Alfred the Great

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a b c Todd Preston, King Alfred’s Book of Laws: A Study of the Domboc and Its Influence on English Identity, With a Complete translation (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012).

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.year=1907–21. VI. Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign. § 4. Codes of Law. Voice 3: But Aethelwald is young, no more than a boy. We are at war. We need a grown man to lead us. Ask children to imagine what it must have been like to become King, suddenly, during this time. Alfred must have felt very responsible. The Battle of Ashdown

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Turk, Milton Haight (ed.). The Legal Code of Ælfred the Great. Lawbook Exchange. ISBN 1-58477-392-8. Alfred’s sense of history and his own historic destiny were fundamental to the development of the English monarchy. His reforms helped to transform the society in which he lived and laid the foundations of the English state. His grandson Athelstan, building on Alfred’s successes, was recognised as the King of all Britain. Famous Friends

In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its sub-king, Baldred, was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as king of Kent. [22] The Vikings ravaged the Isle of Sheppey in 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset, [23] but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom. [24] When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan as sub-king of Kent. [25] Ecgberht and Æthelwulf may not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent because they both appointed sons as sub-kings, and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control, and the sub-kings were not allowed to issue their own coinage. [26]

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Alfred undertook no systematic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious practices in Wessex. For him, the key to the kingdom's spiritual revival was to appoint pious, learned, and trustworthy bishops and abbots. As king, he saw himself as responsible for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his subjects. Secular and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred. [125] [126] In 883, Pope Marinus exempted the Saxon quarter in Rome from taxation, probably in return for Alfred's promise to send alms annually to Rome, which may be the origin of the medieval tax called Peter's Pence. The pope sent gifts to Alfred, including what was reputed to be a piece of the True Cross. [59] Alfred the Great (r. 871-899 CE) was the king of Wessex in Britain but came to be known as King of the Anglo- Saxons after his military victories over Viking adversaries and later successful negotiations with them. He is the best-known Anglo- Saxon king in British history thanks to his biographer Asser (died c. 909 CE) and that work's impact on later writers. Similarly Alfred divided his code into 120 chapters because 120 was the age at which Moses died and, in the number-symbolism of early medieval biblical exegetes, 120 stood for law. [109] The link between Mosaic law and Alfred's code is the Apostolic Letter which explained that Christ "had come not to shatter or annul the commandments but to fulfill them; and he taught mercy and meekness" (Intro, 49.1). The mercy that Christ infused into Mosaic law underlies the injury tariffs that figure so prominently in barbarian law codes since Christian synods "established, through that mercy which Christ taught, that for almost every misdeed at the first offence secular lords might with their permission receive without sin the monetary compensation which they then fixed". [110] Alfred gave money for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to be written. Monks wrote the Chronicle in English. This was a document which recorded important events in Anglo-Saxon history.