title: 870s
text: 
  
  Events 
   The Danes invade England (870) and conquer East Anglia. Several battles are fought with Wessex, but then peace is made (871). The Danes start the Danelaw in other parts of England. In 876, the Danes attack Wessex again, and in 878 king Alfred the Great of Wessex has to retreat to a single fort in the marshes of Somerset, but later that year he defeats the Danes, and England is divided in a Danish part in the northeast and a Wessex part in the south and west.
   In the southwest of England, the Cornish continue to be driven back, with their King Dungarth (or Doniert or Dumgarth) drowning in battle around the middle of the decade.
   872 — Battle of Hafrsfjord. Harald Fairhair unites Norway.
  
  Important people 
   Alfred the Great
   Harald I of Norway
   Rhodri Mawr (the Great)
   Charles the Bald
   Rurik