The Battle of Ashdown was fought on, or around, this day in 871 CE. Historians differ on the exact site of the battle, but agree that it was around halfway between Reading and Didcot. The battle was between the Danish Vikings and the West Saxons. The West Saxons were led by King AEthelred and his younger brother Alfred, who succeeded him as Alfred the Great. The Vikings were led by two kings, Bagsecg and Halfdan.
The two sides seem to have been closely matched. The Vikings won the Battle of Reading a few weeks earlier. Alfred led the Saxons to begin with, as his brother was hearing mass. AEthelred weighed in decisively later. The Saxon victory was followed by defeats at Basing and Meretun. It would be some years before Alfred became great.
My DNA says that I’m 17% Viking and 79% “England and Northwestern Europe”, 2% Welsh, and 2% Scottish. How much of that 79% is Saxon, Angle, or Norman, I have no idea. Some may be Huguenot, or any of the other numerous migrants who have voyaged to our isles over the centuries. What all of my ancestors have in common, apart perhaps from the Welsh and Scots, is that the vast majority arrived in what we would consider, by today’s standards, to be small boats. The Channel Tunnel wasn’t completed until 1994.
Although King AEthelred was a little late into the battle, he wasn’t unready. In fact his delayed entrance may have taken the Vikings unawares. AEthelred II was known as the Unready. He reigned from 973 and died in 1016. Even he wasn’t “unready”, he was known by the Old English “Unraed” which means poorly advised. That is a pun, since AEthelred means well advised.
I don’t know why, but I’m very proud to have Viking blood. There’s something about their incredible seafaring capability. I’m not quite so proud of the raping and pillaging. I’m even more pleased to have Sir Anthony Standen, The Spy who Sank the Armada, as my 10th great-granduncle.