Battle of Ringmere
Coordinates: 52°28′30″N 0°49′30″E / 52.475°N 0.825°E Norse sagas recorded a battle at Hringmaraheior; Old English Hringmere-hūō, modern name Ringmere Heath.[1]
The sack of Thetford occurred in 1004. Sigvat records the victory of King Ethelred, allied with Saint Olaf,[2] over the Danes under Sweyn Forkbeard during the latters campaigns in England.
The Battle site was located in lands under the control of Ulfketel, Thane of East Anglia, at a site once thought to be near Wretham[2], but now thought to be at Rymer in Suffolk.[3] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Ulfketel/Ulfcytel and the "councillors in East Anglia" attempted to buy a truce with Swein, but that the Danes broke the truce and marched to Thetford where a part of the East Anglian fyrd engaged them. The Danes managed to escape.
The Battle of Ringmere was fought in 1010; John of Worcester records that the Danes defeated the Saxons. Over a three month period the Danes wasted East Anglia, burning Thetford and Cambridge.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Stevenson, W. H. (Apr. 1896), "Notes on Old-English Historical Geography", The English Historical Review 11 (42): 301–304, http://books.google.com/books?id=bnwQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 20 May 2011
- ^ a b Sturlason, Snorre (2004). Heimskringla or the Lives of the Norse Kings. Kessinger Publishing. p. 225. ISBN 0766186938. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZTVjwf2ZPGYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.; Edited with notes by Erling Monsen
- ^ Briggs, Keith (December 2011). "The battle-site and place-name Ringmere". Notes and Queries (OUP) 256 (4): 491–492. http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/58/4/491.extract. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
