Chapter Two: Danes and Vikings

For several decades after the Romans left, Yorkshire and the surrounding regions were ruled by the Dukes of the Britons, whose right to rule was based on remnants of both Roman Imperial decrees and local Yorkish authority. However, these duchies broke down within a generation or two into much smaller kingdoms. The city of York (still called Eboracum) became the capital of the British kingdom of Ebrauc -- most of what is now Yorkshire were also deemed to be under the de facto rule of Ebrauc, as well as those areas now called Dunoting, Elmet, and Cravenshire, though local chieftains may have disagreed.

Between 480 AD and 520 AD, Angles from the Schleswig-Holstein region of northern Europe sailed across the North Sea, and began occupying the Humber, North Sea, and The Wolds coastal areas of Yorkshire; the Angles soon conquered the remainder of Yorkshire to the east, and, in 560 AD, the kingdom of Ebruac as well. The city that would be York was re-named from Eboracum to Eoforwic, and the entire region was re-named Dewyr, or Deira. Toward the end of the 6th century, the Angles extended Deira further to the north to form the kingdom of Northumbria, and Eoforwic was soon made its capital. Danes followed the Angles as rulers of Northumbria, and early in the 7th century, around 617 AD, the Danish ruler, Edwin of Northumbria, consolidated his rule over Yorkshire by conquering the kingdom of Elmet (now called Hallamshire and Loidis).
 

in 793 AD, Scandinavian Vikings invaded Northumbria with a devastating attack on the monastery at Lindesfarne. For years after, sailing across the North Sea, Danish Vikings plundered the southern coastal regions of Northumbria, then headed north and captured Eoforwic in 866 AD, soon conquering all of the kingdom of Northumbria.

In 875 AD, Guthrum, leader of the Danes, handed out Yorkshire lands to his followers; however, he did allow the English population under his rule to retain ownership of the land upon which they lived. The Danes also changed the name of the city Eoforwic to Jorvik. By 900 AD, Jorvik was ruled by a Christian Danish king named Guthfrith; he established the administrative Ridings that divide Yorkshire and the Five Burghs -- the boundaries of the Ridings meet at Jorvik, the commercial and administrative center of the region. Early in the 10th century, the Munsö dynasty of Sweden peacefully took over Jorvik from Danish rule, because of an agreement concerning commercial activities in the Baltic Sea between the Danes in Britain and the Swedish Munsö Kings.

After Swedish rule, the last Scandinavian kings of Jorvik were the Norse-Gaels (also called the Gallgaidhill or the Ostmen), who had been battling the Swedes and the Danes over the Isle of Man, and had won the Battle of Brunanburh, claiming Jorvik as their prize. In 954 AD, Anglo-Saxons killed King Eric I of Norway at the Battle of Stainmore, and Edred of England took ownership of the territory surrounding Jorvik.