Note 149 — Chapter X · THE FLEETS OF THE NORTHMEN.
Reading edition
The English chronicles mention numerous instances of large fleets descending on various parts of the coast, of which the following are a few:—
In the year 860, in the time of Ethelred a large fleet came to the land, and the crews stormed Winchester.
In the year 893 the Danish army came, from the east westward to Boulogne, and their war ships. They landed at the mouth of the Limne with 250 ships (this is in the eastern part of Kent).
In the year 894 the Danes among the Northumbrians and East Anglians gathered 100 ships and went south to besiege Exeter.
In the year 927 King Anlaf entered the Humber with a vast fleet of 615 sails.
In the year 993 Olave, with 93 ships, came to Staines.
In the year 994 Olave and Sveyn (Olaf of Norway and Svein of Denmark) came to London with 94 ships.
In the year 1006 a great fleet came to Sandwich and ravaged wherever it went. It returned in winter to the Isle of Wight; the distress and fear in the land were extreme. £36,000 and provisions was paid as tribute to the invaders.
In the year 1009, Thurkills came with his fleet to England, and after him another innumerable fleet of Danes, the chiefs of which were Hemming and Ailaf.
In the year 1069 the sons of Svein came from Denmark with 240 ships into the Humber.
In the year 1075 200 ships came from Denmark under Knut, son of Sweyne and Hecco, but did not dare to risk a battle with King William. After plundering in York they went to Flanders.
The Frankish chronicles give an account also of various fleets:—
Eginhard.
In the year 810 the emperor (Charlemagne), then at Aix-la-Chapelle, planned an expedition against King Godfrey. He suddenly received the news that a fleet of 200 ships coming from the country of the North had landed in Frisia, and ravaged all the islands adjacent to their shores.
In the year 845 Eurick, king of the Northmen, advanced against Louis in Germany with 600 vessels along the river Elbe.
In the year 850 Rorik, the nephew of Harold, who had recently left the service of Lothair, taking with him an army of Northmen, comes by the Rhine and the Watal with a multitude of ships, devastating Frisia, the island of Batavia, and other neighbourhood places.
In the year 852 the Northmen arrived in Frisia with 252 ships; after having received much silver they go elsewhere.
In the year 852 Godfrey, son of Harold the Dane, formerly baptized at Mayence, under the reign of the Emperor Louis, left Lothair and went to find his people. Afterwards having assembled a powerful force, he attacks Frisia with a multitude of vessels, and then enters the territory bordering on the river Scheldt.
In the year 857 the Danish pirates invaded the city of Paris and set fire to it. Here there must have been an enormous fleet.
In the year 861 the Danes, who had lately burned the town of Terouanne, came back under their chief Weland from the country of the Angles with more than 200 ships.
In the year 865, from Attigny Charles marched an army against the Northmen, who had entered the Seine with 500 ships. (We find at the same time Northmen on the Loire.)