Five Burghs Totally Explained

Everything about Five Burghs totally explained

The Five Burghs or more usually The Five Boroughs or The Five Boroughs of the Danelaw were the five main towns of Danish Mercia (what is now the East Midlands). These were Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford. The first four would later become county towns.

Establishment and rule

After harrying much of England, the Viking army under Ivarr the Boneless wintered at Repton in 874, where King Burgred of Mercia was unable to dislodge them and was then expelled. Ceolwulf II was installed as the Mercian king by the Vikings, who returned in 877 to partition Mercia. The west of the kingdom went to Coelwulf II, whilst in the east the Five Boroughs began as the fortified burhs of five Danish armies who settled the area and introduced their native law and customs (see Danelaw for more details).
Each of the Five Boroughs was ruled as a Danish Jarldom, controlling lands around a fortified burh, which served as the centre of political power. These rulers were probably initially subject to their overlords in the Viking Kingdom of Jorvik (or York) and operated their armies sometimes independently but often in alliance with rulers of their neighbours. In addition to the Five Boroughs there were also a number of very large Danish settlements to the south, including Northampton and Bedford which existed in a similar fashion.

Derby

. Although the area was settled by Danes from 877, it wasn't under English threat until 913 when Lady Aethelflaed of Mercia campaigned deep into Danish territory and established a burh at nearby Tamworth. In 917 Aethelflaed launched her first offensive foray and selected the fortress at Derby as her target. At that time the local ruler had probably joined with the armies from Northampton and Leicester in a number of raids to attack Mercia. This 6 acre rectangular fort would have given the burh the equivalent of c. 500 hides. The Vikings had camped at nearby Repton in 874, and had abandoned it a year later after suffering significantly from disease during their stay (leading to the discovery of a grave containing 245 bodies)) married his daughter to King Olaf later that year to cement the alliance. The burh may have made use of the walls of the Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum), of approx 7800 ft (c. 1900 hides).

Lincoln

The burh at Lincoln guarded the route between Wessex and York, and was protected from much of the Anglo-Danish fighting due to its isolated location. The Lincoln Danes settled the area formerly occupied by the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Lindsey, where the Vikings had previously wintered in the nearby fortress of Torksey in Lindsey from 873 to 874. Lincoln probably surrendered in 918 (c.1300 hides).

Nottingham

The Viking army under Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan Ragnarsson first occupied Nottingham in 868 and subsequently set up winter quarters there. Burgred and his West Saxon allies laid siege, but made peace and allowed the Vikings to retreat after little serious fighting in 869. Danish reoccupation and settlement began in 877, and lasted until the assault by Edward of Wessex in the summer of 918. Edward constructed a second burh on the opposite side of the Trent in 920 to further fortify the area from Danish attack. Saxon Nottingham was known to have covered about 39 acres, which may have put the burh at c. 1300 hides.

Stamford

The area around Stamford was invaded by West Saxon Ealdorman Aethelnoth in the summer 894, but the town wasn't besieged and Danish rule was unaffected. The end came when King Edward assaulted Stamford in late May 918 which soon fell to the army of Wessex. Later that year Edward built a second burh on the south side of the River Welland. From Roffe, the ramparts of the northern burh may have been of approx 3100 ft (c. 750 hides), and the Edwardian burh of around 2700 ft (c. 650 hides).

The Danish Burhs to the South

The following burhs were not part of the Five Boroughs, but were Danish settled towns with large armies and ruled in a similar manner. These Danes often acted in allegiance with those of the Five Boroughs and the Danish King of East Anglia.

Northampton

First recorded invading newly ceded Mercian territories with their allies in 913, the Northampton Danes were initially very successful. However, on their return they were defeated by local Mercian forces near Luton, losing many horses and weapons. In December 914, their strength was further depleted when a number of Northampton Danes submitted to Edward at Bedford. With the loss of Derby and East Anglia and the advance of King Edward, their ruler, Jarl Thurferth, and the men of Northampton and Cambridge submitted to the West Saxons in 917. Thurferth remain the client ruler, and attested four charters of King Æthelstan dated between 930 and 934 (equivalent to c. 700 hides), making it one of the smaller Danish burhs.

Bedford

The Danish burh was first under threat from the advance of the West Saxon army in 914. In November that year Bedford was surrounded by in a pincer movement by Edward, and the ruling Jarl Thurketel submitted with all of his followers. Edward returned in November 915 to the Danish-held fortress, this time taking direct control of it and building a second burh on the south bank of the River Ouse. Thurketel then became Edward's client, until he permitted the Danish ruler to leave with his followers for France in the summer of 916. In July 917 the Danish East Anglian army advanced to Tempsford and launched an attack to recover Beford. The Danish army was defeated and put to flight. It was later incorporated into the enlarged Earldom of East Anglia in the early 10th century.

Huntingdon

The Danes of Huntingdon were allies with the East Anglian Danes when they advanced to Tempsford and built a new fortress in July 917. From here, the joint army attempted to recover the recently fallen burh at Bedford, but were severely defeated and put to flight by the English garrison. The burh was occupied by the Edward's West Saxon army shortly afterwards.

Cambridge

Cambridge was first occupied by the Danes under kings Guthrum, Osketel and Anwend in 875, whose armies took up quarters there over the winter. In 911 it was first threatened by Edward, who built an opposing burh at Hertford. With the fall of Huntingdon, it left Cambridge the last independent host which Danish East Anglia could rely on. For many years afterwards the Five Boroughs were a separate and well defined area of the country where rulers sought support from its leaders, including Swein Folkbeard who gained the submission of the Five Boroughs in 1013, before going on to be king of England.
In 1015 there's a unique reference to the 'Seven Boroughs', which may have been the additional of Torksey and York. By 1035 the Earldom had been subsumed into that of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and it was to longer form a formal administrative unit in future.

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