page_title: Bagsecg
section_title: Battle of Ashdown
hierarchical_section_title: Bagsecg / Battle of Ashdown
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of the Battle of Ashdown. The image appears on the frontispiece of: Hughes, T (1859). Scouring the White Horse; Or, the Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk.
context_page_description: Bagsecg, also known as Bacgsecg, was a viking and a leader of the Great Army, which invaded England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bagsecg and Healfdene were joint commanders of the Great Army that invaded the Kingdom of Wessex during the northern winter of 870/71.
  The Great Army is recorded as setting up camp at Reading and fighting the forces of Æthelred, King of Wessex, in several engagements during 871. At one of these, the Battle of Ashdown, Bagsecg and five Viking earls were killed.
  After Bagsecg's death, Healfdene seems to have become the sole leader of the Great Army. He was the principal leader when the vikings overwintered in London in 871/72. In addition, three other viking kings had emerged by 875; some of these may have been elevated to kingly status as a consequence of Bagsecg's demise.
  During the 18th and 19th centuries, Bagsecg was erroneously associated with Wayland's Smithy, a neolithic long barrow in south Oxfordshire. A folk legend arose that the barrow was his tomb or a memorial to Bagsecg.
context_section_description: Four days after the disaster at Reading, the West Saxons intercepted a massed force of Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown, fought somewhere in the Berkshire Downs. According to Vita Alfredi, the West Saxons were "aroused by grief and shame" to meet the Vikings in battle. It is uncertain what motivated the Vikings to meet their opponents in the open ground. One possibility is that the Vikings' recent victory at Reading had emboldened them to the extent that they intended to destroy the demoralised West Saxon army once and for all.
  Surviving sources give differing accounts of the conflict. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Æthelred fought the division of Vikings commanded by two kings, Bagsecg and Healfdene, whilst Alfred fought the division led by several earls, including Sidroc the Old, Sidroc the Young, Osbern, Fræna, and Harold. According to this source, thousands of men were slain in the encounter, including Bagsecg and the five named earls. The account of events preserved by Chronicon Æthelweardi, as well as that dictated by Vita Alfredi, corroborate the identities of the Viking leadership, and reveal that the battle was particularly large, and particularly bloody, with thousands of casualties.
  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates that fighting continued on into the night, suggesting that the West-Saxons indeed won a bloody and drawn-out affair. According to Vita Alfredi, the Viking dead were dispersed "over the whole broad expanse of Ashdown, scattered everywhere, far and wide". Although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Chronicon Æthelweardi claim that the West Saxons fought the entire Great Army, it is unlikely that the Vikings left their encampment at Reading unprotected. Nevertheless, the various accounts suggest that there were many more Viking combatants at the Battle of Ashdown than at the Battle of Englefield, and probably more than at the Battle of Reading.
  Despite the contradictory accounts of the conflict, the sources are united in portraying the battle as a resounding success for the West Saxons. Nevertheless, there is reason to suspect that the accounts have somewhat exaggerated the outcome, and that it could have been a more of a Pyrrhic victory. Certainly, Healfdene led the Vikings to a victory over the West Saxons at the Battle of Basing two weeks later, and again at the Battle of Meretun two months after that. Æthelred died not long after Easter, possibly from wounds suffered in one of the conflicts, after which Alfred succeeded to the kingship. About a month later, Alfred struck out at the Vikings, but was again defeated by Healfdene at the Battle of Wilton. According to Chronicon Æthelweardi, the West Saxons "made peace" with the Vikings—a statement echoed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Vita Alfredi—indicating that the West Saxons purchased a cessation of violence. The Vikings thereafter left Wessex and based themselves in London, where the Mercians also bought their peace.
  As a result of Bagsecg's demise, it would appear that Healfdene temporarily reigned as the sole king of the Great Army. The evidence of the Vikings' constant campaigning against the West Saxons, combined with the fact that a considerable number of men must have been left behind in East Anglia, suggests that the Great Army was considerably weaker in the Spring of 871 than it had been before then. Nevertheless, news of their success in Wessex appears to have enticed the arrival of another Viking army at Reading. This overseas force, variously called micel sumorlida by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, thereupon united with Healfdene's men. The commanders of this arriving army could well be identical to Guthrum, Oscytel, and Anwend, three Viking kings noted by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 875. One or more of these men may have been elevated to the status of king because of Bagsecg's death in 871.
  As early as the eighteenth- and nineteenth centuries, Bagsecg has been associated with Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic long barrow, erroneously assumed to have been erected as a memorial to him. Other prehistoric sites, specifically the Seven Barro
caption: A nineteenth-century depiction of the Battle of Ashdown.[59]
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