Battle of Aclea

851

The Danes made great inroads into western Britain during the course of the 9th century. One of their few major defeats came at the Battle of Aclea, when a force under Aethelwulf, King of Wessex, defeated a Danish army at a site thought to be near modern Oakley, just north of Bedford, Bedfordshire. Though the battle only briefly stemmed the tide of the Danish invasion, it did much to make Wessex a major force of opposition, a force later used by Alfred the Great to finally stop the Danes at Edington.

Time period(s): Saxon