In his four-volume History of the Anglo-Saxons, first published between 1799 and 1805, Sharon Turner (Loyn, 2004) quoted extensively from the Anglo-Normans. Having described the Tiddingford treaty as a ‘peace’ which, two years after the battle of the Holme, ‘restored amity between the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Danes,’ Turner (1852, pp. 144-145) gave this account of the 909 and 910 conflicts, which he related to the 905-906 treaty at Tiddingford:
But war was soon renewed between the rival powers. With his Mercians and West Saxons, Edward, in a five weeks’ depredation of Northumbria, destroyed and plundered extensively. In the next year, the Northerns devastated Mercia. A misconception of the Danes brought them within the reach of the king’s sword. While he was tarrying in Kent, he collected 100 ships, which he sent to guard the south-eastern coast, probably to prevent new invasions. The Danes, fancying the great body of his forces to be on the seas, advanced into the country to the Avon, and plundered without apprehension, and passed onwards to the Severn. Edward immediately sent a powerful army to attack them; his orders were obeyed. The Northerns were surprised into a fixed battle at Wodensfield, and were defeated, with the slaughter of many thousands. Two of their kings fell, brothers of the celebrated Ingwar, and therefore children of Ragnar Lodbrog, and many earls and officers.
Turner’s conclusion that after the Tiddingford treaty ‘war was soon resumed between the rival powers’ (thus linking ca. 905 treaty with the 909 raid) was the only interpretation he could have made of these texts. Early 19th century scholars, like their 12th century counterparts, could not have conceived of a Scandinavian ‘power’ to rival the Anglo-Saxons in 909 other than those known from ASC to have settled in eastern England. As for Turner’s influence on Anglo-Saxon historiography, Philip Grierson (1945, p. 247) remarked that ‘Turner’s work may now be forgotten by most historians, but it occupies an honourable place in the history of Anglo-Saxon scholarship. Even in the last century it was never fully superseded.’
World History
