Swedish Varangians Raid France in 861: Possible…

'Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil had in 847 commissioned the building of the Great Mosque of Samarra, at this time the largest mosque in the world; its minaret, the Malwiya Tower, is a vast spiraling cone fifty-two meters high and thirty-three meters wide with a spiral ramp.

The mosque has seventeen aisles and its walls are paneled with mosaics of dark blue glass.

It is just a part of an extension of Samarra eastwards that had built upon part of the walled royal hunting park inherited from the conquered Sassanians.

Al-Mutawakkil has continued the dangerous policy of reliance on Turkish diplomats and slave soldiers to put down rebellions and lead battles against foreign empires, notably the Romans, from whom Sicily had been captured.

His Turkish vezir, Al-fath bin Khaqan, is a famous figure of Al-Mutawakkil's era.

Powerful Turkish military leaders, having gained high office in the 'Abbasid caliphate, increasingly manipulate the government, and the caliph’s reliance on Turkish soldiers will come back to haunt him.

Al-Mutawakkil would have had his Turkish commander-in-chief killed, and this, coupled with his extreme attitudes towards the Shi'a, have made his popularity decline rapidly.

He is murdered in 861 by a Turkish soldier.

Some scholars have speculated that his murder was part of a plot hatched by his son, al-Muntasir, who had grown estranged from his father.

Charles the Bald, having managed to secure his title to West Francia in opposition to his brother Louis the German, attempts to intervene in Provence in 861.

After receiving an appeal for intervention from the Count of Arles, he invades Provence to seize the territory of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but is repulsed, but only reaches Macon, being restrained by Hincmar of Rheims.

Ordoño I’s Campaign in the Eastern March and the Cordoban Response

King Ordoño I of Asturias seeks to expand his influence by advancing against the governor of Tudela, aiming to secure control over all access routes to Navarre and the Basque Country.

However, the Emirate of Córdoba swiftly retaliates, launching a counteroffensive into Álava. In response to Ordoño’s ambitions, Muslim forces invade the region and sack the city of Álava, temporarily halting Asturian expansion in the east.

Despite this setback, Ordoño’s continued campaigns in the eastern march lay the groundwork for future Christian control over Navarre and Castile.

The West Franks Pay the Danes to Expel the Norse from Noirmoutier (861): A Costly Strategy

By 861, the Viking threat in West Francia has become so severe that Charles the Bald resorts to hiring one group of Norsemen to expel another, following a pattern of Carolingian reliance on Viking factions to counter rival Norse forces.

The Viking Occupation of Noirmoutier

• Noirmoutier, an island off the Atlantic coast of West Francia, had been a Viking stronghold for decades, serving as a base for raids on the Loire Valley.
• Despite previous attempts to dislodge them, the Vikings continued to use Noirmoutier as a permanent raiding and wintering site, posing a significant threat to Frankish trade and settlements.

The West Franks’ Payment to the Danes

• Instead of mounting a military campaign, Charles the Bald chooses to bribe a Danish Viking faction to remove their Norse rivals from Noirmoutier.
• The Franks pay the Danes a staggering 5,000 pounds of silver, a sum that underscores:
  • The desperation of the Carolingians to contain the Viking threat.
  • The growing political complexity of Viking warfare, where Norse factions could be manipulated for strategic purposes.

The Danes Expel the Norse from Noirmoutier (861)

• With Frankish funding, the Danish Vikings successfully drive out their Norse rivals from Noirmoutier.
• However, this does not eliminate the Viking threat—it merely reconfigures Norse power dynamics in West Francia.
• The Danes, now enriched, could easily turn against their Frankish employers once the silver runs out.

Consequences of the 861 Bribe

• Temporary Relief, Long-Term Weakness → Though the Danes remove the Norse from Noirmoutier, the strategy does not end Viking incursions; instead, it sets a precedent for future tribute payments (Danegeld).
• Continued Frankish Dependence on Norse Mercenaries → Charles the Bald and his successors will repeatedly rely on Viking factions to counteract other Viking groups, a tactic that proves unsustainable.
• Shift in Viking Focus → The expelled Norse forces are not defeated, only displaced. Many relocate to other bases along the Loire and Seine, continuing to plunder Frankish lands.

The 861 payment to the Danes to remove the Norse from Noirmoutier illustrates the Carolingian monarchy’s growing inability to defend itself militarily, marking another step toward the long-term feudal decentralization of West Francia.

The dispossessed Rorik of Dorestad may be identical with the semilegendary Rurik, leader of a group of fellow Rus', or Varangian (Swedish Viking) adventurers from Scandinavia, who between 860 and 862 takes control of Novgorod, either by raids or in answer to invitations by the Slavic populace.

He establishes a trading center near Lake Ladoga (Oneya).

Even though some historians emphasize folklore roots for the Rurik legend and consequently dismiss Rurik as a legendary figure, there is a controversy about his ethnic origins in Eastern Europe.

According to the Primary Chronicle, the earliest East Slavic chronicle, Rurik was one of the Rus', a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, English and Gotlanders.

In the twentieth century, archaeologists partly corroborated the chronicle's version of events.

It was discovered that the settlement of Ladoga, whose foundation has been ascribed to Rurik, was actually established in the mid-ninth century.

Earthenware, household utensils, and types of buildings from the period of Rurik's foundation correspond to patterns then prevalent in Jutland.

According to the Primary Chronicle for the years 859-862, the Varangians were first expelled, then invited to rule the warring Slavic and Finnic tribes of Novgorod: The four tribes who had been forced to pay tribute to the Varangians—Chuds (proto-Estonians), Merians (proto-Volga Finns), Krivichs, and other Slavs—drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them further tribute, and set out to govern themselves.

But there was no law among them, and tribe rose against tribe.

Discord thus ensued among them, and they began to war one against the other.

They said to themselves, "Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to custom.

Thus they went overseas to the Varangians, to the Rus.

These particular Varangians were known as Rus, just as some are called Swedes, and others Normans and Angles, and still others Gotlanders, for they were thus named.

The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs, and the Veps then said to the Rus, "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it.

Come reign as princes, rule over us".

Three brothers, with their kinfolk, were selected.

They brought with them all the Rus and migrated.

Smolensk, situated on the upper reaches of the Dnepr River near the present border between Russia and Belarus, is first mentioned by Russian historical chronicles in 862, as is …

…Murom, along the left bank of Oka River, about three hundred kilometers east of Moscow; it is the easternmost settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the land of Finno-Ugric people called muroma.

Prince Rostislav of Moravia, who had succeeded Mojmír in 846, has consolidated the country and defended it successfully.

His relations with the East Frankish empire (since 843 under Louis the German) are determined by political considerations and by the advance of Christianity into the Slavic areas.

The bishoprics of Regensburg, Passau, and Salzburg compete in trying to convert the central European Slavs but achieved only limited success.

The archbishop of Salzburg had consecrated a church at Nitra about 828, and in 845 Regensburg had baptized fourteen chieftains from Bohemia.

Mojmír's Moravia apparently had had more frequent contacts with Passau than with Salzburg. (Archaeological discoveries in the twentieth century indicated that missionaries made noticeable progress before 860; stone churches were built as places of Christian worship at Mikulcice and elsewhere.)

As Moravian expansion is opposed by both the Frankish Kingdom and Bulgaria, Rostislav seeks an alliance with Constantinople.

Dissatisfied with the Latin-speaking Frankish clergy, who are spreading the influence of Eastern Francia, he asks Emperor Michael for Slavic-speaking preachers.

Al-Muntasir's reign lasts less than half a year; it ends with his death of unknown causes in 862.

He is the first 'Abbasid whose tomb is known; it is made by his mother, an enslaved Greek woman.

Earlier caliphs had desired the location of their tombs to be kept secret for fear of desecration.