Battle of Tempsford

Battle of Tempsford
Part of the Viking invasions of England
Date917
Location
Result Anglo-Saxon victory
Belligerents
Anglo-Saxons Vikings
Commanders and leaders
King Edward I King Guthrum II 
Jarl Toglos
Jarl Manna  
Strength
unknown unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown unknown

In 917, the group of Danes who had previously been based in Huntingdon relocated to Tempsford in Bedfordshire, together with other Danes from East Anglia. They built and fortified a new burh there, to serve as a forward base for attacks on English territory. Later that year, after launching an unsuccessful attack on Bedford, they were attacked by an English army from the territories of King Edward the Elder, as part of his widespread offensive which in that year overwhelmed the Danish territories in East Anglia and south-eastern Mercia. The burh was stormed and a Danish king, probably that of East Anglia, was killed, along with the Jarls Toglos and Manna and many of their followers, while the rest were captured.[1]

  1. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, ed. Michael Swanton, 2nd ed. (London 2000), pp. 101-2