Who was Alfred the Great?

Answer 1

Alfred the Great was The King of Wessex from 871-899.He was the first King who laid claim to being The King of the English. He did say he was "King of the English". He said that because he was the last independent Anglo-Saxon king to survive in England after the Danish invasion had killed or deposed all the others.

He is known as Alfred the Great because of the extraordinary achievements both militarily and culturally during his reign. Alfred was perhaps the first English king to be able to read and write. He visited the Pope in Rome as a child and was annointed by him as king. Once he had inherited the throne from his brother (who died fighting the Danes), Alfred sought to teach each of his senior generals to learn to read and write - this helped him enormously when organising battles.

As well as this he translated The Bible from Latin into English and ordered that a book of Law as well as the Bible, both in English, be placed in each church so that his subjects could read and understand the law and the word of God.

During the early part of his reign he was very nearly killed when the Danes surprise attacked his royal hall on Christmas night. Alfred barely escaped with his life and was forced to hide incognito with only a few retainers in the Somerset levels while the Danes went on to occupy his kingdom.

While hiding in the swamps of Someset he managed to organise the formation of a great army to oppose the Danes the next year by sending out written coded messages via horseback messenger to every town and village across Wessex. With this army he defeated the pagan Danes at the Battle of Ethandun in 878 and forced their leader to be baptised. He eventually went on to expell the Danes from London and secured a lasting peace with them. He laid the ground work for his successors to liberate the rest of England from the Danes and unite all of England as one kingdom. That is why he was called Alfred the Great.

Alfred the Great was King of Wessex, England from 871 to 899. He successfully defended the Kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest . At the time of his death was the dominant ruler in England

Answer 2

Yes

Answer

In the 9th Centaury King Alfred of Wessex was one of seven Anglo-Saxon Kings that had kingdoms in Britain. At the time Britain was being invaded by the Danes. He was the only King who survived the Danish invasions even though his Country of Wessex was overrun. He fled to the marsh lands where he started the process of uniting all the displaced Anglo-Saxon peoples against the Danes. Against all odd he repelled the Danes from Southern Britain and set in place the process of creating a new country for all Anglo-Saxon peoples out of the ruins of the seven former Kingdoms. This is known to history as 'Angleland' or 'England'. In doing so he became the first King of all the English. Without Alfred the very idea of Englishness, the people, the language, the culture, the distinct way of life would have all died out. It is because of this King Alfred is the only English King who carries the word 'Great' in his title