The Great Heathen Army, also known as the Great Danish Army or the Great Viking Army, was a coalition of Norse Viking warriors (predominantly from Denmark, others from Norway and Sweden) which, led by Ragnarr Lodbrok's sons Halfdan Whiteshirt, Ivar the Boneless, and Ubbe Ragnarrsson, invaded Anglo-Saxon England in 865 AD to avenge Ragnar's cruel death at the hands of King Aella of Northumbria. The army, unlike previous Viking forces, was organized to occupy and conquer large territories rather than simply raid. The thousands-strong army conquered Northumbria in 867 and East Anglia in 869, killing Kings Aella and Edmund of East Anglia in brutal fashions. It was not long before Halfdan established himself as King of Jorvik and Ivar became King of Sudreyjar; the Vikings brought in thousands of Scandinavian settlers to colonize their conquered lands, take up farming, and create a new agricultural society which sandy and arid Denmark could not sustain. A reinforcement "Summer Army" arrived in 871 and conquered Mercia by 874, leaving Wessex as the last Saxon kingdom. The Great Heathen Army failed to conquer Wessex after a defeat at the Battle of Ashdown, and, in 874, Ivar returned to Ireland and Halfdan's army split into two groups: one returned to Northymbre, while the other shared out the lands of the Northumbrians and took up farming. The remainder invaded Wessex in 875, but a faction elected to halt in Mercia and divide the land there among themselves, while the depleted Viking army under Guthrum was defeated by King Alfred at the Battle of Edington in 878. Alfred and Guthrum agreed to the Treaty of Wedmore, partitioning England between the Christian kingdoms of Wessex in the south and Mercia in the west and the Danish kingdoms of East Engle in the east and Northymbre in the north. The Great Heathen Army ceased to exist, with its warriors now serving several different Norse kings and princes across the British Isles.
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