According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in AD 876 the Danish Viking leader Halfden shared out the Northumbrian territory he had conquered to his followers. A Danish kingdom was established centred on Jorvik (York). In 918, Norwegian Vikings from Ireland captured Jorvik where their leader Ragnald made himself king. This Norse kingdom, linked to Ireland, lasted, with interruptions, for 35 years.
Archaeologists have found evidence of a thriving 10th-century town at Jorvik. Ragnald was acknowledged by Edward the Elder, king of Wessex (899-924), but in 926 his successor Athelstan (reigned 924-39) attacked and destroyed Jorvik. After Athelstan’s death a Norse army returned to Jorvik under Olaf Guthfrithson, but in 941 the new king of Wessex, Edmund (reigned 939-46), retook the kingdom. In 947, only a year after Edmund’s death, yet another Norseman, the adventurer Eric Bloodaxe, captured Jorvik. He was to be its last king: in 954, he was defeated by Eadred of Wessex (died 955) and the Viking kingdom of Jorvik was finished.
Norse invaders from Ireland had also settled on the north-west coast, in territory disputed by the English and Scots, but they did not form independent kingdoms. The Isle of Man, protected by sea from mainland attacks, was ruled by an independent Viking dynasty until 1266.
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