The Scots destroyed the first three columns, but were ambushed by the last. This unit had remained hidden behind a hill and was commanded by Ragnall. The Scots, however, managed to escape without disaster.[5] It seems that it was an indecisive engagement, although it did allow Ragnall to further establish himself in Northumbria. In 919, Ragnall descended onYork where he took the city and had himself proclaimed king. TheBernicians remained under him, althoughEaldred I of Bamburgh andDomnall I,king of Strathclyde, paid homage to theking of England.[6]
In 1950, F. T. Wainwright argued that there were two battles of Corbridge in 914 and 918, and his view was widely accepted for over fifty years, but since around 2006 historians have taken the view that there was only one battle in 918.[a]
^Wainwright argued that there were two battles in his article, "The Battles at Corbridge".[7] His view was accepted byFrank Stenton in his standard history of Anglo-Saxon England (3rd edition 1971),[8]Alfred P. Smyth discusses the two battles at length in his 1975 and 1979Scandinavian York and Dublin.[9] N. J. Higham referred to the "battles of Corbridge" in his 1993Kingdom of Northumbria,[10] and in the 1997Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings, Donnchadh O Corrain stated that Ragnall won a battle at Corbridge in 914.[11] In his 2004Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) article onÆthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, Marios Costambeys cites theFragmentary Annals of Ireland as saying that she led the army opposing Ragnall at the Second Battle of Corbridge,[12] and Cyril Hart also refers to two battles in his DNB article on Ragnall.[13] However,Clare Downham argued in her 2003 doctoral thesis, subsequently published as a bookViking Kings of Britain and Ireland in 2007 that there was only one battle in 918.[14] See also Alex WoolfFrom Pictland to Alba, published in 2007.[15] This view is accepted by Tim Clarkson in his 2014Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age.[16]
^Clarkson, Tim (2014).Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age. Edinburgh: John Donald, Birlinn Ltd. pp. 69–70, 179 n. 31.ISBN978-1-906566-78-4.
^Saga book of the Viking Society, XIII, 1950, pp, 156-73; reprinted inWainwright, F. T. (1975).Scandinavian England: Collected Papers. Chichester, UK: Phillimore. pp. 163–82.ISBN0-900592-65-6.
^Smyth, Alfred P. (1987).Scandinavian York and Dublin. Irish Academic Press.ISBN0-7165-2365-5.. Originally published in 2 volumes in 1975 and 1979. First battle, I, pp. 63-64, 96-99, 101-03, 107, II, p. 10; second battle, I, 68-69, 93-100, 108-09; II, pp. 22, 97
^Higham, N. J. (1993).The Kingdom of Northumbria: AD 350–1100. Alan Sutton. p. 188.ISBN0-86299-730-5.
^Clarkson, Tim (2014).Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age. Edinburgh: John Donald, Birlinn Ltd. pp. 69–70, 179 n. 31.ISBN978-1-906566-78-4.
