A number of broader factors contributed to the Vikings' decline: more and more communities previously attacked by Vikings became better able to defend themselves, with armies and fortifications; Christianity's spread in Europe; and less egalitarianism in Viking society.
In the 9th century (AD801 - 900), King Alfred of Wessex stopped the Vikings taking over England. He agreed to peace with them and some Vikings settled in their own area of eastern England, called the Danelaw.
At the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Norwegian king Haraldr harðráði was repulsed and killed as he attempted to reclaim a portion of England. It was the last major Viking incursion into Europe. The raids slowed and stopped because the times changed. It was no longer profitable or desirable to raid.
“In eastern England the Vikings discovered a milder climate and a rich agricultural landscape, similar to the one they knew back home. Faced with a lack of good farming land in Denmark, many families decided to try their luck on the other side of the North Sea,” says Kershaw.
Alfred was able to force the Danes to leave Wessex in 877, and they settled northeastern Mercia; but a Viking attack in the winter of 878 came near to conquering Wessex. That it did not succeed is to be attributed to Alfred's tenacity.
The announcement of a Viking trade station in Western Australia came as a surprise to many, but the spoof was quickly seen through by most. This story, while conceived of as a hoax, fits within a genre of pseudoarchaeology that claims that the Vikings, the Phoenicians and even the Aztecs found Australia.
A number of broader factors contributed to the Vikings' decline: more and more communities previously attacked by Vikings became better able to defend themselves, with armies and fortifications; Christianity's spread in Europe; and less egalitarianism in Viking society.
They were particularly nervous in the western sea lochs then known as the "Scottish fjords". The Vikings were also wary of the Gaels of Ireland and west Scotland and the inhabitants of the Hebrides.
Did the Vikings ever conquer Germany? Evidence suggests that the Vikings didn't conquer Germany because too much of it is located inland. As seafaring warriors, the Vikings often struggled to conquer lands located too far from the sea, especially as their ships were generally the bases from which raids were launched.
Finally, in 870 the Danes attacked the only remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, whose forces were commanded by King Aethelred and his younger brother Alfred. At the battle of Ashdown in 871, Alfred routed the Viking army in a fiercely fought uphill assault.
There is a considerable debate as to whether Ragnar Lothbrok was an actual person. He was born during a time when births and deaths weren't recorded, and the first written accounts to mention him weren't put to paper until at least 350 years after his adventures took place.
Harold Harefoot became king of England after Cnut's death, and Viking rule of England ceased. The Viking presence declined until 1066, when they lost their final battle with the English at Stamford Bridge.
Conquest and fall
The extortion came to an end in 1013, when Harald's son, Swein Forkbeard, decided to conquer England. He forced Æthelred into exile, although the definitive conquest of England was only achieved under his son Cnut (or Canute).
Led by their king, Alfred, the West Saxons defeated the Viking leader Guthrum at Edington in Wiltshire in 878. The subsequent negotiated settlement left Viking warlords in effective control of all England north and east of a line running roughly from east London to Chester.
The purpose of the Vikings' violence was to acquire wealth, which fed into the political economy of northern Europe, notably in the form of gift-giving. Viking warriors were motivated by a warrior ideology of violence that praised bravery, toughness, and loyalty.
Some theories believe that Ivar, living as Ímair in Ireland, was captured and later died in 873 of a sudden and terrible illness.
The Vikings chose Christianity during the 900s, partly because of the extensive trade networks with Christian areas of Europe, but also particularly as a result of increasing political and religious pressure from the German empire to the south. By the end of the Viking period, around 1050, most Vikings were Christians.
Most of the explorers of this period concluded that the apparent lack of water and fertile soil made the region unsuitable for colonisation.
The first European Australians came from United Kingdom and Ireland. The First white child born in New South Wales was Rebecca Small (22 September 1789 – 30 January 1883), was born in Port Jackson, the eldest daughter of John Small a boatswain in the First Fleet which arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788.
While Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, and traded with nearby islanders, the first documented landing on Australia by a European was in 1606. The Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline.
The Danes were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting southern Scandinavia, including the area now comprising Denmark proper, northern and eastern England, and the Scanian provinces of modern-day southern Sweden, during the Nordic Iron Age and the Viking Age. They founded what became the Kingdom of Denmark.
Queen Elizabeth II's lineage is among the most well documented ever, due to the record keeping surrounding the royal line through the centuries. But, while it is well known that she descends from William the Conqueror, she also counts among her ancestors Alfred the Great, who lived from circa 848 to 899.
Viking Scotland, known as Lothlend, Laithlinn, Lochlainn and comprising the Northern and Western Isles and parts of the mainland, especially Caithness, Sutherland and Inverness, was settled by Norwegian Vikings in the early ninth century.