Alfred the Great - Saviour of the Saxons Documentary

the man known to history as alfred the great was born at wantage in berkshire in the late 840s the exact year of his birth is a matter of some dispute amongst scholars though all are agreed it was some time between 847 and 849 with most favoring the latter half of that period his father was ethelwolf meaning the noble wolf in old english in 839 ethelwolf had succeeded his father as the king of wessex one of the major anglo-saxon kingdoms which ruled over 9th century england however despite being rulers of wessex the family quite possibly had a kentish origin and were in effect blowings to wessex in any event the wessex line of kings had not descended from father to son in the 8th century and it was only in the early 8th century that the direct line was established thus bringing ethel wolfe to power in 839 alfred's mother was osbor the daughter of oslak the pincorner or butler of the wessex royal household her father was an important officer in his own right and was descended from a family of jutes a small anglo-saxon tribe which had played a prominent part in the establishment of a political state on the isle of wight off the southern coast of england one later chronicler described osbor as a very religious woman and of noble character and it is possible that alfred took after his mother to a significant degree there are no portraits of alfred extant or images of him on contemporary coins from which we might glean evidence about his physical appearance while near contemporary written descriptions are uninformative generally playing up his handsomeness by comparison with his contemporary rulers without providing any major details of his actual appearance whether these general descriptions are accurate or not is hard to say with any certainty alfred was born into a medium-sized family he was the youngest of six children having four brothers and one sister etzel with of his four brothers one ethelstan the eldest of the five boys would die before he could succeed their father as king of wessex but each of the other three brothers ethel bald ethel birth and ethel red would each spend a short term as king of wessex before alfred's much longer reign commenced given the paucity of sources for the early middle ages it is perhaps unsurprising that we know little about alfred's earlier life the best contemporary or near contemporary account of his life and reign by far is to be found in the life of king alfred written by a welsh monk by the name of assa in the later years of alfred's life assa knew alfred personally and was a learned member of his court in the late 80s and 890s consequently his biography life is an invaluable account of the king's life though one which needs to be handled with some caution in terms of assa's possible tendency to exaggerate alfred's achievements the only comparably valuable source for alfred's life is found in the early stages of the anglo-saxon chronicle a large series of animals on english history between the 9th and 12th century these records are bulked out by numerous royal charters which have survived and other extraneous material of the time equally significant are alfred's own considerable volumes of writings some on philosophy and ecclesiastical matters and some on the law codes and politics of late 9th century england slim though these pickings might be overall by comparison with the records for more modern monarchs they still make alfred by far and away the best recorded monarch of any english kingdom between the fall of the roman empire in the 5th century and the start of norman rule in the 11th century it is from assa that we learn one of the most significant facts about alfred's early life he did not learn to read until he was 12 years of age though this was not untypical for a time when the majority of people were illiterate it is evidence of a late literary blooming for the king who would be remembered in subsequent times as much for his scholarship as his actions on the battlefield another major event in his childhood occurred in the mid 850s when alfred was around seven or eight years of age when he was taken by his father on a pilgrimage to rome a journey which saw them passing through the court of charles the bald king of the franks and ruler of the largest christian kingdom of western europe other details of alfred's early life are more suspect asar reported that when the future king was just six years old his mother set a challenge whereby she would give an ornate book of anglo-saxon poems to whichever of her children could memorize them all first alfred won the prize but there is no determining whether this was an actual event which hinted at a precocious ability for learning or whether alfred's biographer simply made the event up as a literary device to highlight alfred's later scholarship more certain is the fact that alfred suffered from variable health and would do for his entire life an illness which scholars are now generally agreed on was crohn's disease an inflammatory bowel disease it probably contributed to his premature death in 899 when he was just in his very early 50s the world alfred was born into was changing more rapidly than perhaps even contemporaries could have understood following the collapse of the western roman empire in the 5th century western europe had fragmented into a number of successful states ruled over by various germanic tribes such as the franks in france the visigoths in spain and the anglo-saxons in much of britain nearly three centuries of disorder followed a period typically called the dark ages dominated by decentralized weak states this period was then tail-ended by the invasion and conquest of spain in the early 8th century by a combined arab berber muslim army however the muslim advance was checked in 732 when the franks under charles martell defeated them at tour and pushed them back into spain thereafter europe began to make significant strides towards rejuvenating itself notably in france and western germany which was united into a single kingdom under the rule of martel's ancestor charles the great or charlemagne during his reign a resurgence of imperial power occurred such that this period is typically known as the carolingian renaissance chalman was also crowned at rome as the first holy roman emperor a political entity which would last for over 1 000 years resurgence was mirrored in england throughout much of the sixth and seventh centuries the country was a miasma petty kingdoms such as bernicia dera kent sussex wessex and mercier each ruling over a region stretching little beyond one or two of england's modern day counties that in the seventh century a handful of these states began to gain greater power and control over their neighbors creating more unified and centralized kingdoms in particular mercia emerged in the course of the 8th century as the dominant power in england by the late 8th century what has become known as the mercian supremacy had reached its greatest extent with mercier stretching throughout all of central england north to the river humber and south as far as the mouth of the river seven yet some kingdoms had avoided being conquered by the mercians in the north the kingdom of northumbria ruled a large area north of the river humber to the east was to be found the kingdom of east anglia covering the counties of norfolk and suffolk and some of the fenn's region finally in the south a number of small kingdoms retained their independence including kent and cornwall but the foremost of these independent southern principalities was the kingdom of wessex covering the modern day counties of devon dorset hampshire somerset wiltshire and berkshire it was into this kingdom that alfred was born moreover wessex was ascendant by the 9th century in the face of a weakening mercian state but all was not well as we will see shortly in the dying years of the 8th century a new and malicious force had begun making itself known from across the north sea in scandinavia this was the political equilibrium which existed as alfred was growing up the kingdom of wessex was also growing ever stronger with kent fully amalgamated into wessex while cornwall the last independent portion of the west country was effectively subjugated by wessex between the 830s and the 850s but there was also increasing family tension within the royal family of wessex at this time we have already seen that alfred accompanied his father to the european mainland in the mid-850s on pilgrimage to rome and to visit the court of the frankish kings when he returned in 856 ethelwolf faced an internal challenge within his family as his eldest son ethel bald sought to displace him the son was supported by several senior figures within the kingdom of wessex namely the el dorman of somerset and the bishop of sherborne consequently ethel wolfe was not entirely able to see off this challenge from his son and a compromise agreement was reached whereby ethelbold now ruled the core kingdom of wessex with his father essentially demoted to ruling over the kentish parts of the realm this arrangement continued beyond his reign when etherwolf died in 858 the next eldest son ethel bert took over the kentish branches of the kingdom yet this was a fluid situation and when ethel bald died just two years later in age 60 ethel bert effectively reunited wessex and kent under his sole leadership a pattern which ethel read favored in 865 when ethel bert died and he succeeded as a consequence when alfred himself succeeded he would not have had the prior experience of ruling kent as a scion of the greater kingdom of wessex conversely he would also not have to share his kingdom and he would succeed to a regime where power was centralized in his hands rather than being divided amongst other extended family members before that succession took place though wessex was plunged into crisis the first viking raid in the british isles occurred in 793 when lindisfarne monastery in northeast england was attacked intermittent raids continued throughout the first half of the 9th century generally striking at coastal regions and often being confined to targets in the north of england and along the eastern seaboard yet as destructive as these raids were they were largely ephemeral with the vikings rarely establishing any lasting presence in the british isles this all began to change from around 865 when several armies arrived in the north and began to set down seemingly permanent routes the forest was led by haftan ragnason a danish warlord who commanded what has been termed the great heathen army in 865. the speed of the conquests was remarkable the kingdom of northumbria was effectively overrun in two to three years between 865 and 867 east anglia had become part of the territory of the vikings ordains by the end of 870 simultaneously the kingdom of mercia the once predominant power in england lost an extensive proportion of its territory in 868 and 869 though it maintained its independence for the present time in some instances the anglo-saxon rulers were allowed to retain their positions albeit as vassals of the danes but gradually the main viking leaders began to supplant them wessex was not unaffected by this with mercia and east anglia largely under their control by 870 the way was cleared for haftan to begin striking into the south of england consequently in late 870 and early 871 a series of viking raids has been carried out against wessex though the southern anglo-saxons were not entirely overmatched several of these had been repelled with victories for ethel red as such there were signs even before alfred's succession that the danes were certainly not invincible and would not be able to overrun wessex with the same ease as they had northumbria east anglia and mercia that succession would come just weeks later in 871 as ethelwood's reign proved similarly brief to his older brothers he died when he was perhaps as young as 25 or 26 of unknown causes and although he left behind two sons these were still in their infancy given the crisis aroused by the viking invasions and the movement of the danes southwards towards wessex at the time of ethelwood's death in 871 the obvious decision was made alfred would be king as he was the better choice to confront the crisis wessex found itself in that emergency would dominate the first years of alfred's reign the situation turned especially ominous in the spring of 871 as a new army of vikings arrived from denmark led by a commander who would soon take up the position of king of east anglia his name was guthrum he would become the key figure amongst the danes in the south for the next 20 years as haftan ragnason eventually turned his attentions towards eastern ireland clashes were soon occurring again in southern england alfred won some and lost others for instance an encounter at ashdown in the berkshire downs was a victory for alfred but other setbacks ensured that the danes were soon able to make forays into the heartland of the kingdom of wessex itself around wiltshire and hampshire then suddenly guthrum simply decided to turn his attentions elsewhere there seems little doubting that alfred and his advisors in wessex agreed to a black tax or dane gelt in order to have some raid stopped but guthrum was also distracted by events elsewhere while halfdam had reduced mercier to a considerable extent a portion of the kingdom had been left independent and guthrum now turned west to fully conquer this in 872 he would not resume his attacks on wessex for several years giving the southerners a respite in which to regroup and giving alfred an opportunity to begin introducing military reforms there were several aspects to the military reforms undertaken during alfred's reign in order to more fully secure wessex against the viking threat one of the key aspects concerned was what was known as the feared a species of anglo-saxon militia drawn from the freemen of wessex those marshaled under the feared were expected to provide a certain amount of day's military service to the king each year under alfred this was divided in two between those who would be at home in wessex and those who would be on active military duty exactly what this meant in practical terms at the time is not one hundred percent clear but it seems likely that alfred instituted a system whereby up to half the population of fighting age males in wessex could be called upon at one time if a severe military emergency such as had presented itself in 871 occurred again simultaneously the shire feared in each part of the kingdom of wessex would be responsible for defending those regions against localized raids a second major reform concerned the navy alfred was generally lionized by historians of later years as being the man who also began to establish england's great tradition of maritime dominance in the english channel and the north atlantic certainly he began patronizing the building of ships to a new format these being powered by sixty oars in this respect alfred was a pioneer and the sixty ore ship was a staple of english navies for many years to come yet there is a danger of placing too much emphasis on alfred's achievements in this particular respect the anglo-saxons in various kingdoms throughout england would have had a strong naval tradition throughout the early middle ages and we cannot conclude that alfred simply built a navy where none had existed in wessex prior to his reign the third and final aspect of alfred's military revolution was doubtlessly the most important this lay in the field of fortification in the course of his reign a chain of forts was built throughout the kingdom of wessex these were often built from scratch though some did reuse the older remains of roman or iron age defensive sites a burr as these fortifications were termed was built within 20 miles or so of every saxon settlement within wessex with a particular proliferation in the coastal regions given this it is clear that they were intended as refuge centers for the anglo-saxons of wessex for times when viking raids were occurring to each of these burrs there were then a lot at a specific number of hides these were a form of land measurement but in this instance were being used to calculate how many men from the local surrounding region would have to provide service during the year in order to first build then later both maintain and defend the bur extraordinarily the system allowed for the mobilization of 27 000 men throughout the kingdom of wessex to serve in some capacity within the burr system even if this figure was never fully mobilized even half this amount of men would have ensured that the burr system played a very considerable role indeed in securing wessex against the viking threat throughout alfred's reign and beyond into the 10th century we are extremely fortunate to have a detailed account of how this system worked found amongst the ketone manuscripts in the british library in london is a document known as the burgle heidage this is an account of the chain of the forts which were established through the bur system together with details of the arrangements for their maintenance and defense although the burgle heidage evidently post-dates alfred's reign perhaps being of the 920s internal evidence suggests it drew on an earlier version that had been in use during alfred's reign itself as such it is a record of a complex system of administration being used to ensure the security of the entirety of southern england during alfred's reign while all these innovations were only just beginning by the late 870s whatever benefits they could convey were soon very much needed in 874 guthrum had completed the conquest of murcia and installed a puppet ruler named seal wolf to rule over the region with western england now pacified he turned his attentions back southwards in 876 to wessex the only major power in england which still resisted the danes operating from around the cambridge region a series of attacks were launched by guthrum on exeter clashes followed in this region for months to come often with vague offers of peace the swapping of hostages and the paying of ransoms during the course of these clashes alfred had the closest call of his reign during the twelfth night celebrations on the 6th of january 878 guthrum launched a surprise attack on alfred's court at chippenham in wiltshire taken completely by surprise the wessex court was overwhelmed alfred himself only narrowly escaped and ended up hiding in the marshes of somerset for several weeks with a small band of followers attempting to regroup and plan their retaliation meanwhile guthrum and his danes had free reign throughout wessex during the spring of 870. however it would not last long as the spring wore on alfred gathered his forces about him and was soon in the field attempting to prosecute gothrum this would culminate in a famous battle at eddington in wiltshire in the first days of the summer the battle of eddington was the most significant military engagement fought by alfred during his reign it is typically understood to have occurred between the 6th and the 8th of may 878 near the modern day town of eddington in wiltshire unfortunately contemporary accounts of the engagement are lacking in precise details concerning what happened yet it seems plausible that alfred's forces considerably outnumbered guthrums the danes in england were increasingly divided in the late 870s and guthrum appears to have had little aid from halfdam further north hence guthrum's raiding party would have been smaller in size than previous ones to have attacked southward by way of contrast alfred had called up a levy on his way to eddington in early may and had recruited many more men from the counties of somerset wiltshire and hampshire as a consequence he might have had a substantial numerical advantage at eddington when the battle commenced a week later the details of the battle itself are equally thin on the ground indeed we do not even know where exactly in the wider eddington area the battle actually took place of the engagement itself we know from asser's life that alfred and his anglo-saxons used a dense shield wall against the entire force of danes leading to considerable loss of life before the invaders broke off the army of wessex then pursued them towards the fortress the danes had occupied in the region at chippenham a siege now ensued for two weeks before the danes starving from a lack of resources sued for peace victory at eddington paved the way for the negotiation of the most significant peace terms agreed upon between alfred and a viking lord during his reign the treaty of wedmore was a capitulation by guthrum under the terms of it the danish king of east anglia and 30 of his leading followers were forced to convert to christianity they were also to leave the lands of the kingdom of wessex and move back into the region beyond its northern periphery effectively east anglia this was not an unheard of arrangement between the anglo-saxons and danes often resulting in little more than a temporary cessation of hostilities but there is evidence that wedmore was a more substantial and long-lasting peace agreement and although he took his time in doing so guthrum did eventually bring his followers into east anglia and largely honored the treaty whilst years later in the second half of the 10th century the english kings were symbolically marking the anniversary of the battle of eddington indicating that people at the time and in the decades that followed ascribed considerable significance to the victory at eddington and the terms agreed at wedmore perhaps most crucially it firmly established the idea throughout england that the kingdom of wessex would not capitulate to the viking incursions as easily as their counterparts in northumbria east anglia and murcia had in recent times under the terms of the treaty of wedmore the boundary between alfred's domains and those of guthrums was fixed along the course of the river thames and extended westward towards bedford accordingly east anglia became the frontier of what has been termed the danelaw the area that danish control and danish law was confined to in another sense it was also an opportunistic agreement between the two to divide up the rump of what remained of the kingdom of mercia and each take a piece another significant aspect of the treaty of wedmore was that alfred received london the city was not the primary city of england which it would subsequently become at this stage but it did house a number of significant mints and other civic buildings and alfred would take steps to develop it further in the 80s with the defeat of gothram and the establishment of a somewhat secure peace and border between wessex and the vikings alfred was free to begin actually ruling without the threat of invasion for the first time in his reign prior to his own accession to the throne in 871 alfred had already become a married man in 868 he was joined with ellsworth the daughter of mercy and noblemen ethered muscle they would have five children that we are aware of the girls were ethel fled ethel gefu and effort amongst whom ethel fled was perhaps the most prominent as she would later marry into the mercy and royal family of the two sons edward and ethel were edward would eventually go on to succeed his father as the king of the anglo-saxons ruling for a quarter of a century as a highly significant king in his own right many matters of government concerned alfred in the eight eighties and eight nineties for instance he and his advisors were deeply aware of the critical importance of putting the kingdom's finances on a steady path as a means of preventing future incursions by the danes from being successful indeed the reason we know so much about the burr system of fortifications which were erected throughout southern england during his reign was that the burgle heidage is essentially a record of how the entire system was financed by taking payments from specific amounts of land throughout wessex the burgle heidage is in its own right a statement about the formalization of the finances of the kingdom of wessex and the improvement of the system whereby taxes were collected and administered alfred's own will also attests to the success of his efforts to put the finances of the kingdom of wessex on a more secure footing and there is evidence to suggest that the nascent states reserves of coin were at a greater extent in the latter parts of alfred's reign than they had been at almost any previous date two thousand pounds of silver were distributed under the terms of his will a huge sum which indicates the affluence of the kingdom of wessex by the end of the 9th century how might we explain this sudden boom in the wessex exchequer beyond the simple benefits of administrative reorganization some scholars have suggested that alfred had a keen interest in developing the tin and silver mines of southern england and these brought in some of the kingdom's additional revenues in the 880s and 890s similarly the expansion of the kingdom would have generated additional revenue notably the incorporation of the trading center of london into the kingdom of wessex increasing trade with the vikings of the north sea along the southern ports of england might also have brought in additional revenue but it is clear that one critical plank of alfred's increasing revenue stream in the 80s and 890s was that he was extracting his own bribes from the danes to the north to stay out of their affairs this is striking the tables had turned greatly from the first years of his reign such that wessex was not capable of being the aggressor on occasion against the danes of east anglia and mercia the affluence of the kingdom in the second half of the rain is most strikingly seen in the coinage issued during alfred's reign at the height of the emergency of the 870s the coins being issued in wessex were heavily debased with a much lower silver content a development which has interesting parallels elsewhere in europe during the 9th century the pattern being that whenever the vikings began attacking a region persistently the silver content of coins dropped as the native rulers began desperately trying to hire more soldiers to combat the invaders yet this debased coinage in wessex during the 870s quickly gave way in the 80s to a proper coinage with a pre-viking silver content the second half of alfred's reign in the late 80s and 890s saw a silver penny circulating in southern england which had one of the highest silver contents seen in england during the early middle ages a remarkable indication of how the political fortunes of the kingdom of wessex changed during alfred's reign part of this financial success was due to london having become a part of the kingdom of wessex as a result of the treaty of wedmore in 778. the roman city of londinium had perhaps a population of as many as sixty thousand people at the height of the roman presence in britain between the second and fourth centuries but it was almost entirely abandoned in the fifth century following the roman withdrawal from the province in 410 it is unclear when the site began to be re-inhabited but by the early eighth century it was described by the anglo-saxon scholar bead as a trading center for merchants from overseas it benefited considerably from being under mercy and rule thereafter with important mints for coins being located there despite this the wars of the mid 9th century did disrupt the city as such it required some attention in the 80s alfred ordered extensive repairs to be carried out on the old roman walls while the defensive ditch was also re-cut these effectively set the boundaries of the city for several centuries to come and as with so much else in england alfred's reign started a process whereby london began to occupy a greater space in england's urban landscape additionally lands were allocated to some of wessex's soldiers around the settlement at london in the 880s and the divisions and location of these continue to impact on the street plan which exists in london today between cheapside and the thames it is an indication of the breadth of alfred's wider achievements that his role as a substantial early english lawmaker is not amongst his most well-known accomplishments and yet he was highly successful in this regard too we are fortunate to have a copy of alfred's own law book or law code which he issued either in the late eight eighties or early eight nineties on the surface his approach towards the law was quite traditional and much of his law code was based on an older wessex law code instituted by king ein the early 8th century ruler of the kingdom a copy of whose own laws were appended to alfred's equally the mosaic law codes and directives of the early papacy were invoked all to designate alfred's approach firmly as being respectful of both divine and temporal precedents but even with this respect for his forebears alfred did introduce innovations the most significant was contained in an opening clause in which alfred's law code discusses the keeping of oath and pledge here the notion of what constituted loyalty to the ruler was being invoked throughout the law code loyalty to the king was closely associated with obedience to god and the past laws and as such harsh penalties could be imposed for those who disobeyed the ruling power legal scholars have consequently argued that the origins of the crimes of felony and treason can as a result be traced back to alfred's law code in this respect the legal reforms of alfred's reign established a key plank of the concept of royal power and legal practices which have remained in one form or another cornerstones of the english legal system down to the present day generally for alfred's reign we are lucky to have had a wide range of documentary evidence which informs us about everything from the state finances and administration to the reform of the military to his patronage of scholarship however there is one considerable and somewhat strange blind spot for his rule we know very little about how the church fared in the nearly 30 years he ruled between 871 and 899 it is safe to assume that the wealth and fabric of the church in southern england had been extensively compromised by the viking invasions and the wars that followed it is somewhat strange then that we do not hear of alfred making any concerted effort to reform or rebuild ecclesiastical institutions during his time as king he was certainly a pious ruler but we do not see the activity which might have reflected this there are some glimmers of evidence for instance alfred founded new monasteries at athony and shaftsbury the first new monastic houses in southern england in over a hundred years of course this reticence to patronage the church too extensively may have been due to fears about the resumption of the war with the scandinavians and the possibility that churches and monasteries in the south of england would prove easy targets for the danes of east anglia or overseas vikings if they once again went to war with wessex victory at eddington in 878 and the subsequent treaty of wedmore did not bring conflict between wessex and the danes to a permanent conclusion as the 80s and 890s saw intermittent conflict though not quite the same existential threat to wessex's future that had been there in the 870s one particularly large outburst occurred from 892 but by this time alfred's military reforms and the burr system had taken such effect that the danes found it much more difficult to penetrate south into wessex often the clashes took the shape of engagements around the thames area on the frontier between east anglia and the northeastern extremities of alfred's domains thus this large initiative of the early 890s produced little tangible results for the danes involved a striking contrast to haftan's conquests in the late 860s and guthrums in the 870s thereafter the vikings in the wider north sea region began to turn their attentions elsewhere often to the northern regions of france where they were carving out a large principality in the normandy region with the threat posed by the danes reduced though never entirely vanquished alfred was able from the mid-80s to turn his attention to his overriding passion the development of a learned court at winchester the capital of wessex he envisaged himself presiding over such a court as a latter-day wise king solomon and there were three major facets to the court of scholarship which was developed at winchester from 885 onwards alfred's own writings and scholarly output the court of scholars which he developed around himself and the royal family and the educational system which he patronized at the capital of the kingdom of wessex perhaps the most remarkable aspect of alfred the man as well as alfred the king was the breadth of his own learning and scholarship the extent of alfred's extant works is very considerable indeed they include his law book some translations of pope gregory's book of pastoral rule similar writings on the 5th century roman philosopher boethius's canonical work the consolation of philosophy and the church father augustine soliloquism as well as texts on the first 50 psalms from the book of psalms in the old testament these texts are unique for the early middle ages in expressing the world view and inner thoughts of a reigning european monarch the alfredian renaissance in learning certainly cannot be said to have compared with that which had been achieved by charlemagne in western europe in the late 8th and early 9th centuries but there is no comparison between the two monarchs who actually oversaw them charlemagne was illiterate throughout his life unable to read or write while alfred left behind his own substantial corpus of works even if alfred's political and military career had not been as significant as it was he is still a figure who would be worth studying exclusively for his scholarly output exactly when alfred composed these works is not clear although it has been observed that asa and his biography of the king most likely written around 893 does not refer to the majority of alfred's writings hence it might well be the case that alfred's literary output was the product of a particularly rich period of scholarship in his later years the texts by alfred which have survived point towards an individual who was concerned above all else for knowledge for its own sake but also in order to act as a good king alfred conceived of himself as a latter-day king solomon a wise king who would guide his people this certainly explains his pronouncements in some of his writings that the people of britain had previously prospered when learning flourished amongst them additionally the focus of alfred's scholarship is indicative of how he conceived of himself as a king in particular the fact that alfred chose to study some of the works of pope gregory the first is significant gregory had served as the bishop of rome between 590 and his death in 604 sanctified as saint gregory the great he is generally understood to have been the most important of the early popes not least because of his conversion work in sending missionaries to england notably augustine of canterbury and polinus of york in studying his writings alfred was effectively trying to understand better the thought of the individual who had paved the way for the political union of england gregory having already begun the religious unification of britain by initiating the christianization of its inhabitants beyond his own writings alfred was possessed of a vision to change wessex into a kingdom of learning to that end he established a school at the royal court on one level to educate his children and on the other to begin inculcating a better standard of scholarship at the heart of government one which would trickle down through the nobility of wessex he also imagined that he would learn from these scholars himself one who joined him in the mid-80s was his future biographer assa three others are noteworthy the first was plegemund a learned hermit who as well as being invited to join alfred's court of scholars was also appointed as archbishop of canterbury in 890 a third important figure was grimbald of saint burton a benedictine monk from france grimbald was persuaded to come to england by alfred perhaps in order to pass on to alfred's court the ideas he would have picked up on the continent about frankish law and government but the most significant of the members of alfred's court of scholars was probably john the old saxon a german by birth john was a revered scholar and was also appointed by alfred as the abbot of the monastery of atholme in 888 shortly after his arrival from continental europe some small fragments of his poems demonstrating knowledge of several languages including greek have survived a rarity for the time and one which indicates his scholarship the king's patronage of learning and education extended beyond this hiring and appointment of famed scholars a rudimentary education system was also being formed in the late eight eighties and eight nineties as with many of the other reforms alfred instituted the model was an education system which chalmaine had patronized in france almost a century earlier alfred's school was at the royal court at winchester incredibly for its time it seems to have included the children of families of lesser birth as well as those hailing from wessex's noble dynasties but critically it also prized study in the vernacular alfred was clear in his own writings that latin was still exalted above all other languages but he was also the first anglo-saxon king that we know of to have understood that old english was a valuable literary tongue in its own right it is hard to assess how successful all these initiatives were alfred's goal surely in creating a court of scholars and an educational system for the children of winchester was to create a learned group of governors and administrators who would be better placed to run the kingdom of wessex efficiently in years to come perhaps he was successful in this but it is not wholly clear our records for the 10th century are so thin that it is difficult to determine the extent of his success in this regard yet if judged on its own merits it is true in any event that his patronage of scholarship and education and attempts to create a learned society at winchester was admirable in its own right but as profoundly important a figure as alfred was from a literary and scholarly perspective and as monumentally significant his reign was in securing the survival of the kingdom of wessex and with it the last vestiges of anglo-saxon independence from danish rule he is best known as the founder of the english nation alfred had expanded wessex's sphere of control north and obtained direct control over london although mercier was allowed a nominal independence after wedmore moreover an alliance of sorts was negotiated with many of the rulers of wales and as such by the 880s alfred could lay claim to directly ruling over all of southern england and having a nominal control over much of the central parts of the country and suzerainty further west this forging of a union between the anglo-saxon people of england who were not directly under the control of the danes is highly significant contemporaries were fully aware of the importance of it it is unsurprising then to find that in the late 80s there are official treaties increasingly referring to alfred as acting on behalf of all the english people while some of the surviving charters from this time now refer to alfred as king of the anglo-saxons rather than just king of wessex his counselor and biographer assa was even more ambitious in referring to alfred as ruler of all the christians of the island of britain there is an element of hubris in this for sure when alfred eventually died in 899 he certainly did not rule over england in the sense that we would understand it today but he had laid down the conceptual groundwork for a centralized state on the island of britain which would unite the disparate anglo-saxon peoples under one king that is alfred's achievement as the founder of the english nation alfred died on the 26th of october 899 when he was just in his early 50s the exact cause of his death is unknown but it is plausible that it was associated with the poor health he had suffered from for his entire life he was buried in the old minster in winchester in what became a family crypt sadly for an individual who was revered as the father of the english nation several future english kings including william the conqueror and henry viii disturbed his resting place in the early 12th century his remains were removed to hide abby then during henry viii's reign hyde abbey was dissolved and demolished leading to alfred and his family members being effectively forgotten about at the site in a field they lay underground for two and a half centuries before being exhumed during construction of a prison in the late 18th century at which time the coffins were destroyed and the bones scattered around the area a wholly ignominious end for the remains of the father of the english nation the kingdom alfred left behind was more fortunate he was succeeded by his son edward who in the course of his 25-year reign was able to conquer east anglia from the danes his son athelston alfred's grandson was able to complete the destruction of the viking kingdoms and unite england when he amalgamated northumbria into wessex in the course of the late 1920s viking raids and intermittent conflict would continue throughout the 10th century but athelston was effectively the first anglo-saxon king to rule all of england perhaps that is no better sign of this consolidation of power within england than when athelstan invaded scotland in the 930s a pattern which would be repeated in the centuries to come and could be said to mark the beginning of the modern english state at least in terms of power projection there is no doubting alfred's immense contribution to english history and the development of the english state his first action as king of wessex in the 870s was to finally stop the viking incursions into england which had largely destroyed the kingdoms of mercia east anglia and northumbria further north this he successfully accomplished within a few years of becoming king in part through a military revolution which reorganized the manner in which land forces were used in wessex while he also reformed wessex's navy and as a result he was victorious at the battle of eddington in 878 and stopped the southward advance of the danes this did not bring the viking raids to an end and further attacks occurred with regularity throughout the eight eighties and eight nineties but the existential threat to wessex's survival had been neutralized and the system of burs or fortifications which he established across southern england provided safety and security for his subjects in the years that followed away from the battlefield alfred was an even more accomplished and complex monarch he reformed the finances of the kingdom of wessex began developing london in such a way as would make it the pre-eminent town of england and years to come whilst his patronage of the church and education rejuvenated england's cultural life in the aftermath of the worst ravages of the viking invasions more strikingly he was a highly accomplished scholar in his own right producing work on such individuals as the late roman philosopher boethius and the influential early bishop of rome pope gregory there is very little to say against alfred that we know of he did not wage unnecessary wars which cost the lives of civilians in order to aggrandize himself nor were there large internal political disputes within wessex which resulted in the king shedding blood to maintain his authority he was by all accounts a model king in part our view of this might be influenced by our reliance on admittedly biased contemporary sources such as assa's life but that we do not have a hostile account of any kind is significant and then we must consider the long-term legacy of his reign by the time of his death in 899 the kingdom of wessex was being transformed into the state of england it was alfred's most lasting and greatest achievement that he not only managed to defend wessex from the danes during his reign but by the end of it had established what had become the english state one which endures in an admittedly vastly different form right down to the present day what do you think of alfred the great is he fully deserving of the epithet the great please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime 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Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 310,962

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel, Alfred the Great

Id: MLIf4XX_p_E

Length: 55min 30sec (3330 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021