Danegeld

Danegeld is the name of a ransom or tribute paid to the Normans in England and France. The contemporaries did not use this expression. Only Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) spoke of the release of the Danegeld.

There are a number of runestones that are about the Danegeld: One of the Grindastones in Södermanland, the runestone of Yttergärde in Orkesta, the Väsby stone in Ösby county, and one of the Lingsberg stones all in Uppland. The levies from England are called there gjald, also Knutsgjald. The latter probably refers to the last Danegeld collection by Knut the Great in 1018, who may have used it to pay his troops. This name can be used for dating. For the Viking campaigns to England had begun again around 980 and led to the first Danegeld payments, with which peace was to be bought. After the battles in 1016 and 1017, the last Danegeld payment was made in 1018. After that, Knut's rule in the newly created North Sea kingdom was consolidated, and the Viking campaigns ceased.

Gjald, according to the context on the runestones, is not so much an asset as a badge of honor, which is still praised on the double memorial stone: On the Yttergärde stone (Runeinnskrifter fra Uppland 343, 344), an Ulf is reported to have received three gjald in England, the first from Tosti, the second from Torkel the High, the third from Knut himself. Tosti is generally identified with Sköglar-Tosti, a distinguished warrior from the end of the 10th century, mentioned in Snorri. Torkel the High was a Viking leader known from English sources who was appointed Jarl of East Anglia by Knut in 1017. The Grinda Stone reports that Gudver received his share of the Gjald and also fought valiantly in Saxland. The latter probably refers to the Viking invasions of Friesland in 994, which are also described by Adam of Bremen, where he calls the Vikings Ascomanni. On the Lingsberg stone it is said that Ulfrik took two gjald in England. On the Väsby stone it is said that Alle received gjald in England. From these messages it is clear that not only Danes raided England's coasts, but that there were also many Swedes in the raiding parties.

The term denotes a levy intended to induce the Danes to desist from their raids. It originated with Æthelred in his treaty of 991 after Ealdorman Brihtnoth's death in the Battle of Maldon. The chronicles report that this was the occasion for paying a tribute of 10,000 pounds of silver to the Danes. The driving force was Archbishop Sigerich, so it was called Siricius danegeld by later authors. These Danegeld payments were a specific feature of Æthelred's reign. In 994 16,000 pounds of silver were paid, in 1002 it was 24,000 pounds, and in 1012 it was already 48,000 pounds. Torkel the High came there with 45 ships to collect the tribute, afterwards he subordinated himself to Æthelred. With this payment the character of the tribute changed. From now on, the tribute was used for the maintenance of the Norman army for the defense of the country. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle now refers to the tribute as gyld, stang gyld in some cases also heregyld (payment, heavy tax, army tax). In 1018 Knut the Great levied a tribute totaling 82,500 pounds of silver, with which he paid his troops. The mass of coins from Æthelred's time in Scandinavian hoards confirms these reports.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicles referred to the tribute as tributum or stipendium. This was also the name given to the corresponding tributes to the Danes in France. There the expressions tributum, census, munus, pecunia pro pace and pensum appear. In the sources, 13 such payments can be traced in France in the years 849 to 926, and 9 in England in the period from 865 to 1012. The French payments were made by agreement between the French king and the Viking chieftains and amounted to between 300 and 12,000 pounds of silver (in 884). The first payments in England (865, 872, and 876) were apparently only local in nature. Only the payment of 991 had a nationwide character.

It is not known on what basis the first English tribute payments were levied. Only for 1040 we can see that 4 marks = 8 pounds of silver were to be paid for each ship's oar, but this says nothing about the distribution among the inhabitants.

After 1018, until 1051, a heregeld was levied on the citizens, but it was perceived by contemporaries as a continuation of the danegeld. Edward the Confessor dissolved the Viking army, abolished the tribute in 1051. Until 1162 it was collected in the form of a land tax. Under Richard the Lionheart, the tax was reintroduced. It was designed as a land tax throughout the Angevin Empire. William the Conqueror reimposed the tax in 1066, 1067 1083 and 1084. Under him, the Danegeld turned into a tax to the king. The sources, especially the Domesday Book now portray the Danegeld as a land tax. At the same time, the sources suggest that this tax had already been adopted by Edward the Confessor, who had abolished the original danegeld. The normal rate was 2 shillings per hoof. This tax rate remained under Henry II, when the tax was now called hidagium. However, it cannot be proved that the tax was really levied every year under William the Conqueror and William Rufus, especially since the rates under these rulers were very high: 6 shillings in 1083 to 1084. William II wrote it out in 1096 and charged 4 shillings per hoof.

In France, the rates for the tribute of 866 varied from 1 to 6 denarii for the different types of land owned by the unfree. To this was added the army tribute of 60 solidi, which one had to pay in lieu of army service. Merchants paid 1/10 of their property and clergymen were assessed secundum quod unusquisque habuit. To what extent this key applies to all later levies cannot be determined.

That even in the 12th century the origin of this tax was still in consciousness is shown by the designations in the Leges Henrici primi and the Leges Edwardi Confessoris. In 1130 it is mentioned as a fixed annual tax. The English historian Henry of Huntingdon (1080-1160) summarized contemporary attitudes toward the royal tax as danegeld: modo ... ex consuetudine, quod Dacis persolvebatur ex ineffabili terrore. Henry II levied an annual tax with this name Danegeld in the second and eighth year of his reign, but in reality it was meanwhile a hidagium (tax for a hide = English hoof), which happened to be assigned this name. The actual danegeld had completely "disappeared" from payment transactions. Within a century and a half, the conceptual content of Danegeld evolved from a tribute to the Danes to a tax to fight the Danes, then to an army tax par excellence to a normal levy.

Reception

The best-known reception of the Danegeld comes from British writer Rudyard Kipling in his poem of the same name, Dane Money. The poem includes the famous phrase "once you have paid him the Danegeld/ You never get rid of the Dane." and appeared in the 1911 book A School History of England.