The ‘facts’ of the Battle of Maldon are drawn from a description in an Anglo-Saxon poem. The original was destroyed in a fire in 1731 but much of it survives in transcripts created in the 18th century and now held in the Bodleian Library (Oxford University).
Over the years many scholars and antiquarians have pondered the exact whereabouts of the site of the Battle of Maldon, notably a Dr Edward Dalrymple Laborde, the Head of Geography at Harrow School. In 1925 he published a paper as part of the English Historical Review called The Site of the Battle of Maldon. In the paper Dr Laborde advocated that the tidal Causeway linking Northey Island to the mainland was the site of the Battle of Maldon. It is a view that has been generally accepted over the years as well as the date of August 10th 991.
In 991 the Danish re-conquest of England began again in earnest. Under the command of Olaf Tryggvason, they crushed the Anglo-Saxon forces at The Battle of Maldon on August 10th 991*.
The Vikings had previously attacked Ipswich with a fleet of 90 plus ships. In response the Anglo-Saxon, Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and his thegns (military commanders) raised an army of between 3,000 and 4,000 to march against the Vikings as they approached Maldon in the River Blackwater estuary. The outcome of the battle is not disputed. Byrhtnoth’s was outmanoeuvred by the Vikings and killed, as were most of his thegns and many of the English nobility.
Today an impressive sculpture of Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, created by a local sculptor John Doubleday erected in October 2006 stands at the end of the Maldon Promenade. The nine feet high bronze statue looks down the estuary towards the Northey Island Causeway battle site. Around the sculpture’s base scenes of the battle are depicted.
Yet, more recently the date, the year and even the location of Maldon battle site has come under further scrutiny. The battle may alternatively have been fought near Heybridge where the enemy (the Danes) when once ashore advanced along the ‘other’ causeway linking Heybridge to Maldon.
The local historian Stephen P Nunn has created a video short which gives much detail.
It can be viewed though the following link https://youtu.be/eWzf3Ry8JNs
Curiously in Heybridge one of the streets is called Battle Rise.
After the battle, English King, Aethelred, ‘The Unready’, agreed to buy off the Vikings with an estimated payment of more than 3,000kg of silver. This was supposedly the first instance of what became known as ‘Danegeld’. The defeat at Maldon was the beginning of the end of Anglo-Saxon rule. The end finally came in 1016 when Canute the Great (Cnut), King of Denmark and Norway, led a Viking army against the English, (or Anglo-Saxon), army in turn headed by King Edmund II, Ironsides, at the Battle of Ashingdon.
Following his defeat, Edmund signed a treaty whereby all of England except Wessex would be ruled by Canute and when one of them died the other would become King of all England. In November 1016, Edmund died and Canute duly ruled the whole kingdom. Thus England became a single united kingdom.
* The date of 10th August may have been 11th August and year may have been AD 993.
