Battle of Thetford

The battle of Thetford occurred in 1004. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports Ulfcytel Snillingr raised an East Anglian fyrd to meet Sweyn Forkbeard in battle. Sigvat records the presence of King Ethelred, allied with Olaf Haraldsson,^[1]

The battle site was located in lands under the control of Ulfcytel Snillingr, then of East Anglia, at a site once thought to be near Wretham,^[1] but now thought to be at Rymer in Suffolk.^[2] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that the battle of Thetford occurred after an attempt by Ulfcytel and the "councillors in East Anglia" to negotiate a truce with Sweyn in return for a financial settlement; the Danes broke the truce, and marched on Thetford where they were met and engaged by a contingent of the East Anglian fyrd. . Two of the Chronicle manuscripts state that the Danes later "admitted that they had never met with harder hand-play [fighting] in England than Ulfcytel gave them". The Danes suffered heavy losses, and were probably only saved from destruction because Ulfcytel's order to destroy their ships was not carried out. They left England without causing any further devastation which has been recorded.

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