Most of the Vikings who settled in northern England before 900AD came from Denmark although there were a few who came direct from Norway to settle on the Yorkshire coast around Scarborough and Cleveland. A second wave of Vikings came after 900AD, but this time the invaders were Norwegians who had been living in Ireland for nearly a century and acquired some aspects of Irish culture and language. They used Ireland as a launching pad to attack England, initially colonising Merseyside and Cumbria before turning their attentions to south Durham and the Durham coast.
Native Irish under the leadership of the King of Leinster have expelled the Norwegians from their great fortress at Dublin. They begin to cross the Irish Sea and settle in Merseyside and Cumbria. Among the Cumbrian natives escaping the Vikings is an An glo Saxon noble called Alfred who has sought refuge in the Land of St Cuthbert between the Tyne and Tees.
A huge hoard of some 1,300 Viking items are dumped on the river bank at Cuerdale near Preston. The Ribble is part of a Viking trade route between Dublin and York.
Vikings settle in northern France and give their name to the Normans (North men).
Eadwulf, the Anglo-Saxon Earl of Bernicia who ruled the land north of the Tees, has died.
Exiled Irish-Norwegians in Lancashire and Cumbria recapture Dublin under Sihtric.
Irish-Vikings under King Ragnald attack the North-East with the help of the Yorkshire Danes. The Bernicians fight in alliance with the Scots and defeat the Vikings at Corbridge.
Ragnald defeats a joint army of Northumbrians, Danes and Franks in a second battle at Corbridge. The Danes no longer support Ragnald.
Ragnald has seized York and established Irish-Viking control in Yorkshire. York will now be ruled as a client kingdom of the great Norwegian stronghold of Dublin.
Land in south and east Durham is seized by Ragnald and given to his army leaders Scula and Olaf Ball who share it out among their Irish-Viking followers. The land is the best farmland belonging to the Bishop of Chester-le-Street but he doesn't have the s trength to challenge them. Scula gets land in the south including Billingham and School Aycliffe (Scula Aycliffe). Olaf Ball gets the east coast from Hartlepool to Sunderland. Ragnald could have taken land in Yorkshire but many powerful landowners in Yor kshire are of Danish descent and could be a military threat to him in the long run.
Ragnald has been succeeded by his cousin Sihtric as King of York.
Edward the Elder, King of Wessex, has died. He is regarded by the Viking rulers of the north as their superior and now Sihtric of York acknowledges Edward's successor, King Athelstan, as the 'over-king' of England.
Sihtric, King of York, dies and is succeeded by Guthfrith, a Dublin Norwegian.
King Athelstan meets the kings of Strathclyde and Scotland at Eamont Bridge in Cumbria. The kings acknowledge Athelstan's superiority. Ealdred, Earl of Bamburgh, who rules the Anglo-Saxon territory of the North-East, also gives his support. No Viking kings are present.
King Athelstan captures York and Guthfrith, the Viking king, is expelled.
Athelstan, King of the English, has visited the shrine of St Cuthbert at Chester-le-Street and bestowed many great gifts. The gifts include a work by Bede entitled the Life of St Cuthbert which depicts Athelstan on the cover. He also gives Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, to the Bishop of Chester-le-Street. It was part of the land taken by the Irish-Vikings in 918.
Athelstan has severely ravaged Scotland to enforce his superiority in the north.
Athelstan has granted rights of sanctuary to the monastery at Ripon.
Vikings from Dublin assisted by the Scots have been heavily defeated by King Athelstan in a bloody battle somewhere in the North West. Athelstan has destroyed the Danish fortress at York in order to completely suppress any further Viking rebellions.
Athelstan, King of Wessex and England, has died at Gloucester. He has been succeeded by his 18-year-old brother Edmund.
Olaf Guthfrithson of Dublin, the son of Guthfrith, has become King of York after the people of Yorkshire rejected the claims of young Edmund.
Blacair Guthfrithson has become the new Viking King of York and Dublin following the death of his brother Olaf.
Edmund, King of England, has seized York.
Strathclyde and Cumbria are ceded to Malcolm, King of the Scots, by Edmund. The area once formed part of the kingdom of Northumbria but it has been extensively settled by Scots over the past 30 years.