General Notes

Alfred (849? – 26 October 899) (sometimes spelt Ælfred) was king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is famous for his defence of the kingdom against the Danes (Vikings), becoming as a result the only English monarch to be awarded the epithet "the Great" by his people. Details of his life are known as a result of a work by the Welsh scholar, Asser. A learned man, Alfred encouraged education and improved the kingdom's law system.   Childhood
Alfred was born sometime between 847 and 849 AD at Wantage in Berkshire (alterations to county borders in 1974 mean that Wantage is now part of Oxfordshire), the fourth son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex (or Aethelwulf), most likely by his first wife, Osburh. He succeeded his brother, Ethelred I, as King of Wessex and Mercia in 871.  He seems to have been a child of singular attractiveness and promise, and tales of his boyhood were remembered. At five years old, in 853, he is said to have been sent to Rome, where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV, who is also said to have "anointed him as king." Later writers took this as an anticipatory crowning in preparation for his ultimate succession to the throne of Wessex. That, however, could not have been foreseen in 853, as Alfred had three elder brothers living. It is likely to be understood either of investiture with the consular insignia or possibly with some titular royalty such as that of the under-kingdom of Kent.  This tale is likely apocryphal, though in 854-855 Alfred almost certainly did go with his father on a pilgrimage to Rome, spending some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks. In 858, Ethelwulf died.
Public life
During the short reigns of his two eldest brothers, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, nothing is heard of Alfred. But with the accession of the third brother, Ethelred, in 866 the public life of Alfred began, and he began his great work of delivering England from the Danes. It is in this reign that Asser applies to Alfred the unique title of secundarius, which seems to show a position akin to that of the Celtic tanist, a recognized successor, closely associated with the reigning prince. It is likely that this arrangement was sanctioned by the Witenagemot, to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should Aethelred fall in battle. The arrangement of crowning a successor as co-king, however, is well-known among Germanic tribes, such as the Swedes, and the Franks, with whom the Anglo-Saxons had close ties (see diarchy and Germanic king).  Alfred the Great's birthplace Wantage boasts a statue of its greatest son
In 868 Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of Aethelred Mucill, who is called ealdorman of the Gaini, a folk who dwelt in Lincolnshire about Gainsborough. She was the granddaughter of a former King of Mercia, and they had five or six children, one a daughter, Ethelfleda, who would become queen of Mercia in her own right.  The same year Alfred, fighting beside his brother Ethelred, made an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Mercia from the pressure of the Danes. For nearly two years Wessex had a respite. But at the end of 870 the storm burst; and the year which followed has been rightly called "Alfred's year of battles."  Nine general engagements were fought with varying fortune, though the place and date of two of them have not been recorded. A successful skirmish at Battle of Englesfield, Berkshire (31 December 870), was followed by a severe defeat at the Battle of Reading (4 January 871), and this, four days later, by the brilliant victory of Battle of Ashdown, near Compton Beauchamp in Shrivenham Hundred.  On 22 January 871 the English were again defeated at Basing, and on 22 March 871 at Marton, Wiltshire, the two unidentified battles having perhaps occurred in the interval.
Accession
In April Ethelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the whole burden of the contest. While he was busied with the burial and associated ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the English in his absence at an unnamed spot, and once more in his presence at Wilton in May. After this peace was made, and for the next five years the Danes were occupied in other parts of England, Alfred merely keeping a force of observation on the border. But in 876, the Danes, under a new leader, Guthrum, slipped past him and attacked Wareham. From there, early in 877 and under the pretext of talks, they made a dash westwards and took Exeter. Here Alfred blockaded them, and a relieving fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes had to submit and withdraw to Mercia. But in January 878 they made a sudden swoop on Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been keeping his Christmas, "and most of the people they reduced, except the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way ... by wood and swamp, and after Easter he ... made a fort at Athelney, and from that fort kept fighting against the foe" (Chronicle).
A legend tells how, while a fugitive in the marshes of Athelney near North Petherton in Somerset, after the first Danish invasion, he was given shelter by a peasant woman who, ignorant of his identity, left him to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire. Preoccupied with the problems of the kingdom, Alfred let the cakes burn, and was taken to task by the woman on her return. Upon realizing the king's identity, the woman apologized profusely, but Alfred insisted that he was the one who needed to apologize. The thought that Alfred, during his retreat at Athelney, was a helpless fugitive rests upon the legend of the cakes. In truth he was organizing victory. At about the same time, he is supposed to have disguised himself as a harpist to gain entry to Guthrum's camp and discover his plans.
By the middle of May, his preparations were complete and he moved out of Athelney, being joined on the way by the levies of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. The Danes on their side moved out of Chippenham, and the two armies met at the Battle of Edington in Wiltshire. The result was a decisive victory for Alfred. The Danes submitted. Guthrum, the Danish king, and twenty-nine of his chief men took baptism. As a result, England became split into two, the south-western half kept by the Saxons and the north-eastern half becoming known as the Danelaw. By the next year (879) not only Wessex, but Mercia, west of Watling Street, was cleared of the invader. This is the arrangement known to historians as the peace of Wedmore (878), though no document inbodying its provisions is in existence.
Though for the time being the north-eastern half of England, including London, was in the hands of the Danes, in truth the tide had turned. For the next few years there was peace, the Danes being kept busy in Europe. A landing in Kent in 884 or 885, though successfully repelled, encouraged the East Anglian Danes to rise up. The measures taken by Alfred to repress this uprising culminated in the taking of London in 885 or 886, and the treaty known as Alfred and Guthrum's peace, whereby the boundaries of the treaty of Wedmore (with which this is often mistaken) were materially modified to Alfred's gain.
Once more for a time there was a lull; but in the fall of 892 or 893 the last storm burst. The Danes, finding their position in Europe becoming more and more precarious, crossed to England in two divisions, amounting in the aggregate to 330 sail, and entrenched themselves, the larger body at Appledore, Kent, and the lesser under Haesten at Milton also in Kent. The fact that the new invaders brought their wives and children with them shows that this was no mere raid, but a meaningful attempt, in concert with the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes, to conquer England. Alfred, in 893 or 894, took up a position whence he could observe both forces. While he was in talks with Haesten the Danes at Appledore broke out and struck north-westwards, but were overtaken by Alfred's eldest son, Edward, and defeated in a general engagement at Farnham, and driven to take refuge in Thorney Island in the Hertfordshire Colne, where they were blockaded and ultimately compelled to submit. They then fell back on Essex, and after suffering another defeat at Benfleet coalesced with Haesten's force at Shoebury.  Alfred had been on his way to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes were besieging Exeter and an unnamed stronghold on the North Devon shore. Alfred at once hurried westward and raised the siege of Exeter; the fate of the other place is not recorded. Meanwhile the force under Haesten set out to march up the Thames Valley, possibly with the idea of assisting their friends in the west. But they were met by a large force under the three great ealdormen of Mercia, Wiltshire and Somerset, and made to head off to the north-west, being finally overtaken and blockaded at Buttington, which some identify with Buttington Tump at the mouth of the Wye River, others with Buttington near Welshpool. An attempt to break through the English lines was defeated with loss; those who escaped retreated to Shoebury. Then after collecting reinforcements they made a sudden dash across England and occupied the ruined Roman walls of Chester. The English did not attempt a winter blockade, but contented themselves with destroying all the supplies in the neighbourhood. And early in 894 (or 895) want of food obliged the Danes to retire once more to Essex. At the end of this year and early in 895 (or 896) the Danes drew their ships up the Thames and Lea and fortified themselves twenty miles above London. A direct attack on the Danish lines failed, but later in the year Alfred saw a means of obstructing the river so as to prevent the egress of the Danish ships. The Danes realized that they were out-maneuvred. They struck off north-westwards and wintered at Bridgenorth. The next year, 896 (or 897), they gave up the struggle. Some retired to Northumbria, some to East Anglia; those who had no connections in England withdrew to the continent. The long campaign was over.