Danegeld

Danegeld was a tax raised in Anglo-Saxon England to pay tribute to Viking raiders, above all from 991 under Æthelred the Unready, when large sums were paid to Danish armies to stop their attacks. Later the name was used for a land tax collected by English kings, including under Cnut and after the Norman Conquest, until the twelfth century. Much of the silver flowed to Scandinavia.