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Alfred was king of Wessex. Although the other kingdoms fell to the Danish, Wessex remained free. One of England’s best-loved kings, he is known as Alfred the Great.
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(848?–899). The course of English history would have been...
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Middle Ages. Alfred the Great. History >> Biographies >> Middle Ages for Kids. Occupation: King of Wessex. Born: 849 in Wantage, England. Died: 899 in Winchester, England. Reign: 871 - 899. Best known for: Establishing peace with the Vikings and building the Kingdom of England. Biography: Early Life.
- Childhood
- Reigns of Alfred's Brothers
- King at War
- Military Reorganisation
- Legal Reform
- Foreign Relations
- Religion and Culture
- Appearance and Character
- Family
- Death, Burial and Fate of Remains
Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessexby his first wife, Osburh. In 853, at the age of four, Alfred is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have been sent to Rome, where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV, who "anointed him as king". Victorian writers later interpre...
During the short reigns of the older two of his three elder brothers, Æthelbald of Wessex and Æthelberht of Wessex, Alfred is not mentioned. An army of Danes which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described as the Great Heathen Army had landed in East Anglia with the intent of conquering the four kingdoms that constituted Anglo-Saxon England in 865. It wa...
Early struggles, defeat and flight
In April 871, King Æthelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the throne of Wessex and the burden of its defence, even though Æthelred left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly at Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. The deceased's sons would rec...
Counter-attack and victory
In the seventh week after Easter (4–10 May 878), around Whitsuntide, Alfred rode to 'Egbert's Stone' east of Selwood, where he was met by "all the people of Somerset and of Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire which is on this side of the sea (that is, west of Southampton Water), and they rejoiced to see him". Alfred's emergence from his marshland stronghold was part of a carefully planned offensive that entailed raising the fyrds of three shires. This meant not only that the king had reta...
Quiet years, restoration of London
With the signing of the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, an event most commonly held to have taken place around 880 when Guthrum's people began settling East Anglia, Guthrum was neutralised as a threat. The Viking army, which had stayed at Fulham during the winter of 878-879, sailed for Ghent and was active on the continent from 879-892. Alfred was still forced to contend with a number of Danish threats. A year later, in 881, Alfred fought a small sea battle against four Danish ships "on the hig...
The Germanic tribes who invaded Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries relied upon the unarmoured infantry supplied by their tribal levy, or fyrd, and it was upon this system that the military power of the several kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England depended. The fyrd was a local militia in the Anglo-Saxon shire, in which all freemen had to ser...
In the late 880s or early 890s, Alfred issued a long domboc or law code, consisting of his "own" laws followed by a code issued by his late seventh-century predecessor King Ine of Wessex. 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 "or...
Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers, but little definite information is available. His interest in foreign countries is shown by the insertions which he made in his translation of Orosius. He corresponded with Elias III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and embassies to Rome conveying the English alms to the Pope were fair...
In the 880s, at the same time that he was "cajoling and threatening" his nobles to build and man the burhs, Alfred, perhaps inspired by the example of Charlemagne almost a century before, undertook an equally ambitious effort to revive learning. At this time period, the Viking raids were often seen as a divine punishment, and Alfred may have wished...
Asser wrote of Alfred in his Life of King Alfred: It is also written by Asser that Alfred did not learn to read until he was twelve years old or later, which is described as "shameful negligence" of his parents and tutors. Alfred was an excellent listener and had an incredible memory, and he retained poetry and psalms very well. A story is told by ...
In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucil, Ealdormanof the Gaini. The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal family. They had five or six children together, including Edward the Elder who succeeded his father as king, Æthelfl...
Alfred died on 26 October 899. How he died is unknown, although he suffered throughout his life with a painful and unpleasant illness. His biographer Asser gave a detailed description of Alfred's symptoms and this has allowed modern doctors to provide a possible diagnosis. It is thought that he had either Crohn's disease or haemorrhoidal disease. H...
Alfred the Great (849-899) was one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon kings. King of Wessex, he defended England from the Vikings and is famous for bringing various reform to England at the time. Why was King Alfred called "the Great"? Alfred is the only English king to have gained the title "the Great".
Sing the BBC's 'Alfred the Great', sung from the point of view of Alfred the Great as he describes his achievements; Find out more. Who was Alfred the Great? Find out in a BBC Bitesize animation for KS1; A children's introduction to King Alfred from DKfindout! King Alfred: a biography from the British Library
(848?–899). The course of English history would have been very different had it not been for King Alfred. He won renown both as a statesman and as a warrior and is justly called “the Great.” The England of Alfred’s time was a country of four small Saxon kingdoms. The strongest was Wessex, in the south.
Updated: 31st January 2023. 1. Alfred became King of Wessex at the age of 21. 2. In Old English, the name Alfred combines the words ‘elf’ and ‘counsel’ and means wise and noble. 3. King Alfred had four older brothers who were all king before him. 4.
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