Back to Owlbut's History of England

All change again, the Vikings have arrived. Initially they just carried out raids in the summer but then they liked it here and decided to stay. Halfway through the period they ruled half the country. They were stopped by King Alfred the Great. Eventually he and then his children fought these Vikings and won back the lands he had given them. During the second half of this period, for the first time ever, we had a king of all England. But the Vikings hadn't given up completely.

In 801, the estimated population of England (to the nearest ¼million) was 2 million people.