Danegeld

Danegeld refers to a specific type of tax or tribute used during the ninth through eleventh centuries. Its primary purpose was to pay Viking raiders to prevent them from ravaging a land. This payment functioned in two distinct ways. It could be a tributary payment used to buy off attackers. Alternatively, it could be a stipendiary payment used to fund defensive forces. In eleventh-century sources, this money was called the "geld" or "gafol." Interestingly, the specific term "Danegeld" did not actually appear until the late eleventh century.

The mechanism for collecting this tax relied on land assessments. In England, the system was based on a unit called a hide. A hide was notionally an area of land sufficient to support one family. However, the actual economic value and size of a hide varied greatly. This unit served as the basis for the land tax. Local sheriffs were responsible for farming or collecting the tax from these areas. Different regions used different units for these assessments. In Kent, they used a sulung, which was the amount of land oxen could plough in one season. In the north, they used a carucate, which was also a measure of ploughland. In East Anglia, the land was assessed by the hundred.

History shows that these payments were often massive. In 991, following the Battle of Maldon in Essex, England paid 10,000 Roman pounds of silver. This was 3,300 kg of silver. This payment was advised by Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 994, the Danes under King Sweyn Forkbeard and Olav Tryggvason besieged London. The English bought them off again. This impressed the Danes, showing that extorting payments was more profitable than plundering. By 1007, King Æthelred bought two years of peace for 36,000 troy pounds of silver. This equaled 13,400 kg. In 1012, after the sack of Canterbury, another 48,000 troy pounds of silver was paid.

The nature of the tax changed after the Danish Conquest of 1016. When Canute became King of England, the tax was retained as a permanent land tax. Canute used a huge Danegeld to pay off his invasion fleet. He collected 72,000 troy pounds of silver nationally. He also collected an additional 10,500 pounds of silver from London. This total helped him retain only 40 ships as a personal bodyguard. Later, the levy to support the standing army was called heregeld. This army-tax was used by English kings to fund defense. Edward the Confessor eventually abolished the heregeld in 1051.

This practice was not unique to England. Similar tribute systems existed in many other regions. In Frisia, the first recorded Danegeld occurred in 810. A Danish fleet of two hundred vessels had defeated the Frisians in three battles. The Frisians paid a tribute of one hundred pounds of silver through taxation. In Brittany, King Salomon paid five hundred heads of cattle in 869 to stop raids. In East Francia, Charles the Fat used Danegeld in 882 to end the Siege of Elsloo. This payment also helped convert the Viking leader Godfrid into a Christian. In other areas, like Iberia, Christian states were supported by tribute gold from taifa kingdoms.

The Norman administration changed how the tax was used and viewed. While Anglo-Saxons used it for tribute or defense, the Normans used it for different goals. William the Conqueror used the geld as a tool to fund wars on the continent. He also used it to pay for the costs of conquest and royal appetites. The Normans levied the tax more frequently and at higher rates than previous kings. For example, the six-shilling geld of 1084 was considered infamous. By 1130, Henry I was taxing the Danegeld annually at two shillings per hide. The tax eventually fell into disuse after 1162.

By the early twelfth century, the system faced significant criticism. The tax was still based on ancient assessments of land productivity. There were also many privileged exemptions granted as royal favors. These exemptions could make those left paying the tax feel "unfavoured." Some historians view the Danegeld as a very flexible instrument of taxation. It was a national system of land taxation that was quite unique. In fact, it was the first such system to reappear in Western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Eventually, a levy on moveables that required parliamentary consent replaced the geld.