Alfred the great biography tessanne

Primary Sources

(1) Douglas Woodruff, Alfred the Great (1974)

As soon as Alfred had the combined forces at his disposal, he set out towards Chippenham. With the help of advisers from other areas of England, Wales and Francia, Alfred studied, and even translated from Latin into Old English, certain works that were regarded at the time as providing models of ideal Christian kingship and ‘most necessary for all men to know’.

Alfred tried to put these principles into practice, for instance, in the production of his law-code.

New York, NY: Pegasus Books Ltd., 2018.

Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Guthrum received the noble Saxon name of Athelstan. He loved to talk with clever men, and with travellers from foreign countries, and to write down what they told him, for his people to read....

500-1042. After the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia had fallen to the Vikings, Wessex under Alfred was the only surviving Anglo-Saxon province. The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England 400-1066.

In addition to the baptismal rites of water, he was anointed with chrism and his head bandaged, after which for several days, at another Somerset royal vill further north at Wedmore, not far from the Bristol Channel, Alfred entertained him royally and gave him gifts which included houses. Translated by J.A. Giles. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1955.

Yorke, Barbara.

He had a strong belief in the importance of education and learnt Latin in his late thirties. The Vikings. At the same time Alfred promoted himself as the defender of all Christian Anglo-Saxons against the pagan Viking threat and began the liberation of neighbouring areas from Viking control. The Pre-Conquest Church in England.

At a time when the country was under threat from Danish raids, this was aimed at preventing a child inheriting the throne with the related weaknesses in leadership. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2022.

Roesdahl, Else. Whom misfortune could not subdue, whom prosperity could not spoil, whose perseverance, nothing could shake. 2016.

Stenton, F.

M. Anglo-Saxon England.