Battle of Ashdown | |||||||
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Part of the Viking invasions of England | |||||||
A nineteenth-century depiction of the Battle of Ashdown.[1] | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
West Saxons | Vikings | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Æthelred Alfred |
Bagsecg † Halfdan Sidroc the Old † Sidroc the Younger † Osbern † Fræna † Harold † |
The Battle of Ashdown was a West Saxon victory over a Danish Viking army on about 8 January 871. The location of Ashdown is not known, but may be Kingstanding Hill[a] in Berkshire. Other writers place the battle near Starveall, a short distance north of the village of Aldworth and south east of Lowbury Hill.[3][4]
The West Saxons were led by King Æthelred and his younger brother, the future King Alfred the Great, while the Viking commanders were Bagsecg and Halfdan. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's Life of King Alfred.[5]
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