Alfred the Great: biography, personal life, achievements, historical facts, photos. Alfred the Great: biography The Life of King Alfred

Military reform

A number of sources attribute military reform to Alfred the Great. Alfred divided the entire country into military districts, in which every five farms ( guide) had to field one warrior, supplying him with everything necessary at his own expense. Each city also had to provide a certain number of soldiers. Service in the army still remained the responsibility of every free person, but now he could spend part of his time on his farm. In addition, some of the soldiers now carried out garrison service in cities and villages, while the other part was in the active army. After a while they changed places, so that the warriors were no longer separated from their home for a long time.

In addition, every farmer had to take part in the maintenance of bridges and fortifications. Alfred was the first to abandon the idea of ​​a people's militia (fird) and began to form a military class. Thegns and warriors of the royal squad were completely freed from work on the land. The thegns became part of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, and the warriors became medium and small landowners for whom the peasants had to work. In the first years after this reform, if necessary, peasants were still sometimes called up to join the militia, but then this began to happen less and less. In addition, Alfred began to restore old and build new fortresses, which could contain significant garrisons and either repel an attack by a small enemy detachment, or withstand a siege until the main forces of the kingdom arrived. By the end of the king's life, chroniclers counted about thirty fortresses restored and built.

Making peace with the Vikings

Throughout the winter, Alfred prepared his army and navy for war with the Danes. In the early spring of 877, Wessex's army surrounded Exeter, and Alfred's fleet blockaded the coast and prevented the encircled Danes from receiving reinforcements. The Danes from Wargham tried to break the blockade of Exeter, but a strong storm scattered and smashed most of the Viking fleet against the coastal cliffs. Hunger and despair forced the Danes to enter into negotiations with Alfred and capitulate. A peace was concluded in which the Danes handed over hostages, paid a ransom and swore on a sacred bracelet smeared with blood that they would no longer attack the possessions of King Alfred. This was the most sacred oath among the Danes, but they soon broke it. The Danes went north, but, as it turned out, not far. They positioned themselves near Gloucester and waited for reinforcements, which soon joined them. Meanwhile, the reassured Alfred disbanded his army and returned to one of his estates in Somerset.

Vikings disrupt the peace

Alfred the Great statue in Wantage.

Taking advantage of the fact that Alfred disbanded his army, in 878 the Danes resumed a full-scale war with Wessex. King Guthrum marched south with a significant military force, captured London, invaded Wessex from several directions, and stopped at Avon to spend the winter. For Alfred and his troops this was a complete surprise. The country was paralyzed by fear and there was no talk of any organized resistance. The Danes swept through the entire kingdom with fire and sword, easily dealing with the small and poorly organized detachments of the Anglo-Saxons.

The cities and villages in the southern part of the kingdom suffered especially. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, this year “... the enemy army... captured the entire land of the West Saxons, expelling a huge part of the population overseas, and subjugating the rest to their rule...”. Alfred in vain called on the people to fight, sending messengers with a drawn sword and an arrow to cities and villages to call for war: only a few came to the king. Alfred found himself without an army, surrounded by only a small number of loyal friends.

Alfred in exile

In these circumstances, as Asser reports, Alfred abandoned his warriors and his commanders, renounced his people and fled just to save his life. Wandering through forests and wastelands, he reached the border of the Cornish Britons at the confluence of the rivers Tone and Paret. Here, on a peninsula surrounded by swamps, Alfred settled under a false name in a fisherman's hut. He baked his own bread for his own food from what his poor host gave him in hospitality. The army of the Danes ruled his kingdom unhindered, where almost no one knew what became of the king.

Strengthening and organizing the state

England in 886

After the Peace of Wedmore, Alfred began strengthening and organizing his kingdom. Alfred strengthened his rights to the annexed lands by concluding a number of marriage alliances for members of his family with the royal dynasties of Mercia and East Anglia. In his personal possession he left Wessex proper, the upper part of the Thames Valley, the Severn Valley, as well as the fertile plains of the Mersey and Dee from the territory of the former kingdom of Mercia, which from that time began to be called Mercia proper. The rest of Mercia, which remained in the power of the Danes, from that time began to be called Five Danish cities.

In 879 Alfred installed Æthelred II as king of Saxon Mercia. His task was to protect Wessex from attacks from the north, and also to prevent the emergence of an alliance between the Danes and the Welsh. In 884, Æthelred II married Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd and, out of respect for King Alfred, renounced his title king and took the title ealdorman(or earl). Thus, Æthelred II was the last king and first earl of Mercia, which was effectively annexed to Alfred's English kingdom.

Maritime border security

Peace with Guthrum gave the Anglo-Saxons several years of peace within the country, but the Vikings, who were then plundering areas on the opposite bank of the English Channel, also attacked the shores of England, hoping to take possession of the lands here. However, Alfred either prevented them from landing, or inflicted defeats, preventing them from gaining a foothold on the shore. IN

Alfred the Great- King of England, youngest son of King Aethelwulf and Osburgh; genus. in 849 in Berkshire. His grandfather Egbert, king of Wessex, at the beginning of the 9th century. united all the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one state - England. Already a 5-year-old boy, A. was sent to Rome to be anointed by Pope Leo IV. A few years later, he took a second trip to Rome with his pious and generous father towards the church. On the way back, they both spent quite a long time at the court of Charles the Bald, where young A. became acquainted with a higher civilization. Only after the death of his elder brother Ethelred, A. was proclaimed king in 871. Even earlier, he had to repel the Danish invasions. Having reached the throne, he strained every effort to save the country's independence. At first he fought without success, since the Danes arrived in England in increasing numbers, and the Anglo-Saxons either submitted to someone else's yoke or left their homeland. He himself even had to hide from the enemy for some time in a shepherd's hut in the county of Somerset. Here, in a deserted, swampy area, he founded a castle and, when the people began to rebel against the Danes, he called his followers here.

Tradition greatly embellished the military adventures of A. Having defeated the Danes in May 878 and subjugated them, he allowed them, however, to retain their settlements in England so that they would recognize him as their king and accept Christianity. In the next 6 peaceful years, he built fortresses, ordered the rebuilding of destroyed cities and monasteries and patronized agriculture, while at the same time training the people in the art of war. The new Danish invasion (893) ended successfully after a stubborn struggle. He also successfully repelled repeated attacks by the Normans led by Hastings. With the help of legislation and concerns about public education, he tried to raise the level of national development and was distinguished by strict justice in relation to both the English and the Danes. In later times, however, they began to attribute to him such beneficent institutions that were either just begun by him, or had already existed among the Anglo-Saxons, and A. were only renewed, approved and more developed. To improve administration, he divided the provinces into smaller divisions (Shires), at the head of which he placed counts (thans, earls); The counties were in turn divided into tithes, or tythings. The judicial organization he introduced for the entire country became the basis for the later jury trial. A. ordered to collect the ancient laws of Kent, Wessex and Mercia and combined them, with the addition of new laws, into one code, which became the basis of Common law. In addition, he separated the position of judge from the leadership of the army. He tried in every possible way to improve agriculture and trade. As a zealous lover and champion of scientific education, A. ordered many works to be translated from Latin, which he himself learned only in the year 36, into Anglo-Saxon. Some works, such as, for example, Boethius “De consolatione philosophiae” and the history of Orosius, he translated himself, adding to the latter notes about travel in the German and Baltic seas and a description of the Slavic lands, he himself equipped 2 expeditions - the Normans of Oter, who visited the White Sea , and Wulfstan, who penetrated from Schleswig into the Gulf of Finland. To promote such enterprises, and mainly to protect against the Normans, he strengthened his fleet, so that he can be considered the founder of the English fleet. A. † October 26 or 28, 901. The most important source for his biography is the Vita Alfredi, written by his friend Asser of Wales, later Bishop of Sherburne, distinguished by its simplicity of presentation (ed. Wiese, Oxf., 1772), and in the Monumenta historiae Britannicae" (vol. 1, London, 1848). A.'s works in New England. translated by Giles in collaboration with Bosworth and others under the title “The whole works of king A.” (2 vols., London, 1858). Wed. Pauli, “König A. und seine Stelle in der Geschichte Englands” (Berl., 1851); Weiss, “Geschichte A. des Grossen” (Schaffg., 1852).

King Alfred the Great, 871–899

Defeat and subsequent revenge

Alfred, who became king, in the first year of his reign was forced to repel Viking attempts to invade the territory under his control nine times. Only towards the end of 871 there was relative calm (until 878). During this period, the Vikings again turned their fury against Mercia and Northumbria, only occasionally invading the lands of Wessex. Moreover, it turned out that the army of invaders was divided: part of it settled in Yorkshire. The authors of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle indicate that “they began to plow the land and provide themselves with food.” Gradually, the invaders integrated and finally disappeared among the local population.

But most of the Viking army still retained their fighting spirit and were eager for new conquests. In 878, she again crossed the borders of Wessex and attacked King Alfred's residence at Chippenham. Let us turn to the evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It says that the Vikings attacked Alfred in winter, on the very eve of Epiphany, when everyone, according to tradition, was resting and feasting. Taken by surprise, Alfred was forced to flee with a small detachment of his warriors and “with great difficulty made his way through the thicket of the forest in order to find shelter in the impenetrable swamps” of what is now the county of Somerset. (The well-known story about Alfred and the bread dates back to the time when the king was hiding in the village of Ethelney. In any case, so it is assumed, although the story itself was written down much later, centuries later. So, according to legend, Alfred was hiding in a hut a shepherd. He knew nothing about his guest and took him for a simple warrior who had eluded the Danes. One day the mistress of the hut in which Alfred lived left and instructed him to look after the bread in the oven. The king was so carried away by repairing his weapons that that he burned the bread. The returning woman cruelly scolded him for carelessness. Whether this is true or not is now difficult to say, but this episode perfectly illustrates the pitiful situation in which the English king found himself in exile.) For three months, Alfred hid with his squad in Ethelny and assembled a new army. After Easter, having united with the earls loyal to him, the king again went to war against the Vikings, and so successfully that he forced them to retreat and take refuge in the same Chippenham. After a fourteen-day siege, the Danish king Guthrum was forced to surrender. He was forced to convert to Christianity, and Alfred himself took part in the baptismal ceremony and became the godfather of Guthrum, who took a new (more Christian, from the Saxons’ point of view) name - Athelstan. After this, the Vikings retreated - first to Chirenchester, and then to East Anglia, where they established a foothold. Their next attack attempt occurred only in 885, but was unsuccessful, and in 886 Alfred took London by storm.

What is the key to such convincing military victories of the Anglo-Saxon king? First of all, in the network of fortified fortified cities (the so-called “burgs”) that Alfred created throughout the country. The fortresses were located no more than twenty miles from each other - this corresponded to one day's march. Where possible, the king used existing towns, such as Portchester. Where there were not enough of them, he built new ones - this is how Wallingford and other cities appeared on the map of England. They were garrisoned by local residents. In the event of a Viking attack, these fortresses provided shelter to the population of the surrounding villages. The walls of Wareham are still preserved - an impressive sight!

The confrontation lasted for more than one year. Finally, King Alfred and Guthrum officially entered into an agreement, according to which England was divided into two parts - the area of ​​​​Anglo-Saxon administration and, accordingly, Danish. The border diagonally crossed the entire country - from the mouth of the Thames to Staffordshire. Alfred ruled the southern and western regions, while the northeastern part fell to the Vikings. There, an area of ​​“Danish law” was established (that is, people lived according to Danish laws and customs). Traces of this division can still be traced today by the names of settlements preserved from those ancient times. Cities that were under Danish rule retained the characteristic endings in “-bi” (Derby, Whitby) or “-thorpe” (Scunthorpe). In turn, in the territory controlled by Wessex, the English endings “-ton” (Taunton, Islington) or the previously discussed “-lee” predominate.

Acts of King Alfred

Alfred was not only an outstanding military figure. The policies he pursued in peacetime confirmed the nickname of the Great given to this ruler. He showed generosity towards his enemies, as evidenced by the story of Guthrum's baptism. He used every respite in the war (as, for example, in 887–893) to strengthen his kingdom. Alfred made great efforts to bring knowledge to the people. The fact is that previously Christian monasteries served as centers of culture and education. But during the Danish invasion they fell into decline, many monks died in battles defending their monasteries from the pagans. Alfred complained that there were no educated people left who could translate Latin texts into English. To rectify the situation, the king insisted on the establishment of schools in monasteries. At the court of King Alfred in Wessex, secular schools were also opened for children of the nobility, taught by teachers invited from the continent. At the age of thirty-eight, the king began to study Latin and later personally participated in the translation of the works of such authors as Bede and St. Augustine. He also took care to create a new set of laws called King Alfred's Truth. This collection included many provisions from the old Anglo-Saxon codes compiled in individual kingdoms at various times.

All these state concerns, coupled with the constant threat from the Vikings, undermined the king’s health. In the Monologues of St. Augustine there is a place where it talks about people living in peace and quiet. So, Alfred, translating this passage, added on his own: “... as I have never succeeded in.” The final years of his reign were again marred by renewed Viking raids. But Wessex's positions had become so strong by that time that enemy attacks were easily repulsed.

Alfred died on October 26, 899, king of the powerful kingdom of Wessex and overlord of neighboring Mercia. His title “Rex Anglorum”, i.e. “King of the English”, was minted on the silver penny. Before him, only King Offa was called by this name.

Vikings in England

Judging by the number of surviving historical documents, the history of England at that time comes down, first of all, to the history of the kingdom of Wessex. Here are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other sources. In contrast, the Vikings do not have such a rich history; in most chronicles they are depicted only as ruthless invaders and marauders who appear, kill and disappear again into the sea. Well, maybe it was like that in the beginning. But later, some of the Vikings settled in the British Isles and began to live a completely peaceful life, proving themselves to be hardworking farmers and skilled artisans. Among the archaeological finds there are remarkable examples that, apparently, belonged specifically to the Viking settlers. Thus, during excavations in York, an entire street (Coppergate) was discovered with workshops and magnificent products of the local craftsmen. By the way, the ending “-gate”, indicating Scandinavian origin (“gate” in their language meant “street”), is found in the names of many northern cities.

Alfred the Great The Danes believed that Wessex remained independent only because they had not yet reached it. In 871 the conquerors moved up the Thames to Reading. There they were met by a Wessex army led by King Aethelred (and his younger brother