Alfred the Great

9th-century King of Wessex

King of the Anglo-Saxons
Alfred the Great ( 848/849 – 26 October 899 ) was king of the West Saxons from 871 to c. 886 and king of the Anglo-Saxons from c. 886 to 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf, who died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred ‘s brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred ‘s rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. [ 2 ]

After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, creating what was known as the Danelaw in the North of England. Alfred besides oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attack at conquest, becoming the prevailing ruler in England. Details of his animation are described in a ferment by 9th-century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. Alfred had a reputation as a knowing and merciful man of a gracious and healthy nature who encouraged education, proposing that primary department of education be conducted in Old English rather than Latin and improving the legal system and military structure and his people ‘s timbre of life. He was given the name “ the Great ” in the sixteenth century .

family [edit ]

Alfred was a son of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, 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 imperial estate called Wantage, in the zone known as Berkshire [ a ] ( which is so called from Berroc Wood, where the corner tree grows very abundantly ). ” This date has been accepted by the editors of Asser ‘s biography, Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, and by other historians such as David Dumville and Richard Huscroft. however, West Saxon genealogic lists country that Alfred was 23 when he became king in April 871, implying that he was born between April 847 and April 848. This date is adopted in the biography of Alfred by Alfred Smyth, who regards Asser ‘s biography as deceitful, an allegation which is rejected by early historians. Richard Abels in his biography discusses both sources but does not decide between them and dates Alfred ‘s give birth as 847/849, while Patrick Wormald in his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article dates it 848/849. [ barn ] Berkshire had been historically disputed between Wessex and Mercia, and equally late as 844, a lease showed that it was separate of Mercia, but Alfred ‘s birth in the county is attest that, by the belated 840s, master had passed to Wessex. He was the youngest of six children. His eldest buddy, Æthelstan, was old adequate to be appointed sub-king of Kent in 839, about 10 years before Alfred was born. He died in the early 850s. Alfred ‘s future three brothers were successively kings of Wessex. Æthelbald ( 858-860 ) and Æthelberht ( 860-865 ) were besides much older than Alfred, but Æthelred ( 865-871 ) was alone a year or two older. Alfred ‘s entirely known sister, Æthelswith, married Burgred, king of the interior kingdom 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 live first gear wife. Osburh was descended from the rulers of the Isle of Wight. She was described by Alfred ‘s biographer Asser as “ a most religious woman, noble by temperament and noble by give birth ”. She had died by 856 when Æthelwulf married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia. In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of the Mercian lord Æthelred Mucel, ealdorman of the Gaini, and his wife Eadburh, who was of royal Mercian descent. [ degree centigrade ] Their children were Æthelflæd, who married Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians ; Edward the Elder, Alfred ‘s successor as king ; Æthelgifu, abbess of Shaftesbury ; Ælfthryth, who married Baldwin, reckon of Flanders ; and Æthelweard .

background [edit ]

Map of Britain in 886 Alfred ‘s grandfather, Ecgberht, became king of Wessex in 802, and in the position of the historian Richard Abels, it must have seemed very improbable 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 don as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since Ceawlin in the late sixth hundred, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the fall through of the West Saxon dynasty. [ vitamin d ] This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince eligible for the enthrone. 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 besides sons of kings. At the begin of the ninth century, England was about wholly under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. Mercia dominated southern England, but its domination came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the Battle of Ellendun. The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks. 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 articulation political campaign. In the lapp year Burgred married Æthelwulf ‘s daughter, Æthelswith. In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its sub-king, Baldred, was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as king of Kent. The Vikings ravaged the Isle of Sheppey in 835, and the follow year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset, but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing cornwall to the condition of a customer kingdom. When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan as sub-king of Kent. Ecgberht and Æthelwulf may not have intended a permanent wave coupling between Wessex and Kent because they both appointed sons as sub-kings and charters in Wessex were attested ( witnessed ) by West Saxon magnates, and kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elect ; both kings kept overall operate and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own neologism. 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 off Sandwich in the inaugural recorded naval struggle in English history. In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son, Æthelbald, defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, “ there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard distinguish of up to this give 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 future oldest son, Æthelberht, as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his beget by two years and Æthelberht then for the first fourth dimension unite Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom .

childhood [edit ]

Genealogical Roll of the Kings of England Alfred ‘s father Æthelwulf of Wessex in the early 14th-century According to Asser, in his childhood Alfred won a beautifully decorated book of English poetry, offered as a prize by his beget 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 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have been sent to Rome where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV, who “ anointed him as king ”. victorian writers former interpreted this as an anticipatory coronation in cooking for his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex. This is improbable ; 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 investment, debate or accidental, could explain late confusion. It may be based upon the fact that Alfred late accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent some time at the woo of Charles the Bald, baron of the Franks, around 854–855. On their return from Rome in 856, Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald. With civil war loom, the magnates of the region 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, Æthelberht and Æthelred .

The reign of Alfred ‘s brothers [edit ]

A map of the path taken by the Viking Great Heathen Army which arrived in England from Denmark, Norway, and southern Sweden in 865 Alfred is not mentioned during the short reign 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. Alfred ‘s public life sentence began in 865 at age 16 with the accession of his third base brother, 18-year-old Æthelred. During this period, Bishop Asser gave Alfred the singular championship of secundarius, which may indicate a status exchangeable to the Celtic tanist, a greet 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 risk of a quarrel succession should Æthelred fall in battle. It was a well known custom 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 [edit ]

In 868, Alfred was recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in a fail attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army led by Ivar the Boneless out of the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia. The Danes arrived in his fatherland at the goal of 870, and nine engagements were fought in the succeed class, with mix 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 austere kill at the siege and the Battle of Reading by Ivar ‘s brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5 January 871. Four days belated, the Anglo-Saxons won a victory at the Battle of Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth. The Saxons were defeated at the Battle of Basing on 22 January. They were defeated again on 22 March at the Battle of Merton ( possibly Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset ). Æthelred died soon afterwards in April .

King at war [edit ]

early struggles [edit ]

In April 871 King Æthelred died and Alfred acceded to the throne of Wessex and the load of its defense, even though Æthelred left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accord with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an fabrication at an unidentified position 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 extra lands their uncle had acquired. The unexpressed 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 burying ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the Saxon army in his absence at an nameless blot and then again in his presence at Wilton in May. The kill at Wilton smashed any remaining hope that Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom. Alfred was forced rather to make peace with them. Although the terms of the peace are not recorded, Bishop Asser wrote that the pagans agreed to vacate the region and made effective their promise. The Viking united states army seclude from Reading in the fall of 871 to take up winter quarters in Mercian London. Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the follow year. Hoards dating to the Viking occupation of London in 871/872 have been excavated at Croydon, Gravesend and Waterloo Bridge. These finds trace at the monetary value involved in making peace with the Vikings. For the next five years, the Danes occupied other parts of England. In 876, under their three leaders Guthrum, Oscetel and Anwend, the Danes slipped past the Saxon united states army and attacked and occupied Wareham in Dorset. Alfred blockaded them but was ineffective to take Wareham by assail. He negotiated a peace that involved an commute of hostages and oaths, which the Danes swear on a “ holy closed chain ” associated with the worship of Thor. The Danes broke their news, and after killing all the hostages, slipped away under cover of nox to Exeter in Devon. Alfred blockaded the Viking ships in Devon, and with a relief evanesce 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 short ring made his way by forest and swamp, and after Easter he made a fortify at Athelney in the marshes of Somerset, and from that fortify kept fighting against the enemy ”. From his fortress at Athelney, an island in the marshes near North Petherton, Alfred was able to mount a resistance campaign, rallying the local anesthetic militia from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. 878 was the nadir of the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. With all the early kingdoms having fallen to the Vikings, Wessex alone was resisting .

The coat caption [edit ]

A legend tells how when Alfred foremost fled to the Somerset Levels, he was given tax shelter by a peasant woman who, unaware of his identity, left him to watch some wheaten cakes she had left cook on the open fire. Preoccupied with the problems of his kingdom, Alfred unintentionally let the cakes burn and was roundly scolded by the charwoman upon her return. There is no contemporary testify for the legend, but it is possible that there was an early oral custom. The inaugural known written bill of the incident is from about 100 years after Alfred ‘s end .

Counter-attack and victory [edit ]

In the seventh workweek after Easter ( 4–10 May 878 ), around Whitsuntide, Alfred drive 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 ocean ( that is, west of Southampton Water ), and they rejoiced to see him ”. Alfred ‘s emergence from his marsh stronghold was part of a cautiously planned offensive that entailed raising the fyrds of three shires. This think of not only that the king had retained the commitment of ealdormen, royal reeves and king ‘s thegns, who were charged with levy and leading these forces, but that they had maintained their positions of agency in these localities well enough to answer his summons to war. Alfred ‘s actions besides suggest a system of scouts and messengers. Alfred won a critical victory in the result Battle of Edington which may have been fought near Westbury, Wiltshire. He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold at Chippenham and starved them into meekness. One of the terms of the surrender was that Guthrum convert to Christianity. Three weeks late, the Danish king and 29 of his foreman men were baptised at Alfred ‘s court at Aller, near Athelney, with Alfred receiving Guthrum as his religious son. According to Asser ,

The unbind of the chrism [ f ] on the one-eighth sidereal day took plaza at a imperial estate of the realm called Wedmore .Keynes & Lapidge 1983, Ch. 56

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. Under the terms of the alleged Treaty of Wedmore, the convert 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 conventional 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 belated, possibly in 879 or 880, when King Ceolwulf II of Mercia was 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 the River Thames to the River Lea, follow the Lea to its informant ( near Luton ), from there extend in a neat credit line to Bedford, and from Bedford follow the River Ouse to Watling Street. Alfred succeeded to Ceolwulf ‘s kingdom consist of western Mercia, and Guthrum incorporated the easterly region of Mercia into an hypertrophied Kingdom of East Anglia ( henceforth known as the Danelaw ). By terms of the treaty, furthermore, Alfred was to have control over the Mercian city of London and its mints—at least for the time being. In 825, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle had recorded that the people of Essex, Sussex, Kent and Surrey surrendered to Egbert, Alfred ‘s grandfather. From then until the arrival of the Great Heathen Army, Essex had formed part of Wessex. After the foundation garment of Danelaw, it appears that some of Essex would have been ceded to the Danes, but how much is not clean .

880s [edit ]

With the sign language of the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, an event most normally held to have taken home around 880 when Guthrum ‘s people began settling East Anglia, Guthrum was neutralised as a terror. The Viking united states army, which had stayed at Fulham during the winter of 878–879, sailed for Ghent and was active on the celibate from 879 to 892. There were local raids on the seashore of Wessex throughout the 880s. In 882, Alfred fought a little 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 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, three of which involved Alfred. Similar minor skirmishes with independent Viking raiders would have occurred for much of the time period as they had for decades. In 883, Pope Marinus exempted the Saxon quarter in Rome from tax income, probably in return for Alfred ‘s promise to send alms per annum to Rome, which may be the lineage of the medieval tax called Peter ‘s Pence. The pope sent gifts to Alfred, including what was reputed to be a firearm of the True Cross. After the sign of the treaty with Guthrum, Alfred was spared any large-scale conflicts for some meter. Despite this relative peace, the king was 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 possibly the largest raid since the battles with Guthrum. Asser ‘s report of the raid places the danish raiders at the Saxon city of Rochester, where they built a temp fortress in order to besiege the city. In answer to this incursion, Alfred led an Anglo-Saxon push against the Danes who, alternatively of engaging the army of Wessex, fled to their beached ships and sailed to another character of Britain. The retreating Danish power purportedly left Britain the following summer. not long after the fail Danish foray into in Kent, Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia. The purpose of this dispatch is debated, but Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder. After travelling up the River Stour, the flit was met by Danish vessels that numbered 13 or 16 ( sources vary on the count ), and a struggle ensued. The Anglo-Saxon evanesce emerged triumphant, and as Huntingdon accounts, “ laden with spoils ”. The triumphant fleet was surprised when attempting to leave the River Stour and was attacked by a danish push at the mouth of the river. The danish flit defeated Alfred ‘s flit, which may have been weakened in the former employment .
A brass in the City of London noting the renovation of the Roman walled city by Alfred A year late, 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-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 ; lend fortifications in summation to the existing Roman walls ; and, some believe, the construction of matching fortifications on the south bank of the River Thames. This is besides the period in which about all chroniclers agree that the Saxon people of pre-unification England submitted to Alfred. In 888, Æthelred, the archbishop of Canterbury, besides died. One year belated Guthrum, or Athelstan by his baptismal identify, Alfred ‘s erstwhile enemy and king of East Anglia, died and was buried in Hadleigh, Suffolk. Guthrum ‘s death changed the political landscape for Alfred. The resulting power vacuum stirred other power-hungry warlords tidal bore to take his place in the take after years. The quieten years of Alfred ‘s liveliness were coming to a conclusion. [ 66 ]

Viking attacks ( 890s ) [edit ]

After another lull, in the fall 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, besides in Kent. The invaders brought their wives and children with them indicating a meaningful attack at conquest and colonization. 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 strike north-westwards. They were overtaken by Alfred ‘s eldest son, Edward and were defeated at the Battle of Farnham in Surrey. They took recourse 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. They then went to Essex and after suffering another get the better of at Benfleet, joined with Hastein ‘s push at Shoebury. Alfred had been on his direction to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes were besieging Exeter and an nameless stronghold on the North Devon shore. Alfred at once hurried westbound and raised the Siege of Exeter. The destine of the early place is not recorded. The impel under Hastein set out to march up the Thames Valley, possibly with the mind of assisting their friends in the west. They were met by a boastfully push under the three big 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 Welshpool. ) An attack to break through the English lines failed. Those who escaped retreated to Shoebury. After collecting reinforcements, they made a sudden crash across England and occupied the deflower Roman walls of Chester. The English did not attempt a winter obstruct but contented themselves with destroying all the supplies in the district. early in 894 or 895 miss of food obliged the Danes to retire once more to Essex. At the conclusion of the year, the Danes drew their ships up the River Thames and the River Lea and fortified themselves twenty miles ( 32 kilometer ) north of London. A frontal fire on the danish lines failed but later in the year, Alfred saw a intend of obstructing the river to prevent the emergence of the danish ships. The Danes realised that they were outmanoeuvred, struck off north-westwards and wintered at Cwatbridge near Bridgnorth. The future year, 896 ( or 897 ), they gave up the struggle. Some retired to Northumbria, some to East Anglia. Those who had no connections in England returned to the continent .

military reorganization [edit ]

Alfred the Great silver offer 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 unarmored infantry supplied by their tribal recruit, or fyrd, and it was upon this system that the military might 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 the jurisprudence code of King Ine of Wessex, issued in about 694 ,

If a lord who holds domain neglects military service, he shall pay 120 shillings and forfeit his down ; a lord who holds no kingdom shall pay 60 shillings ; a commoner shall pay a fine of 30 shillings for neglecting military serviceAttenborough 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 rape, they employed different tactics. In their raids the Anglo-Saxons traditionally preferred to attack head-on by assembling their forces in a carapace wall, advancing against their target and overcoming the oncoming wall marshalled against them in defense. The Danes preferred to choose easy targets, mapping timid forays to avoid risking their loot with high-stake attacks for more. Alfred determined their tactic was to launch little attacks from a guarantee base to which they could retreat should their raiders meet potent resistance. The bases were prepared in progress, often by capturing an estate and augmenting its defences with ditches, ramparts and palisades. once inside the fortification, Alfred realised, the Danes enjoyed the advantage, well situated to outlast their opponents or crush them with a counter-attack because the provisions and stamen of the besiege forces waned. The means by which the Anglo-Saxons marshalled forces to defend against marauders besides left them vulnerable to the Vikings. It was the duty 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 home militia could not be mustered quickly enough. It was only after the raids had begun that a bid went out to landowners to gather their men for conflict. 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 passive years following his victory at Edington with an ambitious restructure of Saxon defences. On a trip to Rome Alfred had stayed with Charles the Bald and it is potential 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 tax income and defense 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 resist, fluid field army, a network of garrisons and a small fleet of ships navigating the rivers and estuaries .

Administration and tax income [edit ]

Tenants in Anglo-Saxon England had a double obligation based on their landholding : the alleged “ park burdens ” of military serve, fortress influence, and bridge repair. This treble duty has traditionally been called trinoda necessitas or trimoda necessitas. The Old English name for the all right due for neglecting military service was fierdwite. 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 sum of domain required to support one class. The hide differed in size according to the rate and resources of the land and the landowner would have to provide service based on how many hides he owned .

Burghal arrangement [edit ]

The wall defense round a burh. The City Walls of Alfred ‘s capital, Winchester. Saxon and medieval oeuvre on Roman foundations. The foundation garment of Alfred ‘s new military defense 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 into boroughs ) ranged from former Roman towns, such as Winchester, where the rock 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 in West Sussex. [ gram ] The size of the burhs ranged from bantam outposts such as Pilton in Devon, to large fortifications in established towns, the largest being at Winchester. [ 88 ] A text file now known as the Burghal Hidage provides an insight into how the system worked. It lists the hidage for each of the fortify towns contained in the document. Wallingford had a hidage of 2,400, which meant that the landowners there were creditworthy for supplying and feeding 2,400 men, the number sufficient for maintaining 9,900 feet ( 1.88 miles ; 3.0 kilometres ) of wall. A full 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 strengthen bridge, like those built by Charles the Bald a generation before. The double-burh obstruct passing on the river, forcing Viking ships to navigate under a garrison bridge lined with men armed with stones, spears or arrows. other burhs were sited near fortify royal villas, allowing the king better operate over his strongholds. The burhs were connected by a road system maintained for united states army manipulation ( known as herepaths ). The roads allowed an army cursorily to be assembled, sometimes from more than one burh, to confront the Viking invader. The road network posed significant obstacles to Viking invaders, particularly those ladle with loot. 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 evolve 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 clock 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, ill garrisoned fortress up the Lympne estuary in Kent, the Anglo-Saxons were able to limit their penetration to the out frontiers of Wessex and Mercia. Alfred ‘s burghal organization was revolutionary in its strategic concept and potentially expensive in its execution. His contemporaneous biographer Asser wrote that many nobles balked at the demands placed upon them even though they were for “ the park needs of the kingdom ”. [ 95 ]

english navy [edit ]

Alfred besides tried his hand at naval design. In 896 he ordered the construction of a small fleet, possibly a twelve 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. Alfred ‘s older brother sub-king Æthelstan of Kent and Ealdorman Ealhhere had defeated a Viking flit in 851 capturing nine ships and Alfred had conducted naval actions in 882. The year 897 marked an authoritative development in the naval power of Wessex. The generator of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refer that Alfred ‘s ships were larger, fleet, steadier and rode higher in the water than either danish or frisian ships. It is probable that, under the classical care of Asser, Alfred used the blueprint of Greek and Roman warships, with high sides, designed for fighting preferably than for seafaring. [ 99 ] 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 superscript in concept, but in rehearse they proved to be besides big to manoeuvre well in the close waters of estuaries and rivers, the only places in which a naval struggle could be fought. The warships of the fourth dimension were not designed to be transport killers but quite troop carriers. It has been suggested that, like sea battles in belated Viking senesce Scandinavia, these battles may have entailed a embark coming aboard an opposing vessel, lashing the two ships together and then boarding the craft. The resultant role was a domain battle involving hand-to-hand fight on board the two lashed vessels. In the matchless recorded naval engagement in 896, Alfred ‘s newfangled fleet of nine ships intercepted six Viking ships at the talk 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 embark escaped because Alfred ‘s heavy ships became grounded when the tide went out. A state conflict 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 trouble putting out to sea. All were besides damaged to row around Sussex, and two were driven against the Sussex coast ( possibly at Selsey Bill ). The shipwreck gang were brought ahead Alfred at Winchester and hanged .

legal reform [edit ]

A coin of Alfred, London, 880 ( based upon a Roman model ) In the belated 880s or early 890s, Alfred issued a farseeing domboc or jurisprudence code consisting of his own laws, followed by a code issued by his deep seventh-century harbinger King Ine 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 unlike means ”. [ 104 ] 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, preferably 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 diverse 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 capitular of 786 that was presented to Offa by two papal legates. 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 presentation may best be understood as Alfred ‘s meditation upon the think of of christian law. It traces the continuity between God ‘s give of jurisprudence to Moses to Alfred ‘s own issue of law to the West Saxon people. By doing sol, it linked the holy place past to the historic give and represented Alfred ‘s law-giving as a type of cleric 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 chivalric biblical exegetes, 120 stand for law. The associate between Mosaic jurisprudence 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 clemency and meekness ” ( Intro, 49.1 ). The mercifulness that Christ infused into Mosaic law underlies the wound tariffs that figure so prominently in savage jurisprudence codes since Christian synods “ established, through that mercifulness which Christ teach, that for about every misbehavior at the first offense secular lords might with their license get without sin the monetary compensation which they then fixed ”. [ 109 ] 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 godhead as Himself ”. [ 109 ] Alfred ‘s transformation of Christ ‘s commandment, from “ Love your neighbor as yourself ” ( Matt. 22:39–40 ) to love your worldly godhead 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 administration of homo. [ 110 ] When one turns from the domboc ‘s insertion to the laws themselves, it is difficult to uncover any coherent arrangement. The mental picture is of a odds and ends of many-sided laws. The police 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 shock than for virtual commission ”. 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 cautiously his oath and his pledge ” which expresses a fundamental dogma of Anglo-Saxon police. [ 112 ] Alfred devoted considerable attention and thought to judicial matters. Asser underscores his concern for judicial paleness. Alfred, according to Asser, insisted upon reviewing contested judgments made by his ealdormen and reeves and “ would carefully look into closely all the judgements which were passed [ issued ] in his absence anywhere in the kingdom to see whether they were just or unjust ”. [ 113 ] 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. [ 114 ] Asser represents Alfred as a Solomonic estimate, painstaking in his own discriminative investigations and critical of royal officials who rendered inequitable or inexpedient judgments. Although Asser never mentions Alfred ‘s police code he does say that Alfred insisted that his judges be literate so that they could apply themselves “ to the pastime of wisdom of solomon ”. The failure to comply with this imperial order was to be punished by loss of agency. [ 115 ] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, commissioned at the clock of Alfred, was credibly written to promote union of England, 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 because Alfred had acquired overlordship of that nation.

foreign relations [edit ]

Asser speaks bombastically of Alfred ‘s relations with alien powers but fiddling definite information is available. His pastime 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, and embassies to Rome conveying the english alms to the pope were reasonably frequent. [ h ] Around 890, Wulfstan of Hedeby undertook a travel from Hedeby on Jutland along the Baltic Sea to the prussian trading township of Truso. Alfred personally collected details of this tripper. Alfred ‘s relations with the celtic princes in the westerly half of Great Britain are clear. relatively early in his reign, according to Asser, the southerly Welsh princes, owing to the pressure on them from North Wales and Mercia, commended themselves to Alfred. Later in his predominate, 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 inflict of three pilgrim “ Scots “ ( i.e., irish ) to Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic. The floor that, in his childhood, he was sent to Ireland to be healed by Saint Modwenna may show Alfred ‘s pastime in that island .

religion, education and culture [edit ]

Alfred depicted in a stained-glass window of c. 1905 in Bristol Cathedral In the 880s, at the lapp time that he was “ wheedle and baleful ” his nobles to build and man the burhs, Alfred, possibly inspired by the exemplar of Charlemagne about a hundred before, undertook an evenly ambitious feat to revive teach. During this time period, the Viking raids were frequently seen as a divine punishment, and Alfred may have wished to revive religious fear in order to appease God ‘s wrath. This revival entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales and afield 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 promise boys of lesser birth ; an undertake to require literacy in those who held offices of authority ; a series of translations into the common of Latin works the king deemed “ most necessary for all men to know ” ; the compilation of a chronicle detailing the emanation of Alfred ‘s kingdom and house, with a genealogy that stretched back to Adam, thus giving the West Saxon kings a biblical lineage. identical little is known of the church under Alfred. The danish attacks had been particularly damage to the monasteries. Although Alfred founded monasteries at Athelney and Shaftesbury, these were the first gear fresh cloistered houses in Wessex since the begin of the one-eighth hundred. According to Asser, Alfred enticed alien monks to England for his monastery at Athelney because there was fiddling interest for the locals to take up the cloistered life sentence. Alfred undertook no taxonomic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious practices in Wessex. For him, the keystone 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 benefit of his subjects. layman and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred. He was equally comfortable distributing his translation of Gregory the Great ‘s Pastoral Care to his bishops indeed that they might better train and monitor priests and using those lapp bishops as royal officials and judges. Nor did his piety prevent him from expropriating strategically sited church lands, specially estates along the boundary line with the Danelaw, and transferring them to royal thegns and officials who could better defend them against Viking attacks .

effect of danish raids on education [edit ]

The danish raids had a lay waste to effect on learning in England. Alfred lamented in the foreword to his translation of Gregory ‘s Pastoral Care that “ learn had declined then thoroughly in England that there were very few men on this side of the Humber who could understand their providential 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 country of learning in England during his young person. That Latin learn had not been obliterated is evidenced by the presence in his court of determine 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 dear, not to be revived until the end of the hundred. numerous anglo-saxon manuscripts burnt along with the churches that housed them. A earnest diploma from Christ Church, Canterbury, dated 873, is so ill constructed and written that historian Nicholas Brooks posited a scribe who was either then blind he could not read what he wrote or who knew little or no Latin. “ It is absolved ”, Brooks concludes, “ that the metropolitan church service [ of Canterbury ] must have been quite ineffective to provide any effective train in the scriptures or in christian worship ” .

constitution of a court educate [edit ]

Alfred established a court school for the education of his own children, those of the nobility, and “ a good many of lesser parentage ”. 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 learn in Wessex and to provide the king personal education. Grimbald and 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, from St David ‘s in southwestern Wales .

advocacy of education in English [edit ]

Line reap of the Alfred Jewel, showing the socket at its base Alfred ‘s educational ambitions seem to have extended beyond the constitution of a court school. Believing that without christian wisdom there can be neither prosperity nor success in war, Alfred aimed “ to set to learning ( a hanker as they are not utilitarian for some other use ) all the free-born new men now in England who have the means to apply themselves to it ”. [ 133 ] Conscious of the decay of Latin literacy in his region Alfred proposed that chief 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 of solomon ” written in English. Alfred sought to remedy this through an ambitious court-centred program of translating into English the books he deemed “ most necessary for all men to know ”. It is unknown when Alfred launched this program but it may have been during the 880s when Wessex was enjoying a suspension from Viking attacks. Alfred was, until recently, much considered to have been the writer of many of the translations but this is now considered doubtful in about all cases. [ 135 ] Scholars more often refer to translations as “ Alfredian ” indicating that they credibly had something to do with his clientele but are improbable to be his own work. 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 record 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 foreword. unusually, 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 psalm of the Psalter. [ 137 ] One might add to this tilt 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. [ 137 ] Nonetheless the consensus remains that they were separate of the Alfredian program of translation. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge suggest this besides for Bald ‘s Leechbook and the anonymous Old English Martyrology. The precede of Alfred ‘s translation of Pope Gregory the Great ‘s Pastoral Care [ 133 ] explained why he thought it necessary to translate works such as this from Latin into English. Although he described his method as translating “ sometimes son for parole, sometimes feel for common sense ”, the translation keeps very close to the original although, through his option of speech, he blurred throughout the distinction between spiritual and laic assurance. Alfred meant the transformation to be used, and circulated it to all his bishops. Interest in Alfred ‘s translation of Pastoral Care was so enduring that copies were distillery being made in the eleventh century. Boethius ‘s Consolation of Philosophy was the most popular philosophic handbook of the Middle Ages. Unlike the translation of the Pastoral Care the Alfredian text deals very freely with the original and, though the former Dr. G. Schepss showed that many of the additions to the text are to be traced not to the translator himself but to the glosses and commentaries which he used, still there is much in the cultivate which is classifiable 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 concisely : I desired to live worthily arsenic long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in adept works. ” The book has come down to us in two manuscripts only. In one of these [ 143 ] the writing is prose, in the early [ 144 ] a combination of prose and alliterating verse. The latter manuscript was hard damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries. The death of the Alfredian employment is one which bears the name Blostman ( ‘Blooms ‘ ) or Anthology. The beginning half is based chiefly on the Soliloquies of St Augustine of Hippo, the remainder is drawn from respective sources. The corporeal 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 match epitaph for the noblest of english kings. “ therefore, he seems to me a identical anserine man, and rightfully deplorable, 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 poem The Owl and the Nightingale where his wisdom and skill with proverbs is praised. The Proverbs of Alfred, a 13th-century workplace, contains sayings that are not likely to have originated with Alfred but attest to his posthumous medieval repute for wisdom .
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 2+1⁄2 inches ( 6.4 centimetres ) long, made of filigree gold, enclosing a highly polished nibble of quartz crystal below which is set in a cloisonné enamel brass with an enamel effigy of a serviceman holding floriate sceptres, possibly personifying Sight or the Wisdom of God. It was at one clock time attached to a thin rod or stick based on the hollow socket at its free-base. The jewel surely dates from Alfred ‘s predominate. Although its serve is nameless it has been frequently suggested that the jewel was one of the æstels – pointers for reading – that Alfred ordered sent to every diocese 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 craft and expensive materials of the Alfred bejewel. historian Richard Abels sees Alfred ‘s educational and military reforms as complementary. Restoring religion and memorize in Wessex, Abels contends, was to Alfred ‘s thinker as necessity to the defense of his kingdom as the build of the burhs. As Alfred observed in the foreword to his english translation of Gregory the Great ‘s Pastoral Care, kings who fail to obey their cleric duty to promote learn can expect earthly punishments to befall their people. The avocation of wisdom, he assured his readers of the Boethius, was the surest way to world 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 reach to baron, 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 place war was more than mere grandiosity or propaganda. It reflected Alfred ‘s own belief in a doctrine of divine rewards and punishments rooted in a imagination of a hierarchical Christian worldly concern rate in which God is the Lord to whom kings owe obedience and through whom they derive their assurance over their followers. The motivation to persuade his nobles to undertake workplace 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 bequest of earlier kings including Offa, clerical writers including Bede, and Alcuin and versatile participants in 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 religious ampere well as physical wellbeing of his people. If the Christian religion fell into laying waste in his kingdom, if the clergy were excessively 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 duty was the pastoral concern of his people .

appearance and character [edit ]

No acknowledge portrait of Alfred the Great exists from animation. A likeness by artist and historian George S. Stuart created from his physical description mentioned in historical records. Asser wrote of Alfred in his Life of King Alfred ,

now, he was greatly loved, more than all his brothers, by his church father and mother—indeed, by everybody—with a universal and profound sleep together, and he was always brought up in the imperial court and nowhere else … [ He ] was seen to be more becoming in appearance than his other brothers, and more pleasing in manner, actor’s line and behavior … [ and ] in cattiness of all the demands of the confront life, it has been the hope for wisdom, more than anything else, in concert with the nobility of his birth, which have characterized the nature of his baronial mind .Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 74–75

It is besides written by Asser that Alfred did not learn to read until he was 12 years old or later, which is described as “ black negligence ” of his parents and tutors. Alfred was an excellent hearer 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 actually 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 little book, probably a chivalric version of a little pouch notebook, that contained psalms and many prayers that he often collected. Asser writes : these “ he collected in a single reserve, as I have seen for myself ; amid all the affairs of the stage 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 hunter against whom cipher ‘s skills could compare. Although he was the youngest of his brothers, he was credibly the most open-minded. He was an early preach for education. His desire for learning could have come from his early sexual 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 stallion kingdom of the West Saxons at that clock time ” .

family [edit ]

In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian lord, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini. The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith ‘s mother, Eadburh, was a extremity of the Mercian royal family. They had five or six children together, including Edward the Elder who succeeded his father as king ; Æthelflæd who became lady of the Mercians ; and Ælfthryth who married Baldwin II, Count of Flanders. Alfred ‘s 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 descent from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight. This is unlikely because Bede tells us that they were all slaughtered by the Saxons under Cædwalla. Osferth was described as a relative in King Alfred ‘s will and he attested charters in a gamey status until 934. A charter of King Edward ‘s predominate described him as the king ‘s brother – mistakenly according to Keynes and Lapidge, and in the view of Janet Nelson, he probably was an bastard son of King Alfred .

Death and burying [edit ]

Alfred ‘s will Alfred died on 26 October 899 at the historic period of 50 or 51. How he died is unknown, but he suffered throughout his life with a atrocious and unpleasant illness. His biographer Asser gave a detailed description of Alfred ‘s symptoms, and this has allowed advanced doctors to provide a potential diagnosis. It is thought that he had either Crohn ‘s disease or haemorrhoids. His grandson King Eadred seems to have suffered from a similar illness. [ one ] Alfred was temporarily buried at the Old Minster in Winchester with his wife Ealhswith and former, his son Edward the Elder. Before his death he ordered the construction of the New Minster hoping that it would become a mausoleum for him and his kin. [ 162 ] Four years after his death, the bodies of Alfred and his kin were exhumed and moved to their new resting place in the New Minster and remained there for 211 years. When William the Conqueror rose 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. [ 162 ] Before destruction, 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 small north of the city, and they transferred to Hyde Abbey along with Alfred ‘s body and those of his wife and children, which were interred before the high altar. [ 162 ] In 1536, many Roman Catholic churches were vandalized by the people of England spurred by disenchantment with the church during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. One such Catholic church was the site of Alfred ‘s burying, Hyde Abbey. once again, Alfred ‘s seat of rest was disturbed for the immediately 3rd time. Hyde Abbey was dissolved in 1538 during the reign of Henry VIII, [ 162 ] the church web site was demolished and treated like a quarry, as the stones that made up the abbey were then re-used in local computer architecture. [ 163 ] The rock graves house Alfred and his family stayed belowground, 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 imprison. Before construction began, convicts that would by and by be imprisoned at the web 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. The local anesthetic Catholic priest, Dr. Milner recounts this consequence :

therefore miscreants sofa amidst the ashes of our Alfreds and Edwards ; and where once religious hush and contemplation were merely interrupted by the bell of regular observation, the chant of devotion, nowadays alone resound the clank of the captives chains and the oaths of the extravagant ! In digging for the initiation of that mournful building, at about every stroke of the mattock or spade some ancient burial chamber was violated, the august contents of which were treated with marked indignity. On this affair 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 amber lace belonging to chasubles and other vestments ; as besides the crook, rims, and joints of a beautiful crosier double gilt. [ 164 ]

The convicts broke the pit coffins into pieces, the lead, which lined the coffins, was sold for two guineas, and the bones within scattered around the sphere. [ 163 ] The prison was demolished between 1846 and 1850. far excavations were inconclusive in 1866 and 1897. In 1866, amateur antiquary John Mellor claimed to have recovered a number of bones from the web site which he said were those of Alfred. These came into the possession of the vicar of nearby St Bartholomew ‘s church service who reburied them in an overlooked grave accent in the church service cemetery. Excavations conducted by the Winchester Museums Service of the Hyde Abbey web site in 1999 located a second pit jab 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 dig uncovered the foundations of the abbey buildings and some bones, suggested at the time to be those of Alfred ; they proved rather to belong to an aged woman. 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 that they were the bones of Alfred, but intended to secure them for later analysis, and from the attentions of people whose concern may have been sparked by the late identification of the remains of King Richard III. The bones were radiocarbon-dated but the results showed that they were from the 1300s and consequently not of Alfred. In January 2014, a break up of pelvis that had been unearthed in the 1999 excavation of the Hyde web 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 unproved .

bequest [edit ]

Statue of Alfred the Great at Wantage, Oxfordshire Alfred is venerated as a ideal by some christian traditions. [ 172 ] Though Henry VI of England attempted unsuccessfully to have him canonized by Pope Eugene IV in 1441, he was venerated sometimes in the Catholic Church ; however the stream “ Roman Martyrology “ does not mention him. [ 173 ] [ j ] The Anglican Communion venerates him as a christian hero, with a Lesser Festival on 26 October, [ 175 ] and he may frequently be found depicted in stained methamphetamine in Church of England parish churches. Alfred commissioned Bishop Asser to write his biography, which inevitably emphasised Alfred ‘s positive aspects. Later chivalric historians such as Geoffrey of Monmouth besides reinforced Alfred ‘s favorable double. By the time of the Reformation, Alfred was seen as a pious Christian ruler who promoted the function of English quite than Latin, and indeed the translations that he commissioned were viewed as stainless by the subsequently Roman Catholic influences of the Normans. consequently, it was writers of the sixteenth century who gave Alfred his epithet as “ the Great ”, not any of Alfred ‘s contemporaries. The epithet was retained by succeeding generations who admired Alfred ‘s patriotism, achiever against brutality, promotion of education, and institution of the rule of police. A number of educational establishments are named in Alfred ‘s respect :

• King Alfred’s Academy, a secondary school in Wantage, Oxfordshire, the birthplace of Alfred
• King’s Lodge School in Chippenham, Wiltshire, 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 and Specialist Sports Academy, Burnham Road, Highbridge, 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 house in Bishop Stopford’s School at Enfield
• King Alfred Swimming Pool & Leisure complex in Hove, Brighton UK

The Royal Navy named one ship and two shore establishments HMS King Alfred, and one of the early ships of the U.S. Navy was named USS Alfred in his honor. In 2002, Alfred was ranked count 14 in the BBC ‘s list of the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote .

Statues [edit ]

winchester [edit ]

A bronze statue of Alfred the Great stands at the eastern end of The Broadway, stopping point to the site of Winchester ‘s medieval East Gate. The statue was designed by Hamo Thornycroft, cast in bronze by Singer & Sons of Frome and erected in 1899 to mark one thousand years since Alfred ‘s death. [ 179 ] [ 180 ] The statue is placed on a pedestal consist of two huge blocks of grey Cornish granite. [ 181 ]

Pewsey [edit ]

Pewsey statue, 1913 A big 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. [ 182 ]

Wantage [edit ]

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. The statue was vandalised on New Year ‘s Eve 2007, losing partially of its right arm and ax. After the arm and ax were replaced, the statue was again vandalised on Christmas Eve 2008, losing its ax .

Alfred University, New York [edit ]

The centerpiece of Alfred University ‘s quad is a bronze statue of the king, created in 1990 by then-professor William Underhill. It features the king as a young serviceman, holding a shield in his bequeath hand and an open book in his right. [ 184 ]

Cleveland, Ohio [edit ]

A marble statue of Alfred the Great stands on the North side of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio. It was sculpted by Isidore Konti in 1910. [ 185 ]

chronology [edit ]

Notes [edit ]

1. a b[1] Since 1974 Wantage has been in Oxfordshire
2. ^ Tomas Kalmar argues that we do know when Alfred was born. He regards the date of birth of 849 in Asser ‘s biography is a late interpolation, and considers that the time period of 23 years in the genealogy ( in MS A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ) is not Alfred ‘s historic period when he acceded to the toilet, but the period from his succession to the date the genealogy was compiled .
3. ^ According to Richard Abels, Ealhswith was descended from King Cenwulf of Mercia .
4. ^ Historians have expressed doubt both whether the genealogy for Ecgberht going back to Cerdic was fabricated to legitimise his capture of the West Saxon toilet, and broadly whether Cerdic was a real number person or if the fib of Cerdic is a “ initiation myth ” .
5. ^ The inscription reads “ ALFRED THE GREAT AD 879 on this peak 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 beget of his People The Founder of the English MONARCHY and LIBERTY ” .
6. ^ A chrism was the face-cloth or piece of linen laid over a child ‘s head when he or she was baptised or christened. in the first place the function of the chrisom-cloth was to keep the chrism, a consecrated oil, from incidentally rubbing off .
7. ^ The Alfredian burh represented a stage in the evolution of English medieval towns and boroughs. Of the twenty dollar bill two burhs that became boroughs three did not attain full town status .
8. ^Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that Alfred sent a delegation to India, although this could just mean western Asia, as other versions say ” Some versions of thereported that Alfred sent a delegating to India, although this could barely mean western Asia, as other versions say “ Iudea “ .
9. ^ 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 drill that frequently turned the stomach of the thegns who dined with him. ”
10. ^ Some Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Alfred should be recognised as a saint. See Case for and Case against

Citations [edit ]

Sources [edit ]

further recitation [edit ]

reference : https://www.jorihulkkonen.com
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