Alfred the Great

**Alfred the Great** (849 - October 26, 899) was King of Wessex in the south of Great Britain from 871 to 899.

Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become the dominant ruler in England. He is one of only two English monarchs to be given the epithet "the Great," the other one being Cnut the Great. He was also the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons." A devout Christian, Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed nature, who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system, military structure, and his people's quality of life.

## Life and Death

Alfred was born in the village of Wantage, Oxfordshire in 849, the youngest son of King Aethelwulf of Wessex and his first wife, Osburh. In 853, he was sent to Rome at the age of four. He later accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 854-855. On their return from Rome in 856, Aethelwulf was deposed by his son, Aethelbald. With civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise, which split Wessex. When King Aethelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession, Aethelbald, Aethelberht, and Aethelred.

During the short reigns of the older two of his three elder brothers, Alfred is not mentioned. In 1865, an army of Danes arrived in England from Denmark, Norway, and southern Sweden to conquer the four kingdoms that constituted Anglo-Saxon England. In 868, at the age of 19, Alfred fought beside his brother in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army led by Ivar the Boneless out of the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia. At the end of 870, the Danes arrived in his homeland. Alfred partially led the Battle of Ashdown on January 8, 871 against the Danes. His brother died shortly afterwards on April 23, 871.

### **King at War**

Alfred succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother in April 871. While he was busy with the bural ceremonies for his brother, the Danes continued to defeat the Saxons. By the autumn of 871, he negotiated a peace settlement with them in England. For the next 5 years, the Danes occupied other parts of England. In 876, under their new leader, Guthrum, the Danes slipped past the Saxon army and occupied Wareham in Dorset in southern England. The 870's was the low-water mark in the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms then. With all the other kingdoms having fallen to the Vikings, Wessex alone was still resisting.

Alfred won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in May 878. He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold and starved them into submission. One of the terms of the surrender was that Guthrum convert to Christianity. They were baptized three weeks later. Soon after, they signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum in 879 or 880. The treaty divided up the kingdom of Mercia, separating Alfred's and Gunthrum's kingdoms. Alfred controlled western Mercia while Gunthrum incorporated the eastern part into an enlarged kingdom of East Anglia. Alfred had control of London.

After the signing of the treaty with Guthrum, Alfred was spared any large-scale conflicts for some time. Despite this relative peace, the king was still forced to deal with a number of Danish raids and incursions. A counterattack forced the Danes to flee to their beached ships and sail to another part of Britain in 885. They supposedly left the island the following summer. Not long after the failed Danish raid in Kent, Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia and a battle ensued; the Anglo-Saxons emerged victorious. In 886, Alfred reoccupied the city of London and set out to make it habitable again through a restoration of a new street plan, added fortifications to the existing Roman walls, and the construction of matching fortifications on the south bank of River Thames. This is also the period during which the Saxon people of pre-unification England submitted to Alfred. Between the restoration of London and the resumption of large-scale Danish attacks in the early 890s, Alfred's reign was rather uneventful. In 889, Guthrum died as the king of East Anglia. His passing changed the political landscape for Alfred as the resulting power vacuum stirred up other power-hungry warlords eager to take his place in the following years.

After another lull, in the autumn of 892 or 893, the Danes attacked again, sailing to England across the channel. The invaders brought their wives and children with them, indicating a meaningful attempt at conquest and colonization. Early in 894 or 895, after being overtaken by the English, the Danes retired once more to Essex in eastern England, fortifying themselves more. By 896 or 897, they gave up their struggle. Some retired to different places; those who had no connectios in England withdrew back to continental Europe.

### **Death**

Alfred died on October 26, 899. He had marrie dEahlswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, in 868. They had five or six children together.

* Aethelflaed - m. Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians
* Edward the Elder - m. (1) Ecgwynn (2) Aelfflaed (3) Eadgifu
* Aethelgifu
* Aethelweard (son of Alfred)
* Aelfthryth - m. Baldwin II, Count of Flanders