Danegeld

The Danegeld (/ˈdeɪn.ɡɛld/; "Danish tax", literally "Dane tribute") was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources. It was characteristic of royal policy in both England and Francia during the ninth through eleventh centuries, collected both as tributary, to buy off the attackers, and as stipendiary, to pay the defensive forces. The term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century. In Anglo-Saxon England tribute payments to the Danes was known as gafol and the levy raised to support the standing army, for the defence of the realm, was known as heregeld (army-tax).

In England, a hide was an area of land sufficient to support one family. It was a measurement of value and was the basis for the land-tax that became known as Danegeld. Initially it was levied as a tribute to buy off the Danes but when the Viking threat diminished it was retained as a permanent land-tax to pay for the realm's defence. The Viking expeditions to England were usually led by the Danish kings, but they were composed of warriors from all over Scandinavia, and they eventually brought home more than 100 tonnes of silver.

Although the term Dangeld is generally held to have been the name of the tribute payments made to the Vikings, prior to the Norman Conquest, the payments were actually referred to as gafol In 1012 Æthelred the Unready introduced an annual land tax to pay for a force of Scandinavian mercenaries, led by Thorkell the Tall, to defend the realm. Following Æthelred the kings of England used the same tax collection method to fund their own standing armies, this was known as heregeld (army-tax). Heregeld was abolished by Edward the Confessor in 1051. It was actually the Norman administration who referred to the tax as Danegeld.

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