ALFRED, or Aelfred, the Great, king of England, was the fifth and youngest son of Aethelwolf, king of the West Saxons, and was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, in 849. He distinguished himself, during the reign of his brother Ethelred, in several engagements against the Danes, and upon his death succeeded to the crown, in the year 871, and the 22d of his age. At his ascending the throne he found himself involved in a dangerous war with the Danes, and placed in such circumstances of distress as called for the greatest valour, resolution, and all the other virtues with which he was adorned. The Danes had already penetrated into the heart of his kingdom; and before he had been a month upon the throne, he was obliged to take the field against those formidable enemies. After many battles gained on both sides, he was at length reduced to the greatest distress, and was entirely abandoned by his subjects. In this situation Alfred, conceiving himself no longer a king, laid aside all marks of royalty, and took shelter in the house of one who kept his cattle. He retired afterwards to the isle of Aethelingey, in Somersetshire, where he built a fort for the security of himself, his family, and the few faithful servants who repaired thither to him. When he had been about a year in this retreat, having been informed that some of his subjects had routed a great army of the Danes, killed their chief, and taken their magical standard,^[1. “This,” says Sir John Spelman, “was a banner, with the image of a raven magically wrought by the three sisters of Hi∏guar and Hubba, on purpose for their expedition, in revenge of their father Lodebroch’s murder; made, they say, almost in an instant, being by them at once begun and finished in a noontide, and believed by the Danes to have carried great fatality with it, for which it was highly esteemed by them. It is pretended, that being carried in a battle, towards good success it would always seem to clap its wings, and make as if it would fly; but towards the approach of mishap, it would hang down and not move.” {LΛfe of Alfred, p∙ 61∙) ] he issued his letters, giving notice where he was, and inviting his nobility to come and consult with him. Before they came to a final determination, Alfred, putting on the habit of a harper, went into the enemy’s camp, where, without suspicion, he was everywhere admitted, and had the honour to play before their princes. Having thereby acquired an exact knowledge of their situation, he returned in great secrecy to his nobility, whom he ordered to their respective homes, there to draw together each man as great a force as he could; and upon a day appointed there was to be a general rendezvous at the great wood called Selwood, in Wiltshire. This affair was transacted so secretly and expeditiously, that, in a little time, the king, at the head of an army, approached the Danes, before they had the least intelligence of his design. Alfred, taking advantage of the surprise and terror they were in, fell upon them, and totally defeated them at Aethendune, now Eddington. Those who escaped fled to a neighbouring castle, where they were soon besieged, and obliged to surrender at discretion. Alfred granted them better terms than they could expect. He agreed to give up the whole kingdom of the East Angles to such as would embrace the Christian religion, on condition that they would oblige the rest of their countrymen to quit the island, and, as much as was in their power, prevent the landing of any more foreigners. For the performance thereof he took hostages; and when in pursuance of the treaty, Guthrum the Danish captain came, with thirty of his chief officers, to be baptized, Alfred answered for him at the font, and gave him the name of Aethelstane ; and certain laws were drawn up betwixt the king and Guthrum for the regulation and government of the Danes settled in England. In 884 a fresh number of Danes landed in Kent and laid siege to Rochester· but the king coming to the relief of that city, they were obliged to abandon their design. Alfred had now great success, which was chiefly owing to his fleet, an advantage of his own creating. Having secured the sea-coasts, he fortified the rest of the kingdom with castles and walled towns; and he besieged and recovered from the Danes the city of London, which he resolved to repair, and to keep as a frontier.^[2. The Danes had possessed themselves of London in the time of his father, and had held it till now as a convenient place for them to land at, and fortify themselves in; neither was it taken from them but by a close siege. However, when it came into the kings hands, it was in a miserable condition, scarcely habitable, and all its fortifications ruined. The king, moved by the importance of the place, and the desire of strengthening his frontier against the Danes, restored it to its ancient splendour. And observing, that through the confusion of the times, many, both Saxons and Danes, lived in a loose, disorderly manner, without owning any government, he offered them now a comfortable establishment, if they would submit and become his subjects. This proposition was better received than he expected; for multitudes, growing weary of a vagabond kind of life, joyfully accepted such an offer. (CΛzw. Sax. p. 88.) ]

After some years’ respite, Alfred was again called into the field; for a body of Danes, being worsted in the west of France, came with a fleet of 250 sail on the coast of Kent, and having landed, fixed themselves at Appletree. Shortly after, another fleet of eighty vessels coming up the Thames, the men landed, and built a fort at Middleton. Before Alfred marched against the enemy, he obliged the Danes settled in Northumberland and Essex to give him hostages for their good behaviour. He then moved towards the invaders, and pitched his camp between their armies, to prevent their junction. A great body, however, moved off to Essex, and, crossing the river, came to Farnham in Surrey, where they were defeated by the king’s forces. Meanwhile the Danes settled in Northumberland, in breach of treaty, and notwithstanding the hostages given, equipped two fleets, and, after plundering the northern and southern coasts, sailed to Exeter and besieged it. The king, as soon as he received intelligence, marched against them; but before he reached Exeter they had got possession of it. He kept them, however, blocked up on all sides, and reduced them at last to such extremities, that they were obliged to eat their horses, and were even ready to devour each ether. Being at length rendered desperate, they made a general sally on the besiegers; but were defeated, though with great loss on the king’s side. The remainder of this body of Danes fled into Essex, to the fort they had built there, and to their ships. Before Alfred had time to recruit himself, another Danish leader, whose name was Laf, came with a great army out of Northumberland, and destroyed all before him, marching on to the city of Werheal in the west, which is supposed to be Chester, where they remained the rest of that year. The year following they invaded North Wales; and after having plundered and destroyed every thing, they divided, one body returning to Northumberland, another into the territories of the East Angles, from whence they proceeded to Essex, and took possession of a small island called AIeresig. Here they did not [7:2:419]long remain; for having separated, some sailed up the 'river Thames, and others up the Lea road, where, drawing up their ships, they built a fort not far from London, which proved a great check upon the citizens, who went in a body and attacked it, but were repulsed with great loss. At harvest-time the king himself was obliged to encamp with a body of troops in the neighbourhood of the city, in order to cover the reapers from the excursions of the Danes. As he was one day riding by the side of the river Lea, after some observations he began to think that the Danish ships might be laid quite dry: this he attempted, and having succeeded, the Danes were forced to desert their fort and ships, and march away to the banks of the Severn where they built a fort, and wintered at a place called Quatbrig. ^[3. The king’s contrivance is thought to have produced the meadow between Hertford and Bow; for at Hertford was the Danish tort, and from thence they made frequent excursions on the inhabitants of London. Authors are not agreed as to the method the mg pursued in laying dry the Danish ships. Dugdale supposes that he did it by straightening the channels; but Henry of Huntingdon alleges that he cut several canals, which exhausted its water. ] Such of the Danish ships as could be got off, the Londoners carried into their own road; the rest they burned and destroyed.

Alfred enjoyed a profound peace during the last three years of his reign, which he chiefly employed in establishing and regulating his government, for the security of himself and his successors, as well as the ease and benefit of his subjects in general. After a troublesome reign of 28 years, he died on the 28th of October a. d. 900, and was buried at Winchester, in Hyde-abbey, under a monument of porphyry.

All our historians agree in distinguishing him as one of the most valiant, wisest, and best of kings that ever reigned in England; and it is also generally allowed, that he not only digested several particular laws still in being, but that he laid the first foundation of our present happy constitution. There is great reason to believe that we are indebted to this prince for trials by juries; and the Doomsday Book, which is preserved in the Exchequer, is thought to be no more than another edition of Alfred’s book of Winchester, which contained a survey of the kingdom. It is said also that he was the first who divided the kingdom into shires. What is ascribed to him is not a bare division of the country, but the settling of a new form of judicature; for after having divided his dominions into shires, he subdivided each shire into three parts, called trytldngs. There are some remains of this ancient division in the ridings of Yorkshire, the laths of Kent, and the three parts of Lincolnshire. r Each trything was divided into hundreds or wapentakes; and these again into tythings or dwellings of ten householders. Each of these householders stood engaged to the king, as a pledge for the good behaviour of his family, and all the ten were mutually pledges for each other; so that if any one of the tythings was suspected of an offence, if the head-boroughs or chiefs of the tythings would not be security for him, he was imprisoned; and, if he made his escape, the tything and hundred were fined to the king. Each shire was under the government of an earl, under whom was the reive, his deputy, since, from his office, called shire-reive, or sheriff. And so effectual were these regulations, That it is said he caused bracelets of gold to be hung up in the highways, as a challenge to robbers; and they remained untouched.

In private life Alfred was the most amiable man in his dominions; of so equal a temper, that he never suffered either sadness or unbecoming gaiety to enter his mind; but appeared always of a calm yet cheerful disposition, íamiliar to his friends, just even to his enemies, kind and tender to all. He was a remarkable economist of his time; and Asserius has given us an account of the method he took for dividing and keeping an account of it. He caused six wax-candles to be made, each of 12 inches long, and of as many ounces weight; on the candles the inches were regularly marked, and having found that one of them burned just four hours, he committed them to the care of the keepers of his chapel, who from time to time gave him notice how the hours went. But as in windy weather the candles were wasted by the impression of the air on the flame, to remedy this inconvenience he invented lanthorns, there being then no glass in his dominions.

This prince, we are told, was 12 years of age before a master could be procured in the western kingdom to teach him the alphabet; such was the state of learning when Alfred began to reign. He had felt the misery of ignorance, and determined even to rival his contemporary Charlemagne in the encouragement of literature. He is supposed to have appointed persons to read lectures at Oxford, and is thence considered as the founder of that university. By other proper establishments, and by a general encouragement to men of abilities, he did every thing in his power to diffuse knowledge throughout his dominions. Nor was this end promoted more by his countenance and encouragement than by his own example and his writings; for notwithstanding the lateness of his initiation, he had acquired extraordinary erudition; and, had he not been illustrious as a king, he would have been famous as an author. His works are, 1. Breviarium quoddam collectum ex Legibus Trojanorum, &c. lib. i.; a Breviary collected out of the Laws of the Trojans, Greeks, Britons, Saxons, and Danes, in one book. Leland saw this book in the Saxon tongue, at Christ-Church, in Hampshire. 2. Visi-Saxonum Leges, lib. i.; the Laws of the West Saxons, in one book. Pitts tells us that it is in Bennet-College library, at Cambridge. 3. Instituta quaedam, lib. i.; certain Institutes, in one book. This is mentioned by Pitts, and seems to be the second capitulation with Guthrum. 4. Contra Judices Iniquos, lib. i.; an invective against Unjust Judges, in one book. 5. Acta Magistratuum suorum, lib. i.; Acts of his Magistrates, in one book. This is supposed to be the Book of Judgments mentioned by Horne, and was in all probability a kind of Reports intended for the use of succeeding ages. 6. Regum Fortunae varice, lib. i.; the various Fortunes of Kings, in one book. 7. Dicta Sapientum, lib. i.; the Sayings of Wise Men, in one book. 8. Parabolae et Sales, lib. i.; Parables and pleasant Sayings, in one book. 9. Collectiones Chronicoum, Collection of Chronicles. 10. Epistolae ad Wulfsigium Episcopum, lib. i.; Epistles to Bishop Wulfsig, in one book. 11. Manuale Meditationum, a Manual of Meditations.—Besides those original works, he translated many authors from the Latin, &c. into the Saxon language, viz. 1. Bede’s History of England. 2. Paulinus Orosinus’s History of the Pagans. .3. St Gregory’s Pastoral, &c. The first of these, with his prefaces to the others, together with his laws, were printed at Cambridge, 1644. His laws are likewise inserted in Spelman’s Councils. 4. Boethius dc Consolationci lib. v.; Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy, in five books. Dr Plot tells us King Alfred translated it at Woodstock, as he found in a MS. in the Cotton Library. 5. Aesopi Fa-· bulae, Aesop’s Fables; which he is said to have translated from the Greek both into Latin and Saxon. 6. Psalterium Davidicum, lib. i·; David’s Psalter, in one book.
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This was the last work the king attempted, death surprising him before he had finished it. It was, however, completed by another hand, and published at London in 1640, in quarto, by Sir John Spelman. Several others are mentioned by Malmsbury, and the old history of Ely asserts that he translated the Old and New Testaments.

The life of this great king was written by Asserius Me-nevensis, and published by Archbishop Parker, in the old Saxon character, at the end of his edition of Hessing-ham’s history, printed in 1674, folio.