| Notes |
- Alfred the Great
King of Wessex
Reign 23 April 871 – 26 October 899
Predecessor Æthelred
Successor Edward the Elder
Born 849 Wantage, then in Berkshire, now Oxfordshire
Died 26 October 899 (around 50) Winchester
Burial c. 1100 Hyde Abbey, Winchester, Hampshire, now lost
Spouse Ealhswith
Issue
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
Edward, King of Wessex
Æthelgifu, abbess of Shaftesbury
Æthelweard of Wessex
Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders
Full name
Ælfred of Wessex
House Wessex
Father Æthelwulf, King of Wessex
Mother Osburh
Alfred the Great
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfred the Great (Old English: Ælfrēd[a], Ælfrǣd[b], "elf counsel" or "wise elf"; 849 – 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.
Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking
attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become
the dominant ruler in England.[1] He is one of only two
English monarchs to be given the epithet "the Great", the
other being the Scandinavian Cnut the Great. He was also the
first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the
Anglo-Saxons". Details of Alfred's life are described in a
work by the 10th-century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser.
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 taught in English, and
improved his kingdom's legal system, military structure and
his people's quality of life. In 2002 Alfred was ranked
number 14 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Childhood
Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, historically in Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex by his first wife, Osburh.[c]
In 853, at the age of four, Alfred is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have been sent to Rome where he
was confirmed by Pope Leo IV, who "anointed him as king".[3] Victorian writers 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 as Alfred had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV
shows that Alfred was made a "consul"; a misinterpretation of this investiture, deliberate or accidental, could
explain later confusion.[4] It may also be based on Alfred's later having 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 son Æthelbald. With civil war looming the
magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise. Æthelbald would retain the western shires
(i.e. historical Wessex), and Æthelwulf would rule in the east. When King Æthelwulf died in 858 Wessex was
ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession: Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred.[5]
Bishop Asser tells the story of how as a child Alfred won as a prize a book of Saxon poems, offered by his
mother to the first of her children able to memorize it.[6] Legend also has it that the young Alfred spent time in
Ireland seeking healing. Alfred was troubled by health problems throughout his life. It is thought that he may
have suffered from Crohn's disease.[7] Statues of Alfred in Winchester and Wantage portray him as a great
warrior. Evidence suggests he was not physically strong and, though not lacking in courage, he was noted more
for his intellect than as a warlike character.[8]
Reigns of Alfred's brothers
During the short reigns of the older two of his three elder brothers, Æthelbald of Wessex and Æthelberht of
Wessex, Alfred is not mentioned. An army of Danes which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described as the Great
Heathen Army had landed in East Anglia with the intent of conquering the four kingdoms that constituted
Anglo-Saxon England in 865.[9] It was with the backdrop of a rampaging Viking army that Alfred's public life
began with the accession of his third brother, the 18 year old King Æthelred of Wessex, in 865 when Alfred was
16.
During this period Bishop Asser applied to Alfred the unique title of "secundarius", which may indicate a
position akin to that of the Celtic "tanist", a recognised successor closely associated with the reigning monarch.
This arrangement may have been sanctioned by Alfred's father, or by the Witan, to guard against the danger of
a disputed succession should Æthelred fall in battle. The arrangement of crowning a successor as royal prince
and military commander is well known among other Germanic tribes, such as the Swedes and Franks, to whom
the Anglo-Saxons were closely related.
Fighting the Viking invasion
A map of the route taken by the
Viking Great Heathen Army that
arrived in England from Denmark,
Norway and southern Sweden in 865.
In 868 Alfred is recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in an unsuccessful
attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless, out
of the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia.[10] At the end of 870 the Danes
arrived in his homeland. The year which followed has been called
"Alfred's year of battles". Nine engagements were fought with varying
outcomes, though the places and dates of two of these battles have not
been recorded.
In Berkshire a successful skirmish at the Battle of Englefield on 31
December 870 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege and Battle
of Reading by Ivar's brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5 January 871.
Four days later the Anglo-Saxons won a brilliant victory at the Battle of
Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth.
Alfred is particularly credited with the success of this last battle.[11]
Later that month, on 22 January, the Saxons were defeated at the Battle
of Basing. They were defeated again on 22 March at the Battle of
Merton (perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset).[11] Æthelred
died shortly afterwards on 23 April.
King at war
Early struggles, defeat and flight
In April 871 King Æthelred died and Alfred succeeded to the throne of Wessex and the burden of its defence,
even though Æthelred left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accordance with the
agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly at "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 ongoing 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 at Wilton in May.[11] The defeat at Wilton smashed
any remaining hope that Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom. He was forced instead to make
peace with them, according to sources that do not tell what the terms of the peace were. Bishop Asser claimed
that the pagans agreed to vacate the realm and made good their promise.[12]
Indeed, the Viking army did withdraw from Reading in the autumn of 871 to take up winter quarters in Mercian
London. Although not mentioned by Asser, or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably also paid the
Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year.[12] Hoards dating to the Viking
occupation of London in 871/2 have been excavated at Croydon, Gravesend, and Waterloo 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.[13]
In 876 under their new leader, Guthrum, the Danes slipped past the Saxon army and attacked and occupied
Wareham in Dorset. Alfred blockaded them but was unable to take Wareham by assault.[11] Accordingly he
negotiated a peace which involved an exchange of hostages and oaths, which the Danes swore on a "holy
ring"[14] associated with the worship of Thor.[15] The Danes broke their word and, after killing all the hostages,
slipped away under cover of night to Exeter in Devon.[16]
A Victorian portrayal of the
12th-century legend of
Alfred burning the cakes
King Alfred's Tower (1772) on the
supposed site of "Egbert's Stone", the
mustering place before the Battle of
Edington.[d]
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 on Chippenham, 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 after Easter he made a fort at Athelney in the
marshes of Somerset, and from that fort kept fighting against the foe."[17] From
his fort at Athelney, an island in the marshes near North Petherton, Alfred was
able to mount an effective resistance movement, rallying the local militias from
Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.[11]
A legend, originating from 12th century chronicles,[2] tells how when he first
fled to the Somerset Levels, Alfred was given shelter by a peasant woman who,
unaware of his identity, left him to watch some wheaten cakes she had left
cooking on 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.
878 was the low-water mark in the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. With all the other kingdoms having
fallen to the Vikings Wessex alone was still resisting.[18]
Counter-attack and victory
In the seventh week after Easter (4–10 May 878), around Whitsuntide,
Alfred rode to Egbert's Stone east of Selwood where he was met by "all
the people of Somerset and of Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire
which is on this side of the sea (that is, west of Southampton Water),
and they rejoiced to see him".[17] Alfred's emergence from his
marshland stronghold was part of a carefully planned offensive that
entailed raising the fyrds of three shires. This meant not only that the
king had retained the loyalty of ealdormen, royal reeves and king's
thegns, 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.[19]
Alfred won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Edington which
may have been fought near Westbury, Wiltshire.[11] He then pursued the
Danes to their stronghold at Chippenham and 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.[11]
According to Asser:
The unbinding of the Chrisom [e] took place with great ceremony eight days later at the royal estate
at Wedmore[21]
While at Wedmore Alfred and Guthrum negotiated what some historians have called the Treaty of Wedmore,
but it was to be some years after the cessation of hostilities that a formal treaty was signed.[22] 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. [21] The formal
A coin of Alfred, king of Wessex,
London, 880 (based upon a Roman
model).
Obv: King with royal band in profile,
with legend: ÆLFRED REX "King
Ælfred"
Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, preserved in Old English in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Manuscript
383), and in a Latin compilation known as "Quadripartitus", was negotiated later, perhaps in 879 or 880, when
King Ceolwulf II of Mercia was deposed.[23]
That treaty divided up the kingdom of Mercia. By its terms the boundary between Alfred's and Guthrum's
kingdoms was to run up the River Thames to the River Lea, follow the Lea to its source (near Luton), from
there extend in a straight line to Bedford, and from Bedford follow the River Ouse to Watling Street.[24]
In other words, Alfred succeeded to Ceolwulf's kingdom consisting of western Mercia, and Guthrum
incorporated the eastern part of Mercia into an enlarged kingdom of East Anglia (henceforward known as the
Danelaw). 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.[25] The disposition of Essex, held by West Saxon kings since the days of
Egbert, is unclear from the treaty though, given Alfred's political and military superiority, it would have been
surprising if he had conceded any disputed territory to his new godson.
Quiet years, restoration of Lond on (880s)
With the signing of the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, an event most
commonly held to have taken place around 880 when Guthrum's people
began settling East Anglia, Guthrum was neutralised as a threat.[26] The
Viking army, which had stayed at Fulham during the winter of 878-879,
sailed for Ghent and was active on the continent from 879-892.[27][28]
Alfred was still forced to contend with a number of Danish threats. A
year later, in 881, Alfred fought a small sea battle against four Danish
ships "on the high seas",[27] Two of the ships were destroyed and the
others surrendered to Alfred's forces.[29] Similar small skirmishes with
independent Viking raiders would have occurred for much of the period,
as they had for decades.
In 883—though there is some debate over the year—King Alfred,
because of his support and his donation of alms to Rome, received a
number of gifts from Pope Marinus.[30] Among these gifts was reputed
to be a piece of the true cross, a great treasure for the devout Saxon
king. According to Asser, because of Pope Marinus' friendship with
King Alfred, the pope granted an exemption to any Anglo-Saxons
residing within Rome from tax or tribute.[31]
After the signing of the treaty with Guthrum, Alfred was spared any large-scale conflicts for some time.
Despite this relative peace the king was still forced to deal with a number of Danish raids and incursions.
Among these was a raid in Kent, an allied kingdom in South East England, during the year 885, which was
quite possibly the largest raid since the battles with Guthrum. Asser's account of the raid places the Danish
raiders at the Saxon city of Rochester[27] where they built a temporary fortress in order to besiege the city. In
response to this incursion Alfred led an Anglo-Saxon force 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.[32]
Not long after the failed Danish raid in Kent, Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia. The purpose of this
expedition is debated, though Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder.[32] After travelling up the River
Stour the fleet was met by Danish vessels that numbered 13 or 16 (sources vary on the number) and a battle
ensued.[32] The Anglo-Saxon fleet emerged victorious and, as Huntingdon accounts, "laden with spoils".[33]
A plaque in the City of London noting
the restoration of the Roman walled
city by Alfred.
Map of Britain in 886
The victorious fleet was then caught unawares 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.[34]
A year later, in 886, Alfred reoccupied the city of London and set out to
make it habitable again.[35] Alfred entrusted the city to the care of his
son-in-law Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia. 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.[36]
This is also the period in which almost all chroniclers agree that the
Saxon people of pre-unification England submitted to Alfred.[37] This
was not, however, the point at which Alfred came to be known as King
of England; in fact he would never adopt the title for himself.
Between the restoration of London and the resumption of large-scale Danish attacks in the early 890s, Alfred's
reign was rather uneventful. The relative peace of the late 880s was marred by the death of Alfred's sister,
Æthelswith, en route to Rome in 888.[38] In the same year the Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelred, 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 in Hadleigh, Suffolk.[39]
Guthrum's passing changed the political landscape for Alfred. The resulting
power vacuum stirred up other power–hungry warlords eager to take his
place in the following years. The quiet years of Alfred's life were coming
to a close and war was on the horizon.[40]
Further Viking attacks repelled (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, at Appledore, Kent, and the lesser under Hastein, at Milton,
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.[41]
While he was in talks with Hastein the Danes at Appledore broke out and
struck northwestwards. They were overtaken by Alfred's eldest son,
Edward, and were defeated in a general engagement at Farnham in Surrey.
They took refuge on an island at Thorney, on the River Colne between Buckinghamshire and Middlesex, where
they were blockaded and forced to give hostages and promise to leave Wessex.[42][41] They then went to Essex
and, after suffering another defeat at Benfleet, joined with Hastein's force at Shoebury.[42]
Alfred had been on his way to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that the Northumbrian and East
Anglian Danes were besieging Exeter and an unnamed stronghold on the North Devon shore. Alfred at once
hurried westward and raised the Siege of Exeter. The fate of the other place is not recorded.[43]
Meanwhile the force under Hastein set out to march up the Thames Valley, possibly with the idea of assisting
their friends in the west. They were met by a large force under the three great ealdormen of Mercia, Wiltshire
and Somerset and, forced to head off to the northwest, being finally overtaken and blockaded at Buttington.
(Some identify this with Buttington Tump at the mouth of the River Wye, others with Buttington near
Alfred the Great silver offering penny,
871–899. Legend: AELFRED REX
SAXONUM "Ælfred King of the
Saxons".
Welshpool.) An attempt to break through the English lines was defeated. Those who escaped retreated to
Shoebury. After collecting reinforcements, they made a sudden dash across England and occupied the ruined
Roman walls of Chester. The English did not attempt a winter blockade but contented themselves with
destroying all the supplies in the district.[43]
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 the River Lea and fortified themselves twenty miles (32 km)
north of London. A direct attack on the Danish lines failed but, later in the year, Alfred saw a means of
obstructing the river so as to prevent the egress of the Danish ships. The Danes realised that they were
outmanoeuvred. They struck off north-westwards and wintered at Cwatbridge near Bridgnorth. The next year,
896 (or 897), they gave up the struggle. Some retired to Northumbria, some to East Anglia. Those who had no
connections in England withdrew back to the continent.[43]
Military reorganisation
The Germanic tribes who invaded Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries
relied upon the unarmoured infantry supplied by their tribal levy, or
fyrd, and it was upon this system that the military power of the several
kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England depended.[44] 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.[45] According to the law code of King Ine of Wessex, issued in
about 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.[46]
Wessex's history of failures preceding his success in 878 emphasised to
Alfred that the traditional system of battle he had inherited played to the
Danes' advantage. While both the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes attacked settlements to seize wealth and other
resources, they employed very different strategies. In their raids the Anglo-Saxons traditionally preferred to
attack head-on by assembling their forces in a shield wall, advancing against their target and overcoming the
oncoming wall marshaled against them in defence.[47]
In contrast the Danes preferred to choose easy targets, mapping cautious forays designed to avoid risking all
their accumulated plunder with high-stake attacks for more. Alfred determined their strategy was to launch
smaller scaled attacks from a secure and reinforced defensible base to which they could retreat should their
raiders meet strong resistance.[47]
These bases were prepared in advance, often by capturing an estate and augmenting its defences with
surrounding ditches, ramparts and palisades. Once inside the fortification, Alfred realised, the Danes enjoyed
the advantage, better situated to outlast their opponents or crush them with a counter-attack as the provisions
and stamina of the besieging forces waned.[47]
The means by which the Anglo-Saxons marshaled 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 hit-and-run raids, problems with
communication, and raising supplies meant that the national militia could not be mustered quickly enough. It
was only after the raids were underway that a call went out to landowners to gather their men for battle. Large
A map of burhs named in the Burghal
Hidage.
regions could be devastated before the fyrd could assemble and arrive. And although the landowners were
obliged to the king to supply these men when called, during the attacks in 878 many of them opportunistically
abandoned their king and collaborated with Guthrum.[48][49]
With these lessons in mind Alfred capitalised on the relatively peaceful years immediately following his victory
at Edington by focusing on an ambitious restructuring of his kingdom's military 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 the Viking problem. Learning from their experiences he was able to put together a system of
taxation and defence for his own kingdom. Also there had been a system of fortifications in pre-Viking Mercia
that may have been an influence. So 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.[50][51][52]
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
called "trinoda neccessitas" or "trimoda neccessitas".[53] The Old English name for the fine due for neglecting
military service was "fierdwite" or "fyrdwitee".[46]
To maintain the burhs, 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" would differ 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.[53][54]
Burghal system
At the centre of Alfred's reformed military defence system was the
network of burhs, distributed at strategic points throughout the
kingdom.[55] There were thirty-three in total, spaced approximately 30
kilometres (19 miles) apart, enabling the military to confront attacks
anywhere in the kingdom within a single day.[56][57]
Alfred's burhs (later termed boroughs) ranged from former Roman
towns, such as Winchester, where the stone walls were repaired and
ditches added, to massive earthen walls surrounded by wide ditches,
probably reinforced with wooden revetments and palisades, such as at
Burpham, Sussex.[58][59] The size of the burhs ranged from tiny
outposts such as Pilton to large fortifications in established towns, the
largest being at Winchester.[60]
A contemporary document now known as the Burghal Hidage provides an insight into how the system worked.
It lists the "hidage" for each of the fortified towns contained in the document. For example, Wallingford had a
"hidage" of 2400, which meant that the landowners there were responsible for supplying and feeding 2,400
men, the number sufficient for maintaining 9,900 feet (3.0 kilometres) of wall.[61] A total of 27,071 soldiers
were needed system-wide, or approximately one in four of all the free men in Wessex.[62]
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.[51] 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.[63] The burhs were
also interconnected by a road system maintained for army use (known as "herepaths"). These roads would
allow an army to be quickly assembled, sometimes from more than one burh, to confront the Viking invader.[64]
This 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 the Viking raiders. The Vikings
lacked both the equipment necessary to undertake a siege against a burh and a developed doctrine of siegecraft,
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
mobile field army or garrisons from neighbouring burhs along the well-maintained army roads. In such cases
the Vikings were extremely vulnerable to pursuit by the king's joint military forces.[65] Alfred's burh system
posed such a formidable challenge against Viking attack that when the Vikings returned in 892, and
successfully stormed a half-made, poorly garrisoned fortress up the Lympne estuary in Kent, the Anglo-Saxons
were able to limit their penetration to the outer frontiers of Wessex and Mercia.[66]
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 new demands placed upon them even
though they were for "the common needs of the kingdom".[67][68]
English navy
Alfred also tried his hand at naval design. In 896[69] 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 the English Navy. Wessex had possessed a royal fleet before this. King Athelstan of Kent
and Ealdorman Ealhhere had defeated a Viking fleet in 851 capturing nine ships,[70] and Alfred himself had
conducted naval actions in 882.[71]
But, clearly, the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and probably Alfred himself regarded 897 as marking an
important development in the naval power of Wessex. The chronicler flattered his royal patron by boasting that
Alfred's ships were not only larger, but swifter, steadier and rode higher in the water than either Danish or
Frisian ships. It is probable that, under the classical tutelage of Asser, Alfred utilised the design of Greek and
Roman warships, with high sides, designed for fighting rather than for navigation.[72]
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. 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 occur.[73]
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
enemy vessel, lashing the two ships together and then boarding the enemy craft. The result was effectively a
land battle involving hand-to-hand fighting on board the two lashed vessels.[74]
In the one recorded naval engagement in 896[75][69] Alfred's new fleet of nine ships intercepted six Viking
ships in the mouth of an unidentified river along the south of England. The Danes had beached half their ships
and gone inland, either to rest their rowers or to forage for food. Alfred's ships immediately moved to block
their escape to the sea. The three Viking ships afloat attempted to break through the English lines. Only one
made it; Alfred's ships intercepted the other two.[69]
Lashing the Viking boats to their own the English crew boarded the enemy's vessels and proceeded to kill
everyone on board. The one ship that escaped managed to do so only because all of Alfred's heavy ships
became grounded when the tide went out.[74] What ensued was a land battle between the crews of the grounded
ships. The Danes, heavily outnumbered, would have been wiped out if the tide had not risen. When that
occurred the Danes rushed back to their boats which, being lighter with shallower drafts, were freed before
A silver coin of Alfred.
Alfred's ships. Helplessly the English watched as the Vikings rowed past them.[74] The pirates had suffered so
many casualties (120 Danes 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 at Selsey
Bill).[69][74] The shipwrecked sailors were brought before Alfred at Winchester and hanged.[69]
Legal reform
In the late 880s or early 890s Alfred issued a long domboc or law code
consisting of his "own" laws, followed by a code issued by his late
seventh-century predecessor King Ine of Wessex.[76] 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".[77]
Alfred singled out in particular the laws that he "found in the days of
Ine, my kinsman, or Offa, king of the Mercians, or King Æthelberht of
Kent who 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 historian Patrick
Wormald to speculate that Alfred had in mind the legatine capitulary of 786 that was presented to Offa by two
papal legates.[78]
About a fifth of the law code is taken up by Alfred's introduction which includes translations into English of the
Ten Commandments, a few chapters from the Book of Exodus, and the "Apostolic Letter" from the Acts of the
Apostles (15:23–29). The Introduction may best be understood as Alfred's meditation upon the meaning of
Christian law.[79] 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.[80]
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.[81] The link between the Mosaic
Law and 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".[82]
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".[82] 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.[83]
When one turns from the domboc's introduction to the laws themselves it is difficult to uncover any logical
arrangement. The impression one receives 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 contradicted the
laws of Ine that 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".[84] In practical terms the most important law in the code may
well have been the very 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.[85]
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".[86] 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.[87]
Asser represents Alfred as a Solomonic judge, 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.[88]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, commissioned at the time of Alfred, was probably written to promote unification
of England,[89] whereas Asser's The Life of King Alfred promoted Alfred's achievements and personal qualities.
It was possible that the document was designed this way so that it could be disseminated in Wales, as Alfred
had recently acquired overlordship of that country.[89]
Foreign relations
Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers but little definite information is
available.[43] His interest in foreign countries is shown by the insertions which he made in his translation of
Orosius. He corresponded with Elias III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem,[43] and embassies to Rome conveying the
English alms to the Pope were fairly frequent.[51][f] Around 890 Wulfstan of Hedeby undertook a journey from
Hedeby on Jutland along the Baltic Sea to the Prussian trading town of Truso. Alfred personally collected
details of this trip.[90]
Alfred's relations with the Celtic princes in the western half of Britain are clearer. Comparatively early in his
reign, according to Asser, the southern Welsh princes, owing to the pressure on them from North Wales and
Mercia, commended themselves to Alfred. Later in his reign the North Welsh followed 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 the three pilgrim "Scots" (i.e. Irish) to
Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic. The story that he himself in his childhood was sent to Ireland to be
healed by Saint Modwenna, though mythical, may show Alfred's interest in that island.[43]
Religion and culture
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 of Charlemagne almost a century before, undertook an equally
ambitious effort to revive learning.[43] During this time 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.[91] This
revival entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales and abroad to enhance the tenor of the
court and of the episcopacy; 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";[92] the compilation of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred's kingdom and house, with a
genealogy that stretched back to Adam, thus giving the West Saxon kings a biblical ancestry.[93]
King Alfred the Great pictured in a
stained glass window in the West
Window of the South Transept of
Bristol Cathedral.
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.[94] According to Asser, Alfred enticed foreign monks to
England for his monastery at Athelney as there was little interest for the
locals to take up the monastic life.[95]
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.[96][97]
He was equally comfortable distributing his translation of Gregory the
Great's Pastoral Care to 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 royal thegns and officials who could better
defend them against Viking attacks.[97][98]
Impact 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's Pastoral Care that "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".[99] Alfred undoubtedly exaggerated, for dramatic effect, the abysmal state of learning in England
during his youth.[100] 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.[101]
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.[102] Numerous Anglo-Saxon manuscripts burnt up
along with the churches that housed them. And a solemn diploma from Christ Church, Canterbury, dated 873,
is so poorly constructed and written that historian Nicholas Brooks posited 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".[103]
Establishment of a court school
Following the example of Charlemagne Alfred established a court school for the education of his own children,
those of the nobility, and "a good many of lesser birth".[92] 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".[104] 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. Grimbald and John the Saxon came from
Francia; Plegmund (whom Alfred appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 890), Bishop Werferth of Worcester,
Æthelstan, and the royal chaplains Werwulf, from Mercia; and Asser, from St David's in southwestern
Wales.[105]
Advocacy of education in the English language
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".[106] 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.[107]
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".[107] 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.[108]
Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridio, which seems to have been a commonplace book kept by the king,
the earliest work to be translated was the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, a book greatly popular in the Middle
Ages. The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command by Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king
merely furnishing a preface.[43] Remarkably Alfred, undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars,
translated four works himself: Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy", St.
Augustine's Soliloquies and the first fifty psalms of the Psalter.[109]
One might add to this list the translation, in Alfred's law code, of excerpts from the Vulgate Book of Exodus.
The Old English versions of Orosius's Histories against the Pagans and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the
English People are no longer accepted by scholars as Alfred's own translations because of lexical and stylistic
differences.[109] Nonetheless the consensus remains that they were part of the Alfredian programme of
translation. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge suggest this also for Bald's Leechbook and the anonymous Old
English Martyrology.[110]
The preface of Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care explained 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 actually 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.[111] Interest in
Alfred's translation of Pastoral Care was so enduring that copies were still being made in the 11th century.[112]
Boethius'Consolation of Philosophy was the most popular philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages. Unlike
the translation of the Pastoral Care the Alfredian text deals 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 himself[113]
but 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."[114] The book has come down to us in two
manuscripts only. In one of these[115] the writing is prose, in the other[116] a combination of prose and
alliterating verse. The latter manuscript was severely damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries.[117]
The last of the Alfredian works is one which bears the name Blostman, i.e. "Blooms" or Anthology. The first
half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of St Augustine 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.
2A drawing of the Alfred Jewel.
The Alfred Jewel, in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford, commissioned by
Alfred.
"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."[111]
Alfred appears as a character in the twelfth- or thirteenth-century poem The Owl and the Nightingale where his
wisdom and skill with proverbs is praised. The Proverbs of Alfred, a thirteenth-century work, contains sayings
that are not likely to have originated with Alfred but attest to his posthumous medieval reputation for
wisdom.[118]
The Alfred jewel, discovered in Somerset in 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 21⁄2 inches (6.4 centimetres) long, made of
filigreed gold, 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.[119]
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 the "æstels"—pointers for reading—that Alfred
ordered sent to every bishopric accompanying a copy of his translation
of the Pastoral Care. Each "æstel" was worth the princely sum of 50
mancuses which fits in well with the quality workmanship and
expensive materials of the Alfred jewel".[120]
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.[121] As Alfred observed in the preface to
his English translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, kings who
fail to obey their divine duty to promote learning can expect earthly
punishments to befall their people.[122] 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".[123]
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 such as Offa as well as clerical writers such
as Bede, Alcuin and the other luminaries of the Carolingian 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, as Josiah had been. Alfred's ultimate responsibility
was the pastoral care of his people.[121]
Appearance and character
Asser wrote of Alfred in his Life 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.[124]
It is also written by Asser that Alfred did not learn to read until he was twelve 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.[125]
Alfred is also noted as carrying around a small book, probably a medieval version of a small pocket notebook,
which 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."[125]
An excellent hunter in every branch of the sport, Alfred is remembered as an enthusiastic huntsman against
whom nobody’s skills could compare.[125]
Although he was the youngest of his brothers, 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".[125]
Family
In 868 Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini.
The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member
of the Mercian royal family.[126]
They had five or six children together including: Edward the Elder who succeeded his father as king; Æthelflæd
who became Lady (ruler) of the Mercians in her own right; and Ælfthryth who married Baldwin II the Count of
Flanders. His mother was Osburga, daughter of Oslac of the Isle of Wight, Chief Butler of England. Asser, in
his Vita Ælfredi asserts that this shows his lineage from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight. This is unlikely as Bede
tells us that they were all slaughtered by the Saxons under Cædwalla. In 2008 the skeleton of Queen Eadgyth,
granddaughter of Alfred the Great was found in Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany. It was confirmed in 2010
that these remains belong to her—one of the earliest members of the English royal family.[127]
Osferth was 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 of Janet Nelson he probably was an illegitimate son of King Alfred.[128][129]
Name Birth Death Notes
Æthelflæd 12 June 918 Married c 886, Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians d. 911; had
issue
Edward c. 874 17 July 924 Married (1) Ecgwynn, (2) Ælfflæd, (3) 919 Eadgifu
Æthelgifu Abbess of Shaftesbury
Æthelweard 16 October
922(?) Married and had issue
Ælfthryth 929 Married Baldwin II d. 918; had issue
Ancestry
Ancestors of Alfred the Great
8. Ealhmund of Kent
4. Egbert of Wessex
2. Æthelwulf of Wessex
1. Alfred the Great
6. Oslac
3. Osburga
Source: Abels. Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England.[130]
Death, burial and fate of remains
Alfred died on 26 October 899. How he died is unknown, although 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 either Crohn's disease or
haemorrhoidal disease.[7][131] His grandson King Eadred seems to have suffered from a similar illness.[132][g]
Alfred was originally buried temporarily in the Old Minster in Winchester. Four years after his death he was
moved to the New Minster (perhaps built especially to receive his body). When the New Minster moved to
Hyde, a little north of the city, in 1110, the monks were transferred to Hyde Abbey along with Alfred's body
and those of his wife and children, which were presumably interred before the high altar. Soon after the
dissolution of the abbey in 1539, during the reign of Henry VIII, the church was demolished, leaving the graves
intact.[134]
Alfred's will
Statue of Alfred the Great at
Wantage, Oxfordshire
The royal graves and many others were probably rediscovered by chance in
1788 when a prison was being constructed by convicts on the site. Prisoners dug
across the width of the altar area in order to dispose of rubble left at the
dissolution. Coffins were stripped of lead, and bones were scattered and lost.
The prison was demolished between 1846 and 1850.[135] Further excavations in
1866 and 1897 were inconclusive.[134][136] 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 later came into the possession of the vicar of
nearby St Bartholomew's Church who reburied them in an unmarked grave in
the church graveyard.[135]
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 1886
excavation.[134] The 1999 archeological excavation uncovered the foundations
of the abbey buildings and some bones. Bones suggested at the time to be those
of Alfred proved instead to belong to an elderly woman.[137]
In March 2013 the Diocese of Winchester exhumed the bones from the
unmarked grave at St Bartholomew's and placed them in secure storage. The diocese made no claim 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 of King Richard III.[137][138] The
bones were radiocarbon-dated but the results showed that they were from the 1300s and therefore unrelated to
Alfred. In January 2014, a fragment of pelvis unearthed in the 1999 excavation of the Hyde site, which 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.[139][140]
Legacy
Alfred is venerated as a saint by some Christian traditions, but an attempt by
Henry VI of England in 1441 to have him canonized by the pope was
unsuccessful.[141][h] The Anglican Communion venerates him as a Christian
hero, with a feast day or commemoration on 26 October, and he may often be
found depicted in stained glass in Church of England parish churches.[142]
Alfred commissioned Bishop Asser to write his biography, which inevitably
emphasised Alfred's positive aspects. Later medieval historians, such as
Geoffrey of Monmouth, also reinforced Alfred's favourable image. By the time
of the Reformation Alfred was seen as being 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 it was writers of the sixteenth century who gave
Alfred his epithet as 'the Great' rather than any of Alfred's contemporaries.[143]
The epithet was retained by succeeding generations of Parliamentarians and
empire-builders who saw Alfred's patriotism, success against barbarism,
promotion of education and establishment of the rule of law as supporting their
own ideals.[143]
A number of educational establishments are named in Alfred's honour. These include:
The University of Winchester created from the former 'King Alfred's College, Winchester' (1928 to
2004).
Alfred University and Alfred State College in Alfred, New York. The local telephone exchange for
Alfred University is 871 in commemoration of Alfred's ascension to the throne.
In honour of Alfred, the University of Liverpool created a King Alfred Chair of English Literature.
King Alfred's Academy, a secondary school in Wantage, Oxfordshire, the birthplace of Alfred.
King's Lodge School in Chippenham, Wiltshire is so named because King Alfred's hunting lodge is
reputed to have stood on or near the site of the school.
The King Alfred School & Specialist Sports Academy, Burnham Road, Highbridge is so named due to its
rough proximity to Brent Knoll (a Beacon site) and Athelney.
The King Alfred School in Barnet, North London, UK.
King Alfred's Middle School, Shaftesbury, Dorset [Now defunct after reorganisation]
King's College, Taunton, Somerset. (The king in question is King Alfred).
King Alfred's house in Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield.
Saxonwold Primary School in Gauteng, South Africa names one of its houses after King Alfred. The
others being Bede, Caedmon, and Dunston.
The Royal Navy has named one ship and two shore establishments HMS King Alfred, and one of the first ships
of the US Navy was named USS Alfred in his honour. In 2002, Alfred was ranked number 14 in the BBC's list
of the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote.[144]
Statues
Pewsey
A prominent statue of King Alfred the Great stands in the middle of Pewsey. It was unveiled in June 1913 to
commemorate the coronation of King George V.[145]
Wantage
A statue of Alfred the Great, situated in the Wantage market place, was sculpted by Count Gleichen, a relative
of Queen Victoria, and unveiled on 14 July 1877 by the Prince and Princess of Wales.[146] 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.[146]
Winchester
A bronze statue of Alfred the Great stands at the eastern end of The Broadway, close to the site of Winchester's
medieval East Gate. The statue was designed by Hamo Thornycroft, and erected in 1899 to mark one thousand
years since Alfred's death.[147][148] The statue is placed on a pedestal consisting of two immense blocks of gray
Cornish granite.[149]
See also
Cultural depictions of Alfred the Great
Notes
a. Pronounced [ælfreːd]
b. Pronounced [ælfræːd]
c. Alfred was the youngest of either four (Weir, Alison, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealog y(1989), p.5) or
five brothers,[2] the primary record conflicting regarding whetherÆ thelstan of Wessex was a brother or uncle.
d. The inscription reads "ALFRED THE GREAT AD 879 on this Summit Erected his Standard Against Danish Invaders
To him We owe The Origin of Juries The Establishment of a Militia The Creation of a Naval Force ALFRED The Light
of a Benighted Age Was a Philosopher and a Christian The Father of his People The Founder of the English
MONARCHY and LIBERTY" (Horspool 2006, pp. 173)
e. A "Chrisom" was the face-cloth or piece of linen laid over a child's head when he or she wabsa ptised or christened.
Originally the purpose of the chrisom-cloth was to keep the "chrism", a consecrated oil, from accidentally rubbing
off.[20]
f. Some versions of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" reported that Alfred sent a delegation to India, although this could just
mean Asia as other versions say "Iudea".A( bels 1998, pp. 190–192)
g. According to St Dunstan's apprentice "...poor King Eadred would suck the juice out of the food, chew what remained for
a little while and spit it out: a nasty practice that often turned the stomachs of the thegns who dined with him[1.3"3]
h. Some Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Alfred should be recognised as a saint. SeCe ase for (http://www.orthodo
xengland.org.uk/athlifea.htm) and Case against (http://sarisburium.blogspot.com/2008/1/king-alfred-of-england-orthod
ox-saint.html)
Citations
1. Yorke 2001, pp. 27–28.
2. Crown staff 2011.
3. Giles & Ingram 1996, Year 853.
4. Wormald 2006.
5. Crofton 2006, p. 8.
6. Asser & 866, paragraph 23.
7. Craig 1991, p. 303–305.
8. Cornwell 2009, "Historical Note" (p. 385 and following).
9. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 16–17.
10. Giles & Ingram 1996, Year 868.
11. Plummer 1911, p. 582.
12. Abels 1998, pp. 140–141.
13. Brooks & Graham-Campbell 1986, pp. 91–110.
14. Giles & Ingram 1996, Year 876.
15. Arnold 2011, p. 37.
16. Giles & Ingram 1996, Year 877.
17. Giles & Ingram 1996, Year 878.
18. Savage 1988, p. 101.
19. Lavelle 2010, pp. 187–191.
20. Nares 1859, p. 160.
21. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, Ch. 60.
22. Horspool 2006, pp. 123–124.
23. Abels 1998, p. 163.
24. Attenborough 1922, pp. 98–101, Treaty of Alfred and Gunthrum (https://archive.org/stream/lawsofearliesten00grea#pag
e/98/mode/2up).
25. Blackburn 1998, pp. 105–24.
26. Pratt 2007, p. 94.
27. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 86.
28. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 250–251.
29. Alfred 1969, p. 76.
30. Asser 1969, p. 78.
31. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 88.
32. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 87.
33. Huntingdon 1969, p. 81.
34. Woodruff 1993, p. 86.
35. Keynes 1998, p. 24.
36. Keynes 1998, p. 23.
37. Pratt 2007, p. 106.
38. Asser 1969, p. 114.
39. Woodruff 1993, p. 89.
40. "A History of King Alfred The Great and the Danes "(http://www.localhistories.org/alfred.html). Local Histories.
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41. Merkle 2009, p. 220.
42. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 115–6, 286.
43. Plummer 1911, p. 583.
44. Preston, Wise & Werner 1956, p. 70.
45. Hollister 1962, pp. 59–60.
46. Attenborough 1922, pp. 52–53.
47. Abels 1998, pp. 194–195.
48. Abels 1998, pp. 139, 152.
49. Cannon 1997, p. 398.
50. Abels 1998, p. 194.
51. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 14.
52. Lavelle 2010, p. 212
53. Lavelle 2010, pp. 70–73.
54. Lapidge 2001.
55. Pratt 2007, p. 95.
56. Hull 2006, p. xx.
57. Abels 1998, p. 203.
58. Welch 1992, p. 127.
59. Abels 1998, p. 304.
60. Bradshaw 1999, which is referenced in Hull 2006, p. xx
61. Hill & Rumble 1996, p. 5.
62. Abels 1998, pp. 204–7.
63. Abels 1998, pp. 198–202.
64. Lavelle 2003, p. 26.
65. Abels 1988, pp. 204, 304.
66. Abels 1998, pp. 287,304.
67. Asser, translated by Keynes & Lapidge 1983
68. Abels 1998, p. 206.
69. Savage 1988, p. 111.
70. Savage 1988, pp. 86–88.
71. Savage 1988, p. 97.
72. Abels 1998, pp. 305–307 Cf. the much more positive view of the capabilities of these ships iGn ifford & Gifford 2003,
pp. 281–289
73. Abels 1998, pp. 305–307.
74. Lavelle 2010, pp. 286–297.
75. Giles & Ingram 1996, Year 896.
76. Attenborough 1922, pp. 62–93.
77. "Alfred" Int. 49.9, trans. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 164.
78. Wormald 2001, pp. 280–281.
79. Pratt 2007, p. 215.
80. Abels 1998, p. 248.
81. Wormald 2001, p. 417.
82. "Alfred" Intro, 49.7, trans. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 164–165
83. Abels 1998, p. 250 cites "Alfred's Pastoral Care" ch. 28
84. Wormald 2001, p. 427.
85. "Alfred" 2, in Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 164.
86. Asser chap. 106, in Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 109
87. The charter is Sawyer 1445 and is printed inW hitelock 1996, pp. 544–546.
88. Asser, chap. 106, in Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 109–10.
89. Parker 2007, pp. 48–50.
90. Orosius & Hampson 1855, p. 16.
91. Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbe.y "King Alfred the Great and ShaftesburyA bbey"- Simon Keynes.
Dorset County Council 1999
92. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 28–29.
93. Gransden 1996, pp. 34–35.
94. Yorke 1995, p. 201.
95. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 101–102.
96. Ranft 2012, pp. 78–79.
97. Sweet 1871, pp. 1–9.
98. Fleming 1985.
99. Keynes & Lapidge 1983, p. 125.
100. Abels 1998, p. 55.
101. Abels 1998, pp. 265–268.
102. Dumville 1992, p. 190.
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Wikisource has the text of
the 1885–1900 Dictionary
of National Biography's
article about Ælfred (849-
901).
Wikisource has the text of
A Short Biographical
Dictionary of English
Literature's article about
Ælfred.
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Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-43950-0.
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Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-83194-5.
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ISBN 978-0-631-22740-3.
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(online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/183. (Subscription or UK public library
membership required.)
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from the original on 15 February 2016.
Yorke, B.A.E. (2001). "Alfred, king of Wessex (871–899)". In Lapidge, Michael; et al. The Blackwell
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Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Plummer, Charles (1911).
"Alfred the Great". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University
Press. pp. 582–584.
Further reading
Discenza, Nicole Guenther; Szarmach, Paul E., eds. (2015). A
Companion to Alfred the Great. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
ISBN 978-90-04-27484-6.
Frantzen, Allen J. King Alfred the Great. Twayne's English
Authors Series. ISBN 978-0805769180.
Fry, Fred (2006). Patterns of Power: The Military Campaigns of
Alfred the Great. ISBN 978-1-905226-93-1.
Giles, J. A., ed. (1858). The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great
(Jubileein 3 vols ed.). Oxford and Cambridge.
Gross, Ernie (1990). This Day In Religion. New York: Neal-
Schuman Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-1-55570-045-4.
Heathorn, Stephen (December 2002). "The Highest Type of
Englishman: Gender, War, and the Alfred the Great Commemoration of 1901". Canadian Journal of
History: 459–84.
Irvine, Susan (2006). "Beginnings and Transitions: Old English". In Mugglestone, Lynda. The Oxford
History of English. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954439-4.
Pollard, Justin (2006). Alfred the Great: the man who made England. ISBN 0-7195-6666-5.
Reuter, Timothy, ed. (2003). Alfred the Great. Studies in early medieval Britain. ISBN 978-0-7546-0957-
5.
The whole works of King Alfred the Great, with preliminary essays, illustrative of the history, arts, and
manners, of the ninth century. 1969. OCLC 28387.
External links
Alfred 8 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Works by or about Alfred the Great at Internet Archive
Works by Alfred the Great at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
BBC article on Alfred
The full text of Lays of Boethius at Wikisource
Orosius (c. 417). Alfred the Great; Barrington, Daines, eds. The Anglo-Saxon Version, from the Historian
Orosius. London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols and sold by S. Baker (published 1773).
Alfred the Great
House of Wessex
Born: 849 Died: 26 October 899
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Æthelred
Bretwalda
871–899 Last holder
King of Wessex
871–899
Succeeded by
Edward the Elder
New title
King of the Anglo-
Saxons
878–899
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_the_Great&oldid=786406714"
Categories: Alfred the Great 849 births 899 deaths 9th-century English monarchs 9th-century Christians
Christian monarchs English Christians Medieval legislators Patrons of literature People from Wantage
West Saxon monarchs House of Wessex
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