Alfred the Great

An overbringing from Wikipedia

Alfred (also Ælfred from the Old English) (849? – 26 October 899) was Wessex's king from 871 to 899. Alfred is known for his readiness to make this southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom strong against it's foes, mostly the Danish Vikings, becoming the only English king to be known by the name, "The Great" (although not English, Canute the Great was another English king given this name by the Danes.) Alfred was the first West Saxon king to name himself 'King of the Anglo-Saxons'. His life tale is told in a work by the learned Welsh man, Asser. A learned man, Alfred fostered learning and knowledge and made better the kingdom's law framework.

In 2002, Alfred was named in a folksay as the fourteenth greatest, all-time Briton.

Childhood

Alfred was born sometime between 847 and 849 at Wantage. He was Wessex's King Aethelwulf, by his Jutish first wife Osburga, fifth and youngest son. In 868 Alfred wed Ealhswith, Ethelred Mucill's daughter.

At age five, Alfred is said to have gone to Rome with his father where, the Anglo-Saxon Tales tells us, he was welcomed into the church's fullness, and blessed as a king-to-be by his godfather Pope Leo IV. Some Victorian writers have taken this as a betokening step in readiness for his rise one day to the Wessex's kingship. However, this step could not have been foreseen at the time, since Alfred had three living elder brothers. A Leo IV letter shows that Alfred was given highness-like rights and, perhaps this step's misreading, wilfully or otherwise, could shed light on later misunderstanding. It may also be staddled on Alfred's later afaring, together with his father, to Rome and his spending some time at the frankish king, Charles the Bald's kinghall sometime in 854-855. On their coming back from Rome in 856, Ethelwulf learned that his son Ethelbald had taken the kingship from him. Ethelwulf left for Kent and died there in 858. Wessex became under kingships headed by Alfred's three brothers one after the other.

Asser tells the tale how as a child Alfred won a Anglo-Saxon scopery book, given to him by his mother as the first of her children to know it by heart. This tale may be true, or it may be a folktale put forth to show the young Alfred's lust for learning.

Under Ethelred

Throughout his two elder brother's, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, short kingships, little is known about Alfred. However with his third brother Ethelred 1's coming to the throne in 1866, Alfred's life steeped in rank and high standing truly began. It is in this time that Asser gives to him the name 'secundarius,' which may be to show a ranking somewhat akin to that held by the Celtic tanist, one acknowledged as next in line to the kingship. It may be that this set-up was given the Witenagemot's blessing, to stave off the threat of in-fighting for the kingship should Ethelred fall in war. Crowning an atheling and war leader as next in line to the kingship is also well-known among Germanic kindreds, such as the Swedes and Franks, with whom the Anglo-Saxons had near ties.

In 868, Alfred, fighting beside his brother Ethelred, could not stop Danish thrusts into the neighbouring kingdom, Mercia. For nearly two years, Wessex itself was free from Viking strikes as Alfred paid the Vikings a heavy frithgeld to leave him alone. However, at the end of 870, the Danes struck out at his homeland. The next year, 871 has been called "Alfred's fightfilled year ". Nine times fierce fighting broke out between Alfred's men and the Danes, with good and bad outcomes. All but two fighting-fields and times are known. In Berkshire, a short but winning clash at Englefield, on 31 December 870, was followed by a bloody setback at the besetting of Reading, on 5 January 871, and then, four days later, an outstanding win in fighting at Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, perhaps near Compton or Aldworth. Alfred, more than most others, is acknowledged for bringing about the highly good outcome in this latter fighting. However, later that month, on the 22nd of January, the English were once more overcome in fighting at Basing and, again, on the following the 22nd of March at 'Merton' (perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset).

King at war

In April 871 King Ethelred died and, given that Ethelred left two young sons, Alfred became Wessex's king. With it, Alfred was bequeathed the heavy burden of the still ongoing war. Although unrest at that time meant that Alfred on becoming king — a man war-smart with strong and rich backers — rather than his brother's sons went smoothly without infighting, he still had to withkeep their landownership rights from threat. While he was away, busy with the undertakings for his brother's burying, the Danes overcame the English at an unnamed fighting field, and then again under his leadership at Wilton in May. Following this, there was a halt in fighting and, for the next five years, the Danes took over other landshares in England. However, in 876, under their new leader, Guthrum, they stole past the English warband and struck at Wareham in Dorset. From there, early in 877, while talks, seeking to bring about frithfulness were going on, they moved westwards and took Exeter in Devon. There, Alfred beset them and, with another fleet sent to help them having been blown asunder by a storm, the Danes had to yield to Alfred's fighters. They withdrew to Mercia, but, in January 878, made a strike without warning upon Chippenham, a stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Yuletide, "and most folk they killed, save the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and by wetlands, and after Easter he built a stronghold at Athelney, and from that stronghold kept up the fighting against the foe" (Anglo-Saxon Tales). It has been said that the Yuletide onslaught may have been one step of an uprising within the witan, with the thought of using Guthrum's warband to keep sway after the take-over.

A well known folktale tells how, when he first fled to the Somerset Flats, Alfred was taken in by a woman, a churl, who, unaware who he was, left him to watch some cakes she had left baking in the oven. Beset by his kingdom's bugbears, Alfred, by-hap, let the cakes burn and was scolded bitterly by the woman upon her coming home. When it dawned upon her that Alfred was the king, the woman chided herself, but Alfred said, forbearingly, that he was the one who needed to be sorry. From his stronghold at Athelney, a marshy island near North Petherton, Alfred's warband was strong enough to hold back and harry his foes, while at the same time, bringing together the warbands of the nearby folkwards of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire

Another tale tells how Alfred dressed himself up as a folk-singer or glee-man so as to get into Guthrum's camp to learn about his next steps. This it is thought led to the fighting at Edington, near Westbury in Wiltshire. The outcome was an overwhelming win for Alfred. The Danes yielded and, from Asser's writings, we learn that Guthrum, and his leaders, twenty-nine in all, underwent christening when they underwrote the Wedmore Frithdeed. As an aftermath, England became broken in two: the southwestern half was kept by the Saxons, and the northeastern half with London, thence known as the Danelaw, was kept by the Vikings. By the next year (879), both Wessex and Mercia, to Watling Street's west, were Danish threat free.

For the next few years there was a halt in fighting, with the Danes being kept busy in Europe. A landing in Kent in 884 or 885 near Plucks Gutter, though easily driven back, gave heart to the East Anglian Danes to rise up. The steps taken by Alfred to quell this uprising came to a head with London being taken by his fighters in 885 or 886, and an understanding being reached between Alfred and Guthrum, known as the Alfred and Guthrum's Frithdeed. Once more, for a time, the fighting stopped, but in the 892 or 893's fall, the Danes struck again. Finding their life in Europe somewhat unstable, they moved over to England in 330 ships in two bands. They set themselves up, the greater body at Appledore, Kent, and the lesser, under Haesten, at Milton also in Kent. The Danes this time brought their wives and children with them, seemingly a meaningful step towards taking over and settling the land. Alfred, in 893 or 894, took up ground from whence he could see both the Danish settlings. While he was in talks with Haesten, the Danes at Appledore broke out and struck northwestwards. They were overtaken by Alfred's eldest son, Edward, and were overcome in wholescale fighting at Farnham in Surrey. Bound to seek haven on an island in the Hertfordshire Colne, they were hemmed-in and in the end made to yield. The fighters fell back on Essex and, after undergoing the hardships brought by another loss at Benfleet, banded together with Haesten's fighters at Shoebury. Alfred had been on his way to help his son at Thorney when he heard that the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes were threatening Exeter and an unnamed stronghold on the North Devon seaboard. Alfred, at once, set forth westward, halting the Viking threat to Exeter. The other stronghold and its folk's lot is not known. Meanwhile the band under Haesten set out and headed along the Thames Dale, maybe hoping to help their kinfolk in the west. But they were met by warbands, thousands strong, led by Mercia, Wiltshire and Somerset's  three great aldermen, and made to flee to the northwest, being in the end overtaken and holed-up at Buttington. Some think this to be Buttington Tump or Knap at the Wye Ea's mouth, others Buttington near Welshpool. A strike to break through English fighting lines was pushed back. Those who got away from Buttington fled to Shoebury. Then after gathering together more fighters they made their way hastily across England and took over the falling down, sometime Romish walled town, Chester. The English did not try to overcome them there in winter time, but went about stopping them from gathering food and wares, from the neighbourhood. Early in 894 (or 895), with food short the Danes pull back once more to Essex. At the year's end and early in 895 (or 896), the Danes drew their ships up the Thames and Lea and  built a stronghold  some  twenty miles to London's north. A head-on strike upon the Danish lines broke down, but later in the year, Alfred saw a means of hindering Danish ships using the Thames. It quickly dawned on the Danes that they had been outwitted. They struck out northwestwards and wintered at Bridgenorth. The next year, 896 (or 897), they gave up the fight. Some went to Northumbria, others to East Anglia. Those who had no ties in England withdrew to Europe. The bitter fighting, through long and bloody years, was over.

New Ways

After withstanding the Danish threat, Alfred turned his mind to the building of a bigger and stronger fleet, partly to quell the strikes against, and the laying in shend of towns along Wessex' shores by Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes, and to stop others landing bent on takeover. This is not, as often said, the English fleet's beginning. There had been an earlier fight at sea under Alfred, and there was one fought under Æthelwulf in 851, and earlier ones, in about 833 and 840. The Anglo-Saxon Tales, however, does acknowledge Alfred with building a new kind of ship, built following his thoughts, outlines and draft and said to be, "swifter, steadier and also faster than the others." However, these new ships do not seem to have been a great step forward, as we hear of them grounding in fighting and sinking in a storm. Nevertheless both the British, and Ameriksland Fleets look upon Alfred as their founder.

Alfred's halved "The Fyrd" his main fighting body, "so that there was always half at home and half out" (Anglo-Saxon Tales). The work needed for setting up and running a ready-for-war, many-strong warband in two shifts, with one feeding the other, must have been truly great. The manifold make-up which Alfred's kingdom had reached by 892 is shown in a fairly trustworthy deed which sets out stewards, such as a thesaurius, cellararius and pincerna — wealth-steward, food-keeper and butler. Notwithstanding the anger and irk which Alfred must have felt in 893, when one fighting band, which had "fulfilled their call-up (stemn)", gave up besetting a Viking Danish band just as Alfred was moving in to take over from them, although this set-up seems to have worked quite well on the whole. One weakness before Alfred's kingship in warding-off threats from foes had been the want of a standing fyrd, strongholds were mostly left unmanned, making it very easy for the Vikings to quickly take up  gainful steads from which to make war against the kingdom. Alfred greatly raised the awareness of the need to be ready for war, by building strengthened burhs (or boroughs) throughout Wessex.

Through the careful steps undertaken whilst digging at least four of these steads (at Wareham, Cricklade, Lydford and Wallingford), it has been shown every time that the earth and stone mounds of Alfred's burghs, found by the diggers, were the town's first-line against threat from foe. The things that had to be done for their upkeep, and for warding-off foes from these and many other burghs, with full-time fighting bands needed, are further set out in written deeds, still with us today, and in deeds about the day-to-day running known as the Burghal Hidage. Going back to a time, at least, within twenty years before Alfred's death, if not indeed from his kingship time, it almost truly casts us back to the time of Alfred's kingship and his folkdom running ways. When looking at the deeds, side by side, of the town lay-outs for the the towns Wallingford and Wareham with that of Winchester, it shows that their lay-outs were the same, thus giving truth to the belief that these newly settled burhs were also built as living and good's-buying and selling naves (hearts), as well as a havens from fear and threat when harrying and harm was at hand.

Thereafter, the English dwellers and its wealth were drawn into such towns where there was greater freedom from Danish Viking threat, but also easier for geldraising by the King. Alfred is thus acknowledged with taking meaningful steps towards putting the folkdom on a new path, above all, in those shires harried by the Danes. Even if one does not believe that Alfred was the main strength behind shaping the "Burghal Hidage", what is true is that, in the towns and hamlets in Mercia taken over by Alfred from the Vikings, the shire set-up seems now to have been brought in to being for the first time. This is most likely what gave rise to the belief that Alfred was the founder, or shaper, of shires, hundreds and tithings. Alfred's care for the law and the smooth running of the kingdom is shown both in writings and in folklore; and he is held dear under the name "Keeper of the Needy". Of the undertakings of the Witangemot, we do not hear very much under Alfred. He was always sharply aware of, and willing to acknowledge its rights, but both the happenings of the time and his strength of mind would have thrown the might of the folkdom into his hands. The law-making of Alfred most likely belongs to the later days of his kingship, after the worry and strain of Viking threats had lessened. He also gave much time and thought to the handling of kingdom’s wealth, though  almost nothing is known of his work in this field.

Law : Alfred’s Dooms Book

Alfred most abiding work was his Book of Laws sometimes called Deemings, or Book of Dooms. Sir Winston Churchill believed that Alfred blended the Law of Moses; Celtic Law, and old laws of the Anglo-Saxons before they became followers of Christ. And lately, Dr. F.N. Lee has looked at the side-by-side akinship between Alfred’s laws and Laws of Moses. Earlier, Thomas Jefferson reached the belief after looking back through the eretide of English everyday law: "The folk law came into being long before the Anglo-Saxons became followers of Christ, at a time when they had yet heard his name or even knew that such a man as Christ had lived".

Dealings with other Lands

Asser speaks most highly of Alfred's dealings with  leaders of other lands, but little hard and fast knowledge is readily at hand. His yearning to learn about overseas lands is strong, shown by the insets he put in his anglo-saxon overbringing of Orosius' work. Known also is a body of writings between Alfred and Elias III, Jerusalem's Patriarch and, indeed, it is most likely that stewards, were sent by Alfred to India. His dealings reached as far as  Baghdad. and its Holy Leader. Furthermore, the sending of  alms bearers  to Rome to meet with the  Holy  Father  were undertaken often. Around 890, Wulfstan of Haithabu undertook a wayfaring from Haithabu on Jutland along the Baltic Sea to the Prussian  goods-mongering town of Truso. Alfred earnestly sought feedback from him of  knowledge  gained  during his  time in these northern and eastern lands of Europe Much more is known of Alfred's dealings with the Celtic athelings in the western half of Britain. Almost from the start of his kingship, writes Asser, the southern Welsh athelings, fearing being overthrown by foes from  North Wales and Mercia, took the time to make themselves well known to  Alfred. Later the North Welsh kingship followed their lead, and the latter worked  with the English in the driving out of the Danes in 893 (or 894). That Alfred sent alms to Irish as well as to minsters or monkhouses in Europe may be taken to be true on Asser's say-so. The tale of the calling upon of Alfred by the three holy wayfarers "Scots" (they were Irish) in 891 can also be held to be true. The tale that he himself in his childhood was sent to Ireland to be healed by the Holyman Modwenna, though steeped in the dim mists of folklore, may show Alfred's keenness to know more about that island.

Mindtill, Learning, The Church

Very little is known of the church under Alfred. The Danish raids had been ever so boonless, leaving fallen and forsaken many minsters, and though Alfred set up two or three new minsters and drew monks from overseas to England, monkhoodship did not aquicken greatly during his kingship. The Danish raids also had a harmful  bearing on learning, with the slaughter of monks, leading to  Latin's waning amongsst churchmen: the foreword to Alfred's overbringing of Pope Gregory 1's "Care of Souls" (Pastoral Care) into Old English  bears a wonderfully written, if not even-handed, witness  to this.

Alfred set up a school of learning, following the way of Charlemagne. To this end, he brought men like Grimbald and John the Saxon from Europe, and Asser from South Wales. Not only did the King see to his own learning, he also made a set of overbringings for the teaching of churchmen and the wider folkhoard, most of these writings are still are with us today. These belong to the later time of his kingship most likely to the last four years, of which the Anglo-Saxon tales have little to say. Besides the lost "Handbook" (Encheiridion,) which seems to have been nothing more than a book on everyday things kept by the king, the earliest work to be put into Old English was the (Dialogues) Talks of Gregory, a book greatly liked by many in the Middle Eldth. Although this was not undertaken by Alfred, the overbringing being done by his great friend Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, the king only writing a foreword. The next work to be undertaken was Gregory's "Care of Souls," (Pastoral Care) in the main for the good of, and to help teachers in the churchwicks. In this, Alfred stays almost wholly true to Gregory's writings; but the lead-in is one of the most mind-awakening writings of the kingship, or indeed of English eretide. The next two works taken in hand were eretide books, the "Allworld Eretide by Orosius" and Bede's "Church Eretide of The English". The bookcraft right to firstness should be given to the Orosius,  but this has given rise to much talk and thought. In the Orosius, Alfred by leaving out some things and putting-in  many other bits, almost makes Orosius first writing a new work; in Bede's wrk the writer’s writing is followed almost to it fullness,  although some less weighty and unenthralling things are left out. Of late years some have wondered, indeed wavering in their belief as to whether Alfred truly is  the overbringer of  Bede's work. But for the wonderers, as yet theirs qualms cannot be found to be so.

Alfred's overbringing into the Anglo-Saxon tung of the wisdom-seeking work “The Soothing of the One True Good“  or in English “The Consolation of Philosophy”  by  Boethius’ was the most read  handbook  of its  kind in the Middle Eldth. Here again Alfred deals very freely with Boethius’ writing and though the late Dr. G. Schepss showed that many of the things later found in the writing go back not to Alfred himself, but were taken from the other books and sets of writings to spell out or unlock meanings in Boethius' work, still there is much in the handbook which is wholly Alfred's and bears witness to his great mind. It is in this handbook that Alfred’s  says: "My will was to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, thoughts of me in good works." The book has come down to us in two handwritten deeds only. In one of these the writing is free-flowing or unscopish, in the other some is free-flowing and some first-same-stave verse. The latter handwritten work was badly burnt in the 18th and 19th hundreds, and on whether Alfred was the verse’s writer there has been much mooting and unsame thought; but likely it also is by Alfred. Indeed, he says in the fore-leaf that he first wrote the work in free-flow, and then used it as the framework for his "Leeths of Boethius," his bookcraft masterwork. He spent a great deal of time working on these books, which he tells us he little-by-little wrote through the many mindharrowing times of his kingship to afresh his mind. Of the crafting of the work as a whole there has never been any waverings as to Arthur's nibship.

Alfred's last work is one to which he gave the name Blostman, that is, in English: Anthology. The first half is founded muchly upon St Augustine of Hippo's Self-talks, the other half is drawn from sundry works, and has much that is Alfred's own and is so much so him. Its last words may be brought to mind; for they make a fitting tombstone tale for the most highminded English king. "Therefore he seems to me a very unwise man, and truly wretched, who will not further his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made free from misunderstanding."

The "Saxon Tales" and "Saxon Martyrs" of which there are now only few screeds left, are believed to be Alfred's brainchilds. A unscopish writing of the first fifty Psalms has deemed also to be his work; and, though not beyond dwere, is very likely to be so. Also Alfred comes back to us through time in the film 'The Owl and the Nightingale,' where his wisdom and know-how with folksayings is witnessed. Furthermore, 'The Saws of Alfred,' which we still have with us today in a thirteenth hundreds' handwritten deed has sayings that very likely have their beginnings, at least, in some way with the king.

The Alfred Gem or in English The Alfred Jewel found in Somerset in 1693, has long been thought to have belonged to Alfred  for the Old English writing on it  "AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" (Alfred Had Me Made.) Some think that it is a reading rod, though its use is unknown, but it does come from the days of Alfred's kingship, and is maybe just one of many that were around at that time. The writing does nothing to help us work out the riddle of whose likeness is on it, long believed by many to be that of God or Christ.

Aweworthiness

Alfred has Eastern Church sainthood and is upon as a great of the Anglish Church, with a holy day of 26th October, and may often be found shown in hued-glass windows in the Anglish churches. Also, Alfred Higher Learning Hall was named after him; his likeness, carved in stone, is in the middle of its grounds.

Kindred

In 868, Alfred became wed to Ealhswith, daughter of Ealdorman, the Gaini (who is also known as Aethelred Mucill), who was from the Gainsborough landbit in Lincolnshire. She seems to have been the granddaughter on his mother's side of a King of Mercia. They had five or six children together, among them Edward the Elder, who followed his father as king, Ethelfleda, who would become Queen of Mercia in her own right, and Ælfthryth who wed Baldwin II the Earl of Flanders. His mother was Osburga daughter of Oslac of the Islet of Wight, Head Butler of England. Asser, in his Vita Alfredi holds firmly to the belief that this shows his bloodline from the Jutes of the Islet of Wight. This is unlikely as Bede tells us that they were all slaughtered by the Saxon under Caedwalla. However, in a round-about way, Alfred could still follow his bloodline back through the House of Wessex itself, from the Kentish King Wihtredof, whose mother was the sister of the last Island King, Arwald.

Death, Burying and Bequest

Alfred died on 26th October. The year may not have been 901 as set out in the Anglo-Saxon Tales. How he died is unknown, although it is believed that he put up, throughout his life, with bodily woe and a wretched illness- most likely Crohn's Sickness, which seems to have been handed down to his grandson king Edred. He was buried firstly in the Old Minster at Winchester, then his body was shifted to the New Minster (maybe built mainly to house his body). When the New Minster was built at Hyde, a little north of the town, in 1110, the monks also went there along with Alfred's body. His grave was seemingly unearthed during the building of a new lagstead in 1788 and the bones strewn and lost. However, bones found at a stead nearby in the 1860s were also said to be Alfred's and later buried in Hyde churchyard. Further diggings in 1999 gave up what is believed to be his buriels, that of his wife Eahlswith, and that of their son Edward the Elder but almost hardly any bones.

Alfred Stone-Likeness - Wantage

The marmstone carving of Alfred the Great, at the Wantage's cheapstowe, was carved by Earl Gleichen, a by-sib of Queen Victoria, and first shown to the world on 14th July 1877 by the Atheling and Lady-Atheling of Wales, who later became Edward VII and his wife.The marmstone carving was needlessly broken on  New Year's Eve 2007, losing some of its right arm.