A Glance At King Alfred

ÆLFRED

A GLANC E AT K ING A LFRED

KUNING

We will be looking at some of the events of King Alfred’s life.

Here is a timeline of his life which includes all the main events.

878 - Guthrum’s Danish army invades Wessex, and Alfred takes refuge on the isle of Athelney. Alfred defeats Guthrum at the battle of Ethandune (Edington) in Wiltshire.

(Read from left to right).

885 - Alfred imposes rules on South Wales

878 - Treaty of Wedmore divides England into two. Guthrum accepts baptism as a Christian and agrees to leave Wessex and settle in East Anglia

871 - Alfred becomes King of Wessex following the death of his brother Aethelred

872 - London falls to Viking raiders

875 - After persistent attacks by Vikings the monks of Lindesfarne travel through Northumbria and Galloway with the Lindesfarne Gospels

884 - Alfred defeats the Danes at Rochester

884 - Alfred defeats the Danes at Rochester

886 - Alfred takes London from the Danes. Danelaw the territory occupied by the Danes in East Anglia is recognised by Alfred

899 - Alfred dies and is buried at Winchester. His son Edward becomes king

896 - Naval victory over the Danes in the Solent

893 - Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, completes his book The Life of Alfred the Great

894 - Northumbrian and East Angles swear allegiance to Alfred, but promptly break the truce attacking South West England

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891 - Anglo Saxon Chronicle, source of much early British History, began

890 - Guthrum dies. Alfred establishes a permanent army and navy

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The Basics of King Alfred Alfred was King of Wessex between 871 and 899. We are told by Asser, a companion and “biographer” of King Alfred, that he was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire.

VIII). The whereabouts of his remains is currently unknown. He was present at several battles/engagements with the Vikings.

“The saddest thing about any man is that he be ignorant, and the most exciting thing is that he knows.”

- Alfred the Great

Those up to, and including, the Battle His parents were King Æthelwulf of of Meretun were while his brother Wessex, who was initially interred at Æthelred was king. The locations of Steyning, West Sussex, and Osburh. the recorded battles/engagements He was born in 849 and died in 899. are: Nottingham (868), Reading (871), However, we do not know how or Ashdown (871), Basing (871), Meretun where he died. He was buried at (871), Wilton (871), Wareham (876), Winchester, firstly at the Old Minster Exeter (876), Ethandun/Edington (878), (demolished), then at the New Minster Rochester (884), Kent (892, where Alfred (demolished), then at Hyde Abbey camped between two Viking armies), the (largely demolished at the Dissolution River Lea (895, when he obstructed the of the Monasteries under King Henry river, trapping the Vikings).

King Alfred in the Market Square, Wantage, Oxfordshire.

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Egberts’s Stone

King Alfred in the grounds of Sherborne Abbey, Dorset.

Perhaps the most famous part of his life starts when he was hiding out on the Somerset Levels at Athelney after the Vikings had seized Chippenham and large parts (at least) of Wessex in 878.

left Athelney, went to a place called Egbert’s Stone, where his supporting troops from different counties converged. They then moved on for on final stop at a place called Iglea (Iley), and the following day they marched You may read elsewhere that King Alfred to the site of the Battle of Ethandun, fled from Chippenham with his family believed to be at Edington, in Wiltshire when the Vikings attacked. However, I (although some favour Bratton Down). could find no evidence that Alfred was It was here that King Alfred gained a there when the Vikings attacked. It was crucial victory over the Vikings. from Athelney that King Alfred started his reconquest of the Wessex that he had After their defeat, the Viking leader, lost to the Vikings. It is at Athelney that Guthrum, was baptised by King Alfred at King Alfred is supposed to have burned Aller, Somerset, and he was then hosted the cakes, but there is no evidence that by Alfred at the royal estate at Wedmore, this is anything other than a legend. in Somerset. Guthrum’s men eventually After preparing for battle, King Alfred settled in East Anglia.

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“When the Sun Clearest shineth Serenest in the heaven, Quickly are obscured All over the ear th Other stars.”

- Alfred the Great

Battle of Ethandun 878 (a bit deeper) After Alfred left Athelney, he went via Egbert’s Stone and Iglea to Ethandun where he fought against the Vikings and won. The evidence suggests that after the Vikings had raided Chippenham Wessex had pretty much fallen into their hands. The events leading up to the Battle at Ethandun can therefore be viewed as a reconquest by Alfred for his Kingdom. If Alfred had lost at Ethandun, his loss of Wessex might have become permanent. The stakes were high. However, King Alfred did win this battle, leading to his successful recovery of Wessex.

Edington Priory church, Wiltshire. It is plausible that the Battle of Ethandun was fought in the vicinity.

King Alfred the Great defeated Guthrum and the Vikings in this battle.

took place at Eþandun (þ is pronounced “th”), which I refer to as Ethandun. It seems generally accepted that Ethandun is today’s Edington in Wiltshire.

Although the identification of Ethandun is most helpful, it still does not allow us to determine the precise location of the battle in that area.

It has been suggested that Bratton Camp, which is on Bratton Down, had been the Viking base for the Battle of Ethandun.

Standing at this Iron-Age hillfort one can appreciate how, coming from the direction of Chippenham to the north (where this particular Viking army The route that Alfred would have taken appears to have had its base), once the to get from Athelney is contested, climb up to Bratton Camp had been largely because the locations of his en- achieved, they would have had easy route encampments, at Egbert’s Stone access to Salisbury Plain, in order to and Iglea, are disputed. The Angloconfront King Alfred and his armies, if Saxon Chronicles tell us that this battle indeed they had come that way.

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East of Westbury, and just a short distance south-west of Edington, Bratton Camp is marked on maps and is easy to find. There is i a figure of a white horse marked out on the hillside, sadly today made out of concrete. I agree with another writer that it seems unusual that two important battles (the other being Ashdown) had been fought in areas with prominent white horses.

However, there is no evidence that a white horse would have been present at Bratton Down at or around Alfred’s time.

Furthermore, the location of the Battle of Ashdown seems to me to have not been in the vicinity of the white horse at Uffington in Oxfordshire. I decided to avoid the unreliable practice of divining battle sites via horse-led inquiry.

The White Horse above Westbury, Wiltshire.

White Horse at Uffington The parish of Edington extends a fair way south onto Salisbury plain, approximately level with, and just to the west of the deserted village of Imber.

On some days the Ministry of Defence allows public access to Imber and some other parts of Salisbury Plain where access is restricted. I went on one of the special services run by Imberbus, where vintage buses go from Warminster train

station to permitted locations, including Imber and New Zealand Camp Farm. This was a delightful way of getting around.

However, there is much of Salisbury Plain where there is never public access, including south of the village of Edington, and it is perhaps possible that the site of the battle may be beneath an area where access is restricted owing to unexploded ordnance.

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The best I could do was to explore the roads and paths to the north of the perimeter of the training area. I include the following suggestion because it seemed most interesting and informative in terms of views, and is also within the Edington parish boundary. Just as you approach Edington coming from Bratton there is a lay-by on the right, with a footpath leading north. This fairly steep path takes you up Picquet Hill and over the top of Luccombe Bottom. As you ascend you will pass ancient tumuli and pillow mounds, and the view will open up in a way that allows one to start to understand the landscape of the potential battle site.

places been used as such and it seems possible on Bratton Down to be seduced by the heady combination of a hillfort, a horse, and wide-ranging views.

There is also the matter of maintaining provisions for troops and animals at an elevated position away from water. It has been claimed that that the battle took place at Edington in Somerset. I examine this in my book and find that this is not likely.

Looking north to Picquet Hill (on the right), Wiltshire.

Edington is down over the other side.

Both Asser and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles describe Alfred as going to Egbert’s Stone after leaving Athelney and, critically, describe this as being east of, or at least in the eastern part of, the great wood of Selwood. This would After their defeat at the battle of have taken him to a position about 30 Ethandun it is recorded that the miles east of Athelney. It seems to make Vikings were pursued as far as their little sense that Alfred would make this fortification. This is generally thought journey and then travel approximately to be Chippenham, but at least one thirty miles west again to engage writer has suggested that it could the Vikings at Edington in Somerset. have been Bratton Camp. I can see the Additional evidence against the Somerset temptation to consider Bratton camp Edington comes from the Domesday as the Viking base, but the evidence survey’s recording of the place as for a base at Chippenham is stronger.

Eduuintone, whereas the Wiltshire Of course, Bratton Camp could have location is recorded as Edendone, which been an additional forward base for the is closer to Ethandun. battle, but so could have many other 13

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“Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.”

- Alfred the Great

The religious side of King Alfred King Alfred was clearly highly religious, and had been taken to Rome twice by his father while he was a young child.

Asser tells of when, before he got married, he went to visit the resting place of a St Gueriir (at St Neot in Cornwall), and while he was there he asked for his current affliction to be replaced by something less debilitating.

St Neot Churchyard, Cornwall.

He then went on to be married, but he was struck down on his wedding night by the presumed new ailment. Sutton Courtenay, in Oxfordshire, has been put forward as the location of his wedding, but this is not certain. King Alfred was involved in translating (and did some translating himself) of some religious texts.

“The vow that binds too quickly snaps itself.”

- Alfred the Great 17

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He founded Shaftesbury Abbey (Dorset) and had his daughter installed there as abbess. He would also have had connections to Sherborne Abbey (Dorset), because two of his elder brothers (and possibly a third) who had also been kings were buried there, and after Alfred’s death, Asser would become a bishop there. Another of his brothers was buried at Wimborne, some time after the Battle of Meretun. Alfred was next in line and it is interesting to speculate whether Alfred therefore became king at Wimborne (Dorset).

part, as eastern Mercia was soon to be conceded to the Vikings) and who was also his son-in-law as he had married his daughter Æthelflæd. It seems that King Alfred retained the upper hand in both London and western Mercia.

The main sources for investigating King Alfred are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and The Life of King Alfred, written by (probably) Asser. We are also very fortunate in having some surviving charters (documents transferring or confirming rights or land etc.). Although the authenticity of many of these have King Alfred took control of London in been challenged, we can work out from 886, but entrusted the city to Æthelred, these that Alfred was at particular who ruled Mercia (at least the western places, including Dorchester (Dorset).

St Neot of Cornwall

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How did King Alfred obtain London?

The writings of a man called Æthelweard tell us that that Alfred besieged London in 886, and another early writer called Henry of Huntingdon suggested that an opportunity had arisen because the Viking presence had been weakened as a result of some having left to join Viking forces on the continent.

Alfred the Great, penny (London monogram type).

after it had been taken over by Wessex, with this being defused by Alfred handing it over to Mercian Æthelred in order to control on behalf of both of them. We know from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that London had been under Viking occupation in 871 when they had moved there from Reading.

“I am a part of all whom I have met.” - Alfred the Great Although The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Asser record Alfred in London at this time, neither source mentions that Alfred had taken London by force. The Chronicles also tell us that in the same year Alfred entrusted London to his sonin-law and ruler of Mercia, Æthelred.

London had been a Mercian city and there may have been some resentment

However, the Chronicles also tell us that these Vikings left for Northumbria in 872, and it was perhaps this that subsequently allowed Alfred to start to extend his power to London. Indeed, there is evidence from coins suggesting that London may have been under Alfred’s protection as early as the late 870s.

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But what was this London that Alfred was gaining control over? It has been suggested that after Roman control ended the population left the fortified area at the current site of the City of London and went to a place called Lundenwic, approximately 1 mile to the west, perhaps because this provided easier access to a ford at Westminster. The wic element of Lundenwic persists in the modern name Aldwych.

It appears that people later moved back to re-use the earlier Roman fortifications (as also appears to have happened at Winchester), and it seems plausible that this move had been triggered by Viking attacks. So, when Alfred took control of London it could well have comprised what is now the City of London and the area around Aldwych, with the two settlements connected by what we now call Fleet Street. There is also evidence of a high status Saxon site at Whitehall, although this seems to have fallen

The Queenhithe mosaic on the north bank of the River Thames, London. There would have been a dock here in King Alfred the Great’s time.

out of use about the same time as Aldwych.

It is thought that Alfred restored London after 868 and it has been suggested that the site of the restored Alfredian burgh extended along the north bank of the Thames from near Queenhithe in the west to near Billingsgate in the east, and extending inland by about 300m.

Back of the coin

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It is interesting to note that this area only occupied a small part of the Roman walled area, but in Alfred’s time much space might have been taken up by crops and livestock.

Much of this stretch along the river can be walked and for me the most interesting location is Queenhithe, where there are some information boards and one can look out over what would have been a dock in Alfred’s time. It is a great place to stop and think about the Saxon history of London. Queenhithe is named after Matilda, the wife of King Henry I, but the location had previously been called Æthelred’s Hithe, named after king Alfred’s sonin-law.

the place name, and it is not known whether this was acquired after the time of King Alfred.

Aldermanbury is immediately to the north-west of the current Guildhall, with Wood Street running northsouth through the middle of it. It is possible, based on the 13th century Matthew Paris quoting an 11th century source, that there had been a Saxon royal palace at Aldermanbury near the site of the former church of St Alban on Wood Street. This does not allow us to confirm that it was there when Alfred was alive, but there must have been at least one royal residence and there are few other potential locations within the circuit of London’s walls (another being the It may be that the administrative site of the former Roman praetorium, centre of London at Alfred’s time was the remains of which are largely somewhere near Aldermanbury. If this under Cannon Street station). is the case then it seems likely that Alfred would have been there at some point. However, this is based on the presence of the Old English burh in

The ward of Aldermanbury, London.

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“Ah, what shall I be at fifty, should nature keep me alive, if I find the world so bitterwhen I am but twenty-five?”

- Alfred the Great

The Navy and King Alfred The treaty with Guthrum gave Alfred the breathing space he needed to fortify and revitalize Wessex. As the last outpost of independent England, it was essential for Wessex to have an efficient military.

Alfred the Great reorganized Wessex’s army, keeping half of the men on duty at any given time. And although Alfred is famous as the father of the English Navy, kings before Alfred had used war ships.

Nonetheless, recognizing that swift ships were just one more advantage the Vikings held over the English, Alfred brought over from Frisia (modern-day Holland) skilled shipwrights to build his new navy.

Guthrum gave Alfred seven years to rebuild his kingdom, but then the double-dealing Viking broke the treaty and invaded Wessex in 885 and laid

King Alfred

siege to Rochester. But Alfred’s new military defensive measures worked.

Mobilizing his standing army, his burh garrisons, and his navy, he broke the Danish siege easily, then sent his fleet up the River Thames to capture London.

In 886, after seventeen years of occupation under the Vikings, London was in English hands again. Alfred pressed his advantage by requiring, in a new treaty with Guthrum, that English Christians under Viking rule in the Danelaw enjoy the same legal protections as the settlers from Scandinavia; beaten and humiliated, Guthrum agreed.

Four years later, Guthrum, apparently without giving Alfred any more trouble, died in Hadleigh.

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The Invasions Continue...

In spite of Guthrum’s defeat and death, the Vikings continued to mount sporadic raids on Alfred’s territory. But a serious invasion with eighty ships was mounted from France in 892, led by a Viking chief named Hastein who had been terrorizing the inhabitants of the Loire Valley.

Benfleet Murial, Essex.

Bad luck pursued Hastein’s army for another three years. The Vikings abandoned Chester in 894 and invaded northern Wales, but the ferocious resistance of the Welshmen and the lack of supplies forced the Vikings to retreat.

“Ah, why should life all labor be?” - Alfred the Great He ordered part of his force to disembark in Kent, then beached his ships at Benfleet in Essex. Danes from East Anglia and York joined Hastein’s army, but once again Alfred’s military proved its worth. The infantry harried the Vikings, while Alfred’s navy destroyed many of Hastein’s long ships in a battle off the coast of Devon in 893.

After several more reverses on land, Hastein and most of his army retreated up the old Roman road, Wading Street, to Chester.

The next year they attempted to establish a base on the River Lea north of London, no doubt positioning themselves to take the city back from Alfred, but the English hit them so hard that the Vikings had to retreat for safety into the Danelaw, leaving their dragon ships behind. In 896, the Vikings were encamped along the Severn when Alfred attacked again. The Vikings scattered: Some went north to York, and others sailed back to France in hope of easier plunder.

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Building the Anglo-Saxon Navy...

The decades of struggle between the Danish raiders and the people of Wessex, waxed and waned. Often defeated, sometimes victorious, it is recorded that Alfred remained resolute and positive and carried his army with him. They trusted him to lead them and followed his commands absolutely. He was a good strategist and it was during his reign that the building of ships to defeat the Danes before they made land, began.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells us that Alfred ordered the ships to be built to oppose the ‘esks’, the Danish vessels. It appears that Alfred himself designed the ships, he wanted a ship that would be more efficient than the Danes. Longer, steadier, higher and swifter. Some had sixty oars or more.

It is worth reading the Anglo Saxon Chronicle at this point, as it explains quite clearly the events that led to the construction of King Alfred’s Navy.

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Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (partly)...

A.D. 897. In the summer of this year went the army, some into East-Anglia, and some into Northumbria; and those that were penniless got themselves ships, and went south over sea to the Seine. The enemy had not, thank God. entirely destroyed the English nation; but they were much more weakened in these three years by the disease of cattle, and most of all of men; so that many of the mightiest of the king’s thanes. that were in the land, died within the three years. Of these. one was Swithulf Bishop of Rochester, Ceolmund alderman in Kent, Bertulf alderman in Essex, Wulfred alderman in Hampshire, Elhard Bishop of Dorchester, Eadulf a king’s thane in Sussex, Bernuff governor of Winchester, and Egulf the king’s horse-thane; and many also with them; though I have named only the

Banner of Northumbria (above) and East Anglia (below).

men of the highest rank. This same year the plunderers in East-Anglia and Northumbria greatly harassed the land of the West-Saxons by piracies on the southern coast, but most of all by the esks which they built many years before.

“I embrace the purpose of God and the doom assigned.” - Alfred the Great Then King Alfred gave orders for building long ships against the esks, which were full-nigh twice as long as the others. Some had sixty oars, some more; and they were both swifter and steadier, and also higher than the others.

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Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (partly)...

The tide, however, reached the Danish ships ere the Christians could shove theirs out; whereupon they rowed them out; but they were so crippled, that they could not row them beyond the coast of Sussex: there two of them the sea drove ashore; and the crew were led to Winchester to the king, who ordered them to be hanged. The men who escaped in the single ship came to East-Anglia, severely wounded.

This same year were lost no less than twenty ships, and the men withal, on the southern coast. Wulfric, the king’s horsethane, who was also viceroy of Wales, died the same year.

They were not shaped either after the Frisian or the Danish model, but so as he himself thought that they might be most serviceable. Then, at a certain turn of this same year, came six of their ships to the Isle of Wight; and going into Devonshire, they did much mischief both there and everywhere on the seacoast.

too were severely wounded. Then came onward those who manned the other ships, which were also very uneasily situated. Three were stationed on that side of the deep where the Danish ships were aground, whilst the others were all on the opposite side; so that none of them could join the rest; for the water had ebbed many furlongs from them.

Then commanded the king his men to go Then went the Danes from their three out against them with nine of the new ships to those other three that were on ships, and prevent their escape by the their side, be-ebbed; and there they then mouth of the river to the outer sea. Then fought. came they out against them with three ships, and three others were standing There were slain Lucomon, the king’s upwards above the mouth on dry land: reve, and Wulfheard, a Frieslander; for the men were gone off upon shore. Ebb, a Frieslander, and Ethelere, Of the first three ships they took two a Frieslander; and Ethelferth, the at the mouth outwards, and slew the king’s neat-herd; and of all the men, men; the third veered off, but all the Frieslanders and English, sixty-two; of men were slain except five; and they the Danes a hundred and twenty.

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The Death of King Alfred Alfred died on 26 October 899 at the age of 50 or 51. How he died is unknown, but 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 haemorrhoids. His grandson King Eadred seems to have suffered from a similar illness.

Alfred was temporarily buried at the Old Minster in Winchester with his wife Ealhswith and later, his son Edward the Elder. Before his death he ordered the construction of the New Minster hoping that it would become a mausoleum for him and his family.

Four years after his death, the bodies

of Alfred and his family were exhumed and moved to their new resting place in the New Minster and remained there for 211 years. 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. One of those unfortunate abbeys was the very New Minster abbey where Alfred was laid to rest.

Before demolition, the monks at the New Minster exhumed the bodies of Alfred and his family to safely transfer them to a new location.

Old Minster

The New Minster monks moved to Hyde in 1110 a little north of the city, and they transferred to Hyde Abbey along with Alfred’s body and those of his wife and children, which were interred before the high altar.

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“I desire to leave to the men that come after me a remembrance of me in good works.”

- Alfred the Great