User:Sparksc760/Siege of Paris (845)

The Frankish Empire was first attacked by Viking raiders in 799 (ten years after the earliest known Viking attack at Portland, Dorset, in England), which led Charlemagne to create a defence system along the northern coast in 810. The defence system repulsed a Viking attack at the mouth of the Seine in 820 (after Charlemagne's death) but failed to hold against renewed attacks of Danish Vikings in Frisia and Dorestad in 834. The attacks in 820 and 834 were unrelated and relatively minor; systematic raiding did not begin until the mid-830s, with the activity alternating between the two sides of the English Channel. Viking raids were often part of struggles among Scandinavian nobility for power and status. Like other nations adjacent to the Franks, the Danes were well-informed about the political situation in France; in the 830s and early 840s they took advantage of the Frankish civil wars. Big raids took place in Antwerp and Noirmoutier in 836, in Rouen (on the Seine) in 841 and in Quentovic and Nantes in 842.

The viking raiders began their invasions and raids on the western world starting in 793 in the kingdom of Northumbria in England on the church of Lindisfarne, which was the first time the the Danish and Norwegian vikings made contact with the Christian kingdoms during this time period. After the first raids on the the English kingdoms in the late 700's, the vikings and their different clans started to raid other Christian kingdoms such as the Frankish Kingdom that saw their first raid in 799. The vikings were known for their great lust for treasure and new fertile land as the lands and wealth of the Scandinavian lands was nowhere near that of the kingdoms of England and the Frankish Kingdom. These raids by the different clans in Denmark and Norway would continue for hundreds of years until 11066 which is considered the end of the viking age when their exploration and raids came to an almost complete halt with most of their raiding countries uniting and pushing them back.

The Frankish kingdom would prepare for the attacks from the viking raiders by fortifying their lands with forts and bridges to deter the viking raiders from attacking their cities and lands straight on in the hope that they would not risk the cost of the war. These defenses, while strong, could not really do much for the Frankish kingdom itself as they were quite weak at the time. According to Britannica.com, "The island city was recently fortified, but the Frankish kingdom was weak and unable to defend itself properly". With this context in mind, the Parisians would have a great difficulty in successfully defending and repelling their viking invaders as they were not prepared for this level of siege. Which would go on to define much of the Siege of Paris in 845 as the vikings would successfully breach the city and violently storm the now great city of Paris.