Today in AD 871,
Alfred the Great and Æthelred the King fought ‘for life, loved ones, and country’ and thrashed the Vikings at…
The Battle of Ashdown!
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By 870 the Vikings ‘of hateful memory’ had stormed into England and conquered Northumbria and East-Anglia!
On the 31st of December 870, after invading Wessex, a force of Vikings led from the main host was defeated at the Battle of Englefield by the Ealdorman of Berkshire, Æthelwulf, and his levies.
However, King Æthelred and his brother Alfred, having tried to capitalise on this victory were defeated by the Vikings just a few days later at the battle of Reading.
But they were ‘roused by grief and shame’ and rallied at Windsor.
The Saxons then marched to face the Vikings again with ‘all their might and in a determined frame of mind’ and met them at Ashdown.
The Vikings divided their army into two contingents. One was led by kings Bagsecg and Halfdan, and the other was led by the Vikings earls.
The English did the same with Alfred facing the earls and Æthelred facing the kings.
While Æthelred withdrew to his tent to pray before the battle, Alfred charged the enemy!
Fighting ‘like a wild boar’, Alfred and his men valiantly opposed the Vikings but his contingent, outnumbered without the aid of the king, became overwhelmed.
When Æthelred did eventually join the battle and was ‘set to fight for life, loved ones and country’, the Vikings were now overwhelmed and King Bagsecg and five earls died in the fighting!
After much fierce fighting the Vikings broke and fled and the Saxons pursued them until nightfall.
The war between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings was not over yet through and yet more battles were to come before peace returned to England.
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