100-546: Gawcott is a village about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of Buckingham in the Buckinghamshire district in the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire , England. The village is in the civil parish of Gawcott with Lenborough . The toponym is derived from the Old English for "cottage for which rent is payable". The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Chauescote . An alternative description for
200-640: A railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line , which opened in 1850 and closed to passengers in 1964 and freight in 1966. Finmere railway station on the Great Central Main Line was originally called "Finmere for Buckingham" when it opened in 1899, despite being 5 miles (8.0 km) from Buckingham. Finmere station dropped the "for Buckingham" from its name in the early 1920s, and closed in 1963. The closest stations to Buckingham are now Wolverton and Milton Keynes Central to
300-507: A direct result of that fire, but the immediate aftermath was difficult for the town. Collections were made in surrounding towns such as Aylesbury and Wendover to help those made homeless and by 1730, only a third of the homes had been rebuilt. Due to many buildings being considered to be of historic interest, a number of them have been granted 'listed building' status. These include the Grade I listed Castle House on West Street, which dates back to
400-462: A document commonly ascribed to the early tenth century, but more probably of the period 878–9, which describes a system of forts set up by King Alfred (d.899) over the whole of the West Saxon kingdom. When King Edward encamped at Buckingham with his army in 914, he was therefore restoring a fort which had already existed for more than a generation. This tactical move was part of a putsch against
500-623: A fierce and powerful people and were often in conflict with the Vikings. To counter the Saxon aggression and solidify their own presence, the Danes constructed the huge defence fortification of Danevirke in and around Hedeby . The Vikings witnessed the violent subduing of the Saxons by Charlemagne , in the thirty-year Saxon Wars of 772–804. The Saxon defeat resulted in their forced christening and
600-689: A local road name and recent booklets about the subject. The town is centred on the historic market place and contains many 18th century buildings. There are three main roads crossing Buckingham, namely the A413 , the A421 (the southern bypass) and the A422 . Capability Brown 's historic formal garden design at Stowe (on the A422 westbound) is an important attraction in the care of the National Trust . There
700-552: A medieval Swedish law, the Västgötalagen , from Västergötland declared no-one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire—to stop the emigration, especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians: Kievan Rus' c. 980–1060 and London 1018–1066 (the Þingalið ). There is archaeological evidence that Vikings reached Baghdad ,
800-534: A number of hotels including the Villiers Hotel and White Hart in the town centre, and Best Western Buckingham Hotel and Travelodge on the outskirts. Buckingham is served by one GP surgery (The Swan Practice) and a community hospital . A minor injuries unit at the hospital was closed in 2009 and the nearest major hospital with an accident & emergency department is in Milton Keynes . The town
900-502: A pool of unmarried men who are willing to engage in risky status-elevating and sex-seeking behaviors. The Annals of Ulster states that in 821 the Vikings plundered an Irish village and "carried off a great number of women into captivity". One common theory posits that Charlemagne "used force and terror to Christianise all pagans", leading to baptism, conversion or execution, and as a result, Vikings and other pagans resisted and wanted revenge. Professor Rudolf Simek states that "it
1000-617: A shortage of women available to the Viking male. Consequently, the average Viking man may have felt compelled to seek wealth and power to have the means to acquire suitable women. Several centuries after Dudo's observations, scholars revived this idea, and over time it became a cliché among scholars of the Viking Age. Viking men would often buy or capture women and make them into their wives or concubines; such polygynous marriages increase male-male competition in society because they create
1100-402: A significant fire that raged through the town centre on 15 March 1725, with the result that many of the main streets of the town were destroyed including Castle Street, Castle Hill and the north side of Market Hill. The result was 138 dwellings (out of a total of 387 in the town at that time) being consumed in the fire. The current fine range of Georgian architecture in these streets today is as
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#17327875327361200-404: A significant project to grow the town and provide a bypass, mainly to the south and east of the historic town centre. The population rose from just over 5,000 to 9,309 in 1991. The town is said to be the final resting place of St Rumbold (also known as Saint Rumwold), a little-known Saxon saint and the grandson of Penda King of Mercia ; the parish church at Strixton ( Northamptonshire )
1300-532: A village on the north eastern borders of the town has become contiguous with the Buckingham urban area. Nearby (10 miles radius) settlements include Winslow , Bicester , Brackley , Milton Keynes and Silverstone . Local villages in the immediate vicinity include Padbury and Gawcott to the south, Chackmore to the north and Shalstone to the north west. It is also very near Stowe , the location of Stowe House , Stowe Gardens and Stowe School . There
1400-431: Is "clear evidence" that it was used as a synonym, while Eric Christiansen avers that it is a mistranslation made at the insistence of the publisher. The word wicing does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. The word Viking was introduced into Modern English during the 18th-century Viking revival, at which point it acquired romanticised heroic overtones of "barbarian warrior" or noble savage . During
1500-440: Is a degree confluence point on the edge of the town, at exactly 52°00′00″N 01°00′00″W / 52.00000°N 1.00000°W / 52.00000; -1.00000 . Bourton was a hamlet in the parish of Buckingham. The hamlet name is Old English in origin, and means 'fortified enclosure'. It is now an integral part of the town of Buckingham, with a road and old mill named Bourton still visible to visitors. Bourton
1600-485: Is a flea market held every Saturday on the site of the town's former cattle pens, offering a wide selection of antiques, collectables and jewellery. There are two tiers of local government in Buckingham, at parish (town) and unitary authority level: Buckingham Town Council and Buckinghamshire Council . The town council is based at the Buckingham Centre on Verney Close in the town. Historically, Buckingham
1700-411: Is a market town in north Buckinghamshire , England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire , which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census . The town lies approximately 12 miles (19 km) west of Central Milton Keynes , 19 miles (31 km) south-east of Banbury , and 24 miles (39 km) north-east of Oxford . Buckingham was the county town of Buckinghamshire from
1800-436: Is a medieval well known as St Rumbold's Well on the south side of the dismantled railway which borders the town. The well, which is now dry for much of the year, was positioned to exploit the spring line below the crest of a north facing slope overlooking the town. Suburbs of Buckingham include Mount Pleasant, Page Hill, Bourton, Badgers, Linden Village, Castle Fields, Tingewick Road Estate and Lace Hill. Maids Moreton ,
1900-575: Is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece Runestones and the 26 Ingvar Runestones , the latter referring to a Viking expedition to the Middle East. They were engraved in Old Norse with
2000-659: Is better attested linguistically, and the term most likely predates the use of the sail by the Germanic peoples of northwestern Europe. In the Middle Ages, viking came to refer to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. The earliest reference to wicing in English sources is from the Épinal-Erfurt glossary ( c. 700 ), about 93 years before the first known attack by Viking raiders in England. The glossary lists
2100-403: Is dedicated to him and the small northern town of Romaldkirk is also thought to be named after him. He was apparently born at King's Sutton , Northants , where he died just three days later. During his short life, he repeatedly professed his Christian faith and asked for baptism . He is now most often referred to as St Rumbold, the latter being the most common, as it can be found being used on
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#17327875327362200-525: Is not a coincidence if the early Viking activity occurred during the reign of Charlemagne". The ascendance of Christianity in Scandinavia led to serious conflict, dividing Norway for almost a century. However, this time period did not commence until the 10th century. Norway was never subject to aggression by Charlemagne and the period of strife was due to successive Norwegian kings embracing Christianity after encountering it overseas. Another explanation
2300-708: Is served by the Buckingham & Winslow Advertiser weekly newspaper. Local radio stations are BBC Three Counties Radio , Heart Four Counties (now Heart East ), independent radio Mix 96 and 3Bs Radio, a community based station that broadcast to the town as well as to Bicester and Brackley . The town sits between two television transmitters, with residents able to choose between Oxford ( ITV Meridian / BBC South ) and Sandy Heath ( ITV Anglia / BBC East ). Buckingham has been twinned with Joinville , in France , since 1963. In 2002, Buckingham became twinned with
2400-582: Is taken to have been the period from the earliest recorded raids by Norsemen in 793 until the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descendants of those Vikings who had been given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France, namely the Duchy of Normandy , in the 10th century. In that respect, descendants of
2500-407: Is that the Vikings exploited a moment of weakness in the surrounding regions. Contrary to Simek's assertion, Viking raids occurred sporadically long before the reign of Charlemagne; but exploded in frequency and size after his death, when his empire fragmented into multiple much weaker entities. England suffered from internal divisions and was a relatively easy prey given the proximity of many towns to
2600-408: Is the community primary, and the three academies (Bourton Meadow Academy, George Grenville Academy and Lace Hill Academy) are all operated by Campfire Education Trust. The town is home to a number of industrial estates and technology parks housing high tech companies in the pharmaceutical, electronic, foods and composite materials fields, including Racelogic and Wipac . Buckingham was home to
2700-689: The British Isles , the Faroe Islands , Iceland , Greenland , Normandy , and the Baltic coast , as well as along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes across modern-day Russia, Belarus , and Ukraine , where they were also known as Varangians . The Normans , Norse-Gaels , Rus' people , Faroese , and Icelanders emerged from these Norse colonies. At one point, a group of Rus Vikings went so far south that, after briefly being bodyguards for
2800-691: The Danelaw , including Scandinavian York, the administrative centre of the remains of the Kingdom of Northumbria , parts of Mercia , and East Anglia . Viking navigators opened the road to new lands to the north, west and east, resulting in the foundation of independent settlements in the Shetland , Orkney , and Faroe Islands; Iceland; Greenland ; and L'Anse aux Meadows , a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland , circa 1000. The Greenland settlement
2900-512: The Slavic languages in the Viking settlements of Eastern Europe. It has been speculated that the reason for this was the great differences between the two languages, combined with the Rus Vikings' more peaceful businesses in these areas, and the fact that they were outnumbered. The Norse named some of the rapids on the Dnieper , but this can hardly be seen from modern names. The Norse of
3000-610: The Thomas Rickett steam car , an innovative vehicle from 1860, though considered ahead of its time and only two are thought to have been made. Most retail is located in the town centre with a variety of independent stores, cafes and restaurants as well as national chains. The Hidden Quarter, located mainly in Well Street and Bridge Street, hosts a number of independent retailers selling everything from handmade home wares to retro wooden toys. Currently, there are two banks in
3100-635: The Tripartite System of state secondary education. The local state secondary schools are the Royal Latin School (a Grammar School ) and the Buckingham School (a secondary modern ). Stowe School and Akeley Wood School , just outside the town, are private schools . There are four primary schools, one a community school and the other three academies , serving different areas of the town: Buckingham Primary School
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3200-598: The Younger Futhark . The Jelling stones date from between 960 and 985. The older, smaller stone was raised by King Gorm the Old , the last pagan king of Denmark, as a memorial honouring Queen Thyre . The larger stone was raised by his son, Harald Bluetooth , to celebrate the conquest of Denmark and Norway and the conversion of the Danes to Christianity. It has three sides: one with an animal image; one with an image of
3300-642: The 10th and 11th centuries, the exposed family trees, the self-images, and the ethical values that are contained in these literary writings. Indirectly, the Vikings have also left a window open onto their language, culture and activities, through many Old Norse place names and words found in their former sphere of influence. Some of these place names and words are still in direct use today, almost unchanged, and shed light on where they settled and what specific places meant to them. Examples include place names like Egilsay (from Eigils ey meaning Eigil's Island), Ormskirk (from Ormr kirkja meaning Orms Church or Church of
3400-544: The 10th century, when it was made the capital of the newly formed shire of Buckingham, until Aylesbury took over this role in the 18th century. Buckingham has a variety of restaurants and pubs, typical of a market town. It has a number of local shops, both national and independent. Market days are Tuesday and Saturday which take over Market Hill and the High Street cattle pens. Buckingham is twinned with Neukirchen-Vluyn , Germany and Mouvaux , France. Buckingham and
3500-569: The 11th century, the town of Buckingham regularly changed hands between the Saxons and the Danes , in particular, in 914 King Edward the Elder and a Saxon army encamped in Buckingham for four weeks forcing local Danish Viking leaders to surrender. Subsequently, a fort was constructed at the location of the present Buckingham parish church . Buckingham is mentioned in the Burghal Hidage ,
3600-516: The 12th through 14th centuries, and many traditions connected with the Viking Age were written down for the first time in the Icelandic sagas . A literal interpretation of these medieval prose narratives about the Vikings and the Scandinavian past is doubtful, but many specific elements remain worthy of consideration, such as the great quantity of skaldic poetry attributed to court poets of
3700-616: The 15th century. Buckingham Town Hall , which is Grade II* listed, dates back to the late 18th century. The town was connected to the London and North Western Railway by the Buckinghamshire Railway in 1850. The municipal borough had a population of 1,816 in 1841. In 1971, Buckinghamshire County Council set up the Buckingham Development Company with other local councils, and undertook
3800-653: The 20th century, the meaning of the term was expanded to refer not only to seaborne raiders from Scandinavia and other places settled by them (like Iceland and the Faroe Islands ), but also any member of the culture that produced the raiders during the period from the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries, or more loosely from about 700 to as late as about 1100. As an adjective, the word is used to refer to ideas, phenomena, or artefacts connected with those people and their cultural life, producing expressions like Viking age , Viking culture , Viking art , Viking religion , Viking ship and so on. The Viking Age in Scandinavian history
3900-671: The 7th century had also affected trade with Western Europe. Raids in Europe, including raids and settlements from Scandinavia, were not unprecedented and had occurred long before the Vikings arrived. The Jutes invaded the British Isles three centuries earlier, from Jutland during the Age of Migrations , before the Danes settled there. The Saxons and the Angles did the same, embarking from mainland Europe. The Viking raids were, however,
4000-457: The 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings . Jomsborg's exact location, or its existence, has not yet been established, though it is often maintained that Jomsborg was somewhere on the islands of the Oder estuary. While the Vikings were active beyond their Scandinavian homelands, Scandinavia was itself experiencing new influences and undergoing a variety of cultural changes. By
4100-696: The Buckingham Town Cricket Club, based at Bourton Road and the Buckingham Hockey Club which plays at Stowe School . Since 2014, Buckingham has been host to a weekly 5 km (3 mi) Parkrun . The town has several public sports facilities including the Swan Leisure Centre with an indoor swimming pool, climbing wall, an all weather sports pitch, squash courts. There are two bowls pitch and tennis courts managed by clubs and several private golf clubs in
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4200-560: The Byzantine emperor, they attacked the Byzantine city of Constantinople . Vikings also voyaged to Iran and Arabia . They were the first Europeans to reach North America, briefly settling in Newfoundland (Vinland). While spreading Norse culture to foreign lands, they simultaneously brought home slaves, concubines, and foreign cultural influences to Scandinavia, influencing the genetic and historical development of both. During
4300-726: The Danish Vikings who controlled what had been southern Mercia, and which involved the taking of control of Viking centres at Bedford, Northampton, Cambridge and eventually the whole of East Anglia by the end of 917. Buckingham is the first settlement referred to in the Buckinghamshire section of the Domesday Book of 1086. Buckingham was referred to as Buckingham with Bourton , and the survey makes reference to 26 burgesses , 11 smallholders and 1 mill . The town received its charter in 1554 when Queen Mary created
4400-747: The French town of Mouvaux . Viking Chronological history Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark , Norway , and Sweden ), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean , North Africa , the Middle East , Greenland , and Vinland (present-day Newfoundland in Canada , North America ). In their countries of origin, and some of
4500-500: The Grand Junction Canal Company offered to re-open the canal if a minimum income of tolls could be guaranteed, but this was not forthcoming, with only occasional use reported up to 1932, and the canal was finally abandoned in 1964. The canal ran from Cosgrove, Northamptonshire to the centre of Buckingham to a wharf . A short section of the canal to the east of the town has now been restored. Buckingham had
4600-540: The Latin alphabet. The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: Denmark has 250 runestones, Norway has 50 while Iceland has none. Sweden has as many as between 1,700 and 2,500 depending on the definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, whereas Södermanland is second with 391. The majority of runic inscriptions from
4700-611: The Latin translation for wicing as piraticum 'pirate'. In Old English , the word wicing appears in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith , probably from the 9th century. The word was not regarded as a reference to nationality, with other terms such as Northmen and Dene 'Danes' being used for that. In Asser 's Latin work The Life of King Alfred , the Danes are referred to as pagani 'pagans'; historian Janet Nelson states that pagani became "the Vikings" in standard translations of this work, even though there
4800-573: The Norsemen settled in the present-day Faroe Islands , Iceland , Norse Greenland , Newfoundland , the Netherlands , Germany, Normandy , Italy, Scotland , England, Wales , Ireland, the Isle of Man , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Ukraine , Russia and Turkey, as well as initiating the consolidation that resulted in the formation of the present-day Scandinavian countries. In the Viking Age,
4900-467: The North and Irish Seas diminished markedly. The kings of Norway continued to assert power in parts of northern Britain and Ireland, and raids continued into the 12th century, but the military ambitions of Scandinavian rulers were now directed toward new paths. In 1107, Sigurd I of Norway sailed for the eastern Mediterranean with Norwegian crusaders to fight for the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem ;
5000-584: The Obotrite city of Reric on the southern Baltic coast in 808 AD and transferred the merchants and traders to Hedeby. This secured Viking supremacy in the Baltic Sea, which continued throughout the Viking Age. Because of the expansion of the Vikings across Europe, a comparison of DNA and archeology undertaken by scientists at the University of Cambridge and University of Copenhagen suggested that
5100-642: The Old Norse of the Vikings and give an opportunity to understand their interactions with the people and cultures of the British Isles. In the Northern Isles of Shetland and Orkney, Old Norse completely replaced the local languages and over time evolved into the now extinct Norn language . Some modern words and names only emerge and contribute to our understanding after a more intense research of linguistic sources from medieval or later records, such as York (Horse Bay), Swansea ( Sveinn 's Isle) or some of
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#17327875327365200-628: The Radcliffe Centre. A library is located in the town centre, operated by Buckinghamshire County Council. The town is home to numerous clubs and associations including the Buckingham Society, a civic amenity society linked with Civic Voice , a large U3A with over 900 members, and many music, photography and arts clubs. The town holds an annual Charter Fair . It is held in October over two successive Saturdays starting on
5300-533: The Red , reached North America and set up short-lived settlements in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows , Newfoundland, Canada. This expansion occurred during the Medieval Warm Period . Viking expansion into continental Europe was limited. Their realm was bordered by powerful tribes to the south. Early on, it was the Saxons who occupied Old Saxony , located in what is now Northern Germany. The Saxons were
5400-571: The Swedes, Eric , was married to Gunhild , of the Polish House of Piast . Likewise, his son, Olof , fell in love with Edla , a Slavic woman, and took her as his frilla (concubine). They had a son and a daughter: Emund the Old , King of Sweden, and Astrid , Queen of Norway. Cnut the Great , King of Denmark, England and Norway, was the son of a daughter of Mieszko I of Poland , possibly
5500-446: The University of Bonn, posits that the presence of Slavs in Scandinavia is "more significant than previously thought", while Mats Roslund states that "the Slavs and their interaction with Scandinavia have not been adequately investigated". A 10th-century grave of a warrior-woman in Denmark was long thought to belong to a Viking. However, new analyses suggest that the woman may have been a Slav from present-day Poland. The first king of
5600-424: The Viking Age could read and write and used a non-standardised alphabet, called runor , built upon sound values. While there are few remains of runic writing on paper from the Viking era, thousands of stones with runic inscriptions have been found where Vikings lived. They are usually in memory of the dead, though not necessarily placed at graves. The use of runor survived into the 15th century, used in parallel with
5700-452: The Viking Age, the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Vikings spoke Old Norse and made inscriptions in runes . For most of the period, they followed the Old Norse religion , but later became Christians . The Vikings had their own laws , art , and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Popular conceptions of
5800-420: The Viking period are found in Sweden. Many runestones in Scandinavia record the names of participants in Viking expeditions, such as the Kjula runestone that tells of extensive warfare in Western Europe and the Turinge Runestone , which tells of a war band in Eastern Europe. Other runestones mention men who died on Viking expeditions. Among them are the England runestones (Swedish: Englandsstenarna ), which
5900-452: The Vikings and the Viking Age can also be important for understanding them and their culture, although they need to be treated cautiously. After the consolidation of the church and the assimilation of Scandinavia and its colonies into mainstream medieval Christian culture in the 11th and 12th centuries, native written sources began to appear in Latin and Old Norse. In the Viking colony of Iceland, extraordinary vernacular literature blossomed in
6000-593: The Vikings are contemporary texts from Scandinavia and regions where the Vikings were active. Writing in Latin letters was introduced to Scandinavia with Christianity, so there are few native documentary sources from Scandinavia before the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The Scandinavians did write inscriptions in runes , but these were usually very short and formulaic. Most contemporary documentary sources consist of texts written in Christian and Islamic communities outside Scandinavia, often by authors who had been negatively affected by Viking activity. Later writings on
6100-499: The Vikings come from other cultures that were in contact with them. Since the mid-20th century, archaeological findings have built a more complete and balanced picture of the lives of the Vikings. The archaeological record is particularly rich and varied, providing knowledge of their rural and urban settlement, crafts and production, ships and military equipment, trading networks, as well as their pagan and Christian religious artefacts and practices. The most important primary sources on
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#17327875327366200-523: The Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe. Likewise, King Harold Godwinson , the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, had Danish ancestors. Two Vikings even ascended to the throne of England, with Sweyn Forkbeard claiming the English throne in 1013 until 1014 and his son Cnut the Great being king of England between 1016 and 1035. Geographically, the Viking Age covered Scandinavian lands (modern Denmark , Norway and Sweden), as well as territories under North Germanic dominance, mainly
6300-451: The Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilisation of the Norsemen that emerges from archaeology and historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century Viking revival . Perceived views of the Vikings as violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of
6400-474: The Worm), Meols (from merl meaning Sand Dunes), Snaefell (Snow Fell), Ravenscar (Ravens Rock), Vinland (Land of Wine or Land of Winberry ), Kaupanger (Market Harbour), Tórshavn (Thor's Harbour), and the religious centre of Odense , meaning a place where Odin was worshipped. Viking influence is also evident in concepts like the present-day parliamentary body of the Tynwald on the Isle of Man. Many common words in everyday English language stem from
6500-425: The absorption of Old Saxony into the Carolingian Empire . Fear of the Franks led the Vikings to further expand Danevirke, and the defence constructions remained in use throughout the Viking Age and even up until 1864. The southern coast of the Baltic Sea was ruled by the Obotrites , a federation of Slavic tribes loyal to the Carolingians and later the Frankish empire . The Vikings—led by King Gudfred —destroyed
6600-467: The centre of the Islamic Empire . The Norse regularly plied the Volga with their trade goods: furs, tusks, seal fat for boat sealant, and slaves . Important trading ports during the period include Birka , Hedeby , Kaupang , Jorvik , Staraya Ladoga , Novgorod , and Kiev. Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation, and conquest. In this period, voyaging from their homelands in Denmark, Norway and Sweden
6700-468: The countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age , and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia , the British Isles , France , Estonia , and Kievan Rus' . Expert sailors and navigators of their characteristic longships , Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in
6800-424: The early 21st century derives Viking from the same root as Old Norse vika 'sea mile', originally referring to the distance between two shifts of rowers, ultimately from the Proto-Germanic * wîkan 'to recede'. This is found in the early Nordic verb *wikan 'to turn', similar to Old Icelandic víkja 'to move, to turn', with "well-attested nautical usages", according to Bernard Mees. This theory
6900-746: The east and Bicester North and Bicester Village to the south west. The new East West rail link will have a stop at nearby Winslow , scheduled to start running by the end of 2025. There are two local football teams, and a rugby union club including teams for women and young women. These are Buckingham Athletic F.C. based at Stratford Fields, Buckingham United F.C based at Lace Hill and Buckingham RUFC based at Floyd Field, Maids Moreton . Moretonville Junior Football Club also has boys and girls teams from u7s – u16s. The town used to be home to Buckingham Town F.C. founded in 1883 until their relocation to Fenny Stratford in 2019; they played at Ford Meadow from 1883 until being evicted in 2011. The town also has
7000-449: The end of the Viking Age for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Ages. Slavic and Viking tribes were "closely linked, fighting one another, intermixing and trading". In the Middle Ages, goods were transferred from Slavic areas to Scandinavia, and Denmark could be considered "a melting pot of Slavic and Scandinavian elements". Leszek Gardeła, of the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at
7100-517: The first Saturday after the 11th of the month. During the 19th century it was called the Statute Fair. The public roasting of an ox, sheep and pig often took place at the same time. The town's tourist attractions include the Chantry Chapel , the Buckingham Old Gaol museum, the Sir George Gilbert Scott designed St.Peter & St Paul Church and a number of picturesque Georgian streetscapes. Nearby to Buckingham include Stowe School , Stowe Landscape Gardens and Silverstone Circuit . Buckingham has
7200-493: The first to be documented by eyewitnesses, and they were much larger in scale and frequency than in previous times. Vikings themselves were expanding; although their motives are unclear, historians believe that scarce resources or a lack of mating opportunities were a factor. The slave trade was an important part of the Viking economy, with most slaves destined to Scandinavia although many others were shipped east where they could be sold for large profits. The "Highway of Slaves"
7300-453: The former Polish queen of Sweden, wife of Eric. Colonisation of Iceland by Norwegian Vikings began in the 9th century. The first source mentioning Iceland and Greenland is a papal letter from 1053. Twenty years later, they appear in the Gesta of Adam of Bremen . It was not until after 1130, when the islands had become Christianised, that accounts of the history of the islands were written from
7400-507: The free Borough of Buckingham with boundaries extending from Thornborowe Bridge (now Thornborough ) to Dudley Bridge and from Chackmore Bridge to Padbury Mill Bridge. The designated borough included a bailiff , twelve principal burgesses and a steward . Yeomanry House , the offices and home of the commanding officer of the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry , was built in the early 19th century. The town suffered from
7500-533: The influx of Islamic silver from the East had been absent for more than a century, and the flow of English silver had come to an end in the mid-11th century. Christianity had taken root in Denmark and Norway with the establishment of dioceses in the 11th century, and the new religion was beginning to organise and assert itself more effectively in Sweden. Foreign churchmen and native elites were energetic in furthering
7600-513: The interests of Christianity, which was now no longer operating only on a missionary footing, and old ideologies and lifestyles were transforming. By 1103, the first archbishopric was founded in Scandinavia, at Lund , Scania, then part of Denmark. The assimilation of the nascent Scandinavian kingdoms into the cultural mainstream of European Christendom altered the aspirations of Scandinavian rulers and of Scandinavians able to travel overseas, and changed their relations with their neighbours. One of
7700-477: The kings of Denmark and Sweden participated actively in the Baltic Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries. A variety of sources illuminate the culture, activities, and beliefs of the Vikings. Although they were generally a non-literate culture that produced no literary legacy, they had an alphabet and described themselves and their world on runestones . Most contemporary literary and written sources on
7800-543: The late 11th century, royal dynasties were legitimised by the Catholic Church (which had had little influence in Scandinavia 300 years earlier) which were asserting their power with increasing authority and ambition, with the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden taking shape. Towns appeared that functioned as secular and ecclesiastical administrative centres and market sites, and monetary economies began to emerge based on English and German models. By this time
7900-416: The modern Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. These representations are rarely accurate—for example, there is no evidence that they wore horned helmets , a costume element that first appeared in the 19th century. The etymology of
8000-467: The name of Gawcott, however, comes from the old Norse word for the cuckoo , 'Gaukr', pronounced Gawk and 'cott' for house/ home/ cottage. This explanation has some merit as in the west of the village the cuckoo was the prevalent bird up until the early 1940s when much of its habitat was destroyed to make space for servicemen in the Second World War . One of the local historic public houses of
8100-568: The place names in Normandy like Tocqueville (Toki's farm). Linguistic and etymological studies continue to provide a vital source of information on the Viking culture, their social structure and history and how they interacted with the people and cultures they met, traded, attacked or lived with in overseas settlements. A lot of Old Norse connections are evident in the modern-day languages of Swedish , Norwegian , Danish , Faroese and Icelandic . Old Norse did not exert any great influence on
8200-578: The point of view of the inhabitants in sagas and chronicles. The Vikings explored the northern islands and coasts of the North Atlantic, ventured south to North Africa, east to Kievan Rus (now – Ukraine, Belarus), Constantinople , and the Middle East. They raided and pillaged, traded, acted as mercenaries and settled colonies over a wide area. Early Vikings probably returned home after their raids. Later in their history, they began to settle in other lands. Vikings under Leif Erikson , heir to Erik
8300-491: The present day nations of Norway, Sweden and Denmark did not exist, but the peoples who lived in what is now those countries were largely homogeneous and similar in culture and language, although somewhat distinct geographically. The names of Scandinavian kings are reliably known for only the later part of the Viking Age. After the end of the Viking Age, the separate kingdoms gradually acquired distinct identities as nations, which went hand-in-hand with their Christianisation . Thus,
8400-484: The primary sources of profit for the Vikings had been slave-taking from other European peoples. The medieval Church held that Christians should not own fellow Christians as slaves, so chattel slavery diminished as a practice throughout northern Europe. This took much of the economic incentive out of raiding, though sporadic slaving activity continued into the 11th century. Scandinavian predation in Christian lands around
8500-584: The regular X60 bus. An inter-city coach service, the X5 , links the town to both Bedford (via Milton Keynes ) and Oxford (via Bicester ). Some surrounding villages are connected to Buckingham by a market day bus and there is a community bus scheme called Bart. Buckingham was served by the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Junction Canal from 1801 until the end of the 19th century. In 1928,
8600-493: The sea or to navigable rivers. Lack of organised naval opposition throughout Western Europe allowed Viking ships to travel freely, raiding or trading as opportunity permitted. The decline in the profitability of old trade routes could also have played a role. Trade between Western Europe and the rest of Eurasia suffered a severe blow when the Western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century. The expansion of Islam in
8700-696: The service of the Byzantine Empire . In the late 10th century, a new unit of the imperial bodyguard formed. Traditionally containing large numbers of Scandinavians, it was known as the Varangian Guard. The word Varangian may have originated in Old Norse, but in Slavic and Greek it could refer either to Scandinavians or Franks. In these years, Swedish men left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that
8800-532: The site of some early Roman pottery kilns here. In the 7th century, Buckingham (literally "hemmed in land of Bucca's people" ) is said to have been founded by Bucca , the leader of the first Anglo Saxon settlers. The first settlement was located around the top of a loop in the River Great Ouse , presently the Hunter Street campus of the University of Buckingham . Between the 7th century and
8900-483: The surrounding area has been settled for some time with evidence of Roman settlement found in several sites close the River Great Ouse , including a temple south of the A421 at Bourton Grounds which was excavated in the 1960s and dated to the 3rd century AD. A possible Roman building was identified at Castle Fields in the 19th century. Pottery, kiln furniture and areas of burning found at Buckingham industrial estate suggest
9000-597: The term "Viking" may have evolved to become "a job description, not a matter of heredity", at least in some Viking bands. The motives driving the Viking expansion are a topic of much debate. The concept that Vikings may have originally started sailing and raiding due to a need to seek out women from foreign lands was expressed in the 11th century by historian Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his semi-imaginary History of The Normans . As observed by Adam of Bremen, rich and powerful Viking men tended to have many wives and concubines; and these polygynous relationships may have led to
9100-519: The town centre - Barclays and Lloyds. Buckingham's historic street market has been in the town for over 600 years and dates from the Charters granted by Queen Mary in 1554 and Charles II in 1664, giving the markets a unique heritage. Street markets are held every Tuesday and Saturday. Regular and casual market traders offer a wide variety of products, including fish, fruit and veg, award-winning bread, household goods, tools, flowers and clothes. There
9200-562: The vicinity of the town. Buckingham Old Gaol is the town's museum which was established in 1993 in the historic town centre Old Gaol building. It also houses temporary exhibitions and the Tourist Information Centre . The Chandos Cinema was in operation from 1934 and closed in 1987, but in 2005 an independent community cinema opened in the university called the Film Place. Live music events are regularly held in
9300-874: The village was also named the Cuckoo's Nest. Sir George Gilbert Scott , the architect of the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras railway station in London (and numerous other buildings), was born in Gawcott where his father, the Reverend Thomas Scott (1780–1835), was perpetual curate . To the east of the village is Signal Hill , which was a former FCO / MI6 signals intelligence station. [REDACTED] Media related to Gawcott at Wikimedia Commons Buckingham Buckingham ( / ˈ b ʌ k ɪ ŋ ( h ) ə m / BUK -ing-(h)əm )
9400-532: The word Viking has been much debated by academics, with many origin theories being proposed. One theory suggests that the word's origin is from the Old English wicing 'settlement' and the Old Frisian wizing , attested almost 300 years prior. Another less popular theory is that víking came from the feminine vík 'creek', 'inlet', 'small bay'. Another etymology that gained support in
9500-578: Was 12,043. The town has continued to grow since 2011 and thus the figures at the prospective 2021 Census are expected to be significantly greater. As of October 2019 , the Town Council estimates the population of its civil parish at 15,700. The town is home to the University of Buckingham , the oldest of the UK's six private universities . Like other UK universities, a large proportion of its students are from overseas. The Buckinghamshire Council operates
9600-509: Was a term for a route that the Vikings found to have a direct pathway from Scandinavia to Constantinople and Baghdad while traveling on the Baltic Sea. With the advancements of their ships during the 9th century, the Vikings were able to sail to Kievan Rus and some northern parts of Europe. Jomsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (medieval Wendland , modern Pomerania ), that existed between
9700-400: Was abolished in 2020, merging with Buckinghamshire County Council and the county's other districts to become Buckinghamshire Council. Buckingham stands at the crossroads of the A413 (north-south), A421 and A422 (east-west) roads. The town was by-passed in the early 1980s by creating a new section of the A421 to the south. Buckingham is linked to Milton Keynes, Winslow and Aylesbury by
9800-414: Was an ancient borough , and it became a municipal borough in 1836. Buckingham Borough Council was based at Buckingham Town Hall until 1965, when it moved to Castle House on West Street. The borough was abolished in 1974 to become part of Aylesbury Vale district, with Buckingham Town Council being established as a successor parish covering the former borough. Aylesbury Vale District Council in turn
9900-522: Was established around 980, during the Medieval Warm Period , and its demise by the mid-15th century may have been partly due to climate change . The Viking Rurik dynasty took control of territories in Slavic and Finnic -dominated areas of Eastern Europe; they annexed Kiev in 882 to serve as the capital of the Kievan Rus' . As early as 839, when Swedish emissaries are first known to have visited Byzantium , Scandinavians served as mercenaries in
10000-562: Was once the location of a great house that belonged to the Minshull family. In the English Civil War the house was plundered by Parliamentarian forces. The house has long since disappeared. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Buckingham built-up area , which includes Maids Moreton but excludes Lace Hill, was 12,890. The population of the Buckingham civil parish (which excludes Maids Moreton but includes Lace Hill)
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