tribal confederation · British Isles

Five Boroughs of the Danelaw

877 CE – 942 CE (approx.) · capital Derby; Leicester; Lincoln; Nottingham; Stamford

Five fortified Danish towns of the east Midlands, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford, that formed the core of Viking rule south of the Humber.

Origins

After the Great Heathen Army partitioned Mercia in 877, Danish warbands settled the east Midlands around fortified centres. Each borough was the base of a jarl and his army, controlling the surrounding district, in an area later known as part of the Danelaw.

Rule and society

The boroughs were military and trading centres that grew into towns, with Danish law, land units and many Scandinavian place-names in -by and -thorpe. They acted together at times, but there is no evidence of a single ruler. The settlers soon adopted Christianity.

Decline and legacy

Aethelflaed of Mercia and Edward the Elder took Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Stamford in 917 and 918. After a Norse revival from York, Edmund of England recovered the Five Boroughs in 942, an event celebrated in a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The region kept distinct legal customs into the 11th century.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/five-boroughs-of-the-danelaw
MLA
“Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/five-boroughs-of-the-danelaw. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/five-boroughs-of-the-danelaw.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Five Boroughs of the Danelaw’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/five-boroughs-of-the-danelaw (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻