KING ALFRED THE GREAT

CHILDHOOD
• According to Asser, in his childhood Alfred won a beautifully
decorated book of English poetry, offered as a prize by his
mother to the first of her sons able to memorise it. He must
have had it read to him because his mother died when he was
about six and he did not learn to read until he was 12.[29] In
853, Alfred is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have
been sent to Rome where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV,
who "anointed him as king".[30] Victorian writers later
interpreted this as an anticipatory coronation in preparation
for his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex. This is
unlikely; his succession could not have been foreseen at the
time because Alfred had three living elder brothers.

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 FAMILY
• Alfred was a son of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, and his wife Osburh.[3]
According to his biographer, Asser, writing in 893, "In the year of our
Lord's Incarnation 849 Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons", was born at the
royal estate called Wantage, in the district known as Berkshire[a] (which is
so called from Berroc Wood, where the box tree grows very abundantly)."
This date has been accepted by the editors of Asser's biography, Simon
Keynes and Michael Lapidge,[4] and by other historians such as David
Dumville and Richard Huscroft.[5] However, West Saxon genealogical lists
state that Alfred was 23 when he became king in April 871, implying that
he was born between April 847 and April 848.[6] This dating is adopted in
the biography of Alfred by Alfred Smyth, who regards Asser's biography as
fraudulent,[7] an allegation which is rejected by other historians.[8]
Richard Abels in his biography discusses both sources but does not decide
between them and dates Alfred's birth as 847/849, while Patrick Wormald
in his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article dates it 848/849.

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VIKING INVASION
• In 868, Alfred was recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in a failed attempt
to keep the Great Heathen Army led by Ivar the Boneless out of the
adjoining Kingdom of Mercia.[35] The Danes arrived in his homeland at
the end of 870, and nine engagements were fought in the following year,
with mixed results; the places and dates of two of these battles have not
been recorded. A successful skirmish at the Battle of Englefield in
Berkshire on 31 December 870 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege
and the Battle of Reading by Ivar's brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5
January 871. Four days later, the Anglo-Saxons won a victory at the Battle
of Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth.
[34] The Saxons were defeated at the Battle of Basing on 22 January. They
were defeated again on 22 March at the Battle of Merton (perhaps Marden
in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset).[34] Æthelred died shortly afterwards in
April.[34]

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KING AT WAR
• In April 871 King Æthelred died and Alfred acceded to the throne
of Wessex and the burden of its defence, even though Æthelred
left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in
accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made
earlier that year in an assembly at an unidentified place called
Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them
outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King
Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. The deceased's
sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father
had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle
had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving brother
would be king. Given the Danish invasion and the youth of his
nephews, Alfred's accession probably went uncontested.[36]

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EARLY STRUGGLES
• In April 871 King Æthelred died and Alfred acceded to the throne
of Wessex and the burden of its defence, even though Æthelred
left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in
accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made
earlier that year in an assembly at an unidentified place called
Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them
outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King
Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. The deceased's
sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father
had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle
had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving brother
would be king. Given the Danish invasion and the youth of his
nephews, Alfred's accession probably went uncontested.[36]

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