
support from Tostig Godwinson and after the Battle of Fulford, and for a final
time, the Scandinavians seized York. King Harold I of England then marched his
army north to York in four days to take the invaders by surprise.
The rebels
were defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in which Harold Hardrada and
Tostig were killed.
Harold then
had to march his exhausted army south again, to confront the second threat from
William of Normandy, near Hastings. There he was killed by the Norman invader,
and the fate of the British isles was transformed once
again.
or
Go Straight to Chapter 3 –
Scandinavian Kirkdale