Chronology

A.D.

787 First appearance of the Norse in Northumbria

795 First plunderings of the Norse in Ireland

795 Irish monks in Iceland

822 Halfdan the Black, King of Norway (d. 860)

832 The Norse appear in Kent

847 First coming of the Danes to Ireland

853 Olaf the White, King of the Norse in Dublin

867 Ælla King of Northumbria

871 Alfred the Great, King of England (d. 901)

872 Harald Fairhair, King of Norway (d. 933)

875 The Danes are subdued by Alfred, and Guthrum is baptized

878 Harald Fairhair raids in the Orkneys and makes Ragnvald earl. During Harald’s reign Iceland is peopled from Norway

890 Rolf Ganger, son of Ragnvald, Earl of More and Orkney, plunders in Normandy

900 Torf-Einar in Orkney. Harald Fairhair’s second expedition to the West

901 Edward the Elder, King of England (d. 925)

902 The foreigners are expelled from Dublin

917 Niall Glundubh (Black knee), King of Ireland, slain at battle of Kilmashog

924 Edward the Elder is chosen as “Father and Lord” by the Scots, Northumbria, and Strathclyde

925 Athelstan succeeds (d. 940)

933 Eric Bloodaxe, King of Norway

934 Hakon the Good returns to Norway and is crowned king

935 Eric Bloodaxe leaves Norway and gets a kingdom in England

937 Battle of Brunanburh

939 Murtough of the Leather Cloaks makes a warlike circuit in Ireland

941 Olaf Cuaran (of the Sandal) chosen King of Northumbria

942 The Danes desert Dublin and flee across sea

944 Olaf Cuaran expelled from Northumbria

949 Olaf Cuaran returns; expelled a second time in 952

960 Battle of Stord, and death of King Hakon the Good

963 Olaf Trygveson born in exile. Norway ruled by the sons of Eric Bloodaxe

979 Ethelred the Unready, King of England

985 Olaf Trygveson raids in the West and England. Sweyn Fork-beard becomes King of Denmark.

988 He marries Gyda, a sister of Olaf Cuaran. He is baptised in the Scilly Isles

993 Bambrough stormed

994 Olaf Trygveson and Sweyn Fork-beard are driven back from London. Olaf promises never again to fight with England

995 Earl Hakon slain; Olaf Trygveson becomes king of Norway

1000 He dies at battle of Svold

1002 Massacre of the Danes on St Brice’s Day

1004 Sweyn Fork-beard burns Norwich

1009–10 England ravaged by the Danes

1010 Siege of London and battle of Hringmara Heath

1013 Sweyn Fork-beard, King of England (d. 1014)

1014 Battle of Clontarf in Dublin. Ethelred II. goes to Normandy

1015 Reign of St Olaf in Norway (d. 1030)

1016 Death of Ethelred II. Reign of Edmund Ironside. Battle of Assandun and division of England between Edmund and Canute.

1017 Canute sole King of England

1028 Canute subjugates Norway

1030 Battle of Stiklestad and death of St Olaf

1030 Sweyn, Canute’s son, King of Norway (d. 1035)

1035 Magnus the Good, King of Norway (d. 1047)

1037 Harald, Canute’s son, King of England

1040 Hardacanute, King of England (d. 1042)

1043 Edward the Confessor, King of England

1065 Harold, Godwin’s son, consecrated king

1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge

1066 Battle of Hastings