Sweyn Forkbeard returns to England

1011

The Danish king again ravaged southern England, capturing Canterbury in a treacherous siege and seizing Archbishop Alphege. Ethelred's paralysed government could only watch the burning. The renewed attacks pushed Danegeld to unprecedented heights and exhausted the exchequer beyond any reasonable means of recovery for years. The chronicle entry for 1011 is among the bleakest in the entire Anglo-Saxon record, a litany of fire and collapse.