Eoforwic (Civ6)/Civilopedia

After the Saxon settlement of northern England, York was the capital of the kingdom of Deira and then Northumbria. It was first captured by the Vikings when, in 866 AD, the “Great Heathen Army” under Ivar the Boneless (so called because he was either impotent or missing a leg, historians disagreeing as to which) came calling. A Viking horde returned in 875 and its leader Halfdan made York the center of a new Viking kingdom, known as Jorvik. Some 75 years later the last king of Jorvik, Eric Bloodaxe, was expelled and his lands absorbed into England, with local power vested in the Earl of York. Under the earls, the town became both a political and ecclesiastical seat. Some of the earls were Norse, some English. But it didn’t matter once William the Conqueror arrived. Although there were sporadic attempts by Danish Vikings to re-establish Jorvik, they all came to naught.