Alfred the Great

"King Alfred" redirects here. For other uses, seeAlfred the Great (disambiguation)andKing Alfred (disambiguation).

Alfred the Great(Old English:Ælfrǣd[ˈæɫvˌræːd];c. 849– 26 October 899) wasKing of the West Saxonsfrom 871 to 886, andKing of the Anglo-Saxonsfrom 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of KingÆthelwulfand his first wifeOsburh,who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers,Æthelbald,ÆthelberhtandÆthelred,reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England.

Alfred the Great
Silverpennyof Alfred, struckc. 875–880. Legend:elfre d rex
King of the West Saxons
Reign	23 April 871 –c. 886
Predecessor	Æthelred I
King of the Anglo-Saxons
Reign	c. 886– 26 October 899
Successor	Edward the Elder
Born	847–849 Wantage,Berkshire,Wessex
Died	26 October 899 (aged about 50)
Burial	c. 1100 Hyde Abbey(now lost),Winchester,Hampshire, England
Spouse	Ealhswith ​ (m.868)​
Issue	Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians Edward the Elder Æthelgifu, Abbess of Shaftesbury Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders Æthelweard
House	Wessex
Father	Æthelwulf, King of Wessex
Mother	Osburh

After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fightingVikinginvasions. He won a decisive victory in theBattle of Edingtonin 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon territory and the Viking-ruledDanelaw,composed ofScandinavian York,the north-east Midlands and East Anglia. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leaderGuthrumto Christianity. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, becoming the dominant ruler in England.Alfred began styling himself as "King of the Anglo-Saxons" after reoccupying London from the Vikings. Details of his life are described in a work by 9th-century Welsh scholar and bishopAsser.

Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed nature who encouraged education, proposing that primary education be conducted inEnglishrather than Latin, and improving the legal system and military structure and his people's quality of life. He was given the epithet "the Great" from as early as the 13th century, though it was only popularised from the 16th century.Alfred is the only native-born English monarch to be labelled as such.

Family

Further information:House of Wessex family tree

Alfred was a son ofÆthelwulf,king ofWessex,and his wife Osburh.According to his biographer,Asser,writing in 893, "In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 849 Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons", was born at the royal estate calledWantage,in the district known asBerkshire( "which is so called from Berroc Wood, where the box tree grows very abundantly" ). This date has been accepted by the editors of Asser's biography,Simon KeynesandMichael Lapidge,and by other historians such asDavid Dumville,Justin Pollardand Richard Huscroft.West Saxon genealogical lists state that Alfred was 23 when he became king in April 871, implying that he was born between April 847 and April 848.This dating is adopted in the biography of Alfred byAlfred Smyth,who regards Asser's biography as fraudulent,an allegation which is rejected by other historians.Richard Abelsin his biography discusses both sources but does not decide between them and dates Alfred's birth as 847/849, whilePatrick Wormaldin hisOxford Dictionary of National Biographyarticle dates it 848/849.Berkshire had been historically disputed between Wessex and the midland kingdom ofMercia,and as late as 844, a charter showed that it was part of Mercia, but Alfred's birth in the county is evidence that, by the late 840s, control had passed to Wessex.

He was the youngest of six children. His eldest brother,Æthelstan,was old enough to be appointed sub-king of Kent in 839, almost 10 years before Alfred was born. He died in the early 850s. Alfred's next three brothers were successively kings of Wessex.Æthelbald(858–860) andÆthelberht(860–865) were also much older than Alfred, butÆthelred(865–871) was only a year or two older. Alfred's only known sister,Æthelswith,marriedBurgred,king of Mercia in 853. Most historians think that Osburh was the mother of all Æthelwulf's children, but some suggest that the older ones were born to an unrecorded first wife. Osburh was descended from the rulers of theIsle of Wight.She was described by Alfred's biographer Asser as "a most religious woman, noble by temperament and noble by birth". She had died by 856 when Æthelwulf marriedJudith,daughter ofCharles the Bald,king ofWest Francia.

In 868, Alfred marriedEalhswith,daughter of the Mercian noblemanÆthelred Mucel,ealdormanof the Gaini, and his wife Eadburh, who was of royal Mercian descent.Their children wereÆthelflæd,who marriedÆthelred, Lord of the Mercians;Edward the Elder,Alfred's successor as king;Æthelgifu,abbess ofShaftesbury;Ælfthryth,who marriedBaldwin,count ofFlanders;andÆthelweard.

Background

Map of Britain in 886

Alfred's grandfather,Ecgberht,became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historianRichard Abels,it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For 200 years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex sinceCeawlinin the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant ofCerdic,the founder of theWest Saxon dynasty.This made Ecgberht anætheling– a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839, he was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf; all subsequent West Saxon kings were descendants of Ecgberht and Æthelwulf, and were also sons of kings.

At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of theAnglo-Saxons.Mercia dominated southern England, but its supremacy came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at theBattle of Ellendun.Mercia and Wessex became allies, which was important in the resistance toVikingattacks.In 853, King Burgred of Mercia requested West Saxon help to suppress a Welsh rebellion, and Æthelwulf led a West Saxon contingent in a successful joint campaign. In the same year Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter, Æthelswith.

In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom ofKent,and its sub-king,Baldred,was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830,Essex,SurreyandSussexhad submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as king of Kent.The Vikings ravaged theIsle of Sheppeyin 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht atCarhamptonin Somerset,but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance ofCornishmenand Vikings at theBattle of Hingston Down,reducing Cornwall to the status of aclient kingdom.When Æthelwulf succeeded to the throne, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan as sub-king of Kent.Ecgberht and Æthelwulf may not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent because they both appointed sons as sub-kings, and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control, and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.

Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated at Carhampton.In 850, Æthelstan defeated a Danish fleet offSandwichin the first recorded naval battle in English history.In 851, Æthelwulf and his second son, Æthelbald, defeated the Vikings at theBattle of Acleaand, according to theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,"there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took the victory".Æthelwulf died in 858 and was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex and by his next oldest son, Æthelberht, as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his father by two years, and Æthelberht then for the first time united Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom.

Childhood

Alfred's fatherÆthelwulf of Wessexin the early 14th-centuryGenealogical Roll of the Kings of England

According to Asser, in his childhood Alfred won a beautifully decorated book of English poetry, offered as a prize by his mother to the first of her sons able to memorise it. He must have had it read to him because his mother died when he was about six and he did not learn to read until he was 12.In 853, Alfred is reported by theAnglo-Saxon Chronicleto have been sent to Rome where he wasconfirmedbyPope Leo IV,who "anointed him as king".Victorianwriters later interpreted this as an anticipatory coronation in preparation for his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex. This is unlikely; his succession could not have been foreseen at the time because Alfred had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a "consul" and a misinterpretation of this investiture, deliberate or accidental, could explain later confusion.It may be based upon the fact that Alfred 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, Æthelwulf was deposed by his sonÆthelbald.With civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to form a compromise. Æthelbald retained the western shires (i.e. historical Wessex), and Æthelwulf ruled in the east. After King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession: Æthelbald,ÆthelberhtandÆthelred.

The reigns of Alfred's brothers

A map of the route taken by the VikingGreat Heathen Armywhich arrived inEnglandfromDenmark,Norwayandsouthern Swedenin 865.

Alfred is not mentioned during the short reigns of his older brothers Æthelbald and Æthelberht. TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicledescribes theGreat Heathen Armyof Danes landing in East Anglia with the intent of conquering the four kingdoms which constituted Anglo-Saxon England in 865.Alfred's public life began in 865 at age 16 with the accession of his third brother, 18-year-old Æthelred. During this period, Bishop Asser gave Alfred the unique title ofsecundarius,which may indicate a position similar to the Celtictanist,a recognised successor closely associated with the reigning monarch. This arrangement may have been sanctioned by Alfred's father or by theWitanto guard against the danger of a disputed succession should Æthelred fall in battle. It was a well known tradition among other Germanic peoples – such as the Swedes and Franks to whom the Anglo-Saxons were closely related – to crown a successor as royal prince and military commander.

Viking invasion

In 868, Alfred was recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in a failed attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army led byIvar the Bonelessout of the adjoiningKingdom of Mercia.The Danes arrived in his homeland at the end of 870, and nine engagements were fought in the following year, with mixed results; the places and dates of two of these battles have not been recorded. A successful skirmish at theBattle of Englefieldin Berkshire on 31 December 870 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege and theBattle of Readingby Ivar's brotherHalfdan Ragnarssonon 5 January 871. Four days later, the Anglo-Saxons won a victory at theBattle of Ashdownon theBerkshire Downs,possibly nearComptonorAldworth.The Saxons were defeated at theBattle of Basingon 22 January. They were defeated again on 22 March at theBattle of Merton(perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset).Æthelred died shortly afterwards in April 871.

King at war

Early struggles

In April 871, King Æthelred died and Alfred acceded to the throne of Wessex and the burden of its defence, even though Æthelred left two under-age sons,ÆthelhelmandÆthelwold.This was in accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly at an unidentified place called Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. The deceased's sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving brother would be king. Given the Danish invasion and the youth of his nephews, Alfred's accession probably went uncontested.

While he was busy with the burial ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the Saxon army in his absence at an unnamed spot and then again in his presence atWiltonin May.The defeat at Wilton smashed any remaining hope that Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom. Alfred was forced instead to make peace with them. Although the terms of the peace are not recorded, Bishop Asser wrote that the pagans agreed to vacate the realm and made good their promise.

The Viking army withdrew from Reading in the autumn of 871 to take up winter quarters in Mercian London. Although not mentioned by Asser or by theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,Alfred probably paid the Vikings silver to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year.Hoardsdating to the Viking occupation of London in 871/872 have been excavated atCroydon,GravesendandWaterloo Bridge.These finds hint at the cost involved in making peace with the Vikings. For the next five years, the Danes occupied other parts of England.

In 876, under Guthrum, Oscetel and Anwend, the Danes slipped past the Saxon army and attacked and occupiedWarehamin Dorset. Alfred blockaded them but was unable to take Wareham by assault. He negotiated a peace that involved an exchange of hostages and oaths, which the Danes swore on a "holy ring" associated with the worship ofThor.The Danes broke their word, and after killing all the hostages, slipped away under cover of night toExeterin Devon.

Alfred blockaded the Viking ships in Devon, and with a relief fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes were forced to submit. The Danes withdrew to Mercia. In January 878, the Danes made a sudden attack onChippenham,a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas "and most of the people they killed, except the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and swamp, and afterEasterhe made a fort atAthelneyin the marshes ofSomerset,and from that fort kept fighting against the foe ".Considering the fate of the Mercians' kingdom under similar Viking pressure and an analysis of charter signatories either side of the raid it has been suggestedthat Alfred may have fallen prey to a Witan coup at Chippenham rather than simply being surprised by a Viking attack. From his fort at Athelney, an island in the marshes nearNorth Petherton,Alfred was able to mount a resistance campaign, rallying the local militias from Somerset,WiltshireandHampshire.878 was the nadir of the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. With all the other kingdoms having fallen to the Vikings, Wessex alone was resisting.

Legend of burnt cake

Having fled to theSomerset Levels,Alfred was purportedly given shelter by a peasant woman who, unaware of his identity, asked him to mind some wheaten cakes she left baking by the fire.Preoccupied with the problems of his kingdom, Alfred accidentally let the cakes burn, and was roundly scolded by the woman upon her return. The first written account of the legend appears a century after Alfred's death, though it may have earlier origins infolklore.

Counter-attack and victory

King Alfred's Tower(1772) inSomerset,on the supposed site of Egbert's Stone, the mustering place before theBattle of Edington

In the seventh week after Easter (4–10 May 878), aroundWhitsuntide,Alfred rode toEgbert's Stoneeast ofSelwoodwhere he was met by "all the people of Somerset and ofWiltshireand of that part ofHampshirewhich is on this side of the sea (that is, west ofSouthampton Water), and they rejoiced to see him ".Alfred's emergence from his marshland stronghold was part of a carefully planned offensive that entailed raising thefyrdsof threeshires.This meant not only that the king had retained the loyalty ofealdormen,royalreevesand king'sthegns,who were charged with levying and leading these forces, but that they had maintained their positions of authority in these localities well enough to answer his summons to war. Alfred's actions also suggest a system of scouts and messengers.

Alfred won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Edington which may have been fought nearWestbury, Wiltshire.He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold atChippenhamand starved them into submission. One of the terms of the surrender was that Guthrum convert to Christianity. Three weeks later, the Danish king and 29 of his chief men were baptised at Alfred's court at Aller, near Athelney, with Alfred receiving Guthrum as his spiritual son.

According to Asser,

The unbinding of thechrisomon the eighth day took place at a royal estate calledWedmore.

— Keynes & Lapidge 1983,Ch. 56

At Wedmore, Alfred and Guthrum negotiated what some historians have called theTreaty of Wedmore,but it was to be some years after the cessation of hostilities that a formal treaty was signed.Under the terms of the so-called Treaty of Wedmore, the converted Guthrum was required to leave Wessex and return to East Anglia. Consequently, in 879 the Viking army left Chippenham and made its way to Cirencester.The formalTreaty of Alfred and Guthrum,preserved inOld EnglishinCorpus Christi College, Cambridge(Manuscript 383), and in aLatincompilation known asQuadripartitus,was negotiated later, perhaps in 879 or 880, when KingCeolwulf II of Merciawas deposed.

That treaty divided up the kingdom of Mercia. By its terms, the boundary between Alfred's and Guthrum's kingdoms was to run up theRiver Thamesto theRiver Lea,follow the Lea to its source (nearLuton), from there extend in a straight line toBedford,and from Bedford follow theRiver OusetoWatling Street.

Alfred succeeded to Ceolwulf's kingdom consisting of western Mercia, and Guthrum incorporated the eastern part of Mercia into an enlargedKingdom of East Anglia(henceforward known as theDanelaw). By terms of the treaty, moreover, Alfred was to have control over the Mercian city of London and its mints—at least for the time being.In 825, theAnglo-Saxon Chroniclehad recorded that the people of Essex, Sussex, Kent and Surrey surrendered toEgbert,Alfred's grandfather. From then until the arrival of theGreat Heathen Army,Essex had formed part of Wessex. After the foundation of Danelaw, it appears that some of Essex would have been ceded to the Danes, but how much is not clear.

880s

Further information:LondiniumandAnglo-Saxon London

With the signing of theTreaty of Alfred and Guthrum,an event most commonly held to have taken place around 880 when Guthrum's people began settlingEast Anglia,Guthrum was neutralised as a threat.The Viking army, which had stayed at Fulham during the winter of 878–879, sailed for Ghent and was active on the continent from 879 to 892.

There were local raids on the coast of Wessex throughout the 880s. In 882, Alfred fought a small sea battle against four Danish ships. Two of the ships were destroyed, and the others surrendered. This was one of four sea battles recorded in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,three of which involved Alfred.Similar small skirmishes with independent Viking raiders would have occurred for much of the period as they had for decades.

In 883,Pope Marinusexempted the Saxon quarter in Rome from taxation, probably in return for Alfred's promise to send alms annually to Rome, which may be the origin of the medieval tax calledPeter's Pence.The pope sent gifts to Alfred, including what was reputed to be a piece of theTrue Cross.

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 forced to deal with a number of Danish raids and incursions. Among these was a raid inKent,an allied kingdom inSouth East England,during the year 885, which was possibly the largest raid since the battles with Guthrum. Asser's account of the raid places the Danish raiders at the Saxon city ofRochester,where they built a temporary fortress in order to besiege the city. In response to this incursion, Alfred led anAnglo-Saxonforce against the Danes who, instead of engaging the army of Wessex, fled to their beached ships and sailed to another part of Britain. The retreating Danish force supposedly left Britain the following summer.

Not long after the failed Danish raid in Kent, Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia. The purpose of this expedition is debated, but Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder.After travelling up theRiver Stour,the fleet was met by Danish vessels that numbered 13 or 16 (sources vary on the number), and a battle ensued.The Anglo-Saxon fleet emerged victorious, and asHenry of Huntingdonwrites, "laden with spoils".The victorious fleet was surprised when attempting to leave the River Stour and was attacked by a Danish force at the mouth of the river. The Danish fleet defeated Alfred's fleet, which may have been weakened in the previous engagement.

King of the Anglo-Saxons

A plaque in theCity of Londonnoting the restoration of the Roman walled city by Alfred

A year later, in 886, Alfred reoccupied the city of London and set out to make it habitable again.Alfred entrusted the city to the care of his son-in-lawÆthelred,ealdorman of Mercia. Soon afterwards, Alfred restyled himself as "King of the Anglo-Saxons". The restoration of London progressed through the latter half of the 880s and is believed to have revolved around a new street plan; added fortifications in addition to the existing Roman walls; and, some believe, the construction of matching fortifications on the south bank of the River Thames.

This is also the period in which almost all chroniclers agree that the Saxon people of pre-unification England submitted to Alfred.In 888, Æthelred, thearchbishop of Canterbury,also died. One year later Guthrum, or Athelstan by his baptismal name, Alfred's former enemy and king of East Anglia, died and was buried inHadleigh, Suffolk.Guthrum's death changed the political landscape for Alfred. The resulting power vacuum stirred other power-hungry warlords eager to take his place in the following years.

Viking attacks (890s)

After another lull, in the autumn of 892 or 893, the Danes attacked again. Finding their position in mainland Europe precarious, they crossed to England in 330 ships in two divisions. They entrenched themselves, the larger body atAppledore, Kent,and the lesser underHastein,atMilton,also in Kent. The invaders brought their wives and children with them, indicating a meaningful attempt at conquest and colonisation. Alfred, in 893 or 894, took up a position from which he could observe both forces.

While he was in talks with Hastein, the Danes at Appledore broke out and struck north-westwards. They were overtaken by Alfred's eldest son Edward, and were defeated at theBattle of Farnhamin Surrey. They took refuge on an island atThorney,on theRiver ColnebetweenBuckinghamshireandMiddlesex,where they were blockaded and forced to give hostages and promise to leave Wessex.They then went to Essex and after suffering another defeat atBenfleet,joined with Hastein's force atShoebury.

Alfred had been on his way to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that theNorthumbrianand East Anglian Danes were besiegingExeterand an unnamed stronghold on theNorth Devonshore. Alfred at once hurried westward and raised theSiege of Exeter.The fate of the other place is not recorded.

The force under Hastein set out to march up theThames Valley,possibly with the idea of assisting their friends in the west. They were met by a large force under the three great ealdormen ofMercia,Wiltshire and Somerset and forced to head off to the north-west, being finally overtaken and blockaded atButtington.(Some identify this with Buttington Tump at the mouth of theRiver Wye,others withButtingtonnearWelshpool.) An attempt to break through the English lines failed. Those who escaped retreated to Shoebury. After collecting reinforcements, they made a sudden dash across England and occupied the ruinedRomanwalls ofChester.The English did not attempt a winter blockade but contented themselves with destroying all the supplies in the district.

Early in 894 or 895 lack of food obliged the Danes to retire once more to Essex. At the end of the year, the Danes drew their ships up the River Thames and theRiver Leaand fortified themselves twenty miles (32 km) north of London. A frontal attack on the Danish lines failed but later in the year, Alfred saw a means of obstructing the river to prevent the egress of the Danish ships. The Danes realised that they were outmanoeuvred, struck off north-westwards and wintered atCwatbridgenearBridgnorth.The next year, 896 (or 897), they gave up the struggle. Some retired toNorthumbria,some to East Anglia. Those who had no connections in England returned to the continent.

Military reorganisation

Alfred the Great silver offering penny, 871–899. Legend: AELFRED REX SAXONUM ('Alfred King of the Saxons')

The Germanic tribes who invaded Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries relied upon the unarmoured infantry supplied by theirtribal levy,orfyrd,and it was upon this system that the military power of the several kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England depended.The fyrd was a local militia in the Anglo-Saxon shire in which all freemen had to serve; those who refused military service were subject to fines or loss of their land.According to thelaw codeofKing Ine of Wessex,issued inc. 694:

If a nobleman who holds land neglects military service, he shall pay 120 shillings and forfeit his land; a nobleman who holds no land shall pay 60 shillings; a commoner shall pay a fine of 30 shillings for neglecting military service

— Attenborough 1922,pp. 52–53

Wessex's history of failures preceding Alfred's success in 878 emphasised to him that the traditional system of battle he had inherited played to the Danes' advantage. While the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes attacked settlements for plunder, they employed different tactics. In their raids the Anglo-Saxons traditionally preferred to attack head-on by assembling their forces in ashield wall,advancing against their target and overcoming the oncoming wall marshalled against them in defence.The Danes preferred to choose easy targets, mapping cautious forays to avoid risking their plunder with high-stake attacks for more. Alfred determined their tactic was to launch small attacks from a secure base to which they could retreat should their raiders meet strong resistance.

The bases were prepared in advance, often by capturing an estate and augmenting its defences with ditches,rampartsandpalisades.Once inside the fortification, Alfred realised, the Danes enjoyed the advantage, better situated to outlast their opponents or crush them with a counter-attack because the provisions and stamina of the besieging forces waned.

The means by which the Anglo-Saxons marshalled forces to defend against marauders also left them vulnerable to the Vikings. It was the responsibility of the shire fyrd to deal with local raids. The king could call up the national militia to defend the kingdom but in the case of the Viking raids, problems with communication and raising supplies meant that the national militia could not be mustered quickly enough. It was only after the raids had begun that a call went out to landowners to gather their men for battle. Large regions could be devastated before the fyrd could assemble and arrive. Although the landowners were obliged to the king to supply these men when called, during the attacks in 878 many of them abandoned their king and collaborated with Guthrum.

With these lessons in mind Alfred capitalised on the relatively peaceful years following his victory at Edington with an ambitious restructuring of Saxon defences. On a trip to Rome Alfred had stayed with Charles the Bald, and it is possible that he may have studied how the Carolingian kings had dealt with Viking raiders. Learning from their experiences he was able to establish a system of taxation and defence for Wessex. There had been a system of fortifications in pre-Viking Mercia that may have been an influence. When the Viking raids resumed in 892 Alfred was better prepared to confront them with a standing, mobile field army, a network of garrisons and a small fleet of ships navigating the rivers and estuaries.

Administration and taxation

Tenants in Anglo-Saxon England had a threefold obligation based on their landholding: the so-called "common burdens" of military service, fortress work, and bridge repair. This threefold obligation has traditionally been calledtrinoda necessitasortrimoda necessitas.The Old English name for the fine due for neglecting military service wasfierdwite.To maintain theburhs,and to reorganise the fyrd as a standing army, Alfred expanded the tax and conscription system based on the productivity of a tenant's landholding. The hide was the basic unit of the system on which the tenant's public obligations were assessed. A hide is thought to represent the amount of land required to support one family. The hide differed in size according to the value and resources of the land and the landowner would have to provide service based on how many hides he owned.

Burghal system

See also:Burghal Hidage

A map ofburhsnamed in theBurghal Hidage

The walled defence round aburh.TheCity Wallsof Alfred's capital,Winchester.Saxon and medieval work on Roman foundations.

The foundation of Alfred's new military defence system was a network of burhs, distributed at tactical points throughout the kingdom.There were thirty-three burhs, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) apart, enabling the military to confront attacks anywhere in the kingdom within a day.

Alfred's burhs (of which 22 developed intoboroughs) ranged from formerRoman towns,such as Winchester, where the stone walls were repaired and ditches added, to massive earthen walls surrounded by wide ditches, probably reinforced with woodenrevetmentsand palisades, such as atBurphamin West Sussex.The size of the burhs ranged from tiny outposts such asPiltonin Devon, to large fortifications in established towns, the largest being at Winchester.

A document now known as theBurghal Hidageprovides an insight into how the system worked. It lists the hidage for each of the fortified towns contained in the document.Wallingfordhad a hidage of 2,400, which meant that the landowners there were responsible for supplying and feeding 2,400 men, the number sufficient for maintaining 9,900 feet (1.88 miles; 3.0 kilometres) of wall.A total of 27,071 soldiers were needed, approximately one in four of all the free men in Wessex.Many of the burhs were twin towns that straddled a river and were connected by a fortified bridge, like those built by Charles the Bald a generation before.The double-burh blocked passage on the river, forcing Viking ships to navigate under a garrisoned bridge lined with men armed with stones, spears or arrows. Other burhs were sited near fortified royal villas, allowing the king better control over his strongholds.

The burhs were connected by a road system maintained for army use (known asherepaths). The roads allowed an army quickly to be assembled, sometimes from more than one burh, to confront the Viking invader.The road network posed significant obstacles to Viking invaders, especially those laden with booty. The system threatened Viking routes and communications making it far more dangerous for them. The Vikings lacked the equipment for a siege against a burh and a developed doctrine ofsiegecraft,having tailored their methods of fighting to rapid strikes and unimpeded retreats to well-defended fortifications. The only means left to them was to starve the burh into submission but this gave the king time to send his field army or garrisons from neighbouring burhs along the army roads. In such cases, the Vikings were extremely vulnerable to pursuit by the king's joint military forces.Alfred's burh system posed such a formidable challenge against Viking attack that when the Vikings returned in 892 and stormed a half-built, poorly garrisoned fortress up theLympneestuary in Kent, the Anglo-Saxons were able to limit their penetration to the outer frontiers of Wessex and Mercia.Alfred's burghal system was revolutionary in its strategic conception and potentially expensive in its execution. His contemporary biographer Asser wrote that many nobles balked at the demands placed upon them even though they were for "the common needs of the kingdom".

English navy

Alfred also tried his hand at naval design. In 896 he ordered the construction of a small fleet, perhaps a dozen or so longships that, at 60 oars, were twice the size of Viking warships.This was not, as the Victorians asserted, the birth of theEnglish Navy.Wessex had possessed a royal fleet before this. Alfred's older brother sub-kingÆthelstan of Kentand Ealdorman Ealhhere had defeated a Viking fleet in 851 capturing nine ships and Alfred had conducted naval actions in 882.The year 897 marked an important development in the naval power of Wessex. The author of theAnglo-Saxon Chroniclerelated that Alfred's ships were larger, swifter, steadier and rode higher in the water than either Danish orFrisianships. It is probable that, under the classical tutelage of Asser, Alfred used the design ofGreek and Roman warships,with high sides, designed for fighting rather than for navigation.

Alfred had seapower in mind; if he could intercept raiding fleets before they landed, he could spare his kingdom from being ravaged. Alfred's ships may have been superior in conception, but in practice they proved to be too large to manoeuvre well in the close waters of estuaries and rivers, the only places in which a naval battle could be fought.The warships of the time were not designed to be ship killers but rather troop carriers. It has been suggested that, like sea battles in late Viking age Scandinavia, these battles may have entailed a ship coming alongside an opposing vessel, lashing the two ships together and then boarding the craft. The result was a land battle involving hand-to-hand fighting on board the two lashed vessels.

In the one recorded naval engagement in 896, Alfred's new fleet of nine ships intercepted six Viking ships at the mouth of an unidentified river in the south of England. The Danes had beached half their ships and gone inland.Alfred's ships immediately moved to block their escape. The three Viking ships afloat attempted to break through the English lines. Only one made it; Alfred's ships intercepted the other two.Lashing the Viking boats to their own, the English crew boarded and proceeded to kill the Vikings. One ship escaped because Alfred's heavy ships became grounded when the tide went out.A land battle ensued between the crews. The Danes were heavily outnumbered, but as the tide rose, they returned to their boats which, with shallower drafts, were freed first. The English watched as the Vikings rowed past them but they suffered so many casualties (120 dead against 62 Frisians and English) that they had difficulty putting out to sea.All were too damaged to row around Sussex, and two were driven against the Sussex coast (possibly atSelsey Bill).The shipwrecked crew were brought before Alfred at Winchester and hanged.

Legal reform

Main article:Doom book

A coin of Alfred, London, 880 (based upon a Roman model)

In the late 880s or early 890s, Alfred issued a longdombocorlaw codeconsisting of his own laws, followed by a code issued by his late seventh-century predecessor KingIne of Wessex.Together these laws are arranged into 120 chapters. In his introduction Alfred explains that he gathered together the laws he found in many "synod-books "and" ordered to be written many of the ones that our forefathers observed—those that pleased me; and many of the ones that did not please me, I rejected with the advice of my councillors, and commanded them to be observed in a different way ".

Alfred singled out in particular the laws that he "found in the days of Ine, my kinsman, orOffa,king of the Mercians, or KingÆthelberht of Kentwho first among the English people received baptism ". He appended, rather than integrated, the laws of Ine into his code and although he included, as had Æthelbert, a scale of payments in compensation for injuries to various body parts, the two injury tariffs are not aligned. Offa is not known to have issued a law code, leading historianPatrick Wormaldto speculate that Alfred had in mind the legatinecapitularyof 786 that was presented to Offa by thepapal legateGeorge of Ostia.

About a fifth of the law code is taken up by Alfred's introduction which includes translations into English of theTen Commandments,a few chapters from theBook of Exodus,and the Apostolic Letter from theActs of the Apostles(15:23–29). The introduction may best be understood as Alfred's meditation upon the meaning of Christian law.It traces the continuity between God's gift of law to Moses to Alfred's own issuance of law to the West Saxon people. By doing so, it linked the holy past to the historical present and represented Alfred's law-giving as a type of divine legislation.

Similarly Alfred divided his code into 120 chapters because 120 was the age at which Moses died and, in the number-symbolism of early medieval biblical exegetes, 120 stood for law.The link betweenMosaic lawand Alfred's code is the Apostolic Letter which explained that Christ "had come not to shatter or annul the commandments but to fulfill them; and he taught mercy and meekness" (Intro, 49.1). The mercy that Christ infused into Mosaic law underlies the injury tariffs that figure so prominently in barbarian law codes since Christian synods "established, through that mercy which Christ taught, that for almost every misdeed at the first offence secular lords might with their permission receive without sin the monetary compensation which they then fixed".

The only crime that could not be compensated with a payment of money was treachery to a lord "since Almighty God adjudged none for those who despised Him, nor did Christ, the Son of God, adjudge any for the one who betrayed Him to death; and He commanded everyone to love his lord as Himself".Alfred's transformation of Christ's commandment, from "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matt. 22:39–40) to love your secular lord as you would love the Lord Christ himself, underscores the importance that Alfred placed upon lordship which he understood as a sacred bond instituted by God for the governance of man.

When one turns from thedomboc'sintroduction to the laws themselves, it is difficult to uncover any logical arrangement. The impression is of a hodgepodge of miscellaneous laws. The law code, as it has been preserved, is singularly unsuitable for use in lawsuits. In fact, several of Alfred's laws contradictedthe laws of Inethat form an integral part of the code. Patrick Wormald's explanation is that Alfred's law code should be understood not as a legal manual but as an ideological manifesto of kingship "designed more for symbolic impact than for practical direction".In practical terms the most important law in the code may well have been the first: "We enjoin, what is most necessary, that each man keep carefully his oath and his pledge" which expresses a fundamental tenet of Anglo-Saxon law.

Alfred devoted considerable attention and thought to judicial matters. Asser underscores his concern for judicial fairness. Alfred, according to Asser, insisted upon reviewing contested judgments made by his ealdormen and reeves and "would carefully look into nearly all the judgements which were passed [issued] in his absence anywhere in the realm to see whether they were just or unjust".A charter from the reign of his son Edward the Elder depicts Alfred as hearing one such appeal in his chamber while washing his hands.

Asser represents Alfred as aSolomonicjudge, painstaking in his own judicial investigations and critical of royal officials who rendered unjust or unwise judgments. Although Asser never mentions Alfred's law code he does say that Alfred insisted that his judges be literate so that they could apply themselves "to the pursuit of wisdom". The failure to comply with this royal order was to be punished by loss of office.

TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,commissioned at the time of Alfred, was probably written to promote unification of England,whereas Asser'sThe Life of King Alfredpromoted Alfred's achievements and personal qualities. It was possible that the document was designed this way so that it could be disseminated in Wales because Alfred had acquired overlordship of that country.

Foreign relations

Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers but little definite information is available.His interest in foreign countries is shown by the insertions which he made in his translation ofOrosius.He corresponded withElias III,thepatriarch of Jerusalem,and embassies to Rome conveying the English alms to the pope were fairly frequent.Around 890,Wulfstan of Hedebyundertook a journey fromHedebyonJutlandalong the Baltic Sea to the Prussian trading town ofTruso.Alfred personally collected details of this trip.

Alfred's relations with the Celtic princes in the western half of Great Britain are clearer. Comparatively early in his reign, according to Asser, thesouthern Welshprinces, owing to the pressure on them fromNorth Walesand Mercia, commended themselves to Alfred. Later in his reign, theNorth Welshfollowed their example and the latter cooperated with the English in the campaign of 893 (or 894). That Alfred sent alms to Irish and Continental monasteries may be taken on Asser's authority. The visit of three pilgrim "Scots"(i.e.,Irish) to Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic. The story that, in his childhood, he was sent to Ireland to be healed by SaintModwennamay show Alfred's interest in that island.

Religion, education and culture

Alfred depicted in a stained-glass window of c. 1905 inBristol Cathedral

In the 880s, at the same time that he was "cajoling and threatening" his nobles to build and man the burhs, Alfred, perhaps inspired by the example ofCharlemagnealmost a century before, undertook an equally ambitious effort to revive learning.During this period, the Viking raids were often seen as a divine punishment, and Alfred may have wished to revive religious awe in order to appease God's wrath.

This revival entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales and abroad to enhance the tenor of the court and of theepiscopacy;the establishment of a court school to educate his own children, the sons of his nobles, and intellectually promising boys of lesser birth; an attempt to require literacy in those who held offices of authority; a series of translations into the vernacular of Latin works the king deemed "most necessary for all men to know";the compilation of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred's kingdom and house, with a genealogy that stretched back toAdam,thus giving the West Saxon kings a biblical ancestry.

Very little is known of the church under Alfred. The Danish attacks had been particularly damaging to the monasteries. Although Alfred founded monasteries at Athelney and Shaftesbury, these were the first new monastic houses in Wessex since the beginning of the eighth century.According to Asser, Alfred enticed foreign monks to England for his monastery at Athelney because there was little interest for the locals to take up the monastic life.

Alfred undertook no systematic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious practices in Wessex. For him, the key to the kingdom's spiritual revival was to appoint pious, learned, and trustworthy bishops and abbots. As king, he saw himself as responsible for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his subjects. Secular and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred.

He was equally comfortable distributing his translation ofGregory the Great'sPastoral Careto his bishops so that they might better train and supervise priests and using those same bishops as royal officials and judges. Nor did his piety prevent him from expropriating strategically sited church lands, especially estates along the border with the Danelaw, and transferring them to royalthegnsand officials who could better defend them against Viking attacks.

Effect of Danish raids on education

The Danish raids had a devastating effect on learning in England. Alfred lamented in the preface to his translation of Gregory'sPastoral Carethat "learning had declined so thoroughly in England that there were very few men on this side of the Humber who could understand their divine services in English or even translate a single letter from Latin into English: and I suppose that there were not many beyond the Humber either".Alfred undoubtedly exaggerated, for dramatic effect, the abysmal state of learning in England during his youth.That Latin learning had not been obliterated is evidenced by the presence in his court of learned Mercian and West Saxon clerics such as Plegmund, Wæferth, and Wulfsige.

Manuscript production in England dropped off precipitously around the 860s when the Viking invasions began in earnest, not to be revived until the end of the century.Numerous Anglo-Saxon manuscripts burnt along with the churches that housed them. A solemn diploma fromChrist Church, Canterbury,dated 873, is so poorly constructed and written that historianNicholas Brooksposited a scribe who was either so blind he could not read what he wrote or who knew little or no Latin. "It is clear", Brooks concludes, "that the metropolitan church [of Canterbury] must have been quite unable to provide any effective training in the scriptures or in Christian worship".

Establishment of a court school

Alfred established a court school for the education of his own children, those of the nobility, and "a good many of lesser birth". There they studied books in both English and Latin and "devoted themselves to writing, to such an extent… they were seen to be devoted and intelligent students of the liberal arts".He recruited scholars from the Continent and from Britain to aid in the revival of Christian learning in Wessex and to provide the king personal instruction.Grimbaldand John the Saxon came from Francia; Plegmund (whom Alfred appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 890), Bishop Wærferth of Worcester, Æthelstan, and the royal chaplains Werwulf, from Mercia; and Asser, fromSaint David's in southwestern Wales.

Advocacy of education in English

Line drawing of theAlfred Jewel,showing the socket at its base

Alfred's educational ambitions seem to have extended beyond the establishment of a court school. Believing that without Christian wisdom there can be neither prosperity nor success in war, Alfred aimed "to set to learning (as long as they are not useful for some other employment) all the free-born young men now in England who have the means to apply themselves to it".Conscious of the decay of Latin literacy in his realm, Alfred proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin.

There were few "books of wisdom" written in English. Alfred sought to remedy this through an ambitious court-centred programme of translating into English the books he deemed "most necessary for all men to know".It is unknown when Alfred launched this programme, but it may have been during the 880s when Wessex was enjoying a respite from Viking attacks. Alfred was, until recently, often considered to have been the author of many of the translations, but this is now considered doubtful in almost all cases.Scholars more often refer to translations as "Alfredian", indicating that they probably had something to do with his patronage, but are unlikely to be his own work.

Apart from the lostHandbocorEncheiridio,which seems to have been acommonplace bookkept by the king, the earliest work to be translated was theDialoguesofGregory the Great,a book greatly popular in theMiddle Ages.The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command byWærferth,Bishop of Worcester,with the king merely furnishing a preface.Remarkably, Alfred – undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars – translated four works himself: Gregory the Great'sPastoral Care,Boethius'sConsolation of Philosophy,St. Augustine'sSoliloquiesand the first fifty psalms of thePsalter.Alfred's psalms have credibly been attested as surviving in theParis Psalter.

One might add to this list the translation, in Alfred's law code, of excerpts from theVulgateBook of Exodus. The Old English versions ofOrosius'sHistories against the PagansandBede'sEcclesiastical History of the English Peopleare no longer accepted by scholars as Alfred's own translations because of lexical and stylistic differences.Nonetheless, the consensus remains that they were part of the Alfredian programme of translation.Simon KeynesandMichael Lapidgesuggest this also for Bald'sLeechbookand the anonymousOld English Martyrology.

The preface of Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory the Great'sPastoral Careexplained why he thought it necessary to translate works such as this from Latin into English. Although he described his method as translating "sometimes word for word, sometimes sense for sense", the translation keeps very close to the original although, through his choice of language, he blurred throughout the distinction between spiritual and secular authority. Alfred meant the translation to be used, and circulated it to all his bishops.Interest in Alfred's translation ofPastoral Carewas so enduring that copies were still being made in the 11th century.

Boethius'sConsolation of Philosophywas the most popular philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages. Unlike the translation of thePastoral Care,theAlfredian textdeals very freely with the original and, though the late Dr. G. Schepss showed that many of the additions to the text are to be traced not to the translator himselfbut to the glosses and commentaries which he used, still there is much in the work which is distinctive to the translation and has been taken to reflect philosophies of kingship in Alfred's milieu. It is in the Boethius that the oft-quoted sentence occurs: "To speak briefly: I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in good works."The book has come down to us in two manuscripts only. In one of thesethe writing is prose, in the othera combination of prose and alliterating verse. The latter manuscript was severely damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The last of the Alfredian works is one which bears the nameBlostman( "Blooms" ) orAnthology.The first half is based mainly on theSoliloquiesof StAugustine of Hippo,the remainder is drawn from various sources. The material has traditionally been thought to contain much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of him. The last words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting epitaph for the noblest of English kings. "Therefore, he seems to me a very foolish man, and truly wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear."Alfred appears as a character in the twelfth- or 13th-century poemThe Owl and the Nightingalewhere his wisdom and skill with proverbs is praised.The Proverbs of Alfred,a 13th-century work, contains sayings that are not likely to have originated with Alfred but attest to his posthumous medieval reputation for wisdom.

TheAlfred Jewel,in theAshmolean Museum,Oxford, commissioned by Alfred; probably a pointer to aid reading

TheAlfred jewel,discovered inSomersetin 1693, has long been associated with King Alfred because of its Old English inscription AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN ( "Alfred ordered me to be made" ). The jewel is about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimetres) long, made offiligreedgold, enclosing a highly polished piece of quartz crystal beneath which is set in a cloisonné enamel plaque with an enamelled image of a man holding floriate sceptres, perhaps personifying Sight or the Wisdom of God.

It was at one time attached to a thin rod or stick based on the hollow socket at its base. The jewel certainly dates from Alfred's reign. Although its function is unknown, it has been often suggested that the jewel was one of theæstels– pointers for reading – that Alfred ordered sent to every bishopric accompanying a copy of his translation of thePastoral Care.Eachæstelwas worth the princely sum of 50mancuseswhich fits in well with the quality workmanship and expensive materials of the Alfred jewel.

Historian Richard Abels sees Alfred's educational and military reforms as complementary. Restoring religion and learning in Wessex, Abels contends, was to Alfred's mind as essential to the defence of his realm as the building of the burhs.As Alfred observed in the preface to his English translation of Gregory the Great'sPastoral Care,kings who fail to obey their divine duty to promote learning can expect earthly punishments to befall their people.The pursuit of wisdom, he assured his readers of the Boethius, was the surest path to power: "Study wisdom, then, and, when you have learned it, condemn it not, for I tell you that by its means you may without fail attain to power, yea, even though not desiring it".

The portrayal of the West-Saxon resistance to the Vikings by Asser and the chronicler as a Christian holy war was more than mere rhetoric or propaganda. It reflected Alfred's own belief in a doctrine of divine rewards and punishments rooted in a vision of a hierarchical Christian world order in which God is the Lord to whom kings owe obedience and through whom they derive their authority over their followers. The need to persuade his nobles to undertake work for the 'common good' led Alfred and his court scholars to strengthen and deepen the conception of Christian kingship that he had inherited by building upon the legacy of earlier kings including Offa, clerical writers including Bede, and Alcuin and various participants in theCarolingian Renaissance.This was not a cynical use of religion to manipulate his subjects into obedience but an intrinsic element in Alfred's worldview. He believed, as did other kings in ninth-century England and Francia, that God had entrusted him with the spiritual as well as physical welfare of his people. If the Christian faith fell into ruin in his kingdom, if the clergy were too ignorant to understand the Latin words they butchered in their offices and liturgies, if the ancient monasteries and collegiate churches lay deserted out of indifference, he was answerable before God, asJosiahhad been. Alfred's ultimate responsibility was the pastoral care of his people.

Appearance and character

No known portrait of Alfred the Great exists from life, except on coins. Above, a likeness by artist and historian George S. Stuart, created from his physical description mentioned in historical records.

Asser wrote of Alfred in hisLife of King Alfred:

Now, he was greatly loved, more than all his brothers, by his father and mother—indeed, by everybody—with a universal and profound love, and he was always brought up in the royal court and nowhere else...[He] was seen to be more comely in appearance than his other brothers, and more pleasing in manner, speech and behaviour...[and] in spite of all the demands of the present life, it has been the desire for wisdom, more than anything else, together with the nobility of his birth, which have characterized the nature of his noble mind.

— Keynes & Lapidge 1983,pp. 74–75

It is also written by Asser that Alfred did not learn to read until he was 12 years old or later, which is described as "shameful negligence" of his parents and tutors. Alfred was an excellent listener and had an incredible memory and he retained poetry and psalms very well. A story is told by Asser about how his mother held up a book of Saxon poetry to him and his brothers, and said; "I shall give this book to whichever one of you can learn it the fastest." After excitedly asking, "Will you really give this book to the one of us who can understand it the soonest and recite it to you?" Alfred then took it to his teacher, learned it, and recited it back to his mother.

Alfred is noted as carrying around a small book, probably a medieval version of a small pocket notebook, that contained psalms and many prayers that he often collected. Asser writes: these "he collected in a single book, as I have seen for myself; amid all the affairs of the present life he took it around with him everywhere for the sake of prayer, and was inseparable from it."An excellent hunter in every branch of the sport, Alfred is remembered as an enthusiastic huntsman against whom nobody's skills could compare.

He was the youngest of his brothers, and he was probably the most open-minded. He was an early advocate for education. His desire for learning could have come from his early love of English poetry and inability to read or physically record it until later in life. Asser writes that Alfred "could not satisfy his craving for what he desired the most, namely the liberal arts; for, as he used to say, there were no good scholars in the entire kingdom of the West Saxons at that time".

Family

In 868, Alfred marriedEalhswith,daughter of a Mercian nobleman,Æthelred Mucel,Ealdormanof theGaini.The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal family.

They had five or six children together, includingEdward the Elderwho succeeded his father as king;Æthelflædwho became lady of the Mercians; andÆlfthrythwho marriedBaldwin II, Count of Flanders.Alfred's mother wasOsburga,daughter of Oslac of theIsle of Wight,ChiefButlerof England. Asser, in hisVita Ælfrediasserts that this shows his lineage from theJutesof the Isle of Wight.

Osferthwas described as a relative in King Alfred's will and he attested charters in a high position until 934. A charter of King Edward's reign described him as the king's brother – mistakenly according to Keynes and Lapidge, but in the view ofJanet Nelson,he probably was an illegitimate son of King Alfred.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Æthelflæd	c. 870	12 June 918	Marriedc. 886,Æthelred, Lord of the Merciansd. 911; had issue
Edward	c. 874	17 July 924	Married (1)Ecgwynn,(2)Ælfflæd,(3) 919Eadgifu
Æthelgifu			Abbess ofShaftesbury
Æthelweard	c. 880	16 October 922(?)	Married and had issue
Ælfthryth		929	MarriedBaldwin IId. 918; had issue

Death and burial

Alfred's will

Alfred died on 26 October 899 at the age of 50 or 51.How he died is unknown, but he suffered throughout his life with a painful and unpleasant illness. His biographer Asser gave a detailed description of Alfred's symptoms, and this has allowed modern doctors to provide a possible diagnosis. It is thought that he had eitherCrohn's diseaseorhaemorrhoids.His grandson KingEadredseems to have had a similar illness.

Alfred was temporarily buried at theOld Minsterin Winchester with his wifeEalhswithand later, his son Edward the Elder. Before his death he had ordered the construction of theNew Minsterhoping that it would become a mausoleum for him and his family.Four years after his death, the bodies of Alfred and his family were exhumed and moved to their new resting place in the New Minster and remained there for 211 years. WhenWilliam the Conquerorrose to the English throne after the Norman conquest in 1066, many Anglo-Saxon abbeys were demolished and replaced with Norman cathedrals. One of those unfortunate abbeys was the very New Minster abbey where Alfred was laid to rest.Before demolition, the monks at the New Minster exhumed the bodies of Alfred and his family to safely transfer them to a new location. The New Minster monks moved to Hyde in 1110 a little north of the city, and they transferred toHyde Abbeyalong with Alfred's body and those of his wife and children, which were interred before the high altar.

Many churches were vandalised during theEnglish Reformation,including Hyde. The Abbey wasdissolvedin 1538,the church and cloister were demolished and treated like a quarry, and the stones that made up the abbey were then re-used in local architecture.The stone graves housing Alfred and his family stayed underground, and the land returned to farming. These graves remained intact until 1788 when the site was acquired by the county for the construction of a town jail.

Before construction began, convicts that would later be imprisoned at the site were sent in to prepare the ground, to ready it for building. While digging the foundation trenches, the convicts discovered the coffins of Alfred and his family. A local Roman Catholic priest,Dr Milnerrecounted this event:

Thus miscreants couch amidst the ashes of our Alfreds and Edwards; and where once religious silence and contemplation were only interrupted by the bell of regular observance, the chanting of devotion, now alone resound the clank of the captives chains and the oaths of the profligate! In digging for the foundation of that mournful edifice, at almost every stroke of the mattock or spade some ancient sepulchre was violated, the venerable contents of which were treated with marked indignity. On this occasion a great number of stone coffins were dug up, with a variety of other curious articles, such as chalices, patens, rings, buckles, the leather of shoes and boots, velvet and gold lace belonging to chasubles and other vestments; as also the crook, rims, and joints of a beautiful crosier double gilt.

The convicts broke the stone coffins into pieces, the lead, which lined the coffins, was sold for twoguineas,and the bones within scattered around the area.

The prison was demolished between 1846 and 1850.Further excavations were inconclusive in 1866 and 1897.In 1866, amateur antiquarian John Mellor claimed to have recovered a number of bones from the site which he said were those of Alfred. These came into the possession of the vicar of nearby St Bartholomew's Church who reburied them in an unmarked grave in the church graveyard.

Excavations conducted by the Winchester Museums Service of the Hyde Abbey site in 1999 located a second pit dug in front of where the high altar would have been located, which was identified as probably dating to Mellor's 1866 excavation.The 1999 archaeological excavation uncovered the foundations of the abbey buildings and some bones, suggested at the time to be those of Alfred; they proved instead to belong to an elderly woman.In March 2013, the Diocese of Winchester exhumed the bones from the unmarked grave atSt Bartholomew's and placed them in secure storage. The diocese made no claim that they were the bones of Alfred, but intended to secure them for later analysis, and from the attentions of people whose interest may have been sparked by the recent identification of the remains ofRichard III.The bones were radiocarbon-dated but the results showed that they were from the 1300s and therefore not of Alfred. In January 2014, a fragment of pelvis that had been unearthed in the 1999 excavation of the Hyde site, and had subsequently lain in a Winchester museum store room, was radiocarbon-dated to the correct period. It has been suggested that this bone may belong to either Alfred or his son Edward, but this remains unproven.

Legacy

See also:Cultural depictions of Alfred the Great

Eighteenth century portrait of Alfred bySamuel Woodforde

Henry VI of Englandattempted unsuccessfully to have Alfred canonised byPope Eugene IVin 1441. The current "Roman Martyrology"does not mention Alfred.TheAnglican Communionvenerateshim as a Christian hero, with aLesser Festivalon 26 October,and he may often be found depicted in stained glass inChurch of Englandparish churches.

In 2007, theHoly Synod of the Russian Orthodox Churchcanonised "All Saints of the British Isles" including King Alfred.He is honoured during the Feast of all Saints of the British Isles on the third Sunday after Pentecost and on his feast day of 26 October.There is an Orthodox Mission named after St Alfred inMiddleburg,Florida.

Alfred commissioned Bishop Asser to write his biography, which inevitably emphasised Alfred's positive aspects. Later medieval historians such asGeoffrey of Monmouthalso reinforced Alfred's favourable image. By the time of the Reformation, Alfred was seen as a pious Christian ruler who promoted the use of English rather than Latin, and so the translations that he commissioned were viewed as untainted by the later Roman Catholic influences of the Normans. Consequently, while Alfred's epithet, "the Great", was in regular use from the 13th century, it was writers of the 16th century who popularised it. There is no evidence of Alfred's contemporaries using the sobriquet.The epithet was retained by succeeding generations who admired Alfred's patriotism, success against barbarism, promotion of education, and establishment of the rule of law.

The Royal Navy named one ship and two shore establishmentsHMSKing Alfred,and one of the early ships of the U.S. Navy was namedUSSAlfredin his honour. In 2002, Alfred was ranked number 14 in the BBC's list of the100 Greatest Britonsfollowing a UK-wide vote.

Statues

Pewsey

1913 statue of Alfred inPewsey,Wiltshire

A prominent statue of King Alfred the Great stands in the middle ofPewsey,where he was a landowner. It was unveiled in June 1913 to commemorate the coronation of KingGeorge V.

Southwark

Hybrid ancient and modern statue of Alfred inSouthwark

Astatue of Alfred the Greatlocated inTrinity Church Square,Southwarkis considered to be the oldest outdoor statue in London, and part of it has been found to date toRoman times.The sculpture was thought to bemedievaluntil 2021 conservation work. The lower half was then discovered to beBath Stoneand part of a colossal ancient sculpture dedicated to the goddessMinerva.It is typical of the 2nd Century, dating to around the reign ofHadrian.The lower older half is likely to have been carved by a continental craftsman used to working with British stone. The upper half dates to the late 18th or early 19th century, cast from artificialCoade stoneto fit the lower portion.

Wantage

Statue of Alfred the Great inWantage,Oxfordshire

A statue of Alfred the Great, situated in theWantagemarket place,was sculpted byCount Gleichen,a relative ofQueen Victoria,and unveiled on 14 July 1877 by thePrinceandPrincess of Wales.The statue was vandalised on New Year's Eve 2007, losing part of its right arm and axe. After the arm and axe were replaced, the statue was again vandalised on Christmas Eve 2008, losing its axe.

Winchester

Main article:Statue of Alfred the Great, Winchester

A bronze statue of Alfred the Great stands at the eastern end of The Broadway, close to the site ofWinchester's medieval East Gate. The statue was designed byHamo Thornycroft,cast in bronze bySinger & Sons of Fromeand erected in 1899 to mark one thousand years since Alfred's death.The statue is placed on a pedestal consisting of two immense blocks of grey Cornish granite.

Alfred University, New York

The centerpiece of Alfred University's quad is a bronze statue of the king, created in 1990 by then-professorWilliam Underhill.It features the king as a young man, holding a shield in his left hand and an open book in his right.

Cleveland, Ohio

A marble statue of Alfred the Great stands on the North side of theCuyahoga County CourthouseinCleveland,Ohio.It was sculpted byIsidore Kontiin 1910.

Chronology

Alfred's sister, QueenÆthelswithof Mercia, in a manuscript of 1220

Date	Event
c. 848	Alfred is born in Wantage, Berkshire.
c. 852	Alfred's oldest brotherÆthelstan of Kentdies.
c. 853	Alfred's sister,ÆthelswithmarriesBurgred,the king of Mercians.
c. 854	Alfred's fatherÆthelwulfsends Alfred and his youngest older brotherÆthelredon a pilgrimage to Rome.
	Alfred's motherOsburhdies.
c. 855	Æthelwulf goes on a pilgrimage with Alfred, after dividing his realm between his sons,ÆthelbaldandÆthelberht.
c. 856	PreteenJudith of Flandersbecomes the stepmother of Alfred afterÆthelwulfmarries her.
	Æthelwulf returns home, but Æthelbald refuses to give up his position, forcing Æthelwulf to retire to Kent with Æthelberht.
c. 858	Æthelwulf dies.
c. 860	Æthelbald dies and is succeeded by his brotherÆthelberht.
c. 865	Æthelberht dies and is succeeded by his brother Æthelred.
	TheGreat Heathen Armylands inEast Anglia.
c. 868	Æthelred aids Burgred against the Danes.
	Alfred marries Ealhswith in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
c. 870	Alfred's first childÆthelflædis born.
c. 871	Æthelred dies and is succeeded by Alfred.
	Alfred makes peace with the Danes and takes Winchester as his residence.
c. 872	Burgred pays tribute to the Danes.
c. 873	The Danes invade Mercia and seizeRepton.
c. 874	Danes sackTamworth,exiling Burgred.
	Alfred's first son Edward is born.
	The Great Heathen Army splits asHalfdanretires to Northumbria.
c. 875	Guthruminvades Alfred's realm.
c. 876	Guthrum takesWareham,but is besieged by Alfred. The Danes abandon Wareham, only to takeExeterinstead.
c. 877	Alfred besieges Exeter and is able to expel the Danes from his realm.
c. 878	Alfred is forced to flee toSomerset Levelsand begin guerilla warfare.
	Alfred defeats Guthrum decisively in theBattle of Edington,causing Guthrum's conversion to Christianity.
	Alfred's subjectdefeats another Danish invasion in theBattle of Cynwit.
c. 886	Alfred conquers London and declares himself the king of the Anglo-Saxons.
c. 888	Æthelswith dies in Pavia.
c. 893	Edward marriesEcgwynn.
c. 894	Alfred becomes a grandfather when Ecgwynn gives birth toÆthelstan,the son of Edward.
899	Alfred dies.

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Further reading

• Discenza, Nicole; Szarmach, Paul, eds. (2015).A Companion to Alfred the Great.Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.ISBN978-9-0042-7484-6.
• Fry, Fred (2006).Patterns of Power: The Military Campaigns of Alfred the Great.Melrose Books.ISBN978-1-9052-2693-1.
• Giles, J. A., ed. (1858).The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great(Jubilee in 3 vols ed.). Oxford and Cambridge.
• Heathorn, Stephen (December 2002). "The Highest Type of Englishman: Gender, War, and the Alfred the Great Commemoration of 1901".Canadian Journal of History.37(3): 459–484.doi:10.3138/cjh.37.3.459.PMID20690214.
• Irvine, Susan (2006). "Beginnings and Transitions: Old English". In Mugglestone, Lynda (ed.).The Oxford History of English.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-1995-4439-4.
• Morgan, Kenneth O.;Corbishley, Mike;Gillingham, John;Kelly, Rosemary; Dawson, Ian; Mason, James (1996)."The kingdoms in Britain & Ireland".The Young Oxford History of Britain & Ireland.Walton St., Oxford:Oxford University Press.ISBN0-1991-0035-7.
• Peddie, John (1989).Alfred the Good Soldier.Bath, UK: Millstream Books.ISBN978-0-9489-7519-6.
• Pollard, Justin (2006).Alfred the Great: the man who made England.John Murray.ISBN0-7195-6666-5.
• Reuter, Timothy, ed. (2003).Alfred the Great.Studies in early medieval Britain.ISBN978-0-7546-0957-5.

External links

• Alfred the Greatat the official website of the British monarchy
• Alfred the Greatat BBC History
• Alfred 8atProsopography of Anglo-Saxon England
• Portraits of King Alfred ('The Great')at theNational Portrait Gallery, London