As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Home / Historical Periods / Viking Age / Great Heathen Army

War

Great Heathen Army

865–878 CE

The Great Heathen Army arrived in England in 865 and campaigned across several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It conquered or shattered Northumbria, East Anglia, and much of Mercia before confronting Wessex. Its leaders and forces helped create the conditions for the Danelaw and for Alfred the Great’s later defence of his kingdom.

The army matters because it turned Viking activity in England from raiding into territorial conquest. Instead of brief attacks, Danish forces overwintered, made alliances, installed rulers, took land, and changed the political map. The survival of Wessex became central to the later story of English unification.

Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories repeatedly return to the Great Heathen Army and its aftermath through Uhtred’s divided loyalties. Matthew Harffy’s and Giles Kristian’s Viking fiction also fits this world of war bands, oaths, hostages, and settlements. It is one of the strongest medieval settings for military series about England before England was secure.

Related people for Great Heathen Army

Æthelstan895–939

Series

Series about Great Heathen Army (3 series)

The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles in Order

by M J Porter 9 books 4.5

The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles follows Icel, a Mercian warrior serving King Burgred during the escalating Viking invasions of the ninth century. Across campaigns, sieges and political betrayals, Icel and his companions defend a kingdom increasingly trapped between the Great Heathen Army, internal weakness and the ambitions of…

The Kingdom of Mercia: the Ninth Century in Order

by M J Porter 10 books 4.3

The Kingdom of Mercia: the Ninth Century series reimagines the reign of Coelwulf II, Mercia's last independent king, during the Great Heathen Army's conquest of the English kingdoms. Coelwulf and his oath-sworn warriors fight Danish jarls, negotiate uneasily with Alfred of Wessex and attempt to hold together a…

Books

22 Best Novels About the Great Heathen Army

Bestselling authors first, then star rating.