Conflict: | Battle of Sandwich |
Partof: | the Viking invasions of England |
Date: | 851 |
Place: | Sandwich, England |
Result: | Kentish victory |
Combatant1: | Kentishmen |
Combatant2: | Vikings |
Commander1: | Æthelstan |
Commander2: | Unknown |
Strength1: | Unknown |
Strength2: | More than nine ships |
Casualties1: | Unknown |
Casualties2: | Nine ships lost |
The Battle of Sandwich in 851 was the first known naval battle in English history. It was a Kentish victory against a Danish Viking fleet.
In 851 King Æthelwulf of Wessex scored a major victory at the battle of Aclea over an army drawn from 350 Danish ships. He had appointed his eldest son Æthelstan under-king of Kent, and in the same year Æthelstan and his ealdorman Ealhhere defeated a Danish fleet off Sandwich in Kent.[1]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded under 851 that: "King Æthelstan and Ealdorman Ealhhere fought in ships, and slew a great army at Sandwich in Kent, and captured nine ships, and put the others to flight.[2]
. Frank Stenton. 244. 1971. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK. 3rd. 1943. 978-0-19-280139-5.