In the early 13th century, a monk in St Albans Abbey by the name of Roger of Wendover was writing his magnum opus ‘Flowers of History’, in which he writes that upon King Alfred’s conquest of London in 886, he gained the honour of being the first King of England. Befitting such an accomplishment, he gave Alfred the title for which he is best known today, ‘Magnus Rex Alfredus’, Alfred the Great.
Bar the battles fought in 1066, the greatest cultural memory of Anglo-Saxon England, an era that spanned around 600 years, is that it boasts one of the best of all English Kings, as he’s the only English Monarch to be remembered as ‘the Great’. But despite this seeming natural, after all, he’s ‘the Great’, of course, he’s the best! Using an arbitrary historical title as a measure of the worth of a ruler seems reductive. So the question should be asked: Did Alfred deserve the title awarded to him, or was it just an honour given to the memory of a romantic legend hundreds of years after the fact?
Young Alfred
Perhaps nothing is more important to Alfred’s memory than the fact that he is one of the best-sourced people from Anglo-Saxon England. This is primarily thanks to the fact that in 893, a Welsh monk named Asser wrote ‘The Life of King Alfred’ after being invited by Alfred to become a member of his court for the previous few years as part of Alfred’s campaign to improve the quality of learning in his kingdom.
Asser’s work provides the basis of a lot of what we know about Alfred and has to be relied on despite the obvious concerns about the author's potential biases. But Asser’s work also provides something we simply don’t have for any other king of the era: a snapshot of the future king as a child. Asser is the source of the famous story of Alfred beating his brothers in a competition in order to win an ornate book of poetry. Regardless of whether the story is true, it provides a romantic image of the prince as learned and tenacious at a young age, and has been the source of much art surrounding Alfred.
Asser also tells of the young boy being sent by his father to visit the Pope (a claim which surprisingly may well be true) and the Pope, upon meeting the boy, declaring him the rightful King of Wessex (a claim which is definitely not true) as well as the fact that Alfred didn’t know his alphabet until he was 12 years old. These little stories might seem trivial (and in many cases not real), but they’re practically a monsoon when compared to what we have on other kings at this age, which is to say next to nothing.
So does Alfred’s greatness derive from source bias? Truthfully, maybe a little, there’s no doubt that being well-sourced is an amazing advantage in the battle for historical memory, but as will be discussed later, Alfred was likely unique in his prioritising education and learning, part of which was commissioning histories, and so Alfred’s far-sightedness earned him an advantage in this regard.
King Alfred v Guthrum
When Alfred ascended to the throne of Wessex in 871 upon the death of his brother Æethelred. The instability of the times cannot be overstated. Alfred’s father had been the first son to succeed his father to the throne in almost 200 years. In the 13 years between his father’s death and Alfred’s own ascension to the throne, three of Alfred’s brothers had been king. As the fifth son, it was unlikely Alfred would ever be king, but in 871, king he was.
However, all of this political instability in Wessex was merely a backdrop to the main crisis hitting all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the crisis of the Great Heathen Army. Viking attacks had been increasing over the previous decades, but in 865 the Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia. The Vikings up to that point had been expert raiders, but this new force was different; they intended to conquer and settle, not merely hit and run. Prior to the Great Heathen Army’s landing, there were four major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. In less than a decade, Wessex would be the last one standing.
Upon landing in East Anglia, the Viking army forced payment from their king before wintering and marching up to Northumbria. They quickly took York and then crushed a Northumbrian army put together to take back the city, including killing the two kings leading the army. The Great Army then put a puppet on the throne and headed down into Mercia, capturing Nottingham. In response, a joint Mercian and Wessex army, which included Prince Alfred, attempted to take on the Great Army, but was unable to force a decisive battle. Mercia ended up paying for peace.
With this, the Vikings moved back into East Anglia and took Thetford. The East Anglian King Edmund the Martyr took it upon himself to rid England of the Viking threat and was instead given his epithet. The Vikings then decided to annex East Anglia. From this new base, they attempted to take a stab at Wessex, and Prince Alfred fought multiple battles during the year 871. Initially, he saw success at the Battle of Ashdown, but the situation deteriorated as the year went on. Alfred’s last surviving brother died in April 871, and in dire need of a general to stabilise the situation, the dead king’s young sons were passed over in favour of Alfred.
Alfred’s reign began poorly with more defeats at the hands of the Vikings. Upon being defeated at Wilton in May, Alfred was forced to pay for peace. The Vikings then took Mercian-held London, beat down some more rebels in Northumbria, and finally go back into Mercia and put a puppet in control there, leaving Alfred the last independent Anglo-Saxon king.
After the conquest of Mercia, the Great Heathen Army appears to have separated into two, one headed north in order to settle, while the other, under a man named Guthrum, stayed south and eyed Wessex. 3 years after their last attempt, the Vikings attempted another stab at taking Wessex, with Guthrum storming the city of Wareham in the heart of the kingdom.
It's not clear what Guthrum’s plan was after taking Wareham because Alfred quickly besieged the city, and Guthrum sued for peace. Alfred forced Guthrum to swear some oaths, and the two men exchanged hostages. Unfortunately, as soon as Alfred turned his back, Guthrum killed his hostages and rode as fast as he could to Exeter.
This time, we do know what Guthrum’s plan was; he intended to sit in Exeter until reinforcements came in boats, which would then allow him to crush Alfred. Unfortunately for Guthrum, a few weeks into this new siege, news reached him about his would-be reinforcements. The ships had been caught in a storm, and the fleet crashed on the rocks, destroying the entire relief force. A likely very smug Alfred then forced a new treaty on Guthrum, which stated he ought to leave Wessex immediately, with no hostages. Guthrum agreed; however, if Alfred thought this was the end of his Viking troubles, he was very wrong.
In January 878, Alfred was staying at Chippenham, one of his grandest royal villas. In the dead of night, Guthrum and his men stormed the village, and Alfred barely escaped. This is where we get the most romanticised period of Alfred’s reign as a king without a kingdom. He escaped to the Somerset marsh of Athelney and spent 5 months pulling whatever string he could in order to put together a force to take on Guthrum. In reality, we know nothing about his time in Athelney for certain, but it appears that he began some kind of guerrilla campaign. Eventually, Alfred decided to make his stand at Eddington, whereupon he finally defeated Guthrum in open battle. Guthrum escapes again but realises that he can’t hold out in Chippenham and so is forced to once again make peace. We don’t have this ‘Treaty of Wedmore’, but we know that in it Guthrum agreed to leave Wessex for good and to convert to Christianity, changing his name to Æthelstan.
For many, that’s where Alfred’s story ends, with a glorious victory over the Vikings and his most famous rival converted to Christianity, in the 1963 film titled Alfred the Great the victory at Eddington is the final scene of the film. But Alfred reigned for another 21 years, and it’s here where we get to Alfred’s reforms.
Between the two Viking Wars
After Alfred's victory over Guthrum but before the second major Viking invasion under Halstein in 892, Alfred had 14 years to mould his kingdom in his own image. The first of these major reforms was a military one, namely the Burghal system. We get a lot of what we know of the Burghal system from a document called the ‘Burghal Hidage’ written during the time of Alfred’s son and successor.
The Burghal system was a network of fortified towns called burhs. These towns were kept fortified and staffed throughout the year to provide faster and better responses to Viking threats. The Burghal Hidage gives detailed numbers for these defensive towns, and archaeological finds show the numbers are very accurate. Alongside this network, the army also expanded under Alfred, becoming larger and much better organised.
Not only did Alfred create a network of fortifications, but he also created a kind of rotating levy system. Instead of waiting for a crisis and then scrambling to call up some troops, Alfred’s rotating levy allowed a constant number of men year-round, which meant that threats could be defended against with much greater ease.
These reforms to the military of the kingdom were matched with a push to expand the borders of the kingdom. While the exact order of things is hard to tell, it seems that Alfred brought all of Mercia under his sway, although how he accomplished such an achievement is unknown.
Alfred also fought off many Viking raids and won some smaller-scale battles, which culminated in his capture of London in around 875. Eventually, Alfred’s successes brought a greater and more lasting peace with his old foe, Guthrum, creatively called ‘the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum’. Again, this Treaty is a unique artefact in that the text survives, being one of only 3 peace treaties we have from the Anglo-Saxon era. The treaty states a new border between Wessex and the Viking kingdoms, known from this point as the Danelaw, as well as some other points.
So, at this point, Alfred has not only kept his kingdom alive in a very tenuous period, but he has expanded his realm and made it a much more capable military power. But Alfred was not just a military man, and so now we turn to his domestic reforms.
The general spirit of Alfred’s domestic reforms was his belief that his people had neglected learning, and also perhaps that the Vikings were a divine punishment from God for their ignorance. In his mind, things were better in the good old days of the 700s, when the Anglo-Saxons were more learned and righteous. As ever with these kinds of nostalgic views of a glorious past, it's very much debatable how true this view was, but what is important is that it appears Alfred earnestly believed this to be the case.
To remedy this, Alfred began a campaign to encourage learning in his kingdom. To begin with, he brought to his court all the great men of learning, not just from the British Isles but also from the continent; this group included the previously mentioned Welsh monk Asser.
With the talent he was able to attract to his court, Alfred began his campaign for a more learned kingdom. He then had the novel idea that those in authority ought to be literate and educated; to this end, he encouraged all of them to read, and those who weren’t able to learn were to have people around them to read to them. This period also saw him create a school in his court for not only his children but also the children of other nobles, as well as some of lesser birth.
But the King himself wasn’t exempt from these obligations, far from it. It is said that he learned to read Latin, which was still the language of education and then began to personally translate works into English, including Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care. Some of these works survive and also contribute to the portrait we are able to make of Alfred, as they provide an insight into what he personally tried to prioritise. The works translated generally attempted to give advice for how rulers can rule justly, as is the case with Pastoral Care, or dealt with religious matters, such as the nature of an immortal soul, as is found in his translation of St. Augustine’s Soliloquies.
Outside of this, he also attempted to re-create the law code in Wessex, and while his law code may not be the foundation of the English legal tradition, as some try to claim, it does provide a snapshot of the laws of Anglo-Saxon England and Alfred’s priorities. The law code is wide-ranging, with attempts to integrate legislation from previous rulers, as well as displaying heavy Christian influence. As well as this law code, he commissioned the writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a history of England and the Anglo-Saxons from the beginning of time, which has also survived and is an invaluable source of information for the Anglo-Saxon period.
Second Viking War and Death
Unfortunately for Alfred, his reign wasn’t to remain peaceful after his defeat of Guthrum, as in 892, a Viking army that appears to have chosen to invade the continent instead of England as a result of Alfred’s victory over Guthrum had evidently gotten bored with France and decided to try their luck in England.
It is here that Alfred’s reforms were to be tested, and they passed the test with flying colours. This invasion never appears to have seriously troubled Alfred, as his fight with Guthrum had. The Burghal system worked to disrupt and grind down the Viking army until they eventually decided they had had enough and withdrew in 896.
The final years of Alfred’s life are a bit of a mystery as the sources dry up. He does appear to have reigned in pace for the final 3 years of his reign and had begun a translation of the Psalter, translating about the first 50 Psalms, perhaps finding comfort in David’s lamentations of his trials and tribulations and the lack of learning and religious devotion found in his time. Having suffered from various illnesses throughout his life, it is assumed Alfred’s death in 899 is why his translation of the Psalter remains unfinished.
After-Life
Alfred the Great has had a long afterlife in the English public imagination, particularly in the Victorian age. His name has been invoked in relation to almost everything, including the founding of the British Navy (while he did expand the navy, Wessex had a navy before him), the founding of Oxford University (not true at all), and the founding of England itself. While Alfred did style himself as more than merely the king of Wessex and instead as the King of the Anglo-Saxons, it is debatable if he really did ‘found England’; his grandson was, in fact, the first Anglo-Saxon king to control all of what we consider England today.
Stripping past all the myth-making that surrounds Alfred, we find a man who was dropped into an incredibly dangerous period in the history of his country and not only saw off all his enemies through sheer force of will but didn’t let the brutality of the time stop him from seeing further than most kings before or after him. He expanded the borders of Wessex, created a new military system to defend his new lands, began the creation of a better-educated and more qualified bureaucracy and introduced a cultural renaissance in which he personally participated. The fact that we have more on Alfred than other kings of the time isn’t merely a quirk of history but a result of his far-sightedness.
With all this in mind, it seems fitting that he should be so fondly remembered as the only English monarch to be remembered as ‘the Great’.
Sources/Further Reading
In order to write this little essay I read two books about Alfred; the first was David Horspool's 2014 book titled 'Alfred the Great' and the other was Penguin's 'Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources' which has either the full text or long extracts from the primary sources I mentioned in the essay. Both books are recommended if you want to read more about Alfred.
I also read a few articles; the first being Mathew Firth's 'What's in a Name?', a recent publication which took aim at the idea that Alfred's title was a much later addition to his memory. In it he found evidence that Alfred was given his epithet in various sources prior to the 1500's which is when it is generally thought that he got the title.
I also read Tom Shippey's 1996 article for the LRB and a really fun piece by Daniel Gore called 'Alfred the Great and the Reserve Book'. All the works mentioned are recommended to get more insight into the various different parts of Alfred's reign.