Denmark-England: Map & History
There were two Danish attacks on Norman England.
Wikipedia Encyclopedic Compendium
Historiographical synthesis & structured realm registry
There were two Danish attacks on Norman England. The first was an invasion in 1069–1070 conducted in alliance with various English rebels which succeeded in taking first York and then Ely before the Danes finally accepted a bribe to leave the country. The second was a large-scale raid in 1075, intended to support the Revolt of the Earls, in which the Lincolnshire coast and York were both ravaged. A third attack was planned in 1085, and a large invasion fleet composed of Danish, Flemish, and Norwegian vessels was assembled which never sailed. All three attacks were motivated by a claim on the English throne asserted originally by Cnut the Great's nephew Sweyn II, king of Denmark, and maintained by later Danish kings until as late as the 13th century, but neither of the two realised attacks succeeded in making Sweyn's claim good, or indeed gained anything for the Danes apart from a certain amount of plunder.
Modern Countries Once Part of Denmark-England
At its mapped extent, Denmark-England covered territory in 3 present-day countries. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Denmark-England's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Denmark-England in Depth
Later history of the Danish claim
The claim to the English throne was not renounced, and was revived occasionally through the 12th century. A Flemish continuator of Sigebert of Gembloux's Chronicon sive Chronographia even claims that king Eric III asserted it by launching an attack on England's borders in 1138, before being defeated by King Stephen. No English historical source mentions any such attack, nor does any Danish one, and the continuator's statement has consequently been ignored by most modern historians.
Background
Sweyn Estridson was the nephew of Cnut the Great, king over an empire that included England, Denmark and Norway, and the first cousin of Harthacnut, king of England and Denmark. On Harthacnut's death Edward the Confessor became king of England, but when Sweyn visited Edward shortly thereafter he was, according to his own rather implausible claim reported by the later writer Adam of Bremen, given a promise that he would succeed to the English throne after Edward's death. For many years he was distracted from English concerns by a series of wars in Denmark, where he disputed the throne with first Magnus the Good and then Harald Hardrada; he could not rule his Danish kingdom in peace until 1064.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Danish attacks on Norman England (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Denmark-England Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 215,699 km² in 1042 CE.
Denmark-England: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Denmark-England exist?
Denmark-England is dated to 1040 CE – 1045 CE, in the High & Late Middle Ages era.
How large was Denmark-England at its peak?
At its peak in 1042 AD Denmark-England covered about 215,699 km².
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