Hastein Hastein ( also recorded as " Haesten " , " Hæsten " , " Hæstenn " or " Hæsting " and alias " Alsting " ) was a notable Viking chieftain of the late 9th century who made several raiding voyages . Early life . Little is known of Hastein ' s early life , described as a Dane in the Anglo - Saxon Chronicle , he is often given as a son of Ragnar Lodbrok . He is first recorded taking part in the Viking attack on the Frankish Empire , occupying Noirmoutier in 843 and on the Loire again in 859 for his great raid into the Mediterranean . Spain and the Mediterranean . One of the most famous Viking raids was Hastein ' s voyage to the Mediterranean ( 859 - 862AD ) , having set out with Björn Ironside , another son of Ragnar Lodbrok with 62 ships from the Loire . At first the raiding did not go well , with Hastein being defeated by the Asturians and later the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba at Niebla in 859 . Success followed with the sacking of Algeciras , where the mosque was burned , and then the ravaging of Mazimma in the Idrisid Caliphate on the north coast of Africa , followed by further raids into the Umayyad Caliphate at Orihuela , the Balearic Islands and Roussillon . Hastein and Bëorn wintered at Camargue island on the mouth of the Rhone before ravaging Narbonne , Nîmes and Arles , then as far north as Valence , before moving onto Italy . There they attacked the city of Luna . Believing it to be Rome , Hastein had his men carry him to the gate and tell the guards he was dying and wished to convert to Christianity . Once inside , he was taken to the town ' s church where he received the sacraments , before jumping from his stretcher and leading his men in a sack of the town . Another account has him wanting to convert before he dies and the following day feigns death . The city then lets 50 robed men come in for his burial all of which had swords under their robes . Hastein then jumps from his coffin and chops off the religious leaders heads on the way to sacking the city . As might be imagined , the veracity of this is much debated . The fleet then possibly raided Byzantine Empire sites in the eastern Mediterranean . On the way back to the Loire , he stopped off in North Africa where he bought several African slaves ( known to the Vikings as ' blámenn ' , " blue men " , possibly West Africans or Tuaregs ) who he later sold in Ireland . Homeward bound , Hastein and Björn were defeated by a Muslim fleet soon after the Straits of Gibraltar , but still managed to ravage Pamplona before returning home to the Loire with 20 ships . The Loire and the Seine . Settled back in Brittany , Hastein allied himself with Salomon , King of Brittany against the Franks in 866 , and as part of a Viking - Breton army he killed Robert the Strong at the Battle of Brissarthe near Châteauneuf - sur - Sarthe . In 867 he went on to ravage Bourges and a year later attacked Orléans . Peace lasted until spring 872 when the Viking fleet sailed up the Maine and occupied Angers , which led to a siege by the Frankish king Charles the Bald and a peace being agreed in October 873 . Hastein remained in the Loire country until 882 , when he was finally expelled by the Charles and then relocated his army north to the Seine . There he stayed until the Franks besieged Paris and his territory in the Picardy was threatened . It was at this point he became one of many experienced Vikings to look to England for riches and plunder . Hastein ' s Army in England . Hastein first crossed to England from Boulogne in 892 leading one of two great companies . His army , the smaller of the two , landed in 80 ships and occupied the royal village of Milton in Kent , whilst his allies landed at Appledore with 250 ships . Alfred the Great positioned the West Saxon army between them to keep them from uniting , the result of which was that Hastein agreed terms , including allowing his two sons to be baptised , and left Kent for Essex . The larger army attempted to reunite with Hastein after raiding Hampshire and Berkshire in the late spring of 893 , but was defeated at Farnham by an army under Prince Edward , Alfred ' s son . The survivors eventually reached Hastein ' s army at Mersea Island , after a combined West Saxon and Mercian army failed to dislodge them from their fortress at Thorney . The result left Hastein in command of a formidable Danish army at his fortified camp ( or burh ) at Benfleet in Essex , where he combined the men and ships from Appledore and Milton . He set out on a raid in Mercia , but whilst the main army was away the garrison was defeated by the bolstered militia of eastern Wessex . The West Saxons captured the fort , along with the ships , booty , women and children . This was a major blow for Hastein , who had lost his wife and sons in the loss of Benfleet . He re - established his combined force at a new fort at Shoebury further north in Essex , and received reinforcements from the Danish Kingdom of East Anglia and the Scandinavian Kingdom of York . He also had his two sons returned to him since Alfred and Athelred had stood sponsor at their baptism early in 893 . Next , Hastein launched his men on a savage retaliatory raid along the Thames valley then up the River Severn . It was pursued all the way by Aethelred of Mercia and a combined Mercian and West Saxon army , reinforced by a contingent of warriors from the Welsh kingdoms . Eventually the Viking army was trapped on the island of Buttingham on the Severn near Welshpool , but they fought their way out several weeks later , and lost many men , and returned to the fortress at Shoebury . In late summer 893 , Hastein ' s men struck out again . First they wisely moved all their booty , women and ships in East Anglia , and after being reinforced marched to Chester to occupy the ruined Roman fortress . The refortified fortress should have made an excellent base for raiding northern Mercia , but the Mercians took the drastic Scorched earth measure of destroying all crops and livestock in the surrounding countryside to starve the Danes out . In the autumn the besieged army left Chester , marched down to the south of Wales and devastated the Welsh kingdoms of Brycheiniog , Gwent and Glywysing until the summer of 894 . They return via Northumbria , the Danish held midlands of the Five Burghs , and East Anglia to return to the fort at Mersea Island . In the autumn of 894 , the army towed their ships up the Thames to a new fort on the River Lea . In the summer of 895 Alfred arrived with the West Saxon army , and obstructed the course of the Lea with a fort either side of the river . The Danes abandoned their camp , returned their woman to East Anglia and made another great march across the Midlands to a site on the Severn ( where Bridgnorth now stands ) , followed all the way by hostile forces . There they stayed until the spring of 896 when the army finally dispersed into East Anglia , Northumbria and the Seine . Legacy . Hastein disappeared from history in around 896 , by then an old man having already been described as " the lusty and terrifying old warrior of the Loire and the Somme " , when he arrived in England several years earlier . He was one of the most notorious and successful Vikings of all time , having raided dozens of cities across many kingdoms in Europe and North Africa . He is identified with the Jarl Hasting who held the Channel Islands for a while . Fictional representations . Jarl Hastein is a recurring character in Bernard Cornwell ' s The Saxon Stories , as a former ally and then opponent of Uhtred of Bebbanburg . Jarl Hastein also appears in the fictional series " The Strongbow Saga " written by Judson Roberts