Alfred the Great and the making of England
History · Key Stage 3 · The School
A kingdom on the edge of defeat
By 878 a huge Viking army had beaten or taken over Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia. It drove Alfred, King of Wessex, into hiding in the marshes of Somerset. That is where the later legend of Alfred burning the cakes comes from. Wessex was the last free Anglo-Saxon kingdom still standing. From this low point Alfred gathered an army. He beat the Viking leader Guthrum decisively at the Battle of Edington in 878. He then forced the Treaty of Wedmore on him. Guthrum agreed to be baptised and left Wessex for good.
Building a kingdom that could not be surprised again
Alfred spent the years after his win rebuilding his kingdom's defences, rather than just celebrating. He built a chain of fortified towns called BURHS. They were spaced out so that no part of Wessex was more than about twenty miles from one. Each was guarded and stocked with supplies, so people could shelter there instead of being caught unprepared. He reorganised the fyrd too — the local group of fighting men — so part of it was always on duty, instead of everyone being called up from the farms at once. He also began building a fleet, to meet Viking raiders at sea before they landed.
Learning and law
Alfred also pushed for learning. He translated Latin books into English himself, and paid others to translate more. His argument was simple: a kingdom needs officials and priests who can read, and Viking raids had wrecked much of the old monastic learning. He also issued a law code. It drew on older Kentish, Mercian and West Saxon law. This was as much about uniting his people as it was about the law itself. It showed Wessex's rule as the heir to older English tradition, not just a kingdom that happened to survive the war.
Alfred never ruled Mercia or the Danelaw directly. Mercia stayed a separate, allied kingdom, under his son-in-law Æthelred. Alfred died in 899. He was King of the Anglo-Saxons in a broad sense, but never king of one united England. That prize went to his family after him. His son, Edward the Elder, and his daughter, Æthelflæd, "Lady of the Mercians", kept winning back Viking-held land. Alfred's own grandson, Æthelstan, finally brought Northumbria under his rule in 927. He became the first king anyone recognised as ruler of all England. Alfred built the foundation the whole thing stood on. He just did not lay the very last stone himself.