Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Making and breaking treaties in the Greek world
- 3 War, peace and diplomacy in Graeco-Persian relations from the sixth to the fourth century bc
- 4 Treaties, allies and the Roman conquest of Italy
- 5 Parta victoriis pax: Roman emperors as peacemakers
- 6 Treaty-making in Late Antiquity
- 7 Byzantine diplomacy: good faith, trust and co-operation in international relations in Late Antiquity
- 8 Treaties between Byzantium and the Islamic world
- 9 Siege conventions in Western Europe and the Latin East
- 10 Paying the Danegeld: Anglo-Saxon peacemaking with vikings
- 11 Peace among equals: war and treaties in twelfth-century Europe
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Paying the Danegeld: Anglo-Saxon peacemaking with vikings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Making and breaking treaties in the Greek world
- 3 War, peace and diplomacy in Graeco-Persian relations from the sixth to the fourth century bc
- 4 Treaties, allies and the Roman conquest of Italy
- 5 Parta victoriis pax: Roman emperors as peacemakers
- 6 Treaty-making in Late Antiquity
- 7 Byzantine diplomacy: good faith, trust and co-operation in international relations in Late Antiquity
- 8 Treaties between Byzantium and the Islamic world
- 9 Siege conventions in Western Europe and the Latin East
- 10 Paying the Danegeld: Anglo-Saxon peacemaking with vikings
- 11 Peace among equals: war and treaties in twelfth-century Europe
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It is always a temptation for an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say:-
‘We invaded you last night – we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away’.
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:-
‘Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time
to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away’.
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
Rudyard Kipling, ‘Dane-geld (a.d. 980–1016)’When Rudyard Kipling penned these lines in 1911, he was drawing what he thought to be enduring moral and political lessons learned from the failed attempt of Æthelred II ‘the Unready’ to purchase peace from the vikings. Though clearly writing for his contemporaries, Kipling could claim that his poem was true in spirit to the main narrative source for Æthelred's reign, the C-recension of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- War and Peace in Ancient and Medieval History , pp. 173 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.
- 1
- Cited by