Hello everyone and welcome to the history of England, Episode 9, Hitler of the Western

People. We left Alfred in the midst of a rush of reform across all aspects of west

society. By 891 it was clear that Wessex faced a new threat from Viking invasion. Alfred

was now ahead of the game, and he made the leaders of the Danish kingdoms in England give

oaths that they would not, in any way, under any circumstances, support the new Danish army.

He was a lovely thought. I wonder if Alfred actually thought it would work? It didn't

as it happens, and didn't fairly conclusively actually.

Gothrem or Atholstan had died in 890 after seemingly living the last ten years of his

life in peace. With his death, no new Danish coins were issued, we rarely even know the names

of the kings in East Anglia, but could be that he was succeeded by somebody called Ioric.

But there is a theme. The Vikings often did not appear to have the ambition to build centralized

kingdoms, or maybe it's put better by saying the forces of those small units and local

loyalties were strong. When the raids were over, and the Viking had

his land, their organised unity replaced the old warbands or not quickly anyway. And when

the influx of new warriors dried up, this would make them vulnerable. However, what will

become clear is that Northambray and East Anglia still have many ambitious young warriors

looking to build their fortune in the traditional Viking trade of murder and mayhem and on occasion

sensitive afterwork, obviously. However, he needed a trigger, a catalyst, and during

the 1880s, that seemed to be missing. But in the early 90s, it would appear. So let

us go over to the continent. The eight eighties were as dark a decade for the low countries

in northern France as the eight-sixes and seventies had been for England. After Guthram's

defeat at the hand of Alfred, parts of the Viking army went to settle East Anglia and

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