Introduction
Alfred the Great was the famous king of the West Saxons from 871 to 886 CE and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 to 899 CE.
He was the youngest son of King Aethelwulf, who had died when Alfred was young.
After becoming King, Alfred won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878. Alfred then made an agreement with the invading Vikings. This agreement resulted in the Danelaw in the North of England. This was a significant event in English history, propelling King Alfred into the annals of Anglo-Saxon history hitherto.
Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed disposition. He is famous for changing the language of primary education within his kingdom from Latin to Old English. Alfred also continued to improve the legal system, military structure and the quality of life of those he ruled.
King Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity.
“Guthrum (835 – 890), was King of East Anglia in the late 9th century. Originally a native of what is now Denmark, he was one the of the leaders of the “Great Summer Army” that arrived in Reading during April 871 to join forces with the Great Heathen Army, whose intentions were to conquer the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England.”
Significant Contributions from Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great reserves the title of defender of the Anglo-Saxons against the Viking invasion. He placed particular emphasis on social reform and until this day he is the only English monarch to have the title “the great”.
It was under Alfred that the England we know today was born, he united the Anglo-Saxon peoples and gave birth to a new united culture.
Throughout Alfred’s reign there were numerous skirmishes between his own Anglo-Saxon Kingdom and the Viking invaders. The Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings would reach a stalemate and sign a treaty dividing what we now know as England into two distinct territories. The Vikings would rule the North and East, while the Anglo-Saxons would rule the South and West.
Alfred also commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a vital document for the time, which promoted the unification of England and was also a source for historians to utilise to learn more about this pivotal time.
Character and Personage
Asser wrote of Alfred in his “Life of King Alfred”,
“Now, he was greatly loved, more than all his brothers, by his father and mother, indeed by everybody, with a universal and profound love, and he was always brought up in the royal court and nowhere else, he was seen to be more comely in appearance than his other brothers, and more pleasing in manner, speech and behaviour and in spite of all the demands of the present life, it has been the desire for wisdom, more than anything else, together with the nobility of his birth, which have characterised the nature of his noble mind.
- Keynes & Lapidge 1983 pp. 74-75.
King Alfred would carry with him a small book, that contained psalms and the many prayers that he collected.
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 entire kingdom of the West Saxons at that time”.
Death
Alfred died on 26th of October 899 at the age of 50 or 51. The reason of his death is relatively unknown. However, he did suffer from an unpleasant illness throughout his life.
Before Alfred’s death he ordered the construction of the New Minster hoping that it would become a mausoleum for him and his family. However, the bodies of Alfred and his family were exhumed and moved to their new resting place in a New Minster four years after his death. They remained there for 211 years.
However, 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. Alfred and his family were buried in one of those Abbeys. Before demolition the monks moved the bodies of Alfred and his family to a new location. The new location was Hyde Abbey, however during the dissolution of the monasteries under the tutelage of Henry VIII, Hyde Abbey was demolished and treated like a Quarry.
Numerous excavation attempts have been attempted, however King Alfred the great and his family’s remains a never recovered.