Battle of Basing The Saxon army, led by King Ethelred, was beaten by the Danes. But just like its predecessors, this battle was indecisive, and it was followed two months later by the Battle of Marton, where the Vikings again prevailed. In April Ethelred died, to be succeeded by Alfred the Great, and much of King Alfred's 28-year reign was taken up with the Danish conflict. Battle of Basing The Battle of Basing was a battle on 22 January 871 at Old Basing in what is now the English county of Hampshire. It was one of a series of battles that took place
History of England Britain was in 793 at Lindisfarne monastery as given by the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". However, by then the Vikings were almost certainly well-established in Orkney and Shetland, and many other non-recorded raids probably occurred before this. Records do show the first Viking attack on Iona taking place in 794. The arrival of the Vikings (in particular the Danish Great Heathen Army) upset the political and social geography of Britain and Ireland. In 867 Northumbria fell to the Danes; East Anglia fell in 869. Though Wessex managed to contain the Vikings by defeating them at Ashdown in 871, a second invading army