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Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066

Warfare and raids: early raids on England and Scotland and Alfred’s response

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on the first recorded attack, Lindisfarne, motives for the early raids, Iona, Viking pressure and Scottish unity, the change in the 860s and Alfred’s recovery and defences after 878.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Process

How did Viking pressure contribute to Scottish unity?

Key term

Give three motives for the early raids.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is the first recorded Viking attack on England?

    Model answer

    Three ships of Northmen landed near Portland in about 789 and killed the royal reeve who came to bring them to the king.

  2. 2

    Why did the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 cause such shock?

    Model answer

    It struck the most famous holy place in northern England, killing and enslaving monks and plundering the shrine, and Christian writers such as Alcuin read it as an unprecedented outrage and a judgement of God.

  3. 3

    Give three motives for the early raids.

    Model answer

    Portable wealth in silver and slaves, the need for young leaders to win treasure and reputation to attract followers, and the discovery that undefended coastal monasteries were exceptionally rich and easy targets.

  4. 4

    What happened to Iona, and what were the consequences?

    Model answer

    It was raided repeatedly from 795, with a massacre of monks in 806, after which the community moved its centre and relics inland to Kells in Ireland.

  5. 5

    How did Viking pressure contribute to Scottish unity?

    Model answer

    Raids and settlement in the islands and along the western seaways broke up Dal Riata and weakened the Picts, which encouraged the merging of Pictish and Scottish kingship in the mid-ninth century under Kenneth MacAlpin and shifted the kingdom's centre eastwards.

  6. 6

    What changed about Viking activity in the 860s?

    Model answer

    Raiding gave way to conquest: in 865 a great heathen army landed in East Anglia and stayed, wintering in England year after year and setting out to take kingdoms rather than plunder.

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