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What did the Anglo-Saxon invasion help to create a strong English 
State? 
 
England especially suffered from the Vikings. Being divided into seven 
independent kingdoms made it an irresistible target, and Viking raids on 
England were merciless. Six of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were overrun, 
with only Wessex in the south, led by Alfred the Great (871-99), holding on 
grimly against the Northmen. Alfred did three things to defend his realm 
against the Vikings. First of all, he kept a standing army, with half of its 
soldiers on guard at any given time while the other half could tend their 
crops. Second, he kept a navy to head off Viking invasions and raids before 
they could even reach English shores. Finally, Alfred established fortified 
centers, known as burhs, to protect his people and their property from the 
Vikings. 
These measures saved Wessex from Viking conquest, and Alfred and his 
successors were gradually able to take the offensive and reclaim a good part 
of England. In a sense, the Viking raids were good for Anglo-Saxon England in 
two ways. For one thing, they forced the Anglo-Saxons to build a strong state 
in self-defense. For another thing, the Vikings eliminated the six Anglo-Saxon 
Kingdoms Wessex had been competing with before. As a result, as Wessex 
retook one part of Britain after another, a single strong united kingdom 
replaced seven separate ones. Also, it could more easily impose its own laws 
and customs on other Saxons, since the Vikings had eliminated the other 
Saxon kingdoms' laws and customs. Probably reinforcing that trend was the 
Saxons' fear of the Vikings returning, thus making them more likely to submit 
to the rule of a strong king. Therefore, the Saxon kings of Wessex could 
establish a much stronger state than would previously have been possible. 
Besides their defense measures, Alfred and his successors did three other 
things to build a strong English state. First of all, they set up royal officials, 
known as thegns and reeves, to administer the king's justice throughout his 
realm. The second thing was to extract a loyalty oath from all Saxon 
freedmen under their rule. In an age when oaths were taken especially 
seriously, this was important, since it made loyalty to the king more 
important than loyalty to any other lord or official. Finally, the Saxon kings 
collected a permanent tax known as Danegeld. This was originally tribute 
paid to the Vikings to keep them from raiding. Later, it was used as a defense 
tax to support the army and navy, thus keeping England safe from attack. 
In 973 C.E., a century after Alfred came to the throne, the Church anointed 
his descendant, Edgar, with oil as God's chosen king of all England. Although 
the Vikings still controlled much of England under what was known as the 
Danelaw, this act showed the progress Wessex had made and the ambitions it 
had toward uniting all of England. Also, by anointing the king as God's 
chosen, it marked the king as someone special in society and laid the 
foundations for the later doctrine of Divine Right of Kings. 
 
 
These measures kept the Saxon state strong until Ethelred "the 
Unready" (literally "No plan") came to the throne at the age of ten. This 
triggered renewed Viking raids until the Danish king, Knut, conquered all of 
England. As luck would have it, when Knut died, his sons fought for the 
throne, which allowed the Saxons to regain their independence and give the 
crown to another Saxon king, Edward the Confessor. 
However, England was never far from some sort of Viking intervention. In this 
case, it was the Norman duke, William, who, as a cousin of the childless 
Edward the Confessor, claimed the English throne when the Saxon king 
died. When the Saxons chose another Saxon, Harold of Wessex, to succeed 
Edward, William gathered an army, crossed the channel, and crushed Harold's 
forces at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 in what would prove to be the last 
successful invasion of Britain. Despite this, the Anglo-Saxon heritage would 
continue as the Normans would adopt many of the policies and institutions the 
Saxons had used to build their state in times of crisis.