Björn Ironside's Mediterranean Expedition

Björn Ironside's Mediterranean Expedition was led by Björn Ironside and Hastein.

Background
The Vikings knew perfectly well what they were doing, where they were going, and what they had come to take. The Normans intervened almost systematically in regions marked by chaotic political situations. They were conscious of their actions; the state of the targeted zones must have allowed them to intervene first to seize certain riches, and then, in a second phase, to conquer those territories. It would therefore be wrong and unwise to take as facts from the earliest Western writings claiming that the Viking movement and expansion entered history in a brutal and sudden way.

The Mediterranean Expedition
According to the Prophetic Chronicle, the Norse Vikings attacked Lisbon in the Summer of 858. Also the Alfonso III's Chronicle says they came during Ordoño I's reign. The same Chronicle also says that they entered the Mediterranean and reached the Balearic Isles.

The Viking group which reached Galicia in the summer was defeated by Count Pedro, attacked Lisbon in 858, and was in southern Spain in the same year.

Historian Ibn 'Idhari kept the news of the naval Battle of Alentejo in 859 when the Vikings' sailed southwards. Then they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar.

The major long-distance Viking expedition set out for Spain. They tried to land at Galicia and were chased away. Then they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and up the river Guadalquivir to Išbīliya (Seville), where they burned the mosque but were repelled by a large Muslim force there before entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar and burning the mosque at al-Jazīrah (Algeciras), following which they headed south to Nekor, plundered the city for eight days, In 859 or according to the historian Ahmed Tahiri, the sacking of Nekor in 858 marked the boundary line of its urban progress. The Vikings plundered the city for eight days, and defeated a Muslim force that attempted to stop them.

In the year 859 AD, Viking troops on board 62 drekars and commanded by the leaders Hastein and Björn Ironside besieged the city for three days and subsequently laid waste to much of it. After looting the houses of the rich, they burnt the Aljama mosque and the Banderas mosque. Reorganized near the medina, the inhabitants managed to recover the city and make the invaders run away, capturing two boats.  Shipbuilding docks for the Umayyad navy were then built in Algeciras, presumably in the form of a fortified port.

Frankish, Norman, Arab, Scandinavian and Irish sources said a large Viking raid happened into the Mediterranean in 859–861, co-led by Hastein, Björn Ironside and possibly one or more of his brothers. After raiding down the Iberian coast and fighting their way through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Norsemen pillaged the south of France, where the fleet stayed over winter, before landing in Italy where they captured Pisa. Proud with this victory and others around the Mediterranean (including in Sicily and North Africa) during the Mediterranean expedition, the Vikings are recorded to have lost 40 ships to a storm. They returned to the Straits of Gibraltar and, at the coast of Medina-Sidonia, lost 2 ships to fire catapults in a surprise raid by Andalusian forces, leaving only 20 ships intact. The remnants of the fleet came back to French waters in 862. There, they were summoned to Pamplona by a local muslim chieftain, captured king García Íñiguez, and demanded a ransom.

Björn Ironside was the leader of this expedition according to the chronicle of William of Jumièges. The early 11th century Fragmentary Annals of Ireland say that two sons of Ragnall mac Albdan, a chief who had been expelled from Lochlann by his brothers and stayed in the Orkney Islands, headed the enterprise.

William of Jumièges refers to Björn as Bier Costae ferreae (Ironside) who was Lotbroci regis filio (son of King Lodbrok).Kings and kingship in Viking Northumbria, by Rory McTurk (University of Leeds)  William's account of the Mediterranean expedition centers around Björn's foster-father Hastein. The two Vikings conducted many (mostly successful) raids in France. Later on Hastein got the idea to make Björn the Roman Emperor and led a large Viking raid into the Mediterranean together with his protégé. They proceeded inland to Luni, which they believed to be Rome at the time, but they were unable to breach the town walls. To gain entry a tricky plan was devised: Hastein sent messengers to the bishop to say that, being deathly ill, he had a deathbed conversion and wished to receive Christian sacraments and/or to be buried on consecrated ground within their church. He was brought into the chapel with a small honor guard, then surprised the dismayed clerics by leaping from his stretcher. The Viking party then hacked its way to the town gates, which were promptly opened letting the rest of the army in. When they realised that Luni was not Rome, Björn and Hastein wished to investigate this city but changed their minds when they heard that the Romans were well prepared for defense. After returning to western Europe, the two men parted their separate ways. Björn was shipwrecked at the English coast and barely survived. He then went to Frisia where William says he died.  There are some historical challenges with this account. Hastein appears in the contemporary sources later than Björn, and to be his foster-father would have been around his 80s when he died. That is certainly possible, citing the fact that their contemporaries, the Viking Rollo and King Harald Fairhair of Norway lived comparable lifespans. Luni is also known to have been plundered by Saracens.

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