Fisty-Cuffs Outside Westbury
The Battle of Ethandun took place in 878AD soon after Guthum and his Danish Army invaded, and captured King Alfred's encampment in Chippenham.
After Alfred’s defeat at Chippenham
on Twelfth Night (6th January 878) he hid at Athelney in the Somerset Levels.
From here he sent messages to the shire fyrds and, in the words of the Anglo
Saxon Chronicle:
In the seventh week after Easter he rode to Egbert’s Stone east of Selwood and
there came to meet him all the people of Somerset and Wiltshire and of that
part of Hampshire which was on this side of the sea, and they rejoiced to see
him.
There
are four claimants for the site of Egbert’s Stone, all of them in a fairly small
geographical area, it is generally thought that the meeting was most likely
to have been at Kingston Deverill, to the south of Warminster. The army then
spent a night at Iley Oak, deep in wooded country. Iley Oak was almost certainly
situated a little less south of Warminster, at a spot now called Robin Hood's
Bower. (I don't know why it's named after Robin Hood - I'm guessing that
he was a well travelled man!). From here, the army of about 4,000 men marched
forth. There would almost certainly have been no formal structure to the procession,
men would probably have been in small groups, according to where they came from.
Only a small minority of the army would have been professional soldiers. the
majority would have been made up of local land owners, those that owed the local
land owners money, and those who rented land from the local land owners. To
state a political term, it was a three line whip.
Guthum found out about the advance, and set off from the encampment in Chippenham to meet the opposition. When Alfred found the Viking army, it was occupying the high ground at Edington. Guthum is most likely to have been at Bratton Camp. Alfred would have approached from the south east across Salisbury Plain. This is the sensible route as an attack from a more western route would have meant scaling the steep slope up past the White Horse (that isn't there yet), under a shower of missiles hurled at them from above, before storming the double ramparts of the camp.
Alfred, with the advantage of greater numbers, overcame Guthums defensive advantage to take the day..
After his defeat, Guthum retreated back to Chippenham. Alfred followed him and surrounded the Viking encampment. He killed all the cattle and any men he found outside the walls. He then laid siege to the camp, cutting off their food and water supply. Within two weeks, in late May 878, Guthum, and his army surrendered and accepted total defeat and the death of Guthums plan to conquer Wessex. It is written that Guthum agreed to a Christian baptism.
A Memorial to the Battle of Ethandun, a sarson stone, has been placed in the NE corner of the public recreation area adjacent to Bratton Castle to mark the battle. The sarson stone was unveiled in 2000 by the Marquis of Bath. It was a Millennium Project, funded by many organisations and groups, both English and Danish.
The Battle of Ethandun is very important in the history of Anglo-Saxon England. Alfred's victory at Edington had major ramifications on the English people, and all of Britain. It gave him freedom of movement, at least over Wessex, and some small parts of other kingdoms. Alfred could now reconsolidate West Saxon lands, and recoup his power, without having to use all his money, time and strength, defending against an possible invading Danish army. this also gave time for Alfred to put out pro-West Saxon propaganda to the Welsh, and rethink his foreign policy against the other native peoples of Britain. And, Alfred achieved all this before his thirtieth birthday. Like the plaque says - West Saxon victory at the Battle of Ethandun was very important to the history of Britain in general.