Battle of Ashdown The Battle of Ashdown , in Berkshire ( possibly the part now in Oxfordshire ) , took place on 8 January 871 . Alfred the Great , then a prince of only 21 , led the army of his brother , King Ethelred of Wessex , in a victorious battle against the invading Danes . Accounts of the battle are based to a large extent on Asser ' s " Life of Alfred " , however there is some dispute about whether this is an authentic account . Order of battle . The West Saxons had a slight advantage in numbers ( around 800 to 1000 men ) but the Danes held the high ground . The battle was little more than a great clash of shield walls and resulted in a victory for Alfred . The battle , however , was not decisive . This was a pyrrhic victory , for a great many lives were lost on each side and the Danes were subsequently able to win several victories after receiving reinforcements . Nevertheless , the hard fighting may have made the Danes more cautious in their raids into Wessex , preferring easier targets . Before the Battle . The Danes , full of confidence after successes at Reading and nearby , marched west to attack the Saxons who had retreated up onto the Berkshire Downs to reassemble their armies . Alfred had to act quickly to avoid disaster . The King ’ s troops had to be mustered from the surrounding countryside without delay . Alfred reputedly took his favourite white mare and rode up onto Blowingstone Hill ( near Kingston Lisle ) , where stood an ancient perforated sarsen stone , called the ' Blowing Stone ' . Anyone with the appropriate skill could generate a booming sound from this stone , by blowing into one of its holes . Alfred took a deep breath and blew hard . He did it exactly correctly and a great boom blew out across the Downs . From all over the surrounding country , men were stirred from their beds and they knew it was time to gather and defend their homes . Location . ' Æscesdūn ' or Ashdown is generally thought to be an ancient name for the whole of the Berkshire Downs . It is not known exactly where the two armies met , though it was around a lone thorn tree . Thorn Down at Compton , near East Ilsley — meaning " Place of Conflict " — is therefore a popular contender . Modern investigation suggests a site on the Ridgeway between Aldworth and the Astons . Victorian theory states that Alfred ’ s men gathered at the valley - fort now called Alfred ' s Castle near Ashdown House at Ashbury . Ethelred ’ s troops had taken up position nearby , at Hardwell Camp , near Compton Beauchamp . The Danes had meanwhile reached Uffington Castle , where they had made their camp . On the morning of 8 January 871 , the two sides met where the lone gnarled thorn tree stood . The armies were drawn up in two columns each . The Danes were commanded by their Kings , Bagsecg and Halfdan Ragnarsson and five Earls . Ethelred and Alfred led the Saxons . There they waited , jeering and shouting at one another . Alfred was keen to get to grips with the enemy , but Ethelred decided to spend the ensuing lull in prayer for victory . He left the battlefield for the little church at Aston ( Tirrold or Upthorpe ) and , despite Alfred ’ s insistence , he would not return until the priest had finished . The young Prince had to make a decision whether to wait for his brother or commence the fight alone . The troops were on edge and impatient . The Danes had already deployed in an advantageous position , on the higher ground and to let them take the initiative would be to court disaster . Despite his brother ’ s absence , Alfred gave the command for his own men to charge . Aftermath . The Saxons prevailed but not without great carnage on each side . The Danes were chased back eastward , across Berkshire . Many hundreds of bodies covered the chalky slopes . King Bagsecg and the five Danish Earls perished . Local tradition in Berkshire says that King Bagsecg was reputedly buried in Waylands Smithy , the Earls and other noblemen near Lambourn , at Seven Barrows . These are misguided assertions however and , in fact , Seven Barrows appears to date from the Bronze Age and Waylands Smithy from Neolithic times . 20th century clash . Some years after the Boer War , manoeuvres were held at Ashdown Park . On the final day one year , in full view of a grandstand full of dignitaries and the general public , two large bodies of cavalry , including the Household Cavalry , came too close for comfort . The ensuing melee caused many injuries and was referred to as ' The Battle of Ashdown ' . The battle in fiction . There is a comprehensive account of the battle in " The King of Atheleny " by the prolific historical novelist Alfred Duggan . There is a detailed account of the battle in " The Namesake " , a juvenile historical novel by C . Walter Hodges . There is also an account of a visit to the battlefield in " Tom Brown ' s Schooldays " : - " And now we leave the camp , and descend towards the west , and are on the Ashdown . We are treading on heroes . It is sacred ground for Englishmen — more sacred than all but one or two fields where their bones lie whitening . For this is the actual place where our Alfred won his great battle , the battle of Ashdown ( ' Aescendum ' in the chroniclers ) , which broke the Danish power , and made England a Christian land . The Danes held the camp and the slope where we are standing — the whole crown of the hill , in fact . ' The heathen had beforehand seized the higher ground , ' as old Asser says , having wasted everything behind them from London , and being just ready to burst down on the fair Vale , Alfred ' s own birthplace and heritage . And up the heights came the Saxons , as they did at the Alma . ' The Christians led up their line from the lower ground . There stood also on that same spot a single thorn - tree , marvellous stumpy ( which we ourselves with our very own eyes have seen ) . ' Bless the old chronicler ! Does he think nobody ever saw the ' single thorn - tree ' but himself ? Why , there it stands to this very day , just on the edge of the slope , and I saw it not three weeks since — an old single thorn - tree , ' marvellous stumpy . ' At least , if it isn ' t the same tree it ought to have been , for it ' s just in the place where the battle must have been won or lost — ' around which , as I was saying , the two lines of foemen came together in battle with a huge shout . And in this place one of the two kings of the heathen and five of his earls fell down and died , and many thousands of the heathen side in the same place . After which crowning mercy , the pious king , that there might never be wanting a sign and a memorial to the country - side , carved out on the northern side of the chalk hill , under the camp , where it is almost precipitous , the great Saxon White Horse , which he who will may see from the railway , and which gives its name to the Vale , over which it has looked these thousand years and more . " References . 1 . Marren , Peter ; " Battles of the Dark Ages " ; Pen and Sword Military , 2006 ISBN 978 - 1 - 84415 - 270 - 4