ANNO 851.—This year Ceorl the ealdorman, with the men of Devonshire, fought against the heathen men at Wembury [near Plymouth], and there made great slaughter and got the victory. And the same year Athelstan and Elchere the ealdorman fought on shipboard, and slew a great number of the enemy at Sandwich in Kent, and took nine ships, and put the others to flight; and the heathen men, for the first time, remained over winter in Thanet. And the same year came three hundred and fifty ships to the mouth of the Thames, and the crews landed and took Canterbury and London by storm, and put to flight Berthwulf, King of the Mercians, with his army, and then went south over the Thames into Surrey; and there King Ethelwulf and his son Ethelbald, with the fyrd of the West Saxons, fought against them at Ockley, and there made the greatest slaughter among the heathen army that we have heard reported to the present day, and there got the victory. ANNO 853.—This year Ealhere, with the men of Kent, and Huda, with the men of Surrey, fought in Thanet, against the heathen army; and at first they were victorious; and many there were slain, and drowned on either hand, and both the ealdormen were killed. ANNO 855.—This year the heathen men, for the first time, remained over winter in Sheppey. ANNO 860.—This year Ethelbert succeeded to all the realm of his brother. And in his days a large fleet came to land, and the crews stormed Winchester. And Osric the ealdorman, with the men of Hampshire, and Ethelwulf the ealdorman, with the men of Berkshire, fought against the army, and put them to flight, and had possession of the place of carnage. ANNO 865.—This year the heathen army sat down in Thanet, and made peace with the men of Kent, and the men of Kent promised them money for the peace; and during the peace and the promise of money the army stole away by night, and ravaged all Kent to the eastward. ANNO 866.—This year a great heathen army came to the land of the English nation, and took up their winter quarters among the East Angles, and there they were horsed; and the East Angles made peace with them. ANNO 867.—This year the army went from East Anglia over the mouth of the Humber to York in Northumbria. And there was much dissension among that people, and they had cast out their King Osbert, and had taken to themselves a king, Ælle, not of royal blood; but late in the year they resolved that they would fight against the army; and therefore they gathered a large force, and sought the army at the town of York, and stormed the town, and some of them got within, and there was an excessive slaughter made of the Northumbrians, some within, some without, and the kings were both slain: and the remainder made peace with the army.