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See Historical Document.
TITL University of Hull Royal base (England) AUTH Brian Tompsett, Dept of Computer Science P UBL copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 usually reliable but sometimes includes hypothetical lines, my thological figures, etc WWW, University of Hull, Hull, UK HU6 7RX bct@@tardis.ed.ac.uk Ele ctronic
TITL Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America bef 1760 AUTH Frederic k Lewis Weis PUBL 7th ed Genealogical Publishing, Baltimore 1992 Same ref source as earlier e d, "Ancestral Roots of 60 Colonists who Came to New England 1623-1650" ed 1-6 good tovery goo d J.H. Garner Book PAGE line 1 pp 1-4 TEXT Founded the British navy, no dates ALIA Alfr ed the Great /King of England/
TEXT b 849 TEXT K of England 871-899 TEXT d 26 Oct 899, no place
TITL Royal Genealogies DB AUTH Denis R. Reid PUBL 149 Kimrose Lane, Broadview Heights, OH 441 47-1258 216/237-5364 OK http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/royal/royalgen.html ah189@@cleveland.free net.edu Electronic TEXT d 899
_FA1 PLAC Reigned 871-899. Crowned King at Winchester in 871.
_FA2 PLAC Directed campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Danes.
_FA3 PLAC Prevented Danish conquest of England, defeating them at Eddington (878).
_FA4 PLAC Allowed the Danes to keep their conquests in East Anglia & Mercia.
_FA5 PLAC Protected Wessex with a chain of fortifications.
_FA6 PLAC Est. navy (885-886, 892-896) to defend the south coast.
_FA7 PLAC Took London (886) thus gaining control of all England except the Danish areas.
_FA8 PLAC Organized the militia, compiled a code of laws.
_FA9 PLAC Built schools & monasteries, invited scholars to live at court.
_FA10 PLAC The only King of England ever to receive the Honorific "the Great."
_FA11 PLAC Personally led troops in charge at victory over Vikings at Ashdown (871).
_FA12 PLAC "One of the greatest men in history." A good scholar who translated many books.
_FA13 PLAC His laws were the 1st that made no diff. betw. English & Welsh peoples.
TITL Royal Genealogies DB AUTH Denis R. Reid PUBL 149 Kimrose Lane, Broadview Heights, OH 44 147-1258 216/237-5364 OK http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/royal/royalgen.html ah189@@cleveland.fre enet.edu ElectronicReigned 871-899. Prevented the Danish conquest of England, defeating th em at Eddington (878) after a campaign of guerilla warfare. After the victory he allowed th e Danes to keep their conquests in East Anglia & Mercia provided that Guthrum, their king, wa s converted to Christianity. Alfred built a navy of warships to defend the south coast agins t further Danish invasions (885-886, 892-896) & protected Wessex with a chain of fortificatio ns. He took London (886) thus gaining control of all England except the Danish areas. Quot e from Winston Churchill: ("Alfred the Great", chapter 7 of volume 1 of his "History of th e English-Speaking Peoples". An appreciation of "the greatest Englishman that ever lived") . Quote from Maurice Ashley in "Great Britain to 1688" about Alfred: "He was the greatest E nglishman in early history" (p. 41). Banner was a golden dragon (the golden dragon was the ba nner of the kingdom of Wessex, Alfred's personal banner was the White Horse). Since Alfred w as the fifth son, it was never thought he would be King, and thus unlike his older brothers w ho have the royal mark of the ruling house of Wessex "AEthel" (or "Ethel") as a part of thei r names, Alfred was instead named after his mother's folk). REF: The Newsletter of Anglo-Saxo n Studies at The University of Georgia Vol I, Number 3 (Spring, 1994): "ALFRED'S MILITARY ACH IEVEMENTS", Alex Bruce Alfred the Great is remembered for his two great victories--his succes s in re-establishing learning in his kingdom of Wessex (see Matheliende 1.2), and his succes s in defeating the seemingly unstoppable forces of the invading Danes. No matter how much w e venerate the revival of education under Alfred, the latter of these successes is, however , the greater; there would have been no possibility of restoring the centers of learning ha d Alfred not brought peace to his land. When Alfred became king of the West Saxons in 871, h e was already an experienced military leader, as he had participated in several campaigns aga inst the invading Danes. The Danes had been present in the British Isles since at least 789 , but until the time of Alfred they had concentrated their efforts on subjugatingthe easter n lands of Britain. However, in 865 a great army of Danes hungry for land and wealth moved qu ickly through the kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumbria. After these two kingdoms capitulat ed and paid tribute to the invaders, the Danes turned to Mercia. There, in 868, they met bot h Mercians and West Saxons; the two nations had formed an alliance that had been strengthene d that very year by the marriage of Alfred and Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian ealdorman (se e Asser ch. 29). Alfred and his elder brother King Aethelred personally led the Wessex contin gent, yet not even the combined forces of the Mercians and the West Saxons could keep the Dan es at bay. The Mercians, like the East Anglians and Northumbrians, had to "make peace"--tha t is, pay tribute. In 871 Alfred's brother Aethelred died, making Alfred, last son of King Ae thelwulf, the new king of the West Saxons. In that year as well the Danes turned their attent ion to Alfred's kingdom, and for the next four years, until 875, Alfred bought peace for hi s people by paying tribute to the Danes. At first the invaders seemed satisfied, but in 875 t hey began altering the terms of the peace. That year, after collecting their tribute, the Dan es did not leave Wessex as they had before, but lived there, peacefully but at the expense o f the West Saxons, until 878. Then, in their desire to subjugate completely the people of Wes sex, the Danes went on the offensive. Alfred fought back, yet in March of that year he and hi s followers were forced into hiding, and the hope of the West Saxons was fading. But that Ma y Alfred met the Danish force at Edington; "there he fought against the entire host, and pu t it to flight, and pursued it up to the fortification [probably Chippenham] and laid siege t here a fortnight; and then the host gave him preliminary hostages and solemn oaths that the y would leave his kingdom, and promised him in addition that their king would receive baptism ; and they fulfilled this promise" (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, year 878). Alfred had defeated th e invading Danes, forcing them to submit to his terms. They subsequently left Alfred and Wess ex, turning to the continent for new lands to plunder. Yet though this particular force left , Danes still inhabited Britain; Northumbria, East Anglia, and parts of Mercia were all stil l under the Danelaw. Alfred felt constantly threatened, and had to fight skirmishes with th e Danes for many years. To help preserve his hard-earned peace Alfred developed stronger defe nses for his land of Wessex. In the southern part of Britain he established several new forti fied cities, better than the smaller forts, where great groups of people could gather for pr otection. He reorganized his army so that at any one time half of it was prepared for war. Fi nally, in 886, Alfred took the initiative himself and attacked the Danish-held city of Londo n in an attempt to diminish the lands ruled under the Danelaw. He succeeded, and for his ef forts all the "Angles and Saxons--those who had formerly been scattered everywhere and were n ot in captivity with the Danes--turned willingly to King Alfred and submitted themselves to h is lordship" (Asser ch. 83). At this point Alfred seems to have come closest to rightly earni ng the TITLe "King of England," though in reality he governed perhaps a quarter of the lan d now known as England. Once he had brought peace to his land Alfred began to implement his r eforms. He encouraged learning and the keeping of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; he also establis hed a code of law, based on the Bible, which "shows how the king sought to maintain social or der" (Introduction to "Extracts from the laws of King Alfred," Alfred the Great 163). Law cod es were certainly not new to the people of Wessex; what was different about Alfred's code wa s that by basing his laws so clearly on Biblical law, "Alfred places his own activity as a la w-giver in what he regards as its proper context, effectively implying that the legislation w hich follows stands in the same tradition and represents that of the new chosen people" (Intr oduction to Alfred the Great 39). In 892-3 Alfred's peace was disturbed by the violent retur n of the Danes. These invaders, driven off the continent, seemed intent upon "the final conqu est and settlement of England" (McElwee 32). During these campaigns Alfred won praise from th e writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (perhaps not very surprising, considering who the spons or was!) for his forethought and stratagems. His standing army was able to fight off the inva ders while the people remained safe in his fortified cities. Alfred also employed new tactics ; he scouted out the enemy and destroyed them at sea using larger war-ships of his own design . The Danes were thwarted at every turn, and were forced to retreat, unfulfilled, from the is land of Britain. The last years of Alfred's life were more peaceful and devoted to scholarl y pursuits. When Alfred died on October 26, 899, he left a culture which had perhaps alread y seen its best days, but, thanks to Alfred's care and courage, would be remembered for centu ries to come. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other Contempora ry Sources. Trans. with an introduction and notes by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. New Yo rk: Penguin Books, 1983. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Trans., ed., and introduced by G. N. Garm onsway. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1972. Asser. Life of King Alfred. In Alfred the Great : Asser's Life of King Alfred and other Contemporary Sources. Trans. with an introduction an d notes by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. New York: Penguin Books, 1983. McElwee, William . A Short History of England, from the Time of King Alfred to the Present Day. New York: Fred erick A. Praeger, 1968. The Oxford History of Britain. Revised edition. Ed. Kenneth O. Morgan . Oxford: The Oxford University Press, 1988. Plummer, Charles. The Life and Times of Alfre d the Great. New York: Haskel House Productions Ltd., 1902. REF: The Newsletter of Anglo-Saxo n Studies at The University of Georgia Vol I, Number 2 (Winter, 1994) "ALFRED THE EDUCATOR" K irk Appletoft: Alfred the Great, considered the first king of England, is known for saving hi s land from decimation by the invading Danes and thereby giving his countrymen a sense of nat ionalism. Yet Alfred achieved more than military and political successes during his reign fro m 871-901; his dedication to the teaching of the liberal arts helped preserve the literary tr adition of the Anglo-Saxons. Alfred's appreciation for education began very early in his lif e. In 853, at the age of four, Alfred was sent by his father, King Aethelwulf, to Pope Leo I V in Rome for instruction. This instruction, no doubt, focused on religion rather than on th e liberal arts. But this trip to Rome, as well as the one Alfred made two years later, certai nly helped Alfred recognize the role of the Church in education. Alfred would fully acknowled ge this role when he became king. Alfred's interest in the liberal arts was encouraged by hi s stepmother Judith, who was the first to pique his interest in reading. Alfred's contemporar y biographer, Asser, a bishop from Wales, records that Judith offered a book of Saxon poems t o the first of Aethelwulf's four sons who could recite the book to her. To win the book, Alfr ed, who could not read, had an instructor read the book to him until he had memorized every w ord. According to Asser, this "desire for wisdom, more than anything else, together with th e nobility of his birth, . . . characterized the nature of his noble mind" (Asser 75). Not un til after he became king in 871 did Alfred learn to read and write. Asser, whom Alfred had ca lled to serve in his court, seems to have been responsible for this feat. Asser would copy pa ssages from the Bible for Alfred to study; Alfred would then eagerly translate them into Engl ish. The duties of being the king, however, constantly interrupted Alfred's education. His en tire reign was spent in a religious war with the Danes. He believed that the invaders represe nted punishment from God for the decay of education, and the corresponding lack of understand ing of Latin manuscripts and psalms. So, for Alfred, his war became not a matter of the Engli sh fighting the Danes; it was the Christians fighting the heathens. This belief was one of th e primary reasons for the large number of religious translations and the increasing interes t in education during Alfred's reign. As well, Alfred supported education because he recogniz ed that "a king's raw material and instruments of rule are a well peopled land, and he must h ave men of prayer, men of war, and men of work . . . [for] without these tools he cannot perf orm any of the tasks entrusted to him" (Plummer 153). In order to have these tools at his dis posal he brought many Latin scholars from the continent to teach at his institutions. He also , even when his war with the Danes was at its height, took time to translate several Latin wo rks on his own, including Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, Boethius's Consolation of P hilosophy and St. Augustine's Soliloquies. So important to Alfred was the ability to read tha t he began to demand that other nobles of the land be able to read. Asser recounts Alfred's a dmonishments to a group of judges who were poorly educated; they were told "either to relinqu ish imately [their] officesof worldly power . . . or else to apply [them]selves much more att entively to the pursuit of wisdom." (Asser 110) Needless to say they chose the latter option . The effect of all of Alfred's educational reforms was that we, more than 1000 years later , have a wealth of Anglo- Saxon prose and poetry to read and study. Without his dedication t o learning we would all have been poorer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Asser. Life of King Alfred. In Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred an d other Contemporary Sources. Trans. with an introduction and notes by Simon Keynes and Micha el Lapidge. New York: Penguin Books, 1983. Bosworth, George F. Alfred the Great: His Life an d Times. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1914. Loyn, H. R. Alfred the Great. New York: Oxfor d University Press, 1967. Plummer, Charles. The Life and Times of Alfred the Great. New York : Haskel House Productions Ltd., 1902. REF: *The Chronicle of Fabius Ethelwerd, From the Begi nning of the World to the Year of Our Lord 975*, translated by J A Giles in *Six Old Englis h Chronicles*, London (Bohn), 1848, p 28, 37.: "Lastly, in the same year, king Alfred departe d out of this world, that immoveable pillar of the Western Saxons, that man full of justice , bold in arms, learned in speech, and, above all other things, imbued with the divine instru ctions. For he had translated into his own language, out of Latin, unnumbered volumes, of s o varied a nature, and so excellently, that the sorrowful book of Boethius seemed, not only t o the learned, but even to those who heard it read, as it were, brought to life again. The m onarch died on the seventh day before the solemnity of All Saints, and his body rests in peac e in the city of Winston. Pray, O reader, to Christ our Redeemer, that he will save his soul !" REF: Weis & Sheppard, *Ancestral Roots ... *, 7th Edition, 1992, p 2 : Alfred the Great, K ing of England, 871-899, b. Wantage, Berkshire, 849; d. 26 Oct. 899; m. 868, Ealhsith (Alswit ha), d. ca. 905, dau. of Earl Aethelred of Mercia and Eadburgh. Alfred was one of the greate st men in history. He was crowned king at Winchester, 871; founded the British Navy, organi zed the militia, compiled a code of laws, built schools and monasteries, and invited scholar s to live at his court. He was a good scholar and translated many books." SRCE: Asser of S aint David, *Annals of the Reign of Alfred the Great, from A.D. 849 to A.D. 887* (or *Life o f Alfred*), translated by J A Giles, 1848, p 43-44. Giles says in the preface, p vi: In the y ear of our Lord's incarnation 849, was born Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, at the royal v illage of Wanating [Wantage], in Berkshire, which country has its name from the wood of Berro d, where the box-tree grows most abundantly. His genealogy is traced in the following order . King Alfred was the son of King Ethelwild, who was the son of Egbert, who was the son, of E lmund, who was son of Eafa, who was the son of Eoppa, who was the son of Ingild. Ingild, an d Ina, the famous king of the West-Saxons, were two brothers. Ina went to Rome, and there en ding this life honourably, entered the heavenly kingdom, to reign there for ever with Christ . Ingild and Ina were the sons of Coenred, who was the son of Ceolwald, who was the son of C udam, who was the son of Cuthwin, who was the son of Ceawlin, who was the son of Cynric, wh o was the son of Creoda, who was the son of Cerdic, who was the son of Elesa, who was the so n of Gewis, from whom the Britons name all that nation Gewis [FOOTNOTE: The Gewissae, general ly understood to be the West-Saxons.], who was the son of Brond, who was the son of Beldeg, w ho was the son of Woden, who was the son of Frithowald, who was the son of Frealaf, who was t he son of Frithuwulf, who was the son of Finn of Godwulf, who was the son of Geat, which Gea t the pagans long worshipped as a god. Sedulius makes mention of him in his metrical Pascha l poem, as follows:-- When gentile poets with their fictions vain, In tragic language and bom bastic strain, To their god Geat, comic deity, Loud praises sing, &c. "Geat was the son of Ta etwa, who was the son of Beaw, who was the son of Sceldi [= SCELDWA in trans. by Keynes & La pidge], who was the son of Heremod, who was the son of Itermon, who was the son of Hathra, wh o was the son of Gula [= HWALA in trans. by K & L], who was the son of Bedwig, who was the so n of Shem [= SETH in trans. by K & L, but this is probably an error], who was the son of Noah , who was the son of Lamech, who was the son of Methusalem [=METHUSALAH], who was the son o f Enoch, who was the son of Malaleel [= MAHALALEEL], who was the son of Canian [= CAINAN in t rans. by K & L], who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam. " REF: William of Malmesbury, *Chronicle of the Kings of England*, c 1135, tr John Allen Gile s, London (Henry G Bohn) 1847, p 113-122 passim: He was married to Ealhswith of the Gani i n 868."Received the royal unction and crown from pope Leo the fourth at Rome, acceded to th e sovereignty and retained it with the greatest difficulty, but with equal valour, twenty-eig ht years and a half. ..... For nine successive years battling with his enemies, sometimes d eceived by false treaties, and sometimes wreaking his vengeance on the deceivers, he was at l ast reduced to such extreme distress, that scarcely three counties, that is to say, Hampshire , Wiltshire, and Somersetshire, stood fast by their allegiance, as he was compelled to retrea t to a certain island called Athelney, which from its marshy situation was hardly accessible . ..... [However, later] Alfred had reduced the whole island to his power, with the excepti on of what the Danes possessed. ..... After England had rejoiced for 13 years in the tranqu ility of peace and in the fertility of her soil, the northern pest of barbarians again retur ned. With them returned war and slaughter .....
The king himself was, with his usual activity, present in every action, ever daunting the inv aders, and at the same time inspiriting his subjects, with the signal display of his courage . He would oppose himself singly to the enemy; and by his own personal exertions rally his d eclining forces. The very places are yet pointed out by the inhabitants where he felt the vi cissitudes of good and evil fortune.
..... His children by Elswitha, the daughter of earl Athelred, were Ethelswitha, Edward wh o reigned after him; Ethel fled who was married to Ethered earl of the Mercians; Ethelwerd, w hom they celebrate as being extremely learned; Elfred and Ethelgiva, virgins. His [Alfred's ] health was so bad that he was constantly disquited either by the piles or some disorder o f the intestines. It is said, however, that he entreated this from God, in his supplications , in order that, by the admonition of pain, he might be less anxious after earthly delights . "Yet amid these circumstances the private life of the king is to be admired and celebrate d with the highest praise. For although, as some one has said, "Laws must give way amid th e strife of arms," yet he, amid the sound of trumpets and the din of war, enacted statures b y which his people might equally familiarise themselves to religious worship and to militar y discipline. And since, from the example of the barbarians, the natives themselves began t o lust after rapine, insomuch that there was no safe intercourse without a military guard, h e appointed centuries, which they call "hundreds," and decennaries, that is to say, "tythings ," so that every Englishman, living according to law, must be a member of both. Ifany one wa s accused of a crime, he was obliged imately to produce persons from the hundred and tythin g to become his surety; and whosoever was unable to find such surety, must dread the severit y of the laws. If any who was impleaded made his escape either before or after he had foun d surety, all persons of the hundred and tything paid a fine to the king. By this regulatio n he diffused such peace throughout the country that he ordered golden bracelets, which migh t mock the eager desires of the passengers while no one durst take them away, to be hung up o n the public causeways, where the roads crossed each other. ..... He erected monasteries wh erever he deemed it fitting ..... [Alfred sent for Grimmald] that by his activity he might aw aken the study of literature in England, which was now slumbering and almost expiring. .... . Confiding in these auxiliaries [Grimmald, Asser, Werefrith, Johannes Scotus], the king gav e his whole soul to the cultivation of the liberal arts, insomuch that no Englishman was quic ker in comprehending, or more elegant in translating. ..... He translated into English the gr eater part of the Roman authors ..... Moreover he infused a great regard for literature int o his countrymen, stimulating them both with rewards and punishments, allowing no ignorant pe rson to aspire to any dignity in the court. He died just as he had begun a translation of th e Psalms. ..... He had one unusual and unheard of custom, which was, that he always carrie d in his bosom a book in which the daily order of the Psalms was contained, for the purpose o f carefully perusing it, if at any time he had leisure. In this way he passed his life, muc h respected by neighboring princes, and gave his daughter Ethelswitha in marriage to Baldwi n earl of Flanders, by whom he had Arnulf and Ethelwulf; the former received from his fathe r the county of Boulogne, from the other at this day are descended the earls of Flanders. [F ootnote by Giles: "Matilda, queen of William the First, was daughter of Baldwin earl of Flan ders, the fifth in descent from Ethelswitha."] "Alfred, paying the debt of nature, was burie d at Winchester, in the monastery which he had founded ..... They rt that Alfred was firs t was first buried in the cathedral, because the monaster was unfinished, but that afterwards , on account of the folly of the canons, who asserted that the royal spirit, resuming its car cass, wandered nightly through the buildings, Edward, his son and successor, removed the rema ins of his father, and gave them a quiet resting-place in the new minster. [Footnote by Giles : "On its removal called Hyde Abbey."] These and similar superstitions, such as that the de ad body of a wicked man runs about, after death, by the agency of the devil, the English hol d with almost inbred credulity, borrowing them from the heathens, according to the expressio n of Virgil, "Forms such as flit, they say, when life is gone." [Virg. Aeneid, x. 641.] REF : British Monarchy Official Website: From the late 8th century, there were attacks by Viking s from Scandinavia. The kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia were rapidly over-run and in 871 t he Danish army attacked Wessex. After initial setbacks, Alfred, King of Wessex (reigned 871-9 9) defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington in 878. The Danes withdrew to an area north o f a frontier running from London to Chester, which became known as the 'Danelaw'. Alfred the n began a programme of reforms, including establishing a legal code, improving education an d learning, and reforming the coinage. He also started a building programme of well-defende d towns ('borough' comes from the Old English burgh, a fortress) and a new navy.