Alfred the Great

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Narrator: Alfred put his plans into action: soon that army was trained, those ships were built and new towns, with castles to defend them, sprang up all over Wessex. c. 854 Alfred's father sends Alfred and one of his brothers, Æthelred, on a pilgrimage to Rome. The same year, Alfred's mother dies. Over time Alfred brought the English kingdoms together and his coins call him the King of the English.

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. [54] 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. [55] [56] Knight, Alfred H. (1998). The Life of the Law: The People and Cases that Have Shaped our Society, from King Alfred to Rodney King. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-512239-9. In the spring of the same year, Alfred and his remaining men managed to build a fort in the Somerset marshland at Athelney. Athelney was essentially an island in the marshes, an advantageous position away from the Danes which bought Alfred enough time to rally together the local militia. Men came from nearby towns and villages to form a tight resistance movement: the conflict had begun to take on a guerrilla style of combat. In 865 CE the Great Army of Vikings led by Halfdane and Ivar the Boneless invaded East Anglia and swiftly defeated any force sent against them. In 866 CE they took the city of York, and in 867 CE they killed the Northumbrian kings Osbert and Aelle and consolidated their control of the region. In 868 CE they made constant raids throughout Mercia and by 869 CE had completely overrun East Anglia. In 870 CE reinforcements for the Great Army arrived from Scandinavia and Halfdane led his forces to take Wallingford, ravage Mercia, and drive on into Wessex the next year. There were 4 huge battles that happened almost at once: the Battle of Reading, the Battle of Ashdown; then the Battles of BasingandMeretun. After 5 years of fighting and leading, Aethelbald died in 871. His sons were young children and could not lead during this period of war.This animated, 5-minute clip from BBC Teach will introduce children aged 7-11 years about life in the time of the Vikings. Alfred comes into the story around 2:40, and this clip covers what happens after Alfred died. Ask children to imagine what it must have been like to become King, suddenly, during this time. Alfred must have felt very responsible. The Battle of Ashdown 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. [70] 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". [128] Alfred undoubtedly exaggerated, for dramatic effect, the abysmal state of learning in England during his youth. [32] 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. [129] Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. (1840). Ancient Laws and Institutes of England: Comprising Laws Enacted Under the Angl-Saxon Kings from Æthelbirht to Cnut, with an English Translation of the Saxon; the Laws Called Edward the Confessor's; the Laws of William the Conqueror, and Those Ascribed to Henry the First; Also, Monumenta Ecclesiastica Anglicana, from the Seventh to the Tenth Century; and the Anciety Latin Version of the Anglo-Saxon Laws. Vol.1. G.E. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode. p.55 . Retrieved 13 November 2014.

Voice 3: We must have kings who can read as well as lead us into battle! Our new king should be Alfred! Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, a defender against Viking invasion and a social reformer; just few of the reasons why he is the only English monarch to be known as “the Great”. When Alfred finally did learn to read at age 12, he wasn’t taught in a school, he was taught by a tutor. In the book's extensive prologue, Alfred summarises the Mosaic and Christian codes. Dr Michael Treschow, UBC Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, reviewed how Alfred laid the foundation for the Spirit of Mercy in his code, [4] stating that the last section of the Prologue not only describes "a tradition of Christian law from which the law code draws but also it grounds secular law upon Scripture, especially upon the principle of mercy". 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 Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king merely furnishing a preface. [70] 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. [138]It is during this period that the events related in the legends surrounding Alfred are said to have taken place. Although it is often assumed that these legends come from Asser's work, they are all later creations, c. 10th century CE. The most famous of these is the story of Alfred and the burnt cakes, which comes from The Life of St. Neot.

Narrator: But Alfred was too busy thinking about the Vikings, too busy trying to work out how he might defeat them… The law code contains some laws that may seem bizarre by modern standards, such as: "If a man unintentionally kills another man by letting a tree fall on him, the tree shall be given to the kinsmen of the slain." [5] On the other hand, this precept may have anticipated the future common law of negligence, which provides that a person who is injured by the unintentional carelessness of another is entitled to recover compensation for his or her injury. In the context of the aforementioned law, the felled tree would be a valuable commodity. Another important factor, however, is that Asser's Life of King Alfred was not widely read at this time since Asser never completed it or had it copied for distribution. The work was only brought to public attention in the 17th century CE when Sir John Spelman published it as a guide for kingly behavior. In the 18th century CE, Alfred was regarded as the epitome of a noble king, and by the time of the Victorian Period (1837-1901 CE), he was embraced as the founder of the British Empire, father of the British Navy (although he only reformed it), and the greatest king to ever rule England.

King Alfred was the son of Athelwolf. Alfred’s mother was called Osburh. A most religious woman, noble in character and noble by birth. Alfred instructed Bishop Asser to write his biography. The writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles also commenced during his reign. Alfred the Great (r. 871-899 CE) was the king of Wessex in Britain but came to be known as King of the Anglo- Saxons after his military victories over Viking adversaries and later successful negotiations with them. He is the best-known Anglo- Saxon king in British history thanks to his biographer Asser (died c. 909 CE) and that work's impact on later writers. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.year=1907–21. VI. Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign. § 4. Codes of Law. According to Asser, learning was something which fascinated Alfred even when he was very young. Asser tells the story of a book, given to Alfred by his mother.

Visit the Somerset Levels and Athelney, where Alfred hid from the Vikings and may have burned some cakes! He copied the Viking tactics and at the Battle of Edington in 878, Alfred and his army defeated Guthrun and his men. Alfred is not mentioned during the short reigns of his older brothers Æthelbald and Æthelberht. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes the Great Heathen Army of Danes landing in East Anglia with the intent of conquering the four kingdoms which constituted Anglo-Saxon England in 865. [34] 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 of secundarius, which may indicate a position similar to 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. 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. [35] Viking invasion [ edit ] In 868, Alfred was recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in a failed attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army led by Ivar the Boneless out of the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia. [36] 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 the Battle of Englefield in Berkshire on 31 December 870 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege and the Battle of Reading by Ivar's brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5 January 871. Four days later, the Anglo-Saxons won a victory at the Battle of Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth. [37] The Saxons were defeated at the Battle of Basing on 22 January. They were defeated again on 22 March at the Battle of Merton (perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset). [35] Æthelred died shortly afterwards in April 871. [37] King at war [ edit ] Early struggles [ edit ]To strengthen Anglo-Saxon alliances and defend the kingdoms, Alfred married one of his daughters, Aethelflaed, to the ruler of Mercia. Alfred continued to build fortresses across Wessex. He organised rotas for his army so that when a Viking raid happened the forces could defend the kingdom. Nowhere in Wessex was more than 20 miles from a fortress. Alfred the Great's accomplishments The people of Wessex either surrendered or fled the area. Alfred and his men escaped to Somerset. Alfred and the Legend of the Bread