The Curious Case of the Loire Vikings’ ‘Bourg’
Something weird was going on among those Vikings in the Loire River Valley in the mid-9th century.
In the mid-ninth century, the Loire River appears to have fallen under near-total Viking control, with widespread devastation. When we look at the archaeological and monastic records, a strange paradox emerges. The same people burning monasteries and sacking cities were also building markets and “cottages” so substantial they rivaled wealthy trade towns.
The traditional narrative of the Viking Age often focuses on the “hit and run.” However, by the 850s, the strategy in the Loire Valley shifted from predatory excursions to something that resembled occupation. The timeline of their “leapfrogging” up the river suggests a deliberate, strategic inland creep, starting with the second sack of Nantes in 853, followed by the establishment of a base at Mont-Glonne in 854, and the subsequent sacks of Angers, Tours, and Orléans (among others) from 856-866. The devastation was clear. This was also the heyday of the chieftain Hasting, who would later go on to forge an alliance with King Solomon of Brittany and kill Robert the Strong.
But there was something else going on that appears to have run contrary to the narrative of bloodthirsty marauders moving upriver. At the same time that they were torching cities, they were also setting up shop. The most striking piece of evidence comes from the monk Adrevald in his Miracles of St. Benoît. He describes the growing number of Viking camps not as muddy lean-tos, but as thriving trade centers with structures comparable to a ‘Bourg’, or wealthy trade town.
What's more, a Royal Charter signed in 856 by King Charles the Bald granted one group of Vikings permission to establish a market on the Île de Betia, today Île de Beaulieu, near Nantes. The timing is crucial. It suggests that the Frankish nobility were forced, in part, to recognize their loss of control of the river and its trade.
It is a curious case that raises many questions, indeed. Were these different groups operating with different agendas? Were they one group that had established ties with the Bretons and were pillaging wealth from the Franks to resell to the Bretons? What was Charles doing handing out a charter to the Vikings in the Nantes area in 856 when he had signed the city and its land over to Erispoë, the Breton king, in the Treaty of Angers in 851?
The biggest question of all is why, if the Loire Vikings were building towns in the 850s and 860s in the river basin, did they fail to build anything during the Viking occupation of Brittany from 921 to 936? Alas, short of any new evidence, we may never have answers to these questions. All we can say for certain is that something weird was going on among those Vikings in the Loire River Valley in the mid-9th century.
These are all topics that I address in my most recent book: Under the Viking Yoke: A History of Early Medieval Brittany.
What do you think? Leave a comment below to start the discussion.
Don’t forget that I also write fiction set in Brittany and the Loire River Valley. And I hear they’re pretty good. Check them out here:
