Alfred the Great

Alfred was a son of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, and his wife Osburh.[4] 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[lower-alpha 1] (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,[5] and by other historians such as David Dumville and Richard Huscroft.[6] 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.[7] This dating is adopted in the biography of Alfred by Alfred Smyth, who regards Asser's biography as fraudulent,[8] an allegation which is rejected by other historians.[9] 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.[lower-alpha 2] Berkshire had been historically disputed between Wessex and the midland kingdom of Mercia, and as late as 844, a charter showed that it was part of Mercia, but Alfred's birth in the county is evidence that, by the late 840s, control had passed to Wessex.[11]

He was the youngest of six children. His eldest brother, Æthelstan, was old enough to be appointed sub-king of Kent in 839, almost 10 years before Alfred was born. He died in the early 850s. Alfred's next three brothers were successively kings of Wessex. Æthelbald (858-860) and Æthelberht (860-865) were also much older than Alfred, but Æthelred (865-871) was only a year or two older. Alfred's only known sister, Æthelswith, married Burgred, king of Mercia in 853. Most historians think that Osburh was the mother of all Æthelwulf's children, but some suggest that the older ones were born to an unrecorded first wife. Osburh was descended from the rulers of the Isle of Wight. She was described by Alfred's biographer Asser as "a most religious woman, noble by temperament and noble by birth". She had died by 856 when Æthelwulf married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia.[12]

In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of the Mercian nobleman Æthelred Mucel, ealdorman of the Gaini, and his wife Eadburh, who was of royal Mercian descent.[13][lower-alpha 3] Their children were Æthelflæd, who married Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians; Edward the Elder, Alfred's successor as king; Æthelgifu, abbess of Shaftesbury; Ælfthryth, who married Baldwin, count of Flanders; and Æthelweard.[15]

Map of Britain in 886

Alfred's grandfather, Ecgberht, became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historian Richard Abels, it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For 200 years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since Ceawlin in the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty.[lower-alpha 4] This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839, he was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf; all subsequent West Saxon kings were descendants of Ecgberht and Æthelwulf, and were also sons of kings.[18]

At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. Mercia dominated southern England, but its supremacy came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the Battle of Ellendun.[19] The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks.[20] In 853, King Burgred of Mercia requested West Saxon help to suppress a Welsh rebellion, and Æthelwulf led a West Saxon contingent in a successful joint campaign. In the same year Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter, Æthelswith.[21]

In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its sub-king, Baldred, was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as king of Kent.[22] The Vikings ravaged the Isle of Sheppey in 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset,[23] but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom.[24] When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan as sub-king of Kent.[25] Ecgberht and Æthelwulf may not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent because they both appointed sons as sub-kings, and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control, and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.[26]

Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated at Carhampton.[25] In 850, Æthelstan defeated a Danish fleet off Sandwich in the first recorded naval battle in English history.[27] In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son, Æthelbald, defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took the victory".[28] Æthelwulf died in 858 and was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex and by his next oldest son, Æthelberht, as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his father by two years, and Æthelberht then for the first time united Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom.[29]

Alfred's father Æthelwulf of Wessex in the early 14th-century Genealogical Roll of the Kings of England

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.[30] 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".[31] 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. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a "consul" and a misinterpretation of this investiture, deliberate or accidental, could explain later confusion.[15] It may be based upon the fact that Alfred later accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, around 854–855.[32] On their return from Rome in 856, Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald. With civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to form a compromise. Æthelbald retained the western shires (i.e. historical Wessex), and Æthelwulf ruled in the east. After King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession: Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred.[33]

A map of the route taken by the Viking Great Heathen Army which arrived in England from Denmark, Norway, and southern Sweden in 865

Alfred is not mentioned during the short reigns of his older brothers Æthelbald and Æthelberht. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes the Great Heathen Army of Danes landing in East Anglia with the intent of conquering the four kingdoms which constituted Anglo-Saxon England in 865.[34] Alfred's public life began in 865 at age 16 with the accession of his third brother, 18-year-old Æthelred. During this period, Bishop Asser gave Alfred the unique title of secundarius, which may indicate a position similar to the Celtic tanist, a recognised successor closely associated with the reigning monarch. This arrangement may have been sanctioned by Alfred's father or by the Witan to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should Æthelred fall in battle. It was a well known tradition among other Germanic peoples - such as the Swedes and Franks to whom the Anglo-Saxons were closely related - to crown a successor as royal prince and military commander.[35]

Alfred the Great silver offering penny, 871–899. Legend: AELFRED REX SAXONUM ('Alfred King of the Saxons').

The Germanic tribes who invaded Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries relied upon the unarmoured infantry supplied by their tribal levy, or fyrd, and it was upon this system that the military power of the several kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England depended.[70] The fyrd was a local militia in the Anglo-Saxon shire in which all freemen had to serve; those who refused military service were subject to fines or loss of their land.[71] According to the law code of King Ine of Wessex, issued in c. 694,

If a nobleman who holds land neglects military service, he shall pay 120 shillings and forfeit his land; a nobleman who holds no land shall pay 60 shillings; a commoner shall pay a fine of 30 shillings for neglecting military service

— Attenborough 1922, pp. 52–53

Wessex's history of failures preceding Alfred's success in 878 emphasised to him that the traditional system of battle he had inherited played to the Danes' advantage. While the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes attacked settlements for plunder, they employed different tactics. In their raids the Anglo-Saxons traditionally preferred to attack head-on by assembling their forces in a shield wall, advancing against their target and overcoming the oncoming wall marshalled against them in defence.[72] The Danes preferred to choose easy targets, mapping cautious forays to avoid risking their plunder with high-stake attacks for more. Alfred determined their tactic was to launch small attacks from a secure base to which they could retreat should their raiders meet strong resistance.[72]

The bases were prepared in advance, often by capturing an estate and augmenting its defences with ditches, ramparts and palisades. Once inside the fortification, Alfred realised, the Danes enjoyed the advantage, better situated to outlast their opponents or crush them with a counter-attack because the provisions and stamina of the besieging forces waned.[72]

The means by which the Anglo-Saxons marshalled forces to defend against marauders also left them vulnerable to the Vikings. It was the responsibility of the shire fyrd to deal with local raids. The king could call up the national militia to defend the kingdom but in the case of the Viking raids, problems with communication and raising supplies meant that the national militia could not be mustered quickly enough. It was only after the raids had begun that a call went out to landowners to gather their men for battle. Large regions could be devastated before the fyrd could assemble and arrive. Although the landowners were obliged to the king to supply these men when called, during the attacks in 878 many of them abandoned their king and collaborated with Guthrum.[73][74]

With these lessons in mind Alfred capitalised on the relatively peaceful years following his victory at Edington with an ambitious restructuring of Saxon defences. On a trip to Rome Alfred had stayed with Charles the Bald, and it is possible that he may have studied how the Carolingian kings had dealt with Viking raiders. Learning from their experiences he was able to establish a system of taxation and defence for Wessex. There had been a system of fortifications in pre-Viking Mercia that may have been an influence. When the Viking raids resumed in 892 Alfred was better prepared to confront them with a standing, mobile field army, a network of garrisons and a small fleet of ships navigating the rivers and estuaries.[75][76][77]

Burghal system

A map of burhs named in the Burghal Hidage

The walled defence round a burh. The City Walls of Alfred's capital, Winchester. Saxon and medieval work on Roman foundations.

The foundation of Alfred's new military defence system was a network of burhs, distributed at tactical points throughout the kingdom.[81] There were thirty-three burhs, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) apart, enabling the military to confront attacks anywhere in the kingdom within a day.[82][83]

Alfred's burhs (of which 22 developed into boroughs) ranged from former Roman towns, such as Winchester, where the stone walls were repaired and ditches added, to massive earthen walls surrounded by wide ditches, probably reinforced with wooden revetments and palisades, such as at Burpham in West Sussex.[84][85][86][lower-alpha 7] The size of the burhs ranged from tiny outposts such as Pilton in Devon, to large fortifications in established towns, the largest being at Winchester.[88]

A document now known as the Burghal Hidage provides an insight into how the system worked. It lists the hidage for each of the fortified towns contained in the document. Wallingford had a hidage of 2,400, which meant that the landowners there were responsible for supplying and feeding 2,400 men, the number sufficient for maintaining 9,900 feet (1.88 miles; 3.0 kilometres) of wall.[89] A total of 27,071 soldiers were needed, approximately one in four of all the free men in Wessex.[90] Many of the burhs were twin towns that straddled a river and were connected by a fortified bridge, like those built by Charles the Bald a generation before.[76] The double-burh blocked passage on the river, forcing Viking ships to navigate under a garrisoned bridge lined with men armed with stones, spears or arrows. Other burhs were sited near fortified royal villas, allowing the king better control over his strongholds.[91]

The burhs were connected by a road system maintained for army use (known as herepaths). The roads allowed an army quickly to be assembled, sometimes from more than one burh, to confront the Viking invader.[92] The road network posed significant obstacles to Viking invaders, especially those laden with booty. The system threatened Viking routes and communications making it far more dangerous for them. The Vikings lacked the equipment for a siege against a burh and a developed doctrine of siegecraft, having tailored their methods of fighting to rapid strikes and unimpeded retreats to well-defended fortifications. The only means left to them was to starve the burh into submission but this gave the king time to send his field army or garrisons from neighbouring burhs along the army roads. In such cases, the Vikings were extremely vulnerable to pursuit by the king's joint military forces.[93] Alfred's burh system posed such a formidable challenge against Viking attack that when the Vikings returned in 892 and stormed a half-built, poorly garrisoned fortress up the Lympne estuary in Kent, the Anglo-Saxons were able to limit their penetration to the outer frontiers of Wessex and Mercia.[94] Alfred's burghal system was revolutionary in its strategic conception and potentially expensive in its execution. His contemporary biographer Asser wrote that many nobles balked at the demands placed upon them even though they were for "the common needs of the kingdom".[95][96]

A coin of Alfred, London, 880 (based upon a Roman model)

In the late 880s or early 890s, Alfred issued a long domboc or law code consisting of his own laws, followed by a code issued by his late seventh-century predecessor King Ine of Wessex.[103] Together these laws are arranged into 120 chapters. In his introduction Alfred explains that he gathered together the laws he found in many "synod-books" and "ordered to be written many of the ones that our forefathers observed—those that pleased me; and many of the ones that did not please me, I rejected with the advice of my councillors, and commanded them to be observed in a different way".[104]

Alfred singled out in particular the laws that he "found in the days of Ine, my kinsman, or Offa, king of the Mercians, or King Æthelberht of Kent who first among the English people received baptism". He appended, rather than integrated, the laws of Ine into his code and although he included, as had Æthelbert, a scale of payments in compensation for injuries to various body parts, the two injury tariffs are not aligned. Offa is not known to have issued a law code, leading historian Patrick Wormald to speculate that Alfred had in mind the legatine capitulary of 786 that was presented to Offa by two papal legates.[105]

About a fifth of the law code is taken up by Alfred's introduction which includes translations into English of the Ten Commandments, a few chapters from the Book of Exodus, and the Apostolic Letter from the Acts of the Apostles (15:23–29). The introduction may best be understood as Alfred's meditation upon the meaning of Christian law.[106] It traces the continuity between God's gift of law to Moses to Alfred's own issuance of law to the West Saxon people. By doing so, it linked the holy past to the historical present and represented Alfred's law-giving as a type of divine legislation.[107]

Similarly Alfred divided his code into 120 chapters because 120 was the age at which Moses died and, in the number-symbolism of early medieval biblical exegetes, 120 stood for law.[108] The link between Mosaic law and Alfred's code is the Apostolic Letter which explained that Christ "had come not to shatter or annul the commandments but to fulfill them; and he taught mercy and meekness" (Intro, 49.1). The mercy that Christ infused into Mosaic law underlies the injury tariffs that figure so prominently in barbarian law codes since Christian synods "established, through that mercy which Christ taught, that for almost every misdeed at the first offence secular lords might with their permission receive without sin the monetary compensation which they then fixed".[109]

The only crime that could not be compensated with a payment of money was treachery to a lord "since Almighty God adjudged none for those who despised Him, nor did Christ, the Son of God, adjudge any for the one who betrayed Him to death; and He commanded everyone to love his lord as Himself".[109] Alfred's transformation of Christ's commandment, from "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matt. 22:39–40) to love your secular lord as you would love the Lord Christ himself, underscores the importance that Alfred placed upon lordship which he understood as a sacred bond instituted by God for the governance of man.[110]

When one turns from the domboc's introduction to the laws themselves, it is difficult to uncover any logical arrangement. The impression is of a hodgepodge of miscellaneous laws. The law code, as it has been preserved, is singularly unsuitable for use in lawsuits. In fact, several of Alfred's laws contradicted the laws of Ine that form an integral part of the code. Patrick Wormald's explanation is that Alfred's law code should be understood not as a legal manual but as an ideological manifesto of kingship "designed more for symbolic impact than for practical direction".[111] In practical terms the most important law in the code may well have been the first: "We enjoin, what is most necessary, that each man keep carefully his oath and his pledge" which expresses a fundamental tenet of Anglo-Saxon law.[112]

Alfred devoted considerable attention and thought to judicial matters. Asser underscores his concern for judicial fairness. Alfred, according to Asser, insisted upon reviewing contested judgments made by his ealdormen and reeves and "would carefully look into nearly all the judgements which were passed [issued] in his absence anywhere in the realm to see whether they were just or unjust".[113] A charter from the reign of his son Edward the Elder depicts Alfred as hearing one such appeal in his chamber while washing his hands.[114]

Asser represents Alfred as a Solomonic judge, painstaking in his own judicial investigations and critical of royal officials who rendered unjust or unwise judgments. Although Asser never mentions Alfred's law code he does say that Alfred insisted that his judges be literate so that they could apply themselves "to the pursuit of wisdom". The failure to comply with this royal order was to be punished by loss of office.[115]

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, commissioned at the time of Alfred, was probably written to promote unification of England,[116] 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.[116]

Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers but little definite information is available.[69] His interest in foreign countries is shown by the insertions which he made in his translation of Orosius. He corresponded with Elias III, the patriarch of Jerusalem,[69] and embassies to Rome conveying the English alms to the pope were fairly frequent.[76][lower-alpha 8] Around 890, Wulfstan of Hedeby undertook a journey from Hedeby on Jutland along the Baltic Sea to the Prussian trading town of Truso. Alfred personally collected details of this trip.[118]

Alfred's relations with the Celtic princes in the western half of Great Britain are clearer. Comparatively early in his reign, according to Asser, the southern Welsh princes, owing to the pressure on them from North Wales and Mercia, commended themselves to Alfred. Later in his reign, the North Welsh followed their example and the latter cooperated with the English in the campaign of 893 (or 894). That Alfred sent alms to Irish and Continental monasteries may be taken on Asser's authority. The visit of three pilgrim "Scots" (i.e., Irish) to Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic. The story that, in his childhood, he was sent to Ireland to be healed by Saint Modwenna may show Alfred's interest in that island.[69]

Alfred depicted in a stained-glass window of c. 1905 in Bristol Cathedral

In the 880s, at the same time that he was "cajoling and threatening" his nobles to build and man the burhs, Alfred, perhaps inspired by the example of Charlemagne almost a century before, undertook an equally ambitious effort to revive learning.[69] During this period, the Viking raids were often seen as a divine punishment, and Alfred may have wished to revive religious awe in order to appease God's wrath.[119]

This revival entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales and abroad to enhance the tenor of the court and of the episcopacy; the establishment of a court school to educate his own children, the sons of his nobles, and intellectually promising boys of lesser birth; an attempt to require literacy in those who held offices of authority; a series of translations into the vernacular of Latin works the king deemed "most necessary for all men to know";[120] the compilation of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred's kingdom and house, with a genealogy that stretched back to Adam, thus giving the West Saxon kings a biblical ancestry.[121]

Very little is known of the church under Alfred. The Danish attacks had been particularly damaging to the monasteries. Although Alfred founded monasteries at Athelney and Shaftesbury, these were the first new monastic houses in Wessex since the beginning of the eighth century.[122] According to Asser, Alfred enticed foreign monks to England for his monastery at Athelney because there was little interest for the locals to take up the monastic life.[123]

Alfred undertook no systematic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious practices in Wessex. For him, the key to the kingdom's spiritual revival was to appoint pious, learned, and trustworthy bishops and abbots. As king, he saw himself as responsible for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his subjects. Secular and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred.[124][125]

He was equally comfortable distributing his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care to his bishops so that they might better train and supervise priests and using those same bishops as royal officials and judges. Nor did his piety prevent him from expropriating strategically sited church lands, especially estates along the border with the Danelaw, and transferring them to royal thegns and officials who could better defend them against Viking attacks.[125][126]

Advocacy of education in English

Line drawing of the Alfred Jewel, showing the socket at its base

Alfred's educational ambitions seem to have extended beyond the establishment of a court school. Believing that without Christian wisdom there can be neither prosperity nor success in war, Alfred aimed "to set to learning (as long as they are not useful for some other employment) all the free-born young men now in England who have the means to apply themselves to it".[133] Conscious of the decay of Latin literacy in his realm, Alfred proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin.[134]

There were few "books of wisdom" written in English. Alfred sought to remedy this through an ambitious court-centred programme of translating into English the books he deemed "most necessary for all men to know".[134] It is unknown when Alfred launched this programme, but it may have been during the 880s when Wessex was enjoying a respite from Viking attacks. Alfred was, until recently, often considered to have been the author of many of the translations, but this is now considered doubtful in almost all cases.[135] Scholars more often refer to translations as "Alfredian", indicating that they probably had something to do with his patronage, but are unlikely to be his own work.[136]

Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridio, which seems to have been a commonplace book kept by the king, the earliest work to be translated was the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, a book greatly popular in the Middle Ages. The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command by Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king merely furnishing a preface.[69] Remarkably, Alfred – undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars – translated four works himself: Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, St. Augustine's Soliloquies and the first fifty psalms of the Psalter.[137]

One might add to this list the translation, in Alfred's law code, of excerpts from the Vulgate Book of Exodus. The Old English versions of Orosius's Histories against the Pagans and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People are no longer accepted by scholars as Alfred's own translations because of lexical and stylistic differences.[137] Nonetheless, the consensus remains that they were part of the Alfredian programme of translation. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge suggest this also for Bald's Leechbook and the anonymous Old English Martyrology.[138]

The preface of Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care[133] explained why he thought it necessary to translate works such as this from Latin into English. Although he described his method as translating "sometimes word for word, sometimes sense for sense", the translation keeps very close to the original although, through his choice of language, he blurred throughout the distinction between spiritual and secular authority. Alfred meant the translation to be used, and circulated it to all his bishops.[139] Interest in Alfred's translation of Pastoral Care was so enduring that copies were still being made in the 11th century.[140]

Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy was the most popular philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages. Unlike the translation of the Pastoral Care, the Alfredian text deals very freely with the original and, though the late Dr. G. Schepss showed that many of the additions to the text are to be traced not to the translator himself[141] but to the glosses and commentaries which he used, still there is much in the work which is distinctive to the translation and has been taken to reflect philosophies of kingship in Alfred's milieu. It is in the Boethius that the oft-quoted sentence occurs: "To speak briefly: I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in good works."[142] The book has come down to us in two manuscripts only. In one of these[143] the writing is prose, in the other[144] a combination of prose and alliterating verse. The latter manuscript was severely damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries.[145]

The last of the Alfredian works is one which bears the name Blostman ('Blooms') or Anthology. The first half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of St Augustine of Hippo, the remainder is drawn from various sources. The material has traditionally been thought to contain much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of him. The last words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting epitaph for the noblest of English kings. "Therefore, he seems to me a very foolish man, and truly wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear."[139] Alfred appears as a character in the twelfth- or 13th-century poem The Owl and the Nightingale where his wisdom and skill with proverbs is praised. The Proverbs of Alfred, a 13th-century work, contains sayings that are not likely to have originated with Alfred but attest to his posthumous medieval reputation for wisdom.[146]

The Alfred Jewel, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, commissioned by Alfred; probably a pointer to aid reading

The Alfred jewel, discovered in Somerset in 1693, has long been associated with King Alfred because of its Old English inscription AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN ('Alfred ordered me to be made'). The jewel is about 2+1⁄2 inches (6.4 centimetres) long, made of filigreed gold, enclosing a highly polished piece of quartz crystal beneath which is set in a cloisonné enamel plaque with an enamelled image of a man holding floriate sceptres, perhaps personifying Sight or the Wisdom of God.[147]

It was at one time attached to a thin rod or stick based on the hollow socket at its base. The jewel certainly dates from Alfred's reign. Although its function is unknown, it has been often suggested that the jewel was one of the æstels – pointers for reading – that Alfred ordered sent to every bishopric accompanying a copy of his translation of the Pastoral Care. Each æstel was worth the princely sum of 50 mancuses which fits in well with the quality workmanship and expensive materials of the Alfred jewel.[148]

Historian Richard Abels sees Alfred's educational and military reforms as complementary. Restoring religion and learning in Wessex, Abels contends, was to Alfred's mind as essential to the defence of his realm as the building of the burhs.[149] As Alfred observed in the preface to his English translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, kings who fail to obey their divine duty to promote learning can expect earthly punishments to befall their people.[150] The pursuit of wisdom, he assured his readers of the Boethius, was the surest path to power: "Study wisdom, then, and, when you have learned it, condemn it not, for I tell you that by its means you may without fail attain to power, yea, even though not desiring it".[151]

The portrayal of the West-Saxon resistance to the Vikings by Asser and the chronicler as a Christian holy war was more than mere rhetoric or propaganda. It reflected Alfred's own belief in a doctrine of divine rewards and punishments rooted in a vision of a hierarchical Christian world order in which God is the Lord to whom kings owe obedience and through whom they derive their authority over their followers. The need to persuade his nobles to undertake work for the 'common good' led Alfred and his court scholars to strengthen and deepen the conception of Christian kingship that he had inherited by building upon the legacy of earlier kings including Offa, clerical writers including Bede, and Alcuin and various participants in the Carolingian renaissance. This was not a cynical use of religion to manipulate his subjects into obedience but an intrinsic element in Alfred's worldview. He believed, as did other kings in ninth-century England and Francia, that God had entrusted him with the spiritual as well as physical welfare of his people. If the Christian faith fell into ruin in his kingdom, if the clergy were too ignorant to understand the Latin words they butchered in their offices and liturgies, if the ancient monasteries and collegiate churches lay deserted out of indifference, he was answerable before God, as Josiah had been. Alfred's ultimate responsibility was the pastoral care of his people.[149]

No known portrait of Alfred the Great exists from life. A likeness by artist and historian George S. Stuart created from his physical description mentioned in historical records.

Asser wrote of Alfred in his Life of King Alfred,

Now, he was greatly loved, more than all his brothers, by his father and mother—indeed, by everybody—with a universal and profound love, and he was always brought up in the royal court and nowhere else...[He] was seen to be more comely in appearance than his other brothers, and more pleasing in manner, speech and behaviour...[and] in spite of all the demands of the present life, it has been the desire for wisdom, more than anything else, together with the nobility of his birth, which have characterized the nature of his noble mind.

— Keynes & Lapidge 1983, pp. 74–75

It is also written by Asser that Alfred did not learn to read until he was 12 years old or later, which is described as "shameful negligence" of his parents and tutors. Alfred was an excellent listener and had an incredible memory and he retained poetry and psalms very well. A story is told by Asser about how his mother held up a book of Saxon poetry to him and his brothers, and said; "I shall give this book to whichever one of you can learn it the fastest." After excitedly asking, "Will you really give this book to the one of us who can understand it the soonest and recite it to you?" Alfred then took it to his teacher, learned it, and recited it back to his mother.[152]

Alfred is noted as carrying around a small book, probably a medieval version of a small pocket notebook, that contained psalms and many prayers that he often collected. Asser writes: these "he collected in a single book, as I have seen for myself; amid all the affairs of the present life he took it around with him everywhere for the sake of prayer, and was inseparable from it."[152] An excellent hunter in every branch of the sport, Alfred is remembered as an enthusiastic huntsman against whom nobody's skills could compare.[152]

Although he was the youngest of his brothers, he was probably the most open-minded. He was an early advocate for education. His desire for learning could have come from his early love of English poetry and inability to read or physically record it until later in life. Asser writes that Alfred "could not satisfy his craving for what he desired the most, namely the liberal arts; for, as he used to say, there were no good scholars in the entire kingdom of the West Saxons at that time".[152]

A posthumous image of Queen Ealhswith, 1220

In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini. The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal family.[153]

They had five or six children together, including Edward the Elder who succeeded his father as king; Æthelflæd who became lady of the Mercians; and Ælfthryth who married Baldwin II, Count of Flanders. Alfred's mother was Osburga, daughter of Oslac of the Isle of Wight, Chief Butler of England. Asser, in his Vita Ælfredi asserts that this shows his lineage from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight.

Osferth was described as a relative in King Alfred's will and he attested charters in a high position until 934. A charter of King Edward's reign described him as the king's brother – mistakenly according to Keynes and Lapidge, but in the view of Janet Nelson, he probably was an illegitimate son of King Alfred.[154][155]

Alfred's will

Alfred died on 26 October 899 at the age of 50 or 51.[156] 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.[157][158] His grandson King Eadred seems to have had a similar illness.[159][lower-alpha 9]

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.[161] 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.[161] Before demolition, the monks at the New Minster exhumed the bodies of Alfred and his family to safely transfer them to a new location. 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.[161]

In 1536, many Roman Catholic churches were vandalized by the people of England spurred by disillusionment with the church during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. One such Catholic church was the site of Alfred's burial, Hyde Abbey. Once again, Alfred's place of rest was disturbed for the now 3rd time. Hyde Abbey was dissolved in 1538 during the reign of Henry VIII,[161] the church site was demolished and treated like a quarry, as the stones that made up the abbey were then re-used in local architecture.[162] The stone graves housing Alfred and his family stayed underground, and the land returned to farming. These graves remained intact until 1788 when the site was acquired by the county for the construction of a town jail.

Before construction began, convicts that would later be imprisoned at the site were sent in to prepare the ground, to ready it for building. While digging the foundation trenches, the convicts discovered the coffins of Alfred and his family. The local Catholic priest, Dr. Milner recounts this event:

Thus miscreants couch amidst the ashes of our Alfreds and Edwards; and where once religious silence and contemplation were only interrupted by the bell of regular observance, the chanting of devotion, now alone resound the clank of the captives chains and the oaths of the profligate! In digging for the foundation of that mournful edifice, at almost every stroke of the mattock or spade some ancient sepulchre was violated, the venerable contents of which were treated with marked indignity. On this occasion a great number of stone coffins were dug up, with a variety of other curious articles, such as chalices, patens, rings, buckles, the leather of shoes and boots, velvet and gold lace belonging to chasubles and other vestments; as also the crook, rims, and joints of a beautiful crosier double gilt.[163]

The convicts broke the stone coffins into pieces, the lead, which lined the coffins, was sold for two guineas, and the bones within scattered around the area.[162]

The prison was demolished between 1846 and 1850.[164] Further excavations were inconclusive in 1866 and 1897.[165][166] In 1866, amateur antiquarian John Mellor claimed to have recovered a number of bones from the site which he said were those of Alfred. These came into the possession of the vicar of nearby St Bartholomew's Church who reburied them in an unmarked grave in the church graveyard.[164]

Excavations conducted by the Winchester Museums Service of the Hyde Abbey site in 1999 located a second pit dug in front of where the high altar would have been located, which was identified as probably dating to Mellor's 1866 excavation.[165] The 1999 archeological excavation uncovered the foundations of the abbey buildings and some bones, suggested at the time to be those of Alfred; they proved instead to belong to an elderly woman.[167] In March 2013, the Diocese of Winchester exhumed the bones from the unmarked grave at St Bartholomew's and placed them in secure storage. The diocese made no claim that they were the bones of Alfred, but intended to secure them for later analysis, and from the attentions of people whose interest may have been sparked by the recent identification of the remains of King Richard III.[167][168] The bones were radiocarbon-dated but the results showed that they were from the 1300s and therefore not of Alfred. In January 2014, a fragment of pelvis that had been unearthed in the 1999 excavation of the Hyde site, and had subsequently lain in a Winchester museum store room, was radiocarbon-dated to the correct period. It has been suggested that this bone may belong to either Alfred or his son Edward, but this remains unproven.[169][170]

Statue of Alfred the Great at Wantage, Oxfordshire

Though Henry VI of England attempted unsuccessfully to have Alfred canonized by Pope Eugene IV in 1441, he was venerated sometimes in the Catholic Church. The current "Roman Martyrology" does not mention Alfred.[171] The Anglican Communion venerates him as a Christian hero, with a Lesser Festival on 26 October,[172] and he may often be found depicted in stained glass in Church of England parish churches.[173]

Alfred commissioned Bishop Asser to write his biography, which inevitably emphasised Alfred's positive aspects. Later medieval historians such as Geoffrey of Monmouth also reinforced Alfred's favourable image. By the time of the Reformation, Alfred was seen as a pious Christian ruler who promoted the use of English rather than Latin, and so the translations that he commissioned were viewed as untainted by the later Roman Catholic influences of the Normans. Consequently, it was writers of the 16th century who gave Alfred his epithet as "the Great", not any of Alfred's contemporaries.[174] The epithet was retained by succeeding generations who admired Alfred's patriotism, success against barbarism, promotion of education, and establishment of the rule of law.[174]

A number of educational establishments are named in Alfred's honour:

• The University of Winchester created from the former King Alfred's College, Winchester (1928 to 2004)
• Alfred University and Alfred State College in Alfred, New York; the local telephone exchange for Alfred University is 871 in commemoration of the year of Alfred's ascension to the throne. Additionally, the mascot of Alfred University is named Lil' Alf and is modeled after the king
• The University of Liverpool created a King Alfred Chair of English Literature

Eighteenth-century portrait of Alfred by Samuel Woodforde

• King Alfred's Academy, a secondary school in Wantage, Oxfordshire, the birthplace of Alfred
• King's Lodge School in Chippenham, Wiltshire, so named because King Alfred's hunting lodge is reputed to have stood on or near the site of the school
• The King Alfred School and Specialist Sports Academy, Burnham Road, Highbridge, so named due to its rough proximity to Brent Knoll (a Beacon site) and Athelney
• The King Alfred School in Barnet, North London, UK
• King Alfred's house in Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield
• King Alfred Swimming Pool & Leisure complex in Hove, Brighton UK

The Royal Navy named one ship and two shore establishments HMS King Alfred, and one of the early ships of the U.S. Navy was named USS Alfred in his honour. In 2002, Alfred was ranked number 14 in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote.[175]

• Abels, Richard P. (1988). Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England. British Museum Press. pp. 58–78. ISBN 978-0-7141-0552-9.
• Abels, Richard (1998). Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-04047-2.
• Abels, Richard (2002). "Royal Succession and the Growth of Political Stability in Ninth-Century Wessex". The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History. 12: 83–97. ISBN 978-1-84383-008-5.
• Attenborough, F.L., ed. (1922). The laws of the earliest English kings. Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–53, 62–93, 98–101. ISBN 9780404565459. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016.
• Bately, Janet (1970). "King Alfred and the Old English Translation of Orosius". Anglia. 88: 433–60.
• Bately, Janet (1990). "'Those books that are most necessary for all men to know': The Classics and late ninth-century England: a reappraisal". In Bernardo, Aldo S.; Levin, Saul (eds.). The Classics in the Middle Ages. Binghamtion, New York. pp. 45–78.
• Bately, Janet M. (2014). "Alfred as Author and Translator". In Nicole Guenther Discenza; Paul E. Szarmach (eds.). A Companion to Alfred the Great. Leiden: Brill. pp. 113–42. doi:10.1163/9789004283763_006. ISBN 9789004283763.
• BBC staff (17 January 2014). "Bone fragment 'could be King Alfred or son Edward'". BBC News.
• Blackburn, M.A.S. (1998). "The London mint in the reign of Alfred". In Blackburn, M.A.S.; Dumville, D.N. (eds.). Kings, Currency and Alliances: History and Coinage of Southern England in the 9th Century. pp. 105–24.
• Bradshaw, Anthony (1999). The Burghal Hidage: Alfred's Towns. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
• Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. pp. 172–73.
• Brooks, N.P.; Graham-Campbell, J.A. (1986). "Reflections on the Viking-age silver hoard from Croydon, Surrey". Anglo-Saxon Monetary History: Essays in Memory of Michael Dolley. pp. 91–110.
• Cannon, John (1997). The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866176-2.
• Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2013). Wales and the Britons 350–1064. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821731-2.
• The Church Monuments Society (29 January 2014). "The Post-Mortem Adventures of Alfred The Great". The Church Monuments Society. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
• Cohen, Tamara (27 March 2013). "Could these be the bones of Alfred the Great?". IOL Scitech. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
• Costambeys, Marios (2004). "Ealhswith (d. 902)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39226. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• "HomeHistory of the Monarchy: English Monarchs (400 AD – 1603): The Anglo-Saxon kings:Alfred 'The Great' (r. 871–899)". The official website of the British Monarchy. 2011. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017.
• Craig, G (May 1991). "Alfred the Great: a diagnosis". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 84 (5): 303–05. doi:10.1177/014107689108400518. PMC 1293232. PMID 1819247.
• Crofton, Ian (2006). The Kings & Queens of England. Quercus Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-84724-628-8.
• "Great Britons 11–100". BBC. 21 August 2002. Archived from the original on 4 December 2002.
• Dodson, Aidan (2004). The Royal Tombs of Great Britain. London: Duckworth.
• Doubleday, Arthur; Page, William, eds. (1903). Houses of Benedictine monks: New Minster, or the Abbey of Hyde | British History Online. www.british-history.ac.uk. London. pp. 116–122. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
• Dumville, David (1979). "The ætheling: a study in Anglo-Saxon constitutional history". Anglo-Saxon England. 8: 1–33. doi:10.1017/s026367510000301x. S2CID 159954001.
• Dumville, David (1986). "The West Saxon Genealogical List: Manuscripts and Texts". Anglia. 104: 1–32. doi:10.1515/angl.1986.1986.104.1. ISSN 0340-5222. S2CID 162322618.
• Dumville, David (1992). Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar : six essays on political, cultural, and ecclesiastical revival. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-308-7.
• Dumville, David (1996). Fryde, E.B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I (eds.). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd with corrections ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
• Dunstan, St (1992). Ramsey, Nigel; Sparks, Margaret; Tatton-Brown, Tim (eds.). St Dunstan:His Life, Times, and Cult. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-8511-5301-1.
• Edwards, Heather (2004). "Ecgberht [Egbert] (d. 839)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8581. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Fleming, Robin (1985). "Monastic lands and England's defence in the Viking Age". English Historical Review. 100 (395): 247–65. doi:10.1093/ehr/C.CCCXCV.247.
• Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan: The First King of England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1.
• Gifford, Edwin; Gifford, Joyce (2003). "Alfred's new longships". In Reuter, Timothy (ed.). Alfred the Great (Studies in early medieval Britain). pp. 281–89. ISBN 978-0-7546-0957-5.
• Giles, J. A.; Ingram, J., eds. (1996). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Project Gutenberg. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. — "Note: This electronic edition [of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] is a collation of material from nine diverse extant versions of the Chronicle. It contains primarily the translation of Rev. James Ingram, as published in the [1847] Everyman edition". It was "Originally compiled on the orders of King Alfred the Great, approximately A.D. 890, and subsequently maintained and added to by generations of anonymous scribes until the middle of the 12th Century".
• Godden, M. R. (2007). "Did King Alfred Write Anything?". Medium Ævum. 76 (1): 1–23. doi:10.2307/43632294. ISSN 0025-8385. JSTOR 43632294.
• Gransden, Antonia (1996). Historical Writing in England: c. 500 to c. 1307. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15124-4.
• Gregory I, Pope; Alfred, King of England (1871). Sweet, Henry (ed.). King Alfred's West-Saxon version of Gregory's Pastoral care. London: N. Trübner & Company for the Early English text society. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016.
• Hill, Paul (2009). The Viking Wars of Alfred the Great. Westholme. ISBN 978-1-59416-087-5.
• Hill, David; Rumble, Alexander R., eds. (1996). The Defence of Wessex: The Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon Fortifications. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-719-03218-0.
• Hollister, C. Warren (1962). Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Norman Conquest. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Horspool, David (2006). Why Alfred Burned the Cakes. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-8619-7786-7.
• Hull, Lise E. (2006). Britain's Medieval Castles. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-98414-4.
• Hunt, William (1889). "Ethelbald (d.860)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 16.
• Henry of Huntingdon (1969). "Histories". In Giles, J.A. (ed.). Memorials of King Alfred: being essays on the history and antiquities of England during the ninth century, the age of King Alfred, by various authors. Burt Franklin research & source works series. New York: Burt Franklin.
• Huscroft, Richard (2019). Making England 796-1042. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-18246-2.
• Jackson, F I (January 1992). "Letter to the editor: Alfred the Great: a diagnosis". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 85 (1): 58. PMC 1293470. PMID 1610468.
• Kalmar, Tomas (2016a). "Born in the Margin: The Chronological Scaffolding of Asser's Vita Ælfredi". Peritia. 17: 79–98. doi:10.1484/J.PERIT.5.112197. ISSN 0332-1592.
• Kalmar, Tomas (2016b). "Then Alfred took the Throne and then what? Parker's Error and Plummer's Blind Spot". In Volodarskaya, Emma; Roberts, Jane (eds.). Language, Culture and Society in Russian/English Studies: the Proceedings of the Sixth Conference 27–28 July 2015. London, Senate House: University of London. pp. 37–83. ISBN 978-5-88966-097-2. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020.
• Kennedy, Maev (27 March 2013). "'Alfred the Great' bones exhumed from unmarked grave". The Guardian.
• Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael (1983). Alfred the Great, Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044409-2.
• Keynes, Simon (1993). "The Control of Kent in the Ninth Century". Early Medieval Europe. 2 (2): 111–31. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0254.1993.tb00013.x. ISSN 1468-0254.
• Keynes, Simon (1995). "England, 700–900". In McKitterick, Rosamond (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. II. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 18–42. ISBN 978-0-521-36292-4.
• Keynes, Simon (1998). "Alfred and the Mercians". In Blackburn, Mark A.S.; Dumville, David N. (eds.). Kings, currency, and alliances: history and coinage of southern England in the ninth century. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 1–46. ISBN 978-0-85115-598-2.
• Keynes, Simon (1999). "King Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbey". Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbey. Dorset County Council. ISBN 9780852168875. OCLC 41466697.
• Keynes, Simon (2014). "Asser". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Second ed.). Chichester, UK: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
• Keys, David (17 January 2014). "Bones of King Alfred the Great believed to have been found in a box at Winchester City Museum". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 January 2014.
• Kirby, D. H. (2000). The Earliest English Kings (Revised ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-24211-0.
• Kiernan, Kevin S. (1998). "Alfred the Great's Burnt Boethius". In Bornstein, George; Tinkle, Theresa (eds.). The Iconic Page in Manuscript, Print, and Digital Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Lapidge, Michael (2001). Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. London, UK: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22492-0.
• Lavelle, Ryan (2010). Alfred's Wars: Sources and Interpretations of Anglo-Saxon Warfare in the Viking Age. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydel Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-569-1.
• Loyn, H.R (1991). Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest. Harlow, Essex: Longman Group. ISBN 0-582-07297-2.
• Lavelle, Ryan (2003). Fortifications in Wessex c. 800-1066. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84176-639-3.
• Malmesbury, William (1904). Giles, J.A. (ed.). Chronicle of the Kings of England. London: George Bell and Sons. Archived from the original on 25 February 2013.
• Merkle, Benjamin (2009). The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great. New York: Thomas Nelson. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-59555-252-5.
• Miller, Sean (2004). "Æthelred [Ethelred] I (d. 871)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8913. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Molyneaux, George (2015). The Formation of the English Kingdom in the Tenth Century. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-102775-8.
• Morgan, Kenneth O.; Corbishley, Mike; Gillingham, John; Kelly, Rosemary; Dawson, Ian; Mason, James (1996). "The kingdoms in Britain & Ireland". The Young Oxford History of Britain & Ireland. Walton St., Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-910035-7.
• Nares, Robert (1859). A Glossary; or Collection of Words, Phrases, Names and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs, etc., Which Have Been Thought to Require Illustration in the Works of English Authors, Particularly Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. London: John Russel Smith.
• Nelson, Janet (1999). Rulers and Ruling Families in Early Medieval Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-86078-802-4.
• Nelson, Janet (2003). "Alfred's Carolingian Contemporaries". In Reuter, Timothy (ed.). Alfred the Great. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. pp. 293–310. ISBN 978-0-7546-0957-5.
• Nelson, Janet (2004). "Æthelwulf (d. 858)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8921. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Orosius, Paulus; Hampson, Robert Thomas (1855). A Literal Translation of King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version of the Compendious History of the World. Longman. p. 16.
• Parker, Joanne (2007). 'England's Darling'. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7356-4.
• Paul, Suzanne (2015). "Alfred the Great's Old English translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care (MS Ii.2.4)". Cambridge Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015.
• Pratt, David (2007). The political thought of King Alfred the Great. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series. Vol. 67. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80350-2.
• Preston, Richard A; Wise, Sydney F; Werner, Herman O (1956). Men in Arms: A History of Warfare and Its Interrelationships with Western Society. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.
• Ranft, Patricia (2012). How the Doctrine of Incarnation Shaped Western Culture. Plymouth, England: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-7432-6.
• Ross, David (11 October 2016). "Statue of King Alfred the Great". BritainExpress. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017.
• Savage, Anne (1988). Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Papermac. p. 288. ISBN 0-333-48881-4.
• Schepss, Dr. G. (1895). "Zu König Alfreds Boethius". Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen (in German). 94: 149–60.
• Sedgefield, W.J. (1900). King Alfred's version of the Consolations of Boethius. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Smyth, Alfred P. (1995). King Alfred the Great. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822989-5.
• Stenton, Frank M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
• Swanton, Michael, ed. (2000). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. London, UK: Phoenix. ISBN 978-1-84212-003-3.
• Tait, James (1999). The Medieval English Borough. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0339-3.
• Townsend, Ian (3 January 2008). "Statue damage quiz man bailed". Wantage Herald. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017.
• Welch, Martin (1992). Anglo-Saxon England. London: English Heritage. ISBN 0-7134-6566-2.
• Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. (1996). English historical documents. Volume 1, C. 500–1042 (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-43950-0.
• Woodruff, Douglas (1993). The Life And Times of Alfred the Great. London, UK: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-83194-5.
• Wormald, Patrick (2001) [1999]. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century. p. 528. ISBN 978-0-631-22740-3.
• Winchester Museums Service (4 December 2009). "Summary of Hyde Community Archaeology Project (completed in 1999)". Winchester Council. Archived from the original on 13 July 2010.
• Wormald, Patrick (2006). "Alfred [Ælfred] (848/9–899)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/183. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Yorke, Barbara (1990). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3.
• Yorke, Barbara (1995). Wessex in the early Middle Ages. Leicester: Leicester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-1856-1.
• Yorke, Barbara (1999). "Alfred the Great: The Most Perfect Man in History?". History Today. Archived from the original on 9 February 2016.
• Yorke, Barbara (2001). "Alfred, king of Wessex (871–899)". In Lapidge, Michael; et al. (eds.). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0-631-15565-2.
• Yorke, Barbara (2004). "Cerdic (fl. 6th cent.)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5003. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Plummer, Charles (1911). "Alfred the Great". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 582–584.

• Discenza, Nicole; Szarmach, Paul, eds. (2015). A Companion to Alfred the Great. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-27484-6.
• Fry, Fred (2006). Patterns of Power: The Military Campaigns of Alfred the Great. ISBN 978-1-905226-93-1.
• Giles, J. A., ed. (1858). The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great (Jubilee in 3 vols ed.). Oxford and Cambridge.
• Heathorn, Stephen (December 2002). "The Highest Type of Englishman: Gender, War, and the Alfred the Great Commemoration of 1901". Canadian Journal of History. 37 (3): 459–84. doi:10.3138/cjh.37.3.459. PMID 20690214.
• Irvine, Susan (2006). "Beginnings and Transitions: Old English". In Mugglestone, Lynda (ed.). The Oxford History of English. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954439-4.
• Peddie, John (1989). Alfred the Good Soldier. Bath, UK: Millstream Books. ISBN 978-0-948975-19-6.
• Pollard, Justin (2006). Alfred the Great: the man who made England. ISBN 0-7195-6666-5.
• Reuter, Timothy, ed. (2003). Alfred the Great. Studies in early medieval Britain. ISBN 978-0-7546-0957-5.

Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Ælfred (849-901).

• Alfred 8 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England