Alfred the Great

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When Alfred finally did learn to read at age 12, he wasn’t taught in a school, he was taught by a tutor. Alfred had a reputation as a learned and merciful man of a gracious and level-headed nature who encouraged education, proposing that primary education be conducted in English rather than Latin, and improving the legal system and military structure and his people's quality of life. He was given the epithet "the Great" in the 16th century and is the only English monarch to be labelled as such. The Anglo-Saxons believed it was just as important for girls to be educated as it was for boys. All Alfred’s children learned to read and write. Bishop Asser – a Welsh monk who was recruited by Alfred to join the community of scholars at Winchester. In 893 he began writing his Life of King Alfred. He became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s.

In 865 CE the Great Army of Vikings led by Halfdane and Ivar the Boneless invaded East Anglia and swiftly defeated any force sent against them. In 866 CE they took the city of York, and in 867 CE they killed the Northumbrian kings Osbert and Aelle and consolidated their control of the region. In 868 CE they made constant raids throughout Mercia and by 869 CE had completely overrun East Anglia. In 870 CE reinforcements for the Great Army arrived from Scandinavia and Halfdane led his forces to take Wallingford, ravage Mercia, and drive on into Wessex the next year. Robin Fowler; [A.]H. Smith (eds.). The Parker Chronicle and Laws. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. 173, facs.Alfred (1973). Turk, Milton Haight (ed.). The Legal Code of Alfred the Great. AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-56546-8. years ago, Britain looked very different. England was broken into different kingdoms. The towns and cities we know today were small villages and fortresses. There was lots of forests, marshes and plants and animals. The people that lived in Britain were called Anglo-Saxons. Realising the importance of education, Alfred wanted to improve literacy. He translated a number of important texts to Anglo-Saxon English. Known as a just and fair ruler, Alfred is the only English King to have earned the title ‘ the Great’. Top 10 facts

In Anglo-Saxon times there were few schools in England and only a handful of people went to them. Schools were established in the 6th or 7th century. By the year 876, the Danes had regrouped and made their assault on Wessex. The occupation of Wareham forced Alfred to negotiate a more permanent peace deal… a deal that disintegrated almost as soon as it was sealed. c. 853 Alfred's sister, Æthelswith, marries Burgred, the king of Mercia (one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy). It is during this period that the events related in the legends surrounding Alfred are said to have taken place. Although it is often assumed that these legends come from Asser's work, they are all later creations, c. 10th century CE. The most famous of these is the story of Alfred and the burnt cakes, which comes from The Life of St. Neot.

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Todd Preston, 2012, King Alfred’s Book of Laws: A Study of the Domboc and Its Influence on English Identity, With a Complete translation Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 105–48 (diplomatic text and translation based on Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 173) Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, a defender against Viking invasion and a social reformer; just few of the reasons why he is the only English monarch to be known as “the Great”.

Alfred the Great (also spelled Ælfred; c. 849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. [2] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, commissioned at the time of Alfred, was probably written to promote unification of England, [117] whereas Asser's The Life of King Alfred promoted Alfred's achievements and personal qualities. It was possible that the document was designed this way so that it could be disseminated in Wales because Alfred had acquired overlordship of that country. [117] Foreign relations [ edit ] Alfred: No. It doesn’t matter who I am. She is right to call me a fool. I was given a job to do and I failed. To the woman I’m sorry. I will pay you for the burnt loaves. And next time I am given a job I will not fail.

Alfred learned to read after his mother challenged her sons in recite a poem by heart from her favourite book. With the signing of the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, an event most commonly held to have taken place around 880 when Guthrum's people began settling East Anglia, Guthrum was neutralised as a threat. [54] The Viking army, which had stayed at Fulham during the winter of 878–879, sailed for Ghent and was active on the continent from 879 to 892. [55] [56] The Danish raids had a devastating effect on learning in England. Alfred lamented in the preface to his translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care that "learning had declined so thoroughly in England that there were very few men on this side of the Humber who could understand their divine services in English or even translate a single letter from Latin into English: and I suppose that there were not many beyond the Humber either". [128] Alfred undoubtedly exaggerated, for dramatic effect, the abysmal state of learning in England during his youth. [32] That Latin learning had not been obliterated is evidenced by the presence in his court of learned Mercian and West Saxon clerics such as Plegmund, Wæferth, and Wulfsige. [129]

It relates how Alfred, traveling alone at this time, came upon the cottage of a swineherd and asked for hospitality without revealing who he was. They took him in for a few days, and one day when the swineherd was out, his wife was baking bread in the oven while Alfred sat nearby preoccupied with his troubles. The wife was cleaning house when she smelled the bread burning and hurried to the oven to draw the loaves out. She chastised Alfred, who was sitting close by, saying, “You hesitate to turn the loaves which you see to be burning, yet you're quite happy to eat them when they come warm from the oven!” (Keynes & Lapidge, 198). Alfred's terms were lenient: Guthrum and 30 of his chieftains would submit to Christian baptism and renounce their pagan faith, hostages would be provided to ensure compliance, and the Vikings would leave Wessex; all of these conditions were met. Wessex was secure for the time being, but there is no evidence that Alfred thought Eddington had put an end to his Viking troubles. Restoration, Reform, & Education The Christian theologian F. N. Lee extensively documented Alfred the Great's work of collecting the law codes from the three Christian Saxon kingdoms and compiling them into his Doom Book. [3] Lee details how Alfred incorporated the principles of the Mosaic law into his Code, and how this Code of Alfred became the foundation for the Common Law. Presenter: It doesn’t say Alfred read the book. It says he learned it. In Anglo-Saxon times, children were educated by memorising things.

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is reviewed between 08.30 to 16.30 Monday to Friday. We're experiencing a high volume of enquiries so it may take us Alfred won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Edington which may have been fought near Westbury, Wiltshire. He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold at Chippenham and starved them into submission. One of the terms of the surrender was that Guthrum convert to Christianity. Three weeks later, the Danish king and 29 of his chief men were baptised at Alfred's court at Aller, near Athelney, with Alfred receiving Guthrum as his spiritual son. [37]