page_title: Ubba
section_title: Viking invasion of Anglo-Saxon England
hierarchical_section_title: Ubba / Viking invasion of Anglo-Saxon England
caption_attribution_description: English: Excerpt from folio 48r of Harley MS 2278. The scene depicts brothers Hinguar and Hubba slaying Christians in the north of England.
context_page_description: Ubba was a ninth-century Viking, and one of the commanders of the Great Army that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the 860s. The Great Army appears to have been a coalition of warbands drawn from Scandinavia, Ireland, the Irish Sea region, and the Continent. There is reason to suspect that a proportion of the Viking forces specifically originated in Frisia, where some Viking commanders are known to have held fiefdoms on behalf of the Franks. Some sources describe Ubba as dux of the Frisians, which could be evidence that he also associated with a Frisian benefice.
  In 865 the Great Army, apparently led by Ivar the Boneless, overwintered in the Kingdom of East Anglia, before invading and destroying the Kingdom of Northumbria. In 869, having been bought off by the Mercians, the Vikings conquered the East Angles, and in the process killed their king, Edmund, a man who was later regarded as a saint and martyr. While near-contemporary sources do not specifically associate Ubba with the latter campaign, some later, less reliable sources associate him with the legend of Edmund's martyrdom.
context_section_description: In the autumn of 865, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records that the Great Army invaded the Kingdom of East Anglia, where they afterwards made peace with the East Anglians and overwintered. The terminology employed by this source suggests the Vikings attacked by sea. The invaders evidently gained valuable intelligence during the stay, as the Great Army is next stated to have left on horses gained from the subordinated population, striking deep into the Kingdom of Northumbria, a fractured realm in the midst of a bitter civil war between two competing kings: Ælla (died 867) and Osberht (died 867).
  Late in 866 the Vikings seized York—one of only two archiepiscopal sees in Anglo-Saxon England, and one of the richest trading centres in Britain. Although Ælla and Osberht responded to this attack by joining forces against the Vikings, the chronicle indicates that their assault on York was a disaster that resulted in both their deaths. According to Annales Lindisfarnenses et Dunelmenses, and Historia de sancto Cuthberto, the Northumbrians and their kings were crushed by Ubba himself.
  Also that year, Annales Bertiniani reports that Charles II, King of West Francia (died 877) paid off a Viking fleet stationed on the Seine. After proceeding down the Seine towards the sea, where they repaired and rebuilt their fleet, a portion of the force is reported to have left for the district of IJssel (either Hollandse IJssel or Gelderse IJssel). Although the destination of the rest of the fleet is unrecorded, one possibility is that it participated in the sack of York. The fact that the Great Army remained in East Anglia for about a year before it attacked Northumbria could mean that it had been reinforced from the Continent during the layover. The part of the fleet that went to Frisia is later stated to have been unable to secure an alliance with Lothair. This statement seems to suggest that these Vikings had intended to acquire a grant of lands in the region, which could mean that they thereafter took part in the Great Army's campaigning across the Channel. Furthermore, Annales Bertiniani notes that Roricus was forced from Frisia the following year. This ejection could also account for the evidence of a Frisian dimension to the Great Army, and for the attestations of Ubba himself.
  With the collapse of the Northumbrian kingdom, and the destruction of its regime, the twelfth-century Historia regum Anglorum, and Libellus de exordio, reveal that a certain Ecgberht (died 873) was installed by the Vikings as client king over a northern region of Northumbria. In the following year, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that the Great Army attacked Mercia, after which the Vikings seized Nottingham and overwintered there. Although the Mercian and West Saxon kings, Burgred (died 874?) and Æthelred (died 871), responded by joining forces and besieging the occupied town, both the chronicle and Vita Alfredi report that this combined Anglo-Saxon force was unable to dislodge the army. According to both sources, the Mercians made peace with the Vikings. It was probably on account of this seemingly purchased peace that the Great Army relocated to York, as reported by the chronicle, where it evidently renewed its strength for future forays.
caption: A fifteenth-century depiction of Ívarr and Ubba ravaging the countryside as it appears on folio 48r of British Library Harley 2278.[29] The Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund presents ninth-century events in a chivalric context.[30][note 2]
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