Alfred the Great (Part 1 of 3).

Alfred the Great

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King Alfred's struggle. By 870 the Danes had overthrown the kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, and were preparing to do the same to Wessex. Standing in their way was a young king of Wessex, Alfred by name. At first the fight went badly for Alfred; some of his allies found it more expedient to cooperate with the Danes, and in 877 he was pushed back to a small corner of the marshes around Athelney, in Somerset.

The tale of the griddle-cakes. It is this time, at the low ebb of Anglo-Saxon resistance to the Danes, that is commemorated in the folk tale of Alfred and the griddle cakes. The story goes that Alfred was so low in his fortunes that he was forced to travel anonymously and seek lodging in a peasant woman's hut. Told to mind the cakes cooking on the fire, Alfred let his thoughts wander to his troubles. The cakes burned, and the peasant woman gave her king a good scolding for his carelessness. True or not, the story illustrates the depth to which the young Alfred had sunk in his battle with the Danish invaders. From that point on, however, things began to look up.

Alfred's triumph. Alfred came out of the Athelney marshes and surprised the Danes under Guthrum at Edington, in Wiltshire. After a thorough victory for Alfred, Guthrum was chased back to his base at Chippenham, where he was besieged for two weeks. Eventually Guthrum surrendered, and agreed to retreat from Wessex, and also to accept baptism as a Christian. This baptism was solemnized at Wedmore, in Somerset, some weeks later, giving us what is known as the Peace of Wedmore. The Danes retreated to East Anglia, and Alfred got on with consolidating his gains.

Alfred's Towns. Alfred was an innovator and a thinker, as well as a successful warrior. He began a policy encouraging the formation of fortified towns, or burhs, throughout his lands, such that no place in Wessex was more than 20 miles from a town. In exchange for free plots of land within the towns, settlers provided a defense force. The burhs were also encouraged to become centres of commerce and local government.

The Danelaw. Alfred built a new and improved navy to better meet the sea-faring Danes on their own terms. He wrested London from Danish control and reached the agreement by which England was divided into two zones; the south and west, where Saxon law would apply, and the north and east, where Danish law ruled. This second territory became known as the Danelaw.

Alfred's Legacy. Alfred also did his bit on the cultural front. He established schools and encouraged the dissemination of knowledge. He is said to have personally translated several books from Latin into the Anglo-Saxon tongue. An untraceable myth has it that he established the first university at Oxford. From the depths of despair in 877, Alfred brought Anglo-Saxon England into a golden age of social stability and artistic accomplishment. He was one of the first kings who seems to have looked beyond his own personal glory to a vision of the future well-being of the nation he ruled. He has every right to be remembered as Alfred "The Great".

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[grahamdawson09]

Are the battle scenes in this documentary taken from the 1969 film 'Alfred the Great'? Interesting footage, by the way.

[RockofEngland]

@grahamdawson09 Yes they were, but I could only get a Spanish version of the movie, so I had to edit some out.

[Staffleberry]

Can anyone not else make this video full screen? Don't know if it's the new format...

[Salvus967]

@MultiLeebear well perhaps i was confused about the suebi tribe....but the danes DID break away from the Swedes. The Suebi were however Germanic, and all the Germanic tribes did migrate out of Scandaniva so yes, they did have something to do with the Swedes, as all germanic people did.

[MultiLeebear]

@Salvus967 No no no, thats all confused. The Suebi were actually from Southwestern Germany around the area where the rivers Danube and Rhine almost meet. They are better known from the Roman era and fought many wars against them. They are certainly nothing to do with the Swedes.

[ciosereni]

@grahamdawson09 The same happened to me...only a Spnish version...

[TheCassiusl]

this his great

[Salvus967]

Wessex was amazing, the only Kingdom to stem the Danish tide and achieve overall victory. Alfred the Great was the greatest Englishman of all time. He was easily greater than Winston Churchill. Alfred faced a greater threat than WC, and was also present at the battles. He defeated the Danes and transformed his Kingdom into a military machine, his son and grandson would use it to go on to conquer England and lay the foundations of England as we know it. Yet so many English people have no idea.

[Salvus967]

@IlluminationEye If you had been alive during the time that the Angles,Jutes and Saxons were invading England and then were able to live right up until the days that the Danes began to attack England(several hundred years later), you would say that there was a familiarity between the Anglo-Saxons (when they invaded) and the Danes(when they invaded). But once again, they were two different groups of German people with different dialects (though mutually intelligeble).

[Salvus967]

@IlluminationEye While many of the Saxons stayedalso in north Germany, almost all o fthe Angles and Jutes left the Danish Peninsula leaving it for the Danes to completely occupy. While the Saxons and Danes were both Germanic peoples, they were two seperate tribes, each with thier own agendas. They did not make significant contact(perhaps previously through trade) until much later when the Danes began attacking the British coast.

[Salvus967]

@IlluminationEye No they weren't. the saxons & danes had much in common, & the saxons came from the northern part of germany which was close to the dan. peninsula. but the Danes were a tribe that broke away from the larger Suebi(Swede) Tribe from modern Sweden. These Danes arrived in Denmark just before the Angles, Saxons and Jutes began making migrations into England(or during that time) where they expelled the Heruli from the Demark region.

[lvcivs11]

@IlluminationEye rockofengland but the vikings were are cousins im saxon my hair is blonde my eyes are blue hengist and horsa were saxons they worshipped wotan and thunnor to me in my study of history this was just a civil war between the angles and saxons the elder branch of asgards favoured and the norse and danes the junoir branch of asgards favoured