When the Vikings attacked England sums of money were raised and offered to the invaders in order to stop them looting and destroying villages and religious settlements. These payments were known as Danegeld. Several Saxon kings paid Danegeld among them was Aethelred II who raised a lot of money to keep the Vikings under control.
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Danegeld
Timeline
868
Ethelred and Alfred married Mercian noble women whilst assisting the King of Mercia with the Danes on his land. A peaceful settlement was reached with the Danes and a Danegeld was paid for them to leave. ¹
991
Aethelred was advised by Archbishop Sigeric to talk to Olaf and arrange a truce rather than trying to defeat the Vikings in battle. The Vikings accepted a large payoff and left. The sum of money was around 10,000 pounds and was raised by collecting a land tax known as Danegeld. ¹
1002
Aethelred was forced to pay the Danes that were camped on the Isle of Wight another large amount of money for them to leave.
1012
The Danes were paid a large sum of money, known as the Danegeld, to leave England.
1018
Canute arranged for a massive Danegeld to be paid to the Viking fleet. Happy with the sum of money they received from the English, the Viking army returned home leaving just a small number of ships under the control of Canute.
A Medieval Mystery
There appear to be some strange connections between the fourteenth century Old Wardour Castle and ancient stone circle Stonehenge.
1: Location
Old Wardour Castle appears to be aligned to ancient sites in the Stonehenge landscape.
2: Alignment
Stonehenge is aligned to the Summer Solstice. Old Wardour has a very similar alignment.
3: Size
Could the builders of Old Wardour used mesaurements from Stonehenge to layout the geometrical keep?
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