Battle of Ringmere

Coordinates: 52°28′30″N 0°49′30″E / 52.475°N 0.825°E

The Battle of Ringmere was fought in 1010. 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 Ulfcytel Snillingr, thegn 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 Ulfcytel Snillingr 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.

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]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stevenson, W. H. (Apr 1896). "Notes on Old-English Historical Geography". The English Historical Review 11 (42): 301–304. doi:10.1093/ehr/xi.xlii.301. Retrieved 20 May 2011
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sturlason, Snorre (2004). Heimskringla or the Lives of the Norse Kings. Kessinger Publishing. p. 225. ISBN 0-7661-8693-8.; Edited with notes by Erling Monsen
  3. ↑ Briggs, Keith (December 2011). "The battle-site and place-name Ringmere". Notes and Queries (OUP) 256 (4): 491–492. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjr151. Retrieved 13 January 2012.