ABSTRACT
The area of England over which the Danes had imposed their rule is conveniently known to historians as the Danelaw. Its territorial limits were largely determined in a treaty concluded c. 890 between Alfred and Guthrum, king of the East Anglian Danes. The frontier between the Danes and English Mercia followed the Thames Estuary as far as the mouth of the river Lea, leaving London in the English zone; it followed the Lea to its source and then went in a straight line to Bedford; from Bedford it followed the Ouse as far as Watling Street. All England north and east of this line as far as the Tees was the Danelaw. It was not a homogeneous area, nor was all of it heavily settled by Danes; it was simply the area in which as a result of the settlement of a Danish aristocracy on the land Danish law prevailed. In 899 it covered about half of England. Not since Alfred’s capture of London thirteen years before had the native English made any inroads on Danish occupied territory.
