Vikings Sack Paris: Ragnar Collects a Huge Ransom
Charles the Bald paid 7,000 pounds of silver to make the Vikings go away. The Frankish king watched Ragnar Lodbrok's 120 longships sail up the Seine on Easter Sunday, torch monasteries along the way, and lay siege to Paris for weeks. Rather than fight, Charles opened his treasury. The ransom worked — the Norsemen left. But word spread fast across Scandinavia: these Franks would pay you to stop hitting them. Within decades, Viking fleets multiplied along every European coast, each chieftain knowing the secret. The raid didn't just sack a city — it advertised a business model.
March 28, 845
1181 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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