Alfred the Great

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

In 2002, he was casted fourteenth in the 100 Greatest Britons folksay.

Childhood

Alfred was born sometime between 847 and 849 at Wantage. He was the fifth and youngest son of King Aethelwulf of Wessex, by his Jutish first wife, Osburga.

At five years of age, Alfred is said to have gone to Rome with his father where, the Anglo-Saxon Tales tells us, he was blessed 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 throne of Wessex. However, this step could not have been foreseen at the time, since Alfred had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a 'steward' and a misreading of this step, 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 kinghall of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, sometime in 854-855. On their coming back from Rome in 856, Ethelwulf learned that his son Ethelbald had taken the throne 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 of how as a child Alfred won a book of Anglo-Saxon scopery, put up by his mother to the first of her children ready to know it by heart. This tale may be true, or it may be a folktale put forth to show the young Alfred's love of learning.

Under Ethelred

Through out the short kingships of his two eldest brothers, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, little is known of Alfred. However with the coming to the throne of the third brother, Ethelred I, in 866, the stately life of Alfred began. It is in this time that Asser gives to him the name of 'secundarius,' which may be to show a ranking somewhat akin to that of the Celtic tanist, an acknowledged aftercomer nearly linked with the king of the time. It is perhaps that this set-up was given the blessing of the Witenagemot, to stave off the danger of in-fighting for the kingship should Ethelred fall in war. The step of crowning an aftercomer as an atheling and warway leader is 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 keep the Danes out of the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia. For nearly two years, Wessex itself was free from Viking in-thrusts as Alfred paid the Vikings a frithgeld to leave him alone. However, at the end of 870, the Danes struck at his homeland. The next year, 871, has been called "Alfred's year of fight-outs". Nine fight-outs, with good and bad outcomes, were fought, though the steads and times of two of the fight-outs have not been written down. In Berkshire, a short but winning clash at the Battle of Englefield, on 31 December 870, was followed by a bloody setback at the besetting of, and fighting at, Reading, on 5 January 871, and then, four days later, a outstanding win in fighting at Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, perhaps near Compton or Aldworth. Alfred is more than most others acknowledged for bringing about very good outcome in this latter clash. However, later that month, on 22 January, the English were once more overcome in fighting at Basing and, again, on the following 22 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 king of Wessex and with it came the burden of war readiness. Although unrest at that time meant the inthroning of Alfred — a man with war-ways knowledge and backers of means — over his brother's sons went smoothly without infighting, he still had to make free from threat their landship rights. While he was away, busy with the burial undertakings for his brother, the Danes overcame the English at an unnamed stead, and then again under his leadership at Wilton in May. Following this, frith was made and, for the next five years, the Danes took over other landships of England. However, in 876, under their new leader, Guthrum, the foe stole past the English warband and set upon Wareham in Dorset. From there, early in 877, and under the falsehood of frith talks, they moved westwards and took Exeter in Devon. There, Alfred shut them up within and with the ships of a 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 without warning thrust upon Chippenham, a kingly stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Yuletide, "and most of the people they killed, save the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and wetlands, and after Easter he made a stronghold at Athelney, and from that stronghold kept fighting against the foe" (Anglo-Saxon Tales). It has been said that the Yuletide inslaught could have been one step of an uprising within the witan, using Guthrum's warband to keep sway after the take-over. A well known folktale tells how, when he first fled to the Somerset Flatlands, Alfred was taken in by a churl woman who, unaware of who he was, left him to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire. Beset by the bugbears of his kingdom, 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 said sorry over and over again, but Alfred said humbly that he was the one who needed to say sorry. From his stronghold at Athelney, a marshy island near North Petherton, Alfred was able to hold back and hinder his foes, while at the same time, bringing together the nearby folkwards from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire