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Question
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Where did the battle of Ethandun, where King Alfred defeated the Danes, take place?
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Question asked on
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04 July 2011
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Answer
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There has been much speculation over the site of this battle but most experts now agree that it did take place near Edington in Wiltshire. Other claimants have included; Edington on the Polden Hills in West Somerset, Eddington in Berkshire and Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire.
After Alfred's defeat at Chippenham on Twelfth Night (6th January 878) by Guthrum he hid at Athelney in the Somerset Levels. From here he sent messages to the shire fyrds and, in the words of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle;
In the seventh week after Easter he rode to Egbert's Stone east of Selwood and there came to meet him all the people of Somerset and Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire which was on this side of the sea, and they rejoiced to see him.
Although there are four claimants for the site of Egbert's Stone, all of them in a fairly small geographical area, it is thought that the meeting was most likely to have been at Kingston Deverill, to the south of Warminster. The army then spent the night before the battle at Iley Oak, which is identified to be just to the south of Warminster, before moving out at dawn to meet Guthrum, who was occupying high ground at Edington. Guthrum is most likely to have been at the old hill fort of Bratton Castle and Alfred approached from the south west across Salisbury Plain. This is the sensible route as an attack from a more northerly point would have meant scaling the scarp slope of Salisbury Plain under a shower of missiles hurled on them from above.
Alfred was victorious and he drove the enemy forces back to Chippenham, harrying them all the way. Alfred laid siege to them after two weeks Guthrum sought peace and agreed to Christian baptism.
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Bibliography
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Alfred: Warrior King by John Peddie, 1999, ISBN 0 7509 2105 6
