View example sentences and word forms for Danegeld.
Danegeld
Danegeld meaning
A tax raised originally to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders in the 10th and 11th centuries to save a land from being ravaged, and later continued as a land tax. | Any kind of tribute.
Example sentences (5)
Mark concludes by noting the irony that it is now the Danes who are paying Danegeld.
England Land taxes were not unknown in England, as the Anglo-Saxon kings had periodically levied a Danegeld on that basis, but tallage was brought to England by the Normans as a feudal duty.
More ancient Lydford silver pennies - paid as Danegeld - can now be found in modern Sweden than in their country of origin.
The Danelaw resulted when Alfred the Great was forced to cede half his kingdom to the Vikings, who then settled there for a time and engaged in peaceful trade, but attacks eventually resumed and the English kings had to pay tribute (Danegeld).
The payment of Danegeld had to be underwritten by a huge balance of payments surplus; this could only be achieved by stimulating exports and cutting imports, itself accomplished through currency devaluation.