Alfred the Great, King of the Saxons (849 - 26th October 899)

A monastery was built on the island of Athelney as a way of saying 'thank you' to God, and the spot is marked today by a small monument.

Once the immediate crisis was over, Alfred set about organising his kingdom. A network of burghs - defended enclosures and fortified settlements - were built throughout Wessex. No village was more than 20 miles from its nearest burgh where people and animals could find protection from raids. Alfred also re-organised his army, so that conscripts were rotated. It gave Alfred a smaller, but permanent, army. A fleet of ships was built to defeat the Viking raiders while they were still at sea. At a time when ships fought by boarding and hand-to-hand combat, Alfred's ships were larger and carried more men than traditional longships.

Alfred brought together all the different laws (or 'dooms') which had been held throughout the different parts of his kingdom. He had one new system of laws which were more humane and had a Christian basis. He also encouraged people to learn to read and write, believing that all free-born young people should at least learn to read English. He encouraged scholars to come from the monasteries and churches to his court to help in the struggle to educate his people. In his later life Alfred encouraged work on translating a number of books - including the Bible - from the Latin language of the scholars into English so that ordinary people could understand them for themselves.

King Alfred the Great died on 26th October 899.

	Go to 'Think About Alfred the Great'
	The Anglo Saxon Chronicle