On March 28, 845, Paris was pillaged by the Vikings.
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The Vikings are warriors from the Scandinavian countries. From the 8th century, they lead raids, even invasions in Great Britain.
Then, the gaze of some of their leaders turned to France, which was then part of the Carolingian Empire.
Initially, they attacked the coastal villages, generally not very rich and little defended.
Charlemagne then had the coasts monitored and built a fleet to repel the Viking raids. But this strategy, which paid off at the time, did not survive him.
The Vikings go up the Seine
With the death of his son Louis the Pious, the Empire is divided. It was Charles II, known as the Bald, who inherited West Francia in 843.
At that time, he was at war with the Bretons. Its armies are already occupied in the peninsula.
At the same time, Viking raids are on the increase. This time, the Nordics do not hesitate to go upstream to attack the abbeys, rich and little defended.
In 845, a king of Denmark whom historians identify as the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok, sailed up the Seine with a fleet of 120 ships.
With more than 5,000 warriors, they pillaged Rouen and devastated the region. Then, they go up the river towards Paris.
The plunder of Paris
The city is not yet the capital of the kingdom.
It is mainly concentrated on the Ile de la Cité. It certainly has an enclosure dating from Roman times, but it is partly destroyed. The city is therefore without real defense.
King Charles the Bald then orders the Parisians to flee into the land with their most precious possessions. The monasteries and the relics they shelter are also evacuated.
But the monarch also doesn’t want to let the Vikings roam as they please. With his army, reduced because of the war against the Bretons, he goes to the rich abbey of Saint-Denis to protect it.
He divided his troops into two groups, which they each placed on a bank of the Seine. The Vikings massacre one of the two groups, then execute the prisoners in front of the second, who flees.
Ragnar plundered the abbey, then headed for Paris, which he sacked on March 28, 845.
Charles the Bald agrees to pay a monumental tribute to save what remains of the city and force the Vikings to leave. The sum is estimated at 7,000 pounds of silver, or roughly 2.5 tons of the precious metal.
Ragnar then returned to Denmark, while looting the towns in the north of the country in his path.
The Vikings and Paris
the Vikings will besiege the city of Paris three more times. During the last attempt, in 885, the city was bravely defended by Count Eudes, while King Charles the Fat accepted tribute from the country.
Considered a coward, Charles is ousted from the throne to make way for Eudes. The Carolingian dynasty died out and gave way to that of the Capetians.
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