878
Events
By place
Britain
January 6 – Battle of Chippenham : King Alfred the Great of Wessex is surprised by a Viking attack at Chippenham in Wiltshire. He is forced to flee, with his retinue, into the Somerset Levels for safety. From his headquarters at Athelney , Alfred wages guerrilla warfare against the Vikings.
May – Battle of Edington : Supported by all the levies of Somerset , Wiltshire and Hampshire , Alfred the Great decisively defeats the main body of Danish Vikings, led by King Guthrum , at modern-day Edington, Wiltshire (near Bratton Castle ).
Treaty of Wedmore : Guthrum agrees to a peace treaty and is baptised , taking the name of Aethelstan. England is divided between Wessex in the south, and the Vikings in the Danelaw up north. Guthrum returns to East Anglia .
Battle of Cynwit : Viking raiders, led by Ubba Ragnarsson , land on the coast at Combwich with 23 ships, and besiege a hillfort (called Cynwit) at Cannington, Somerset . Ealdorman Odda launches a surprise attack, and kills Ubba in battle.
King Rhodri the Great of Gwynedd , Powys and Seisyllwg , returns to his kingdoms, but is killed fighting the Mercians of King Ceolwulf II . His kingdoms are divided amongst his three sons: Anarawd , Merfyn and Cadell .
King Áed mac Cináeda of Scotland is killed in battle, by his rival Giric mac Dúngal . Giric becomes king of the Picts , and allies himself with Eochaid (grandson of Kenneth I ). The two rule all of Alba (Scotland) together as joint-kings.
Deaths
Emperor Seiwa
Abu Zur'a al-Razi , Muslim scholar
Áed mac Cináeda , king of Alba (Scotland )
Adelchis , prince of Benevento
Amoghavarsha I , king of Rashtrakuta (b. 800 )
Anastasius Bibliothecarius , antipope of Rome (approximate date)
Gauzfrid, Count of Maine , Frankish nobleman
Iljko , duke (knyaz ) of Croatia
Rhodri the Great , king of Wales
Run of Alt Clut , king of Strathclyde (approximate date)
Ubba Ragnarsson , Viking chieftain
Wang Xianzhi , Chinese rebel leader
References
↑ Paul Hill (2009). The Viking Wars of Alfred the Great , pp. 73–76. ISBN 978-1-59416-087-5 .
↑ Picard, Christophe (2000). Le Portugal musulman (VIIIe-XIIIe siècle0. L'Occident d'al-Andalus sous domination islamique . Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose. p. 109. ISBN 978-2-7068-1398-6 .
↑ Lynch, Michael, ed. (February 24, 2011). The Oxford companion to Scottish history . Oxford University Press. p. 359. ISBN 9780199693054 .