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Alfred, his son Edward the elder (870-924), grandsons Athelstan (895-939) Edmund (921-946) and Eadred (c.955) were kings. Athelstan's son Edgar was also recognized as king.
In time of Alfred, the Danes attacked England (891-892) and public and private structures overturned, priests slain, people killed with fire and swords and plundered. None buried, taken in mountains and butchered in heaps. Alfred restored London in 896. After Alfred came Eadred. Then Eadgar assisted by Dunstan, the Danelaw was submitted. England was one kingdom.
During 10th c. Dunstan, Aethelwald, Oswald, Alfred, Edward, Atelstan, his brothers and Edgar were partakers in a monastic agreement. They were with monks and bishops and they as kings were considered to be somewhat like a priest. Kent was the royal capital and pre-eminent seat of the Roman Catholic Church.
899-924: Edward the Elder is Wessex king. Areas subjected to Danelaw are re-conquered.
913: Ethelfleda, Albert's daughter, orders an earthen mound for defense to be built at Warwick Castle.
918-919: Wessex conquers Mercia.
920: Edward king over all of Anglo-Saxondom.
937: Celts and Vikings united in battle, but are defeated by Athelstan of Wessex.
950: Canterbury Carthedral is rebuilt.
959: King Edgar of Wessex rules England.
955: Aelfric, a Benedictine Abbott and author, is born. He would busy himself as a Bible translator and writer of homilies.
963: London bridge is first mentioned. (I assume that the Romans built it or the one there previously).
965: Widukind of Corvey — a German who writes "Res Gestae Saxonicae", Saxon History.
970: "The Exeter Book" — religious and secular poems and riddles.
975: Edward the Martyr is king.
979: Edward murdered Ethelred is king.
980: Organ with 400 pipes at Winchester Monastery.
991: The Battle of Maldon — A-S defeated by Vikings. Danegeld (a tax or extortion fee) is paid to the Vikings.
943-975: King Edgar of Mercia asserts himself for England Wales and Scotland. Tried to merge the English, Britons, Vikings, Danish, Scots and Welsh, but they refused.
circa 980: Viking raids resume.
Late 10th century: Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark, invades south England — fights Ethelred the Redeless (or Ethelred the un-advised) who ruled from 978-1016.
circa 1000: Close to Offa's main residence at Tamworth, Wessex was Winchester (since 7th century). It became the principal seat of English kings and the greatest single complex of royal and ecclesial buildings.
circa 1000: English Scriptural poem "Genesis".
1000: "Beowulf" a heroic poem, written in Old English.
1002: Ethelred wants all Vikings intruders killed.
1003: Danes invade.
1004: Ethelred II massacred Danish immigrants.
1005: Famine in England.
1013: Sweyn becomes king of the Danes in England.
1014: Cnut next Danish king.
1016: Ethelred dies. Edmund Ironside is next king. Defeated by Canute the Dane (the son of Sweyn Forkbeard). Canute becomes king over all of England.
1220: Canute completes the Scandinavian conquest of England by reconciling Saxons and Danes, thereby ending Saxon raids which began as far back as the year 300.
Canute was the King of Denmark, Norway, England and Hebrides. His churchmen went to Norway and Denmark to teach the pagans. Had Saxons in his church, state and army. He favored Godwin, the Earl of Wessex.
1033: Anselm of Canterbury is born. He would become a monk, abbot and Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a theologist and a philosopher.
1035: Canute dies.
All in the Family 1:
Canute's kingdom divided between three sons. Harold Harefoot (1035-1040) gets England, Sweyn gets Norway and Hardicanute gets Denmark. Harold dies in 1040 and is succeeded by Hardicanute. He died in 1042 and is succeeded by Saxon Ethelred's son Edward (to be known as the 'Confessor'). Canute married Emma, the daughter of Richard I, a Danish and English king and a duke of Normandy. He was the father of Richard II, the father of Robert I, the father of William the Conqueror.
Notes on various topics:
Danelaw: Scandinavian law imposed in eastern and northern England by Norse invaders and settlers in 9th and 10th century.
Danegeld: Tax required by England, from 10th to 12th c. to maintain forces to oppose the Danes, or furnish tribute to procure peace and later as a land tax.
Witan (wise): the Anglo-Saxon assembly of bishops, earls, royal officials and other magnates. The Witan chose new kings, and possibly controlled them.
Bretwalda (bryten walda which meant 'powerful ruler'): title of a powerful Anglo-Saxon chieftain or king.
Fyrd: the Anglo-Saxon military force of England. They were unarmored or half-armored.
Housecarl: a member of the bodyguard or household troops of a Danish or English king or nobleman in late Anglo-Saxon times. They were heavily armored and rode horses.
Thegn (or thane): among Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavians in early England they were a member of a class of freemen, given land by a king or lord in return for military services. Armored and on horses. A thegn was the equivalent of knights and barons in Norman times.
The Yuletide feastings of the early (pagan) Saxons and Danes were re-hallowed as Christ Mass by the Church.
The Saxon ash-tree was known as Yggdrasil Christmas. The Yggdrasil myth has Norse origins. It was the ash tree that held together the universe with its roots and branches.
Serving the earl who ruled the shire was a subordinate officer of the shire — his office was called a 'shire-reeve', later know as 'sheriff' in Norman England times.
The sheriff was the sole ruler for Norman kings in the shire and his agent.
The 'Hundred' (in Danelaw 'Wapentake') was a territorial division of the shire, separated into 4, 6 or 8 'Earldoms', somewhat like the earlier Saxon Wessex, Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia.
duke: had more power than French kings.
vicomte: Norman duke's officer, who collected revenues, commanded troops, held court and maintained peace.
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Men who were linked to heathen gods:
Hengist and Horsa in Kent; Cedric and Cynric in Wessex.
All warrior kings were said to have descended from Woden.
In the late 12th c. version of the history of England, by Symeon of Durham — the six mythological sons of Woden:
Vectan of Kent, Beldei (or Bealdeah) of Wessex, Feothuigeat of Mercia, Beldei of Northumbria, Casere of East Anglia, Wegdam of Sussex.
Out of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Wessex was the strongest and outlived the others. This was largely due to Alfred the Great, who was able to withstand the Norse invasions. The Wessex kings on this list are only the ones who ruled all of Britain. Also on this list are the Danes who ruled the Anglo-Saxons of England:
Egbert (802-839)
Ethelwulf (839-855)
Ethelbald (855-860)
Ethelbert (860-866)
Ethelred I (866-871)
Alfred the Great (871-899)
Edward I, the Elder (899-925)
Athelstan (925-940)
Edmund I (940-946)
Eadred (946-955)
Eadwig (Edwy) (955-959)
Edgar (959-975)
Edward II, the Martyr (975-978)
Ethelred II, the Unready (978-1016)
Edmund II, Ironside (1016)
After Denmark invaded, the Danes ruled England.
Svein I, Forkbeard (1014)
Canute I (1016-35)
Harald I, Harefoot (1035-40)
Canute II, Hardicanute (1040-42)
After Hardicanute dies, the kingdom is returned to Aethelred's II's son and the House of Wessex.
Edward III, the Confessor (1042-66)
Harold II (1066)
1066: England invaded and conquered by the Normans, Scandinavians who first took residence in Normandy, France in the year 866.
They were also know as Norsemen and Vikings. The Normans who ruled in France and England appointed the bishops and most abbots, not all were religious men. The Normans were brutal, but all conquerors were. After Anglo-Saxon uprisings, there was the lopping of feet and hands or the gouging of the eyes of prisoners and rebels. They were known to massacre populations and devastate districts.
King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), the Saxon monarch of independent England, son of Ethelred and of the house of Alfred the Great, was put on the throne by Earl Godwin. Put Normans in positions of power: bishops, primates, in control of ports and military system, private castles, secretaries, chaplains and wine merchants. They drove Godwin and his family from the realm. He and his son Harold II return from exile in Flanders and Ireland. South England supported them. Dictated terms to Edward without opposition, and the Norman leaders fled England. Earl Godwin dies the following year.
All in the Family 2:
Edward and Harold were from different lines of Viking Harold Bluetooth (died 985), King of Denmark. He was the son of Harold Fairhair (died 940), King of Norway. Eric Bloodaxe (947-954) was another son of Fairhair. He was the Viking King of York, exiled because he tried to take Norway kingdom from him. He may have accepted Christianity as the king of Northumbria. He was slain by Eadred the grandson of Alfred the great. Earl Godwin married Gytha, of the second line of Bluetooth's family. Edward the Confessor's mother (Emma first married to Aethelred II of England) was also the mother of Harthacanut. Edward married Godwin's daughter, Edith, the sister of Harold, the loser to William.
Edward named Harold Godwinson (of Essex) king of England in 1066 (blood of Scandinavian kings were on his mother's side). William of Normandy claimed that Edward named him heir to the throne of England. Also a couple years previously Harold, at William's mercy, had pledged the throne to him. The French King Henry I sent army to Normandy and lost. Halley's Comet was a bad omen for Harold.
Six weeks of bad weather delayed William's invasion. England first invaded by Harald Hardrada king of Norway who also wanted the throne. He defeats Earls Edwin and Morcar near York. Harold rode north with his housecarls and defeated Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge. Three days later William lands at Pevensey with barons and knights form Normandy, Brittany and Flanders. Harold and reduced forces travel southward to fight the Normans. Soldiers on foot could not keep up and forces from the southwest did not arrive.
The battle at Sussex:
Harold, his housecarls, thegns and fyrds battle on Caldbec Hill, six miles northwest of Hastings, on south edge of the forest of Andrepsweald. William had fresh troops and archers. William defeats Harold in the Battle of Hastings, Harold and his housecarls were slaughtered. William became King of England in 1066 at Westminster Abbey. Expunged along with Anglo-Saxon rule was the Anglo-Saxon language. Ushered in along with the conquest was the French language and Norman (Romanesque) architecture in England.