Danegeld in the 21st Century?

I’m sure most here have heard of Danegeld:  money, raised by taxation, given as a ‘bribe’ to the Vikings in the 10th and 11th Century to stop them raiding, raping and pillaging. It wasn’t just England who levied Danegeld – several other European countries did much the same.

In 991, Aethelred the Unready  King of England gave the Vikings about 3,300 kilograms of silver. The bribe worked – well for a while. But, as anyone could have told Aethelred (whose name means noble counsel) the Vikings stayed away for a bit and then turned up, fully armed of course, and expected to be paid another large sum of money. No wonder Aethelred rapidly acquired the tag Unready (ill counsel).

Anglo-Saxon England had a pretty efficient tax-collecting system – and Danegeld soon became part of ‘normal’ taxation. Sometimes it went to pay the Vikings, other times it went to line the king’s coffers. The efficiency of English administration was one of the reasons that William the Bastard, descendent of  earlier Viking marauders,  cast his greedy eyes on England. Ironic?  I think so.

But, I digress.

It has come to my notice that the Taliban are being paid £100 a month to stop fighting.

I really do wish that people in power were taught a little more history.  And I wonder which idiot should be given the name “The Unready”…

9 thoughts on “Danegeld in the 21st Century?”

  1. And I wonder which idiot should be given the name “The Unready”…

    I know where you could find 649 of them!

  5. Really, a total bunch of tossers. Considering the world wide shortage of clinical opium all they had to do was give out licences to grow opium for the pharmaceutical industry of the West in exchange for not fighting. Winners all round!

    Far more frightening is your para 3, re casting greedy eyes etc. Well we can all see the eyes of the EU being turned our way to subsidise the Euro can’t we?
    Can we have krautgeld too?

  6. Like you, Christina, I’ve never understood why the west does not buy up the entire poppy crop in Afghanistan for medical use. It would kill several birds with one stone.

  7. Interesting timing for this post. Just a couple of days a go I was reading up on The USA’s first overseas war, The First Barbary War, after gaining independence. During the Revolutionary war its Mediterranean ships received protection from the French Navy, under the Treaty of Alliance. However thereafter, the US had to defend itself. It found itself unable to do so and so from 1883 onward, it was forced to pay tribute to North Africa’s Berber states of Morocco, Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast). These were not insignificant amounts. In 1800 they amounted to 20% of the US revenues.

    You can read more here, though I do not claim that it is a definitive history, seeing as it is Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Barbary_War

  8. sheona :

    Like you, Christina, I’ve never understood why the west does not buy up the entire poppy crop in Afghanistan for medical use. It would kill several birds with one stone.

    I recall a TV documentary afew years ago which argued that poppy farming had to be protected because it employs such a big share of the workforce! The alternative, allegedly, is starvation.

  9. Boa, the amazing thing is that ‘authorities’ clearly choose to ignore the addictive qualities of Danegeld.

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