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Alfred The Great

Scandinavian, or "Viking"attacks had begun on Britain in 789AD. These had slowly increased in number and ambition, until full scale invasion of the country was under way. The Saxon king of Wessex, Ethelwulf, had won a great victory over the Danes at Leith Hill in 851, but the attacks continued. Ethelwulf's sons Athelred and Alfred continued the fight against the Scandinavians, scoring a victory at Ashdown. By 868, according to the Welsk monk historian Asser, the Vikings were wintering in Mercian Nottingham. Athelred was now king of Wessex, and in a tactical alliance his brother Alfred, was married to Eahlswith, a member of the Mercian royal family. The plan was to shore up united resistance to the Scandinavians. By 870 Wessex needed all the help it could get. The Danes were in Reading and posing a direct threat to Wessex. Then Athelred died leaving Alfred the kingdom.

On Twelfth Night in January 878 the Vikings attacked the royal Wessex town of Chippenham. Alfred was forced to flee and wage a guerilla war from the swamps of Athelney. Indignities of this time apparently include Alfred being reprimanded by a swine herd's wife for burning her cakes. The confusion of life on the run may also have led to Alfred dropping a small broach-like object, known as the Alfred Jewel. It was found near Athelney with the inscription "Alfred ordered me to be made." The Jewel can now be seen at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

 

 

 

King Alfred' s Tower

By the Spring of 878 Alfred had managed to organise a resistance, and took command of an army that gathered at King Egbert's Stone on the borders of Wiltshire and Somerset. It is not clear where Egbert's Stone actually is, but local legend suggests Kingsettle Hill in Wiltshire. In the 1760s Henry Hoare, whose family made a fortune in banking, built a commemorative tower on this site. King Alfred's Tower can still be visitied today and gives wonderful views of the area where Alfred may have gathered his forces. In the battle at Edington, twelve miles from Kingsettle Hill, the Viking chieftain Guthrum was defeated. Perhaps even more significant than the military victory was Alfred's diplomatic moves that followed: he invited Guthrum into his tent, won him over and persuaded him to accept baptism. The resulting alliance gave Alfred, and Anglo Saxon England, breathing space. This alliance illustrates the depth of Alfred's character. He was not simply a warrior king: he was an educated man who translated the Psalms, created law codes, and set up schools for the ruling classes. Alfred believed that the exercise of power should go together with the possession of knowledge. As well as being a warrior, Alfred also had something of the sleek civil servant about him.

 

View of the Tate Modern from the Alfred Plaque

For the fourteen years following the alliance with Guthrum defences were built. In this peaceful period Alfred was able to reestablish the City of London, abandoned after the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century. He set up a harbour and market on a site near the north end of the Millennium Bridge. If you walk along the Thames Path on the north bank of the Thames between London Bridge and the Millennium Bridge you will pass a plaque erected in 1986 to commemorate the one thousandth one hundredth anniversary of this event. In other parts of the country fortified towns, or burghs, were created. Oxford has its orgins as one of Alfred's fortified burghs, and part of the original defensive wall survives at New College.

Finally in 890 the Viking attack came but the defences held and an area between the east and west sides of England hardened into a border. The Scandinavian area now became known as the Danelaw.

Though England was divided, the alliance between Alfred and Guthrum gave rise to the idea of a united country. Some coins of the time referred to Alfred as "Rex Anglorum" or "King of the English", a title that would be formally bestowed on his grandson Athelstan when he was crowned in 927. The idea of England had emerged, even if this did not yet correspond with reality.