Danegeld

American  

[dayn-geld] / ˈdeɪnˌgɛld /

Also danegeld,

noun

1. (in medieval England) an additional tax on land believed to have been levied originally as a tribute to the Danish invaders but later continued for other purposes.

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Danegeld British  

/ ˈdeɪnˌɡɛlt, ˈdeɪnˌɡɛld /

noun

1. the tax first levied in the late 9th century in Anglo-Saxon England to provide protection money for or to finance forces to oppose Viking invaders

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Etymology

Origin of Danegeld

before 1150; Middle English denegeld, danegeld, Old English (Domesday Book) Danegeld. See Dane, geld ²

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Danegeld

He freed the church from the payment of Danegeld, and all services to the Crown.

From Old and New London Volume I by Walter Thornbury

The payment of Danegeld was an old story in English history and the end was not yet.

From Canute the Great The Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age by Laurence Marcellus Larson

At a Great Council at Woodstock he resisted the king's resolution to levy the old tax of Danegeld, and in consequence Danegeld was never levied again.

From A Student's History of England, v. 1 (of 3) From the earliest times to the Death of King Edward VII by Samuel Rawson Gardiner

Its effect resembles that of the Danegeld our Saxon fathers paid their oversea invaders, with a view to staying all further strife.

From With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back by Edward P. Lowry

St. Alphege at Canterbury had been, it is said, one of the first advisers of the ignominious payment of the Danegeld: but there was one thing which he would not do. 

From Roman and the Teuton by Charles Kingsley