The Northumbrian revolt of 869 was an Anglo-Saxon uprising against the Danish rulers of Northumbria which occurred in 869 AD. The revolt was led by six monks who had fought off an attempt by six Danish brigands to loot their monastery at Jarrow, and they declared a "holy war" and led a rebel army of Saxons in raping and forcibly baptizing Danish villagers. The uprising was later put down by the Great Heathen Army and their Saxon puppet, Ricsige of Dunholm, and the Danes retaliated by destroying and looting almost all of the Christian monasteries and nunneries of Northumbria. The Danes' revenge became a tale of Danish infamy taught by the Saxons to their children, and even Ealdorman Ricsige had been shocked at the Danes' cruelty.
Background[]
Following the fall of Eoferwic (York) to the Great Heathen Army in 866 AD, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was partitioned between the Danish kingdom of Northymbre in the south (centered at Jorvik) and an Anglo-Saxon puppet kingdom ruled by King Ecgberht in the north. Most of the surviving Northumbrian ealdormen and thegns bent a knee to the Danish invaders, and the Saxon holdouts in the western wilderness of Northumbria could not field a force strong enough to pose a threat to the Danes. Meanwhile, the Danish lords sent ships to Denmark to encourage settlers to come to England, and, over the next two years, the families of the Danish warriors, plus new warriors and their families, came to northern England to settle on abandoned farmlands and create new Norse communities. By 869 AD, Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia had all come under Danish occupation, with King Burghred of Mercia agreeing to become a Danish puppet and East Anglia being taken over by the Danish earl Guthrum on the death of the East Anglian king Edmund the Martyr. However, news of unrest in Northumbria forced Ivar the Boneless to take two-thirds of the Danish army back up north to quell the Saxons as Halfdan Whiteshirt and Guthrum took the other third to pacify East Anglia.
History[]
The Danes travelled up the Humber and then the Ouse before arriving at York, bringing home much treasure from Mercia and East Anglia. The Danes had amassed a fortune which was shared among the men, while a few took their money back home to Denmark. Most stayed, however, hoping to take the wealthy kingdom of Wessex. The unrest had not affected York, which remained prosperous under the rule of the Danish puppet, King Ecgberht. Archbishop Wulfhere loftily dismissed the unrest as banditry, but Ivar was suspicious.
Once it was known that the Danish army had returned, Ealdorman Ricsige of Dunholm sent messengers to York to tell Ivar that a band of Danes had been slaughtered at the monastery of Gyrwum (Jarrow). A band of six masterless Danes had come to Jarrow and demanded to see the monastery's treasure; when the monks claimed to be penniless, the six started killing. As there were over a score of monks helped by the townsmen, they killed the Danes, left them spitted on posts, and left them to rot. The monks, encouraged by the slaughter, marched west up the River Tyne and overwhelmed the old and sickly Danish warriors defending a Danish settlement. There, the monks raped and killed at least a score of women and children, proclaiming a holy war. More men joined the rebel army, so Ricsige, fearing the revenge of the Danes, sent his own troops to disperse them. His forces captured a dozen monks, who were held at his impregnable fortress at Dunholm. A Danish girl told Ragnar that the monks had raped her one at a time and forced her to be baptized, and that some nuns had urged the men on. Ragnar was infuriated, and he dug up some of the blood-spattered and Danish dead, finding that they had been tortured. A priest was found and forced to tell the Danes of the chief monasteries and nunneries of Northumbria, and Ragnar sent men to Ivar and Ubbe and killed every monk at Gyrwum, burned down the monastery, and took the monks' treasures. The Danes also went to a monastery and were ordered to kill any nun who had joined the rebellion. The writings left behind by the Saxons were burned, and the Vikings proceeded to destroy several of the monasteries and nunneries on both sides of the Tyne. Some nuns cut their own faces to appear bloody and ugly, saving themselves from rape; however, they were then killed. Ragnar was convinced that the Christian monasteries were sources of evil, and he even had Ricsige hand over his prisoners to be executed. Ragnar then took 100 men on 3 ships to the monastery of Lindisfarne, where the Viking raids on England had started; Ealdorman Aelfric of Bebbanburg refused to leave his fortress to protect the monks. Abbot Egfrith welcomed the Danes to the island in Danish and told them that he had a Danish prisoner in his chamber, and he proceeded to hand over a box of clipped silver pennies as tribute. He then recognized the young Uhtred of Bebbanburg and told him that he had heard that he was dead, and he revealed that the Danish prisoner was Weland Godfredsson, who had made his way back to Bebbanburg and received his reward for supposedly killing Uhtred, only to be wounded by Ealdwulf the Blacksmith, Uhtred's old friend (and a secret pagan). Ragnar was infuriated to hear that Egfrith had given Weland shelter even after he attempted to murder Uhtred, and he had his men massacre Egfrith and his monks for permitting some of his monks to join the rebellion. Uhtred personally executed Weland, and the Danes looted Lindisfarne before burning it down. The harrowing of the northern houses was later told to every Saxon child as a tale of Danish ferocity and evil.