Major Reasons Why the Vikings Ended
Every beginning has an ending. But n this situation, we can see that the final chapter of the Viking glory did end the glory of the Viking but they also got attached like a couple.
The reason why the Vikings went on raiding to gain so much fame, the reason why the Viking raided might be the shipbuilding advancement, the navigation talent. And the overpopulation might also push them to the point of looting and plundering.
The Christianization: Religious Conversion
Charlemagne once was a nightmare to the Vikings. Because Charlemagne set out to convert these Northmen into Christians. This meant Charlemagne wanted these people to abandon their belief and follow his. By controlling their belief, he could control them politically. But he died before making much significant impact on the Vikings.
The Danish rulers at the times carried out some memorable raids but they were not a unified nation. This somehow waged the civil wars between the rulers and some of them had to call for the external help. Some of the rulers asked the neighbourhood regions to help them. And these Viking kings chose to convert themselves into Christians to pay their respect. Whether they wanted it or not, they deliberately let the new religion to come in and dominate their initial religion.
For example, king Harald Bluetooth once carved on his Jelling stone saying that he succeeded in turning his people into Christians.
The feudal system
When the feudal system became popular across European, the Viking free men were no longer allowed to go on raiding to find them land and fortunes.
In the past, the Vikings were allowed to learn and to see how to fight. They had followed their father to the jungle to learn how to fight, how to survive. But the feudal system just prevented the Vikings from learning to become a warrior.
The feudal system gradually prevented the Vikings from forming a crew to go on raiding like their fathers once were
At the time, the feudal system started to become popular and spread across the regions. This type of system derived the freemen of their land and turned them into the servants of the new landowners. So those who once were farmers and warriors now became the servants working to generate their income.
The Peace and Truce of God
One problem that the Christians met with was there was too much violence which prevented them from spreading their faith. To get rid of this problem, those with authority gave out two edicts The Peace of God and The Truce of God. They officially banned the violence under the threat of excommunication.
This helped reduce the number of raids the Christianized Scandinavian conducted on the fellow Christians. But they could not immediately get rid of the raids. Rather, the number of raids just dismissed as time progressed.
The Assimilation of the Viking settlers
As we might know, the Vikings chose to stay in some parts where they raided. But the Vikings finally saw their twilight when they knew the land where they had raided were defended by their own kin. For example, some of the Vikings settled down in Normandy and unintentionally assimilated themselves into the local culture.
These Viking Normans did keep some of the Viking traditions. But most of the time, they chose to obey the French king and listen to the Pope. After all, they were no longer the Danes. They became French.
