Tea at Trianon: The First Reported Contact Between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, December 11, 2021

The First Reported Contact Between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

From The Historians Hut:

The anonymous author of the early sections of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was the first known source to write about a Viking raid in Britain. In the entry for the Anglo-Saxon year 787 (often equated by modern historians to year 789), it was reported that three ships of “Northmen” arrived near the Kingdom of Wessex from the so-called “Hæretha Lands,” or the land of robbers. Some believe the description of the Northmen’s homeland refers to Hordaland, Norway, but others think it refers to Denmark. While it is certain that Britain had encountered Nordic people in the past, and it is plausible that these or other Vikings crews from the year 787/789 had attacked different regions during the time it took for the three northern longships to make their way toward Wessex, the chronicler of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle believed that the vessels off the coast of Wessex were “the first ships of Danish men that sought the land of the English race” (ASC 787 [789]).

At the time, King Beorhtric ruled Wessex and one of his reeves (basically a sheriff) discovered the northern strangers on the coast. As the Kingdom of Wessex had reportedly had no contact with Viking raiders before, the reeve did not know what to expect from the foreigners. Therefore, the dutiful official rode down to the beach to meet with the sailors, likely thinking them to be merchants or diplomats. He reportedly planned to guide the Vikings to meet with King Beorhtric, but the poor reeve quickly discovered that the Northmen had not come to Wessex for diplomacy. Instead of friendly discourse, the Vikings killed the reeve and presumably raided some nearby villages before disappearing back into the sea. (Read more.)