Battle of Buttington

At the Battle of Buttington an army of Anglo-Saxons and Welsh led by Æthelred the Lord of the Mercians, Æthelhelm the Ealdorman of Wiltshire and Æthelnoth the Ealdorman of Somerset defeated a Viking army led by Hastein in 893. The location of the battle is probably present-day Buttington near Welshpool in the county of Powys in Wales, although another possible site is Buttington Tump at the mouth of the River Wye.

According to the Anglo-Saxon historian Æthelweard writing near a hundred years later "Hæsten made a rush with a large force from Benfleet, and ravaged savagely through all the lands of the Mercians, until he and his men reached the borders of the Welsh; the army stationed then in the east of the country gave them support, and the Northumbrian one similarly. The famous Ealdorman Æthelhelm made open preparation with a cavalry force, and gave pursuit together with the western English army under the generalship of Æthelnoth. And King (sic) Æthelred of the Mercians was afterwards present with them, being at hand with a large army."

While this was happening King Alfred was occupied in Devon dealing with a band of Vikings besieging Exeter which soon left once he got there and an unnamed burh the fate of it unknown, but Lord Ethelred seems to of not really needed his father-in-law's help as he had quite a large army the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle supports this saying "Meanwhile assembled Ealdorman Ethelred, Ealdorman Æthelhelm, Ealdorman Æthelnoth, and the king's thanes, who were employed at home at the works, from every town east of the Parret, as well as west of Selwood, and from the parts east and also north of the Thames and west of the Severn, and also some part of North-Wales (Gwynedd)." The Vikings seem to have shyed away from battle as they were apparently pinned down for many weeks to the point where they ate their horses and so eventually they left their stronghold on the "East side of the river" which may have been an island in the Severn and what seems to be a fierce battle ensued, Æthelweard says "the young Englishmen on that occasion kept possession of the field of victory in the end. These events, which occurred at Buttington, are vaunted by aged men..."

Although the battle seems to have been a bloody one, some Vikings did survive and were spared as they promised they would leave that region and they did but they went to wreak more havoc within the same year their numbers were replenished with men from the Danelaw and went on to Chester but by the time the English got there they had left for Wales.