King Alfred the Great | Britroyals Children: 5 children, Aelfthryth, Aethelflaed, Aethelgifu, Edward, Aethelweard Died: October 26, 899 Buried at: Winchester Succeeded by: his son Edward Anglo-Saxon king 871�899 who defended England against Danish invasion and founded the first English navy. He succeeded his brother Aethelred to the throne of Wessex in 871, and a new legal code came into force during his reign. He encouraged the translation of scholarly works from Latin (some he translated himself), and promoted the development of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This ensured that his deeds were recorded in history as legends and we know more about him than any other Anglo Saxon King. Alfred was born at Wantage, historically in Berkshire but currently in Oxfordshire, the youngest son of Aethelwulf (d. 858), king of the West Saxons. In 870 Alfred and his brother Aethelred fought many battles against the Danes.

Alfred gained a victory over the Danes at Ashdown in 871, and succeeded Ethelred as king in April 871 after a series of battles in which the Danes had been defeated. Not all his campaigns were so successful; on a number of occasions he had to resort to buying off the Danes for a brief respite. Five years of uneasy peace followed while the Danes were occupied in other parts of England. In 876 the Danes attacked again, and in 878 Alfred was forced to retire to the stronghold of Athelney which was at that time an island in the Somerset Levels. The legend of him burning the cakes probably comes from this period. His come back and great victory at Edington in 878 secured the survival of Wessex, and the Treaty of Wedmore with the Danish king Guthrum in 886 established a boundary between the Danelaw, east of Watling Street, and the Saxons to the west. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that following his capture of London in 886 'all the English people submitted to him, except those who were in captivity to the Danes'.

In some respects, therefore, Alfred could be considered the first king of England. A new landing in Kent encouraged a revolt of the East Anglian Danes, which was suppressed 884�86, and after the final foreign invasion was defeated 892�96, Alfred strengthened the navy to prevent fresh incursions. During periods of peace Alfred reformed and improved his military organization. He divided his levies into two parts with one half at home and the other on active service, giving him a relief system he could call on to continue a campaign. He also began to build burhs (fortified strongpoints) throughout the kingdom to form the basis of an organized defensive system. Alfred is popularly credited as being the founder of the Royal Navy; he did build a fleet of improved ships manned by Frisians and on several occasions successfully challenged the Danes at sea. Quotes: He was superior to all his brothers .. both in wisdom and in all good habits, and furthermore because he was warlike beyond measure and victorious in almost all battles' - Asser's Life of Alfred, 893 AD Timeline for King Alfred the Great Year Alfred the Great: The Most Perfect Man in History?

| History Today Alfred the Great: The Most Perfect Man in History? Anglo-Saxon England Alfred Political Barbara Yorke considers the reputation of King Alfred the Great, and the enduring cult around his life and legend. King Alfred of Wessex (r.871-99) is probably the best known of all Anglo-Saxon rulers, even if the first thing to come into many people’s minds in connection with him is something to do with burnt confectionery. The year 1999 saw the 1100th anniversary of his death on October 26th, 899, at the age of about 50. The occasion is being marked with conferences and exhibitions in Winchester, Southampton and London, but the scale of celebrations will be modest compared with those which commemorated his millenary, and culminated in the unveiling by Lord Rosebery of his statue in Winchester. Alfred’s reputation still stands high with historians, though few would now want to follow Edward Freeman in claiming him as ‘the most perfect character in history’ (The History of the Norman Conquest of England, 5 volumes, 1867-79). Alfred is someone who has had greatness thrust upon him.

How and why did he acquire his glowing reputation, and how does it stand up today? There can be no doubt that Alfred’s reign was significant, both for the direction of the country’s development and for the fortunes of his descendants. After the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia had fallen to the Vikings, Wessex under Alfred was the only surviving Anglo-Saxon province. Alfred nearly succumbed to the Vikings as well, but kept his nerve and won a decisive victory at the battle of Edington in 879. Further Viking threats were kept at bay by a reorganisation of military service and particularly through the ringing of Wessex by a regular system of garrisoned fortresses. At the same time Alfred promoted himself as the defender of all Christian Anglo-Saxons against the pagan Viking threat and began the liberation of neighbouring areas from Viking control. He thus paved the way for the future unity of England, which was brought to fruition under his son and grandsons, who conquered the remaining areas held by the Vikings in the east and north, so that by the mid-tenth century the England we are familiar with was ruled as one country for the first time.

His preservation from the Vikings and unexpected succession as king after the death of four older brothers, seem to have given Alfred a sense that he had been specially destined for high office. With the help of advisers from other areas of England, Wales and Francia, Alfred studied, and even translated from Latin into Old English, certain works that were regarded at the time as providing models of ideal Christian kingship and ‘most necessary for all men to know’. Alfred tried to put these principles into practice, for instance, in the production of his law-code. He became convinced that those in authority in church or state could not act justly or effectively without the ‘wisdom’ acquired through study, and set up schools to ensure that future generations of priests and secular administrators would be better trained, as well as encouraging the nobles at his court to emulate his own example in reading and study. Alfred also had the foresight to commission his biography from Bishop Asser of Wales. Asser presented Alfred as the embodiment of the ideal, but practical, Christian ruler. Alfred was the ‘truthteller’, a brave, resourceful, pious man, who was generous to the church and anxious to rule his people justly.

One could say that Asser accentuated the positive, and ignored those elements of ruthless, dictatorial behaviour which any king needed to survive in ninth-century realpolitik. Alfred and Asser did such a good job that when later generations looked back at his reign through their works they saw only a ruler apparently more perfect than any before or after. Alfred is often thought to have provided his own epitaph in this passage from his translation of the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius: I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works. Alfred, particularly as presented by Asser, may have had something of a saint in him, but he was never canonised and this put him at something of a disadvantage in the later medieval world. The Normans and their successors were certainly interested in presenting themselves as the legitimate heirs of their Anglo-Saxon predecessors, but favoured the recognised royal saints, especially Edmund of the East Angles, killed by the Danish army which Alfred defeated, and Edward the Confessor, the last ruler of the old West Saxon dynasty.

St Edmund and St Edward can be seen supporting Richard II on the Wilton diptych, and members of the later medieval royal houses were named after them. Nor were Alfred’s heroic defeats of the pagan Vikings enough to make him the favoured military hero of the post-Conquest period. None of the Anglo-Saxon rulers qualified for this role. After Geoffrey of Monmouth’s successful promotion, the British Arthur was preferred – a man whose reputation was not constrained by inconvenient facts, and who proved extremely adaptable to changing literary conventions. However, Alfred was lauded by Anglo-Norman historians, like William of Malmesbury, Gaimar and Matthew Paris, and their presentations, and occasional embellishments, of his achievements would be picked up by later writers. Alfred’s well-attested interest in learning made him the obvious choice to be retrospectively chosen as the founder of Oxford University when that institution felt the need to establish its historical credentials in the 14th century. Alfred’s lack of a saintly epithet, a disadvantage in the high Middle Ages, was the salvation of his reputation in a post-Reformation world.

As a pious king with an interest in promoting the use of English, Alfred was an ideal figurehead for the emerging English Protestant church. The works he had commissioned or translated were interpreted as evidence for the pure Anglo-Saxon church, before it had become tainted by the false Romanism introduced by the Normans. With a bit of selective editing, Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical provision came to bear an uncanny resemblance to Elizabethan Anglicanism. Archbishop Matthew Parker did an important service to Alfred’s reputation by publishing an edition of Asser’s Life of Alfred in 1574, even if he could not resist adding the story of the burnt cakes which came from a separate, later, Anglo-Saxon source. Perhaps even more significant for getting Alfred’s reputation widely known was the enthusiastic notice of him in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1570 edition), where material derived from sources of Alfred’s own time was mixed with stories with a later currency, such as his visit to the Danish camp as a minstrel which was first recorded in a post-Conquest account.

It was also writers of the sixteenth century who promoted the designation of Alfred as ‘the Great’, an epithet that had never been applied to him in the Anglo-Saxon period. Comparable claims of the contribution of the Anglo-Saxons to English life were used to support radical political change in the seventeenth century, when it was argued, for instance, that the right of all freemen to vote for representatives in Parliament was a lost Anglo-Saxon liberty. The relative abundance of sources from Alfred’s reign, including his surviving law-code and Asser’s description of his interest in law and administration, naturally meant that attention was drawn to him by those searching for an ancient constitution to serve contemporary needs. Alfred himself was an unlikely champion for the more radical movements, and was more readily adopted by those who wanted to show Stuart, and eventually Hanoverian, rulers, how they could become successful constitutional monarchs by emulating their most famous Anglo-Saxon ancestor. Robert Powell, in his Life of Alfred, published in 1634, attempted to draw parallels between the reigns of Alfred and Charles I, something which often called for considerable ingenuity, and his hope that Charles would share the same respect for English law as that apparently shown by Alfred proved misplaced.

Rather more impressive as a work of scholarship was Sir John Spelman’s Life of King Alfred, which drew upon an extensive range of primary material and itself became a source for later biographers. The work was dedicated to the future Charles II when Prince of Wales, and was completed during the Civil War in 1642, in the royalist camp at Oxford. Spelman was to die the following year of camp fever, and publication of the biography was delayed until more propitious times. In fact, any attempts to interest Stuart monarchs in their Saxon forebears had only a limited success. The Stuarts’ preferred cultural reference points were from the classical world rather than the history of their own islands. The common Saxon heritage of the Hanoverians and the Anglo-Saxons provided more fertile ground for the promotion of a cult of King Alfred. His first aristocratic and royal backers came from the circle which gathered around Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-51), the eldest son of George II, and was united by the opposition of its members to the prime minister Robert Walpole.

Walpole’s opponents called themselves ‘the Patriots’, and Alfred was the first ‘Patriot King’, who had saved his country from tyranny, as it was devoutly hoped Frederick himself would do when he succeeded his father. A number of literary works centred upon Alfred were dedicated to the prince. Sir Richard Blackmore’s Alfred: an Epick Poem in Twelve Books (1723) enlivened the conventional accounts of Alfred’s reign with an extensive description of his imaginary travels in Europe and Africa, in which were concealed many heavy-handed compliments to Prince Frederick. Of much more lasting worth was Thomas Arne’s masque Alfred, which was first performed in 1740 at the prince’s country seat of Cliveden. The main text was provided by two authors already active in Frederick’s cause, James Thomson and David Mallett, but included an ode by Viscount Bolingbroke, one of the leaders of the opposition to Walpole who had defined their political philosophy in his essay ‘The Idea of a Patriot King’ (1738). A visual representation of this political manifesto was provided in Lord Cobham’s pleasure grounds at Stowe.

Alfred’s bust was included alongside those of other Whig heroes in ‘The Temple of British Worthies’ completed in 1734-35 by William Kent. Alfred is described as ‘the mildest, justest, most beneficient of kings’ who ‘crush’d corruption, guarded liberty, and was the founder of the English constitution’, in pointed reference to qualities which George II was felt to lack. Alfred’s bust was placed next to that of the Black Prince, a Prince of Wales whose noble qualities were perceived as having been inherited by Frederick, particularly if he followed the example of King Alfred rather than that of his father. The Stowe landscape gardens also contain a Gothic Temple, in which ‘Gothic’ should be understood as ancient Germanic. The building was dedicated ‘to the Liberty of our Ancestors’, and was surrounded by statues of Germanic deities (albeit in Classical pose), while the ceiling of the dome was decorated with the arms of the earls of Mercia from whom Lord Cobham claimed descent. This new interest in the Germanic past began to trickle down to other sectors of society.

Those who could not afford to erect their own monuments to Alfred’s greatness might nevertheless find remembrances of him in the Wessex landscape. In 1738, the antiquarian Francis Wise, hoping to improve his promotion prospects at the University of Oxford, produced a pamphlet ‘concerning some antiquities in Berkshire’ in which he argued that the White Horse of Uffington had been cut to commemorate Alfred’s victory over the Vikings at the battle of Ashdown, and that all other visible antiquities nearby had some connection with the campaign. His claims were entirely spurious, but helped to publicise the idea that Alfred’s influence permeated the very fabric of the country. Those who could not have a Saxon memorial in their grounds or in the nearby countryside could at least own a print of the new genre of History painting. Alfredian topics, especially ‘Alfred in the neatherd’s cottage’ (the cake-burning episode), were among those frequently reproduced.

Alfred at Stowe was also remembered as one ‘who drove out the Danes, secur’d the seas’, and his role as defender of the country and supposed founder of the British navy ensured him increasing fame as the country found itself embroiled in frequent foreign wars as the reign of Frederick’s son, George III, progressed. A series of patriotic Alfred plays, opera and ballets were performed, particularly during the French Wars (1793-1815). More often than not they ended with the rousing anthem which had closed Arne’s Alfred, ‘Rule Britannia’, which became increasingly popular as an expression of loyalty to the crown under the threat of foreign attack. It was from this period that ‘Alfred’ became favoured as a Christian name at all levels of society. As in other European countries, a new national pride in nineteenth-century England had an important historical dimension, and an accompanying cult of the heroes who had made later success possible. The English, it was believed, could trace language and constitutional continuity back to the fifth century when they had defeated the effete Romans, and it became increasingly felt that other, positive, facets of ‘the national character’ could be traced back this far as well.

These characteristics were felt to have made those of Anglo-Saxon descent uniquely programmed for success, and to rule other less fortunately endowed peoples, and the best of them were represented by King Alfred himself. Alfred was fast being rediscovered as ‘the most perfect character in history’, and alongside his defence of constitutional liberties, his country and true religion, was added renewed admiration for his Christian morality and sense of duty. Anglo-Saxonism, and the accompanying Alfredism, could be found on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas Jefferson had ingeniously argued that, as the Anglo-Saxons who had settled in Britain had ruled themselves independently from their Continental homelands, so the English settlers of America should also be allowed their independence. He believed both countries shared an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and proposed a local government for Virginia based on a division into hundreds, an Anglo-Saxon institution widely believed then to have been instituted by Alfred. A less attractive side of this fascination with Anglo-Saxon roots was that it helped foster a belief in racial superiority, as celebrated in a shortlived periodical called The Anglo-Saxon (1849-50), which aimed to demonstrate how ‘the whole earth may be called the Fatherland of the Anglo-Saxon.

He is a native of every clime – a messenger of heaven to every corner of this Planet.’ One of the chief supporters of The Anglo-Saxon, who wrote large segments of it if no other copy was available, was Martin Tupper, the author of several volumes of popular, highly sentimental and moralistic verses. Alfred was one of Tupper’s particular heroes, largely because he felt many of the King’s writings anticipated his own, and it was through his impetus that the millenary of Alfred’s birth at Wantage was celebrated in 1849, one of the earliest of all such jubilees. The event was not the success for which Tupper had hoped, largely because he left arrangements rather late in the day and had no influential backers. Many of the details were still not fixed on the eve of the event to the indignation of the few local gentry inveigled into attending, but the event still managed to attract crowds estimated at 8,000-10,000 who enjoyed traditional games and an ox-roast, as well as Tupper’s specially composed Jubilee song: Anglo-Saxons! – in love are we met To honour a name we can never forget!

Father, and Founder, and King of a race That reigns and rejoices in every place, Root of a tree that o’ershadows the earth First of a Family blest from his birth Blest in this stem of their strength and their state Alfred the Wise, and the Good, and the Great! During the reign of Victoria, who gave birth to the first Prince Alfred since the Anglo-Saxon period (b.1844), King Alfred was accepted as founder of the nation and its essential institutions to such an extent that one commentator was moved to complain ‘it is surely a mistake to make Alfred, as some folks seem to do, into a kind of ninth-century incarnation of a combined School Board and County Council’. Alfred was no longer a mirror for princes, but an exemplar for people at all levels of society and, above all, for children. Charles Dickens’s A Child’s History of England (1851-53) can stand for many such works where Alfred was used to demonstrate the best of the English character: The noble king ... in his single person, possessed all the Saxon virtues. Whom misfortune could not subdue, whom prosperity could not spoil, whose perseverance, nothing could shake.

Who was hopeful in defeat, and generous in success. Who loved justice, freedom, truth and knowledge. So much had Alfred become the epitome of the ideal Victorian that Walter Besant, in a lecture on Alfred in 1897, thought it entirely appropriate to apply to him verse that Alfred, Lord Tennyson had written to commemorate Prince Albert. Alfred was no longer the totem of one political party. In 1877 Robert Loyd-Lindsay, Conservative MP for Berkshire and a perfect exemplar of the paternal landlord of Disraeli’s ‘Young England’ movement, provided Wantage with the statue that Tupper had hoped to raise in 1849, but for which he had failed to get funds. Wantage also got the grand occasion it had missed then as Edward, Prince of Wales, to whom Lindsay had once been an equerry, unveiled the statue carved by Count Gleichen, one of the Prince’s German cousins. In 1901, the year of Queen Victoria’s death, there were even greater celebrations to commemorate the millenary of that of Alfred.

Problems with the calculation of Anglo-Saxon dates meant it was widely believed then that Alfred had died in 901, rather than 899, which is now recognised as the true date of his death, but at the time it seemed particularly apposite to many that the great Queen and her illustrious forebear had died a thousand years apart. On the surface the Alfred millenary appeared to fulfil its aim, as advertised in the National Committee’s prospectus, of being ‘a National Commemoration of the king to whom this Empire owes so much’. The procession through the heart of Winchester to the site of Hamo Thornycroft’s giant statue of the King, included representatives of Learned Societies and Universities ‘from all lands where the English speaking-race predominate’ (needless to say, they were all white males) and members of the different armed forces. Alfred was further commemorated in the same year by the launching of a new Dreadnought, the HMS King Alfred. But in 1901 Britain was embroiled in the Boer War, and the priority was the reality of the present rather than an imagined past.

The National Committee did not raise nearly as much money as it had expected and had to abandon many of its ambitious plans, including one for a Museum of Early English History. Many were worried at the direction Britain’s imperial policy was taking. Charles Stubbs, Dean of Ely, took advantage of the millenary year to suggest that Alfred’s standards were not only in advance of his own age, but in advance of those of many statesman of the present day, especially in their conduct of the Boer War, which had been prompted by ‘insolence of pride ... by passion of vengeance ... by lust of gold’. But there was also a more positive side to the celebrations when Alfred was used, as he had been in the past, as a cloak for the introduction of change in society. It was not by chance that the statue was unveiled by the Liberal leader Lord Rosebery, for the former Whig support for British Worthies had never completely died away, and Liberals were prominent in the many commemorations of the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was a row over the statue of Oliver Cromwell, commissioned in 1895 by Rosebery from Thornycroft for the House of Commons, that precipitated the former’s resignation as Prime Minister.

The most active members of the National Committee were leading Liberals and others, like the positivist Frederic Harrison and litterateur Walter Besant, who were associated with them in the promotion of Working Mens’ Colleges or the London County Council, formed in 1888 with Lord Rosebery as its first Chairman. Most active of all in the promotion of Alfred was the secretary of the National Committee and mayor of Winchester, Alfred Bowker, who used the millenary as an opportunity to develop the profile and scope of the Corporation of Winchester by, for instance, purchasing the site of Alfred’s final resting-place at Hyde Abbey with adjoining land that could be used for public recreation (as it still is today). Lord Rosebery commented that the statue he was to unveil in Winchester can only be an effigy of the imagination, and so the Alfred we reverence may well be an idealised figure ... we have draped round his form ... all the highest attributes of manhood and kingship. Alfred, though no doubt gratified by his posthumous fame, would have trouble recognising himself in some of his later manifestations, and would find it difficult to comprehend, let alone approve, some of the constitutional developments he was supposed to have championed.

One hopes that it will not be possible for such a wide divorce between an idealised Alfred and the reality of Anglo-Saxon rule to occur again, but it is possible that Alfred’s symbolic career is not over. Now that Britain is relapsing into its regional components, who better than Alfred, the champion of the English language and Anglo-Saxon hegemony, to be a figurehead of the new England? Barbara Yorke is Reader in History at King Alfred’s College, Winchester. Her latest book is Anglo-Saxons (Sutton Pocket Histories, 1999). BBC - History - Alfred the Great z Alfred the Great © King of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and one of the outstanding figures of English history, as much for his social and educational reforms as for his military successes against the Danes. He is the only English monarch known as 'the Great'. Alfred was born at Wantage in Oxfordshire in 849, fourth or fifth son of Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons. Following the wishes of their father, the sons succeeded to the kingship in turn.

At a time when the country was under threat from Danish raids, this was aimed at preventing a child inheriting the throne with the related weaknesses in leadership. In 870 AD the Danes attacked the only remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, whose forces were commanded by Alfred's older brother, King Aethelred, and Alfred himself. In 871 AD, Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown in Berkshire. The following year, he succeeded his brother as king. Despite his success at Ashdown, the Danes continued to devastate Wessex and Alfred was forced to withdraw to the Somerset marshes, where he continued guerrilla warfare against his enemies. In 878 AD, he again defeated the Danes in the Battle of Edington. They made peace and Guthrum, their king, was baptised with Alfred as his sponsor. In 886 AD, Alfred negotiated a treaty with the Danes. England was divided, with the north and the east (between the Rivers Thames and Tees) declared to be Danish territory - later known as the 'Danelaw'. Alfred therefore gained control of areas of West Mercia and Kent which had been beyond the boundaries of Wessex.

Alfred built up the defences of his kingdom to ensure that it was not threatened by the Danes again. He reorganised his army and built a series of well-defended settlements across southern England. He also established a navy for use against the Danish raiders who continued to harass the coast. As an administrator Alfred advocated justice and order and established a code of laws and a reformed coinage. He had a strong belief in the importance of education and learnt Latin in his late thirties. He then arranged, and himself took part in, the translation of books from Latin to Anglo-Saxon. By the 890s, Alfred's charters and coinage were referring to him as 'king of the English'. He died in October 899 AD and was buried at his capital city of Winchester. RBH Biography: King Alfred the Great (849-899) King Alfred the Great (849-899) Born: AD 849 at Wantage, Berkshire King of England Died: 26th October AD 899 at Winchester, Hampshire Alfred was the youngest son of King Aethelwulf and his wife, Osberga.

He was born at the Royal Palace of Wantage (Berkshire) in AD 849. He was brought up and educated by his mother and a famous story tells how she once promised an expensive illuminated book to the first of her children to learn to read it. Despite his young age, Alfred won the prize and he continued to understand the importance of knowledge throughout his later reign as King. When his brother, Aethelred, became King of Wessex in AD 865, Alfred was sixteen. He quickly became a seasoned warrior and his brother's right-hand man during one of the worst periods of invasion in English history. The Vikings had been raiding along the English coast for thirty years, but Aethelred's coronation year they conquered the Kingdom of East Anglia. Within five years, their Great Heathen Army had arrived in Wessex and seized the Royal palace at Reading (Berkshire). The local ealdorman managed to contain them until the King arrived, with Alfred and the English army. A siege at Reading was unsuccessful but, soon afterward in January AD 871, Alfred regrouped his brother's troops on the nearby Berkshire Downs and led them against the Viking hoards at the Battle of Ashdown .

It was one of his greatest victories but, unfortunately, a number of defeats followed that same year, resulting in Aethelred's death. Alfred was now King of Wessex, but he was still unable to stop the Viking menace. After his defeat in the Battle of Wilton, at the end of AD 871, he decided he must sue for peace. A large payment persuaded the Vikings to retreat to York for the next four years; but, in the long-term, the money encouraged their return. King Alfred was soon forced to give away more of his treasury in AD 875 and again two years later. Once again, however, peace was short-lived. Alfred had spent the Christmas of AD 877 at his palace in Chippenham (Wiltshire). The Vikings kept track of his movements and early in the New Year, they launched a surprise attack. Alfred narrowly escaped capture but managed to flee into the marshes of Somerset. It was here that legend says he famously burnt the cakes of a local housewife while musing upon his predicament. From a temporary fort constructed at Athelney, Alfred rallied his remaining troops.

For several months, they waged a guerrilla war against the Vikings until Alfred was able to call out the militia from Hampshire and Wiltshire. His new army crushed the invaders at Countisbury Hill (Devon) and then proceeded to their decisive victory at the Battle of Edington (Wiltshire). The Vikings were pushed back to Chippenham and besieged for three weeks before their leader, Guthrum, agreed to peace terms. The Treaty of Wedmore thus divided England in two, with the English ruling the south and the Vikings controlling the north, thence known as the 'Danelaw'. Guthrum was also obliged to be baptized into the Christian Church and retreat to East Anglia. A new period of peace then ensued and Alfred ensured that his people would always be safe from future attacks by setting up a systems of defensive forts or 'burghs' around the country. They were given permanent garrisons but were largely unoccupied. This allowed them to act as easily taxable trading centres or mints, as well as places of refuge when the need arose. Alfred completely reorganised his army so that half his forces were always in kept in reserve and he established a proper naval attachment with improved ships built with Frisian help.

He also changed military tactics. Having invited the great Welsh scholar, Asser, to his court, Alfred had him negotiate the submission of Kings Hyfaidd of Dyfed, Elisedd of Brycheiniog and Hywel of Glywysing. Since these Welsh monarchs were already being harassed by the armies of King Anarawd of Gwynedd, they readily agreed; and an alliance with King Merfyn of Powys followed shortly afterward. In contrast, Alfred adopted an aggressive policy towards Viking settlers in Wessex and retook London in AD 886. This Alfred returned to his son-in-law, Aethelred II of Mercia and, along with the High-Reeve of Bamburgh, these two accepted his overlordship and protection. Alfred was delighted and issued new coinage to celebrate his becoming King of all the English. These alliances proved key to both English and Welsh defence when, between AD 892 and 896 armies containing of Wessex, Powysian and Mercian troops kept Viking invaders on the move and frustrated their goals. Even King Anarawd of Gwynedd eventually saw the advantages of Wessex overlordship.

The moral and religious well-being of his people was as important to King Alfred as their physical protection. Influenced by Christian kingship ideals developed during the Carolingian Renaissance, he introduced law-codes based on traditional Old Testament legislation. The Royal Court became a magnet for eminent scholars who became the nucleus around which a great resurgence in Christian learning developed. As well as Asser, Alfred's biographer, Frankish & Germanic scholars such as St. Grimbald (later appointed Dean of the New Minster in Winchester) and John the Old Saxon (appointed Abbot of Athelney) were a great influence on the King. Despite a rebuke from Pope John VII for annexing former church lands, Alfred was a very pious man and founded a number of monasteries: Shaftesbury for his daughter, Princess Aethelgitha, and Athelney in celebration of his regaining the kingdom. He was an especially remarkable man who actually undertook a number of translations himself from Latin to old English: the Regula Pastoralis of Gregory the Great, the De Comolatione Philosophiae by Boethius, St. Augustine's Soliloquia and the first fifty Psalms.

He, of course, commissioned other scholars to follow his example and was probably instigated the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The King was keen for others to benefit from having such works available to them; and this is made clear in the preface to his Regula Pastralis translation which he sent to every diocese in the Kingdom along with accompanying golden manuscript pointers. Here, he calls for his bishops to take the book's principles seriously and to ensure their priests do the same. Royal officials, like Ealdormen, were all expected to study or risk dismissal. Christian teachings encouraged the idea that kings were God's representatives on earth, and Alfred always managed to use this to his advantage. Alfred's will shows he could be ruthless when the need arose, ensuring that his son, Edward , took the throne upon his death, rather than one of his elder cousins. He was a powerful king who commanded respect from all ethnic groups across the country; and his legacy provided a springboard for his successors to reach even greater heights.

About AD 868, he had married Elswith, daughter of Aethelred Mucil, Ealdorman of the Mercian tribe called the Gaini, by his wife, Edburga, thought to have been the sister of St. Wistan . They had at least four other children besides Edward: Aethelflaed, Aethelgitha, Aelfthrith and Aethelweard. King Alfred died on 26th October AD 899. His son built the New Minster in Winchester as a family mausoleum to house his tomb. King Alfred the Great: the facts | History Extra BBC History Magazine - 5 issues for £5 Alfred The Great. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Here, Barbara Yorke, professor emerita of early medieval history at the University of Winchester, tells you everything you need to know about King Alfred, the only English monarch known as 'the Great'... Q: Who was King Alfred? A: Alfred was the fifth son of King Æthelwulf (839-58), ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex – the area south of the river Thames.

When he was born at Wantage in 849, it might have seemed unlikely that Alfred would ever become king, but in a period of increasing Viking attacks, his four brothers all died as young adults. Alfred had to take over as king of Wessex in 871 in the middle of a year of nine major battles between the West Saxons and Vikings, which the former were lucky to survive. Alfred was also tested in 878 when he was forced to retreat to the marshes of Athelney (Somerset), scene of some of the legendary stories about him, including the well-known burning of the cakes. However, Alfred came back to win a decisive victory in the same year over his Viking opponent Guthrum at Edington (Wiltshire). There were further serious Viking attacks in the 890s, but by this time Alfred had made military improvements and was better able to resist them with the help of West Mercian [an Anglo-Saxon kingdom north of Wessex] and Welsh allies.

In 868 Alfred had married Ealhswith, a descendant of the Mercian royal house, probably as part of a long-term West Saxon plan to bring the royal houses of the two provinces closer together. They had two sons and three daughters, who survived to adulthood. The middle daughter became abbess of Shaftesbury nunnery, one of two religious houses founded by Alfred. The other was at Athelney, perhaps in thanksgiving for his escape there from the Vikings. The other two daughters entered into diplomatic marriages to the ruler of Mercia and the Count of Flanders. Little is known of Alfred’s ‘spare’, his second son, Æthelweard, but his heir, Edward, succeeded their father in 899, and continued the family success story. Q: Alfred is well known for his victories against the Vikings. Can you tell us about them? A: Alfred’s priority was survival in the face of Viking attacks. There had been four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms at the time of Alfred’s birth, but before his death all but Wessex had been overrun by the Vikings, and their kings killed or exiled.

Having survived by the skin of his teeth all-out Viking attacks in the 870s, when the other provinces fell, Alfred then enacted a series of military reforms to make Wessex less vulnerable in the future. Most important was a network of fortified and garrisoned sites that created ‘fortress Wessex’, which the Vikings were unable to penetrate to any great extent in the 890s. Alfred also organised a rota of military service to make keeping forces in the field for any length of time more viable; the field army could respond quickly to a request for aid from a local garrison should the Vikings attack. The king also overhauled his naval forces, bringing in experienced Frisian sailors to help with his new designs for ships. Q: What else is he best known for? A: There are many Anglo-Saxon kings who were great military commanders – what makes Alfred stand out is that he was also interested in learning, and in the promotion of English as a written language. Here we can see the impact of the great religious and cultural movement from across the Channel, known as the Carolingian Renaissance, which had also much influenced his father.

Alfred recruited Carolingian scholars [from what is now France and western Germany], as well as others from within Britain to act as his advisers on improving educational and religious standards in Wessex. He himself studied key works with them, and these seem to have had a profound effect on his own understanding and concept of duty, which he felt others at his court should share. He assisted in the translation of some of these works from Latin into Old English, so that they could be more readily understood within his kingdom. Alfred’s resistance to the Vikings required a major commitment from his subjects, and so he may well have been attracted to the Carolingian emphasis on obedience to the king as a religious duty, and perhaps also sought to reinforce an English, Christian identity in opposition to a Scandinavian, pagan one. The title ‘King of the Anglo-Saxons’ was one he used towards the end of his reign, as he became increasingly influential beyond Wessex itself. Q: Why is King Alfred significant? A: Military and intellectual activities were in themselves sufficient to have established Alfred’s reputation, but what really made him stand out to succeeding generations was the fact that his Welsh adviser Asser wrote a biography of the king in 893.

This work undoubtedly contains useful information about Alfred and his family, but it is also based on classical, Biblical and Carolingian ideals of kingship, which can cause a difficulty in distinguishing idealisation from fact. It may be significant that Alfred is not known to have endorsed the work or ordered its circulation. It may not be how he thought of himself or how he wanted to be remembered. But in the 19th century, when there was great interest in Anglo-Saxon origins of the English state and character, there were no such doubts. Alfred was “the most perfect man in history”, and the famous statue in Winchester was erected in 1901 as the climax to international celebrations of the millenary of his death. Q: In our December issue, Alex Burghart considered whether we're guilty of overplaying Alfred's greatness. What do you think? A: Alex Burghart was right to suggest that Alfred’s reputation is in danger of being exaggerated. As a result of being the only Anglo-Saxon king to have a contemporary biography, he has been sometimes handed the credit by later writers for everything of note that happened in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Alfred did not invent Anglo-Saxon law or the navy, though he did write laws and design ships. There was also an element of luck in his survival at the beginning of his reign, and in the fact that the Vikings were more interested in eastern England that was closer to their homelands. Mercian involvement was crucial to his success in defeating the Vikings in the 890s. But to a certain extent Alfred made his own ‘luck’, a quality much prized in Anglo-Saxon leaders, and the qualities of intellectual curiosity, inventiveness and an essential attention to detail come through in Asser’s account, for all its problems. Alfred does seem to have been a rather exceptional ruler, but it seems to have been a case of the right person in the right place at the right time. Q: Where, when and how did Alfred die, and who was he succeeded by? A: Alfred died on 26 October 899. The exact circumstances and the place of his death are not known. He was laid to rest at first in the cathedral in Winchester, the Old Minster, but his elder son and successor at once commissioned work on a bigger, grander church – the New Minster immediately to the cathedral’s north.

It seems to have been intended as a burial place for the new dynasty of English kings founded by Alfred. The bodies of Alfred and Ealhswith were transferred to New Minster, to be joined eventually by Edward himself and other members of the royal family. Edward continued and developed the policies of his father, and used the idea of garrisoned, fortified centres offensively against Viking-settled areas of eastern England. By 920 he had extended his rule to the river Humber, and Edward’s own son Athelstan (who reigned from 924–39) gained control of the rest of England to create the country more or less as we know it today. Q: What might we learn from the discovery of a piece of pelvic bone , most likely belonging to King Alfred or to his son, Edward? Right os coxa (part of the pelvis) of an older adult male from the latest antiquarian pit at the site of the High Altar, Hyde Abbey.

(Photo University of Winchester) A: In 1110 the monks of New Minster relocated to the suburb of Hyde in the north of Winchester, because of the cramped conditions in the centre, and took with them the bodies of Alfred, Edward and Ealhswith, which were laid in honoured positions in front of the High Altar. It was thought that their bodies had been lost when the site was dug up for a prison in the late 18th century. In the 19th century an amateur historian claimed he had dug up their bones, but no one locally believed him, and it appears that he had in any case been digging in the wrong part of the site. These bones were the ones buried in an unmarked grave in St Bartholmew’s graveyard in Hyde. Radio-carbon testing for the recent BBC Two programme established once and for all that they were later medieval in date. However, Dr Katie Tucker, the osteoarchaeologist from the University of Winchester who led investigations, checked whether there might be other human bones of interest from the previous excavations at Hyde Abbey.

Part of a male pelvis found near the High Altar produced a radio-carbon date centring on the 10th century, thus raising the possibility that it could be part of the body of either Alfred or his son, Edward. This leaves us with the exciting possibility that further remains of them might be recovered. Asser provides no physical descriptions of either Alfred or Edward, so the thought that we might one day be able to rediscover their appearance and give them a proper reburial is an enticing prospect. Barbara Yorke is professor emerita of early medieval history at the University of Winchester, from which she has recently retired after a long career. Her research interests lie with early medieval British history, with special interests in kingship, conversion, Wessex, women, religion and 19th-century Anglo-Saxonism. Major publications include Kings and Kingdoms in Early Anglo-Saxon England, Wessex in the Early Middle Ages and The Conversion of Britain 600-800.

Alfred the Great and Anglo-Saxon England History > Dark Ages > Alfred the Great Alfred the Great BY DAVID ROSS , EDITOR King Alfred's struggle By 870 the Danes had overthrown the kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, and were preparing to do the same to Wessex. Standing in their way was a young king of Wessex, Alfred by name. At first the fight went badly for Alfred; some of his allies found it more expedient to cooperate with the Danes, and in 877 he was pushed back to a small corner of the marshes around Athelney, in Somerset. Saxon Soldiers The tale of the griddle-cakes It is this time, at the low ebb of Anglo-Saxon resistance to the Danes, that is commemorated in the folk tale of Alfred and the griddle cakes. The story goes that Alfred was so low in his fortunes that he was forced to travel anonymously and seek lodging in a peasant woman's hut. Told to mind the cakes cooking on the fire, Alfred let his thoughts wander to his troubles. The cakes burned, and the peasant woman gave her king a good scolding for his carelessness.

True or not, (probably not, but it sounds good), the story illustrates the depth to which the young Alfred had sunk in his battle with the Danish invaders. From that point on, however, things began to look up. Alfred's triumph Alfred came out of the Athelney marshes and surprised the Danes under Guthrum at Edington, in Wiltshire. After a thorough victory for Alfred, Guthrum was chased back to his base at Chippenham, where he was besieged for two weeks. Eventually Guthrum surrendered, and agreed to retreat from Wessex, and also to accept baptism as a Christian. This baptism was solemnized at Wedmore, in Somerset, some weeks later, giving us what is known as the Peace of Wedmore. The Danes retreated to East Anglia, and Alfred got on with consolidating his gains. Alfred's Towns Alfred was an innovator and a thinker, as well as a successful warrior. He began a policy encouraging the formation of fortified towns, or burhs, throughout his lands, such that no place in Wessex was more than 20 miles from a town. In exchange for free plots of land within the towns, settlers provided a defense force.

The burhs were also encouraged to become centres of commerce and local government. (See our article on Saxon towns ) The Danelaw Alfred built a new and improved navy to better meet the sea-faring Danes on their own terms. He wrested London from Danish control and reached the agreement by which England was divided into two zones; the south and west, where Saxon law would apply, and the north and east, where Danish law ruled. This second territory became known as the Danelaw. Alfred's Legacy Alfred also did his bit on the cultural front. He established schools and encouraged the dissemination of knowledge. He is said to have personally translated several books from Latin into the Anglo-Saxon tongue. An untraceable myth has it that he established the first university at Oxford. From the depths of despair in 877, Alfred brought Anglo-Saxon England into a golden age of social stability and artistic accomplishment. He was one of the first kings who seems to have looked beyond his own personal glory to a vision of the future well-being of the nation he ruled. He has every right to be remembered as Alfred "The Great".

Dark Ages Britain: Biographies for Kids: Alfred the Great Best known for: Establishing peace with the Vikings and building the Kingdom of England Biography: Early Life Alfred was born in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex which was located in the southwest of England. Alfred's father, Aethelwulf, was king of Wessex and Alfred grew up as a prince. He had four older brothers, however, so it was doubtful that he would ever be king. Alfred was an intelligent child who loved to learn and memorize poems. He traveled to Rome as a child where he met the pope. The pope anointed Alfred as an honorary consul of Rome. After Alfred's father died in 858, his brother Aethebald became king. Over the next several years each of his brothers died until his last elder brother, Aethelred, was crowned king. King Alfred the Great by the Founder of Oriel College Fighting the Vikings Throughout much of Alfred's life the Vikings had been raiding England. In 870, the Vikings had conquered all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except for Wessex. Alfred became his brother's second in command.

He led the Wessex army to a great victory at the Battle of Ashdown. Becoming King In 871, the Vikings continued to attack. Alfred's brother Aethelred died in one of the battles and Alfred was crowned king. Over the next several years Alfred fought off the Vikings. After many battles, he thought they had finally achieved some kind of peace. In 878, the Danish King Guthrum led a surprise attack against Alfred and his army. Alfred managed to escape, but with only a few men. He fled to Athelney where he plotted his counterattack. Many of the men of Wessex were tired of the constant raids and attacks of the Vikings. They rallied around Alfred at Athelney and soon the king had a strong army again. Burning of the Cakes Legend One legend tells the story of Alfred escaping from the Vikings. At one point he took refuge in the home of an old peasant woman who did not know he was the king. The peasant woman was baking cakes when she had to go outside to tend to the animals. She asked Alfred to watch over the cakes. Alfred's mind was so occupied with the war that he forgot to watch the cakes and they burned.

When the peasant woman returned she scolded him for not properly watching the cakes. Peace with the Vikings With his new army, Alfred counterattacked the Vikings. He defeated King Guthrum and took back his stronghold at Chippenham. He then required that the Vikings convert to Christianity and established a peace treaty where the Vikings would remain on the eastern side of Britain. The Vikings land was called the Danelaw. Ruling as King Alfred was a great leader in battle, but he might have been an even better leader during peacetime. Once peace had been established with the Vikings, Alfred went about rebuilding his kingdom. With so much focus on fighting off the Vikings, the educational system of England had almost disappeared. Alfred knew that education was important, so he founded schools and rebuilt monasteries. He even translated some classic works from Latin into English himself. Alfred also made other reforms and improvements to his kingdom including building forts throughout the country, establishing a strong navy, and bringing talented European scholars and craftsmen across the channel to England. He also established a national code of law. Death Alfred died in 899 and was succeeded by his son Edward. It would be his grandson Aethelstan who would be called the first King of England.

Interesting Facts about Alfred the Great Despite being very courageous and a great leader, Alfred was physically a sickly and frail man. He struggled with illness most of his life. He is the only English ruler to be called "the Great". Alfred divided his army into two groups. One group would stay home with their families while the other group guarded the borders from Viking raids. Alfred was called "King of the English" on his coins. Alfred captured London in 886 and rebuilt much of the city. Legend says that Alfred once disguised himself as a minstrel and snuck into a Viking war camp to spy on them. More subjects on the Middle Ages: Overview CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Alfred the Great Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > A > Alfred the Great Alfred the Great Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download . Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99... (Also Ælfred). King of the West-Saxons, born Wantage, Berkshire, England 849; died 899.

Alfred was the fifth son of Ethelwulf, or Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, and Osburh, his queen, of the royal house of the Jutes of Wight. When he was four years old, according to a story which has been repeated so frequently that it is generally accepted as true , he was sent by his father to Rome , where he was anointed king by Pope Leo IV . This, however like many other legends which have crystallized about the name of Alfred, is without foundation. Two years later, in 855, Ethelwulf went on a pilgrimage to Rome , taking Alfred with him. This visit, recorded by Asser , is accepted as authentic by modern historians. In 858 Ethelwulf died and Wessex was governed by his sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, successively, until 871, when Alfred came to the throne. Nothing is known of his movements during the reigns of Ethelbald and Ethelbert, but Asser , speaking of him during the reign of Ethelred, gives him the title of Secundarius.

In 868 he married Ealhswith, daughter of Ethelred, surnamed the Mickle, Ealdorman of the Gainas. The West-Saxons and the Mercians were then engaged in a war against the invading Danes and Alfred took an active part in the struggle. He ascended the throne during the thickest of this conflict, but before the end of the year he succeeded in effecting a peace, probably by paying a sum of money to the invaders. Wessex enjoyed a measure of peace for a few years, but about 875 the Danes renewed their attacks. They were repulsed then, and again in 876 and 877, on each occasion making solemn pledges of peace. In 878 came the great invasion under Guthrum. For a few months the Danes met with success, but about Easter Alfred established himself at Athelney and later marched to Brixton, gathering new forces on the way. In the battle of Ethandún (probably the present Edington, in Wiltshire) he defeated the Danes. Guthrum agreed to a peace and consented to be baptized .

It is in connection with this struggle that many of the legends of Alfred have sprung up and been perpetuated — the story of the burnt cakes, the account of his visit to the Danish camp in the guise of a harper, and many others. For fifteen years Alfred's kingdom was at peace, but in 903 the Danes who had been driven out made another onslaught. This war lasted for four years and resulted in the final establishment of Saxon supremacy. These struggles had another result, hardly less important than the freedom from Danish oppression. The successive invasions had crushed out of existence most of the individual kingdoms. Alfred made Wessex a rallying point for all the Saxons and by freeing the country of the invaders unwittingly unified England and prepared the way for the eventual supremacy of his successors. Popular fancy has been busy with other phases of Alfred's career than that which is concerned with his military achievements. He is generally credited with establishing trial by jury, the law of "frank-pledge", and many other institutions which were rather the development of national customs of long standing. He is represented as the founder of Oxford , a claim which recent research has disproved.

But even the elimination of the legendary from Alfred's history does not in any way diminish his greatness, so much is there of actual, recorded achievement to his credit. His own estimate of what he did for the regeneration of England is modest beside the authentic history of his deeds. He endeavoured, he tells us, to gather all that seemed good in the old English laws and adds: "I durst not venture much of mine own to set down, for I knew not what should be approved by those who came after us." Not only did he codify and promulgate laws but he looked, too, to their enforcement, and insisted that justice should be dispensed without fear or favour. He devoted his energies to restoring what had been destroyed by the long wars with the invaders. Monasteries were rebuilt and founded, and learned men brought from other lands. He brought Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop Wetfrith from Mercia; Grimbold and John the Old-Saxon from other Teutonic lands; Asser , John Scotus Erigena and many others. He not only encouraged men of learning, but he laboured himself and gave proof of his own learning.

He translated into Anglo-Saxon: "The Consolation of Philosophy" of Boëthius ; "The History of the World" of Orosius ; the "Ecclesiastical History" of Bede , and the "Pastoral Rule" and the "Dialogues" of St. Gregory the Great . The "Consolation of Philosophy" he not only translated but adapted, adding much of his own. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", the record of the English race from the earliest time, was inspired by him.

Question: What was the name of Alfred the Great’s kingdom?
Answer: Wessex