The Battle of Buckingham occurred in 874 AD when the Viking raiders Sigurd Styrbjornson and Eivor and their Hidden Ones ally Basim ibn Ishaq attacked the Mercian garrison of Buckingham, Oxfordshire (now Buckinghamshire, England) and rescued the captured rebel leader Geadric from Lady Eadwyn.
Background[]
By 874 AD, Mercian central authority had disintegrated as the Scandinavian Vikings deposed and exiled King Burghred of Mercia and installed thegn Ceolwulf as King in Tamworth. Western Mercia continued to recognize Burghred as its rightful king, and King Alfred the Great of Wessex offered his support to the Christian Anglo-Saxons resisting the pagan Danes. In Oxfordshire, where the ealdorman had been slain in a Viking raid led by Jarl Guthrum, his widow Lady Eadwyn continued the fight with her own loyal Mercian army, and she was motivated by a desire for revenge for the loss of her husband and her livelihood, as well as by a promise of support from Alfred.
Eadwyn's rule was unpopular, however, in the countryside, where most of the Anglo-Saxon villagers sought peace with the invading Danes. A conspiracy of minor thegns led by Geadric soon developed, seeking to install Geadric as the pro-Ceolwulf Ealdorman of Mercia. This conspiracy included the thegns Brant, Holt, Sherwin, and Octe, and they planned their uprising from Buckingham, where Geadric met with the Norwegian Viking warlord Sigurd Styrbjornson and offered him an oath of allegiance in exchange for his support against Eadwyn.
Battle[]
Eadwyn confronting the Vikings
However, Eadwyn personally led a sizable force into Buckingham, occupying the riverside village and arresting Geadric and his allies. While Geadric's allies were taken to Leah Villa for trial and execution, Geadric was held at the longhouse in Buckingham, where Eadwyn interrogated him. Sigurd and his Hidden Ones ally Basim ibn Ishaq escaped the tavern where they had been meeting with Geadric, hiding in a fish house. There, they were joined by Sigurd's adoptive brother Eivor, who had sailed from Ravensthorpe to join his brother in helping Geadric's uprising, and who had already stealthily killed several Mercian troops while infiltrating the town. The three men then decided to rescue Geadric from the longhouse, and they did so after slaying several patrolling Mercian soldiers in the streets. They then broke into the longhouse, where they found Eadwyn and her guards questioning Geadric. Sigurd arrogantly demanded that Eadwyn hand over Geadric, and Eadwyn, incensed at Sigurd's pretentious demand, ordered that her guards kill the Norsemen as she left. The Norse slew her soldiers and then cut Geadric loose, and Geadric told them that the other thegns had been taken to Leah Villa, where the Vikings freed them and enabled the uprising to continue as planned.