Top 10 facts about King Alfred the Great

King Alfred the Great is seen by many as the first king of all England

KING Alfred the Great, seen by many as the first king of all England, died on October 26, AD 899.

 

1. Alfred was born at Wantage, Berkshire, in AD 849, the fifth son of the West Saxon King Ethelwulf. 

2. Three of his brothers, Ethelbald, Ethelbert and Ethelred became King of Wessex before him but all died young leaving Alfred to become king in AD 871. 

 

3. At that time Wessex was the only Anglo-Saxon kingdom that had not fallen to the Vikings. 

4. Alfred reorganised the English army and navy to successfully resist the Viking invaders. 

 



Alfred reorganised the English army and navy to successfully resist the Viking invaders



5. He was a pious and educated man who also gave England a new and fairer legal code. 

6. The story of Alfred burning a villager’s cakes is almost certainly a myth and first appeared only around 1200. 

Alfred was born at Wantage, Berkshire, in AD 849, the fifth son of the West Saxon King Ethelwulf



It is unclear what Alfred died of but Crohn’s disease or haemorrhoids seem the most likely

7. The song Jerusalem first appeared in 1740 in a masque about Alfred the Great with music by Thomas Arne. 

8. He was buried in Winchester but his bones were moved several times and became lost. In 2014 a pelvic bone was found that may have been his.
 

He was buried in Winchester but his bones were moved several times and became lost

9. It is unclear what Alfred died of but Crohn’s disease or haemorrhoids seem the most likely. 

10. “He seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world,” (King Alfred).