Danelaw

Danelaw (dān`lô'), originally the body of law that prevailed in the part of England occupied by the Danes after the treaty of King Alfred with Guthrum in 886. It soon came to mean also the area in which Danish law obtained; according to the treaty, the boundary between England and Danelaw ran "up the Thames, and then up the Lea … to its source, then straight to Bedford and then up the Ouse to Watling Street." The Danelaw comprised four main regions: Northumbria; the areas around and including the boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford; East Anglia; and the SE Midlands. Though the English kings soon brought the Danelaw back under their rule, they did not attempt to interfere with the laws and customs of the area, many of which survived until after the Norman Conquest.

Bibliography

See D. Whitelock, The Norman Conquest: its Setting and Impact (1968); F. M. Stenton, The Free Peasantry of the Northern Danelaw (1969) and Anglo-Saxon England (3d ed. 1971).

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Danelaw

NE region of Anglo-Saxon England. Colonized by invading Danish armies in the late 9th century AD, it was so named because the form of customary law practiced in the local courts was of Danish origin. Danish place-names still mark the region.