In AD892, over 300 Viking ships invaded Britain to fight King Alfred of Wessex. No one knows how big the Viking army was but if there were 20 men in each Viking ship, the army of AD892 numbered 6000!

In 991, a Viking force sacked the city of ... Edward represents the last king of the House of Wessex, of which Alfred, Edward, and Aethelstan in The Last Kingdom are all members.

The Viking invasions eventually smashed the state system of the English. Wessex survived and, in the reign of King Alfred (d. AD 899) a campaign began to bring the whole of England under the rule ...

Whatever it is about medieval England that fired up a metalhead from Old Kilpatrick to start writing historical novels, it’s clearly potent ...