£10 (SOLD OUT)

In a new talk, City Archaeologist Andrew Armstrong casts fresh light on the fascinating story of the defence and re-conquest of England from the Vikings. Starting with Alfred the Great, he discusses the innovation that more than anything else stopped the Vikings: the creation of the burhs, a system of fortresses established across the kingdom of Wessex. He reveals how Alfred’s daughter Aethelflaed used these fortresses to defend the kingdom of Mercia, and then to re-conquer the Midlands. For father and daughter, this was also a spiritual battle as he discovers how in Gloucester the two English monarchs sought divine approval and support against the pagan invaders.