937
Battle of Brunanburh
After Aethelstan defeated the Vikings at York in 927, King Constantine of Scotland, King Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred I of Bamburgh and King Owen I of Strathclyde accepted Aethelstan’s overlordship at Eamont, near Penrith. Aethelstan became King of England and there was peace until 934.
Aethelstan invaded Scotland with a large force in 934. Although the reason for this invasion is uncertain, John of Worcester stated that the cause was Constantine’s violation of the peace treaty. The army harassed the Scots up to Kincardineshire and the navy up to Caithness but Aethelstan's force was never engaged.
Following the invasion of Scotland, it became apparent that Aethelstan could only be defeated by an alliance of his enemies. The leader of the alliance was Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin, joined by Constantine II, King of Scotland and Owen, King of Strathclyde. Though they had all been enemies in living memory, they agreed to bury their differences for the time being in order to destroy the threat of Aethelstan.
In August 937, Olaf crossed the Irish Sea with his army to join forces with Constantine and Owen. The invaders raided Mercia, from which Aethelstan obtained Saxon troops as he traveled north to meet them. The invaders may have come in two waves, Constantine and Owen from the north, possibly engaging in some skirmishes as they followed the Roman road across the Lancashire plains between Carlisle and Manchester, with Olaf’s forces joining them on the way. It has been suggested that the battle site at Brunanburh was chosen in agreement with Aethelstan, on which “there would be one fight, and to the victor went England”. The battle probably occurred in October.
The main source about the battle is the praise-poem “Battle of Brunanburh” in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. After traveling north through Mercia, Aethelstan, his brother Edmund, and the combined Saxon army from Wessex and Mercia met the invading armies and attacked them. In a battle that lasted all day, the Saxons finally forced the invaders to break and flee. According to the poem, the Saxons “split the shield-wall” and “hewed battle shields with the remnants of hammers ... [t]here lay many a warrior by spears destroyed; Northern men shot over shield, likewise Scottish as well, weary, war sated”. All large battles were described in this manner so the description in the poem is not unique to Brunanburh. Aethelstan’s his army pursued until the end of the day, inflicting further loss. Olaf fled and sailed back to Dublin with the remnants of his army and Constantine escaped to Scotland; Owen’s fate is not mentioned. The poem records that Aethelstan and Edmund returned victoriously to Wessex.
However, it seems to have been a pyrrhic victory and Aethelstan’s power declined; after his death, Olaf acceded to the Kingdom of Northumbria without resistance. However, England was once again unified by the time Edmund I died in 946. The Norse lost all remaining territory in York and Northumbria in 954, when Eric Bloodaxe died. Aethelweard, writing in the late 900s, said that the battle was “still called the ‘great battle’ by the common people” and that “[t]he fields of Britain were consolidated into one, there was peace everywhere, and abundance of all things”.
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