872/3. Vikings go up to Northumbria; take winter quarters at Torksey in Lindsey
The Mercians make peace with the Vikings
Roger of Wendover, writing in the 13th century, explains the Viking raid on Northumbria by noting that the Northumbrians had expelled King Ecgberht and Archbishop Wulfhere. This is quite in character for the Northumbrians, in view of the civil war they were having in 866/7 and the fluidity of the political situation in the 8th and mid-10th centuries, but it is not recorded by any earlier historians. Simeon of Durham notes only that Ecgberht died in 873.