Editing Guthrum (section)

==Background==
[[Viking expansion|Viking raids]] began in England in the late 8th century. The first one probably took place in either 787 or 789.{{sfn|Forte|Oram|Pedersen|2005|p=125}} The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' for 787 says that:

{{quote|"This year king [[Beorhtric of Wessex|Bertric]] took to wife [[Eadburh|Eadburga]], king [[Offa]]'s daughter; and in his days first came three ships of Northmen, out of Hæretha-land [Denmark]. And then the [[Reeve (England)|reve]] rode to the place, and would have driven them to the king's town, because he knew not who they were: and they there slew him. These were the first ships of Danishmen which sought the land of the English nation."|source={{harvnb|Giles|1914|loc=ASC 787}}|author=|title=}}
Small-scale raiding of the [[Heptarchy|English kingdoms]] continued on and off until 865, when a [[Great Heathen Army|much larger army]] landed in [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglia]] with the intention of invading and conquering it.{{sfn|Oliver|2012|p=169}} The initial army was reinforced in 871 by the Great Summer Army ({{Langx|ang|mycel sumorlida}}).{{sfn|Williams|1999|p=70}}{{sfn|Starkey|2004|p=51}}