Alfred the Great

Question 1

Main topics for Alfred the Great

Answer 1

1. Great number of sources
2. The Danish assault
3. Military reform
4. Law making
5. Relations with Mercia and the making of England
6. Revival of learning

Question 2

The two aspects of Alfred’s military reforms

Answer 2

1. Divided his army into 2 separate units

2. Built a network of burhs to further fortify the kingdom

Question 3

Alfred dividing his army into two…

Answer 3

The Chronicle says that ‘half his men were at home and half on service’.
He created a branch of men capable of being deployed quickly whilst allowing the other half to guard Wessex as a form of garrison and to grow food
= Offence and defence

Question 4

Describe the Alfredian Jewel

Answer 4

Likely to have been a pointer which was used to follow words on a page.
The inscription tells that Alfred ordered it to be made, whilst the enamel figure is probably a representation of the sense of sight: This is an image frequently encountered in contemporary translations- that the eyes are the path through which wisdom may enter. Similarly, the Fuller Broach is probably representative of the Alfredian search for wisdom.

Question 5

Alfred’s reign

Answer 5

roughly 871- 899

Question 6

Who was Alfred married to?

Answer 6

In 868 he married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian ealdorman, and their children included Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd of the Mercians.

Question 7

What happened in 865?

Answer 7

Tradition represents the first ‘great army’ (micel here) as led by Ivarr the Boneless and his brothers Hálfdan and Ubba, sons of the mythical Ragnar Lothbrok, as descending upon England in 865.

Question 8

What is Alfred’s law book

Answer 8

the first English legislation and includes a short statement of the legal terms agreed between Alfred’s realm and the Danes to the east.

Question 9

What preoccupied Alfred on a personal level?

Answer 9

Sex, lust and sin were dangers that preoccupied Alfred almost as much as the Vikings; Asser describes how as a young man Alfred was unable to control his carnal urges and received Chron’s disease from God as a result. In Alfred, the life of a warrior and a clerk were uniquely blended, and Alfred paid the price of inner peace for this.

Question 10

What happened in 853

Answer 10

Æthelwulf sent him to Rome

The chronicle probably deliberately overplays the significance of this

Question 11

Why might Alfred have not been intended to be king?

Answer 11

. Youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his 3 older brothers were King before him- Never thought he would be king, tensions within this narrow ruling dynasty

. Asser record’s him learning the Divine Office but also possible that his early dedication to religion was a result of Carolingian ideas about religiosity, which stressed the moral burden Christianity placed upon the secular nobility.

Question 12

Discuss the Battle of Ashdown…

Answer 12

The armies fought 5 times in 870 and 871, including the first battle on open ground at Ashdown which was won by Wessex. However, the the victory’s influence upon the course of the war does not appear to have actually been that influential, but it was perhaps exaggerated as it was Alfred’s first victory as leader since his accession in April 871.

Question 13

The situation of the Danish assaults after 886

Answer 13

There was no major change in the general situation in England during the remaining thirteen years of Alfred’s reign after 886. A Scandinavian force attempted to launch a campaign against Wessex shores in 891 but were defeated. These new invaders severely tested the defences of Wessex but they were the remains of a beaten army.

Question 14

Results of the battle of Eddington

Answer 14

1. Guthrum surrendered and was baptised with thirty leading followers and his army then moved to East Anglia, whose lands it preceded to occupy.
2. The victory at Eddington had put an end to the conquests of the great army and established that Wessex could not be so easily conquered as the other kingdoms, but the entire basis of political organisation had effectively also been almost destroyed.

Question 15

Events of 878

Answer 15

Alfred himself made his refuge in the Somerset marshes and built a small fortification at Athelney from where he could launch a series of harassing raids and prepare for warfare on a larger scale for when the time was right.

By early May 878 he had rallied enough of an army from the shires of Somerset, Wiltshire, and West Hampshire to rout a Danish force at Eddington and put Guthrum under siege and won a decisive victory.

Question 16

Describe the Burhs…

Answer 16

Burhs included former Roman towns (whose stone walls were repaired and perimeter ditches sometimes added), temporary forts and substantial new towns.

These fortifications covered most of Wessex; and so would have significantly reduced the Vikings ability to move around Wessex freely, enabling Alfred to further lock down his kingdom.

Question 17

Disadvantages and Advantages of using the burghal hidage as a source for Alfred’s burhs

Answer 17

The Burghal Hiddage probably dates from after 914 during the reign of Edward the Elder, and it has been assumed that it was compiled as part of the preparations for his own campaign against the Danes in 917 and so may not be entirely accurate regarding Alfred’s reign.

The document identifies 30 burhs in Wessex and 2 in Mercia.

Question 18

The burghal hidage

Answer 18

The Burhgal Hiddage suggests that over 27,000 men would have been required to defend and maintain the burghs - Was this disadvantage, both in terms of manpower and finances, balanced by the greater security and stability offered by the fortifications?

Question 19

Basic information about the burhs…

Answer 19

After his victory over the Danes at the Battle of Eddington (878) and the departure of another Viking army from Fulham in 880, Alfred set about building a system of fortified towns or forts, known as burhs in response to the Viking threat.

Question 20

How did Alfred view the Vikings?

Answer 20

As instruments of divine wrath

Question 21

What drove Alfred’s cultural revival?

Answer 21

To be wise was to adopt God’s priorities, as revealed above all in the Bible, and this notion of wisdom observably drove Alfred’s programme of spiritual and cultural revival and inspired his own writings.

Learning had once flourished among Angelcyn, who as a result ‘prospered in warfare and wisdom’. He was looking back to the golden outlines of the one drawn by Bede and believed it was the wisdom and so warfare of all Englishmen that was at stake; the revival of learning was as badly needed as the building of forts.

Question 22

Alfred’s schools…

Answer 22

Asser tells us that he encouraged and enabled the teaching of Latin, English and important works ‘those works men most need to know’.

He set up a school at court and children of lesser as well as noble birth were schooled there.

Additionally, schooling was to begin in the vernacular, not for its own sake but, as Alfred said, to lay foundations on which Latin learning could then be built in those continuing to ‘higher rank’.

Question 23

What gives Alfred’s movement its unique distinction?

Answer 23

His own part in it; no Carolingian king is known to have put quill to parchment.

Question 24

Alfred and manuscripts…

Answer 24

Similarly, Alfred encouraged the import of Latin manuscripts from abroad and his revival of learning provided substantial incentive for a corresponding scriptural resurgence within his own lands.

Question 25

What were the 4 works that Alfred translated himself?

Answer 25

Gregory’s Pastoral Rule (this is the central document in Alfred’s cultural renaissance)
Augustine’s Soliloquies
the psalms
Boethius

There are linguistic similarities and a shared authorial agenda

These writings offer an insight into his own mind

Question 26

Info about Alfred’s laws

Answer 26

the laws laid down by Alfred and his councillors are followed by those in the name of his predecessor Ine, and prefaced by a translation of those given by God to Moses

West Saxon and other English legislation is juxtaposed with that of God himself and it is implied that the laws of Angelcyn are themselves laws of God; the ideological charge inherent in the idea of Angelcyn is given new and legally binding force.

his law code was a summarisation of previous law codesl it was not innovative.

Question 27

An initial stage of Alfred’s cultural reform:

Answer 27

An initial stage was to establish a court of scholars, as Charlemagne had; and the preface acknowledges the help of four visitors. One was Asser himself, Alfred’s archbishop

Question 28

Alfred’s relations with Mercia

Answer 28

1. Alfred saw that the best hope of eventually regaining Danish lands lay in establishing a firm alliance with Mercia
2. at the height of Alfred’s power in the 880’s, the most powerful man in Mercia is Æthelred who is named only as Eadorlman of Mercia- He is subject to Alfred’s rule.
3. Alfred married his own daughter, Æthelflaed to Æthelred- It seems likely that this was intended to bring what was left of the old kingdom of Mercia into West Saxon orbit
4. This joining together of the Angles (Mercia) and Saxons (Wessex) effectively creates a new kingdom; that of the Anglo-Saxons, but it is questionable whether this necessarily equates to the beginning of an English identity.

Question 29

Other than for religious reasons, why else did Alfred want to establish literacy

Answer 29

He recognised the practical advantages of Widespread literacy; he needed clerks

Question 30

The Chronicle during Alfred’s reign..

Answer 30

. Alfred probably had a strong hand in starting the anglo Saxon chronicle
. It glorifies the house of Wessex
. He was almost on a propaganda campaign for the Wessex house; proving their old/ancient Anglo Saxon heritage
. It is possibly unreliable on its account of Alfred’s treaty with Guthrum- doesn’t say why in 878 the Viking’s made an agreement unfavourable to themselves

Question 31

Alfred and london

Answer 31

he re-conolonised london

Question 32

Asser as a source (3 things)

Answer 32

1. is a contemporary biography
2. Asser made use of a version of the chronicle which is no longer extant
3. Asser knew, and in places copied from, Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne