<P> According to the Anglo - Saxon Chronicles, Viking raiders struck England in 793 and raided Lindisfarne, the monastery that held Saint Cuthbert's relics . The raiders killed the monks and captured the valuables . The raid marks the beginning of the "Viking Age of Invasion", made possible by the Viking longship . Great but sporadic violence occurred from the last decade of the eighth century on England's northern and eastern shores; Viking raids continued on a small scale across coastal England . While the initial raiding groups were small, a great amount of planning is believed to have been involved . The Norwegians raided during the winter of 840--841, rather than the usual summer, having waited on an island off Ireland . In 850, Vikings overwintered for the first time in England, on the island of Thanet, Kent . In 854, a raiding party overwintered a second time, at the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary . In 864, they reverted to Thanet for their winter encampment . </P> <P> The following year, the Great Heathen Army, led by brothers Ivar the Boneless (Halfdan and Ubba), and also by another Viking Guthrum, arrived in East Anglia . They proceeded to cross England into Northumbria and captured York, establishing the Viking community of Jorvik, where some settled as farmers and craftsmen . Most of the English kingdoms, being in turmoil, could not stand against the Vikings . In 867, Northumbria became the northern kingdom of the coalescing Danelaw, after its conquest by the brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless, who installed an Englishman, Ecgberht, as a puppet king . By 870, the "Great Summer Army" arrived in England, led by a Viking leader called Bagsecg and his five earls . Aided by the Great Heathen Army (which had already overrun much of England from its base in Jorvik), Bagsecg's forces, and Halfdan's forces (through an alliance), the combined Viking forces raided much of England until 871, when they planned an invasion of Wessex . On 8 January 871, Bagsecg was killed at the Battle of Ashdown along with his earls . As a result, many of the Vikings returned to northern England, where Jorvic had become the centre of the Viking kingdom, but Alfred of Wessex managed to keep them out of his country . Alfred and his successors continued to drive back the Viking frontier and take York . A new wave of Norwegian Vikings appeared in England in 947 when Eric Bloodaxe captured York . </P> <P> In 1003, the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard started a series of raids against England . This culminated in a full - scale invasion that led to Sweyn being crowned king of England in 1013 . Sweyn was also king of Denmark and parts of Norway at this time . The throne of England passed to Edmund Ironside of Wessex after Sweyn's death in 1014 . Sweyn's son, Cnut the Great, won the throne of England in 1016 through conquest . When Cnut the Great died in 1035 he was a king of Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden . Harold Harefoot became king of England after Cnut's death, and Viking rule of England ceased . </P> <P> The Viking presence dwindled until 1066, when the invading Norsemen lost their final battle with the English at Stamford Bridge . Nineteen days later, the Normans, themselves descended from Norsemen, invaded England and defeated the weakened English army at the Battle of Hastings . </P>

Who was king of england when the vikings invaded