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During three or four generations starting in the 590s, all the English kings and their courts converted to Christianity. Italian and Frankish missionaries converted people in the south of England, whilst Irish missionaries did the same in the north.

What impact did Christianity have on England?

Not all of England accepted Christianity with the same enthusiasm. The Irish missionaries who had converted the people of northern England were more successful than the continental European missionaries because they promoted monasticism. This approach to Christianity complemented Anglo-Saxon family-based society. By the 660s monasteries could be found throughout the country and the abbots and monks that maintained them performed a number of important social functions.

• The monasteries were the main centres of learning. Most of the literate people in England were monks.
• By the 11th century almost every village had a church of some kind. These parish churches performed baptisms at birth, consecrated marriages and prayed for the dead. The church was central to people’s lives.
• The church collected ten percent of people’s annual earnings. This large sum of money was used to pay priests, build churches and, most importantly, to support the poor.

The monasteries had been centres of learning long before the Norman Conquest of 1066. We still have evidence of very skilled manuscripts produced by monks as far back as 700 AD. As well as building and supporting a number of monasteries throughout England the Anglo-Saxon kings also built many churches although few of those remain because they were built mostly with wood.

Westminster Abbey in London remains at the centre of Christianity in England today and although it has been extensively rebuilt throughout the centuries it was initially built by Edward the Confessor, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings.

The Vikings and Christian England

The ‘Great Heathen Army’ of 865 was a large force of pagan Norwegians and mostly Danes who were determined to pillage as much of England as they could. The Danes had their own ancient religion that included human sacrifice and encouraged warfare. This frightened the people of England who saw themselves as more civilised and peaceful than the 'Vikings', as these raiding Danes were known. The Vikings had been targeting monasteries and churches since the 790s but by 865 they had come to conquer.

What impact did the Danes have on England?

• After a long period of conflict, the King of Wessex, Alfred the Great, negotiated peace with the Danish leader Guthrum on the condition that he become a Christian. The Danes ruled large parts of central and eastern England according to their own laws (known as the Danelaw).
• In Yorkshire, where Danish settlement was high, many place names reflect their influence. Places ending in ‘by’, eg Whitby and Selby, were Danish settlements, as well as places ending in ‘Thorpe’- there are 155 places ending in ‘Thorpe’ in Yorkshire, eg Scunthorpe.

The Danelaw ended when the majority of Danes were driven out by King Athelstan (895-939). Not all Danes left though and many of those who had settled remained on their farms and lands in England. The Danes continued to raid after Athelstan and popular hatred against Danes in England encouraged King Ethelred the Unready (968-1016) to order a massacre of all the Danish people in England in 1002.

The Danes returned in 1013 with another army and this time established a dynasty. King Cnut and his sons ruled England from 1016-1042.