Saint Alfred le Grand
Roi de Wessex puis des anglo-saxons (+ 899)
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/2087/Saint-Alfred-le-Grand.html
King Alfred's Monument, Athelney, Somerset. Built in
1801 for the squire John Slade.
ALFRED LE GRAND (849-899)roi du Wessex (871-899)
Souverain légendaire du Wessex, né à Wantage en
Berkshire, Alfred est le fils cadet du roi Aethelwulf. Lors d'un pèlerinage à
Rome, le pape Léon IV le consacre roi avant même qu'il ne monte sur le
trône. Il se distingue contre les envahisseurs danois à Ashdown, Basing et
Merton. En 871, à la mort de son dernier frère, Aethelred, il ceint la couronne
du Wessex. Durement éprouvé par les combats, il tente de contenir les Danois en
leur payant tribut. De 875 à 878, c'est une succession d'escarmouches, de serments
rompus, d'invasions sporadiques. En 878, peu après Noël, les Danois attaquent
en force. Alfred Le Grand prépare sa riposte dans une région marécageuse, l'île
d'Athelney. Il rallie les hommes libres du Somerset, du Wiltshire et du
Hampshire et écrase l'armée du roi Guthrum qui doit se retirer du Wessex après
avoir reçu le baptême. En 884, Alfred Le Grand rejette à la mer un nouveau
corps d'envahisseurs danois. Deux ans plus tard, il occupe et fortifie Londres.
En 893, nouvelle alerte : des Scandinaves débarquent dans le Kent et le
Sussex, le chef viking Hasting remonte la Tamise, les Danois soumis par Alfred
se révoltent, la guerre s'étend à toute l'Angleterre. Elle est longtemps
indécise. En 897, les assaillants fatigués se retirent. Deux ans après la fin
de la dernière guerre danoise, en 899, Alfred meurt. Monarque éclairé, il se
montra sage législateur ; protecteur des arts, des lettres et des
sciences, il fonda les monastères de Shaftesbury et d'Athelney ; on lui
prête aussi la création de l'université d'Oxford. Fin lettré, il laissa des
traductions des œuvres de Boece, de Bède et de Grégoire le Grand. Il fait
surtout figure de libérateur et de fédérateur des Anglo-Saxons. Asser, son
biographe, le qualifie successivement de « West Saxonum Rex », de
« Rex Saxonum » et enfin d'« Angul Saxonum Rex ». La
légende a fait de lui le roi anglais, et même l'homme anglais par excellence.
— Pierre JOANNON
SOURCE : https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/alfred-le-grand/
Detail of the left east window of the Regimental Chapel of the King's Own Royal Regiment in Lancaster Priory, Lancaster, Lancashire. It was produced c. 1910 by Shrigley and Hunt from designs by Edward Holmes Jewitt.
Prière de saint Alfred le Grand, roi de Wessex (9ème s)
Prayer of King Alfred of Wessex in southwestern England, and later over all of England from AD 871 to 899:
SOURCE : http://stmaterne.blogspot.com/2013/04/priere-de-saint-alfred-le-grand-roi-de.html
.jpg)
Alfred le Grand, roi du Wessex.A portrait from
the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales
Alfred le Grand
Alfred le Grand (849-899) est un roi de Wessex
(871–899). Il résista aux assauts vikings et s'attacha à promouvoir la piété et
le savoir dans son royaume.
Alfred (Ælfrēd en anglo-saxon) est né en 849. Il est
le dernier fils du roi de Wessex Ethelwulf.
En 865, une « grande armée païenne »
débarque en Angleterre, menée par Ivar et Halfdan, et est partout
victorieuse : Est-Anglie, Northumbrie, Mercie. En 870-871, elle se tourne
vers le Wessex, où Alfred et son frère, le roi Ethelred, leur livrent une série
de batailles. Même si les Saxons remportent la victoire à Ashdown, les Danois
ont l'avantage et Alfred, qui a succédé à son frère, doit demander la paix.
Tandis qu'une partie de l'armée danois entreprend la
colonisation de la Northumbrie, puis de la Mercie, le reste fait son retour
dans le Wessex à partir de 875. Alfred parvient dans un premier temps à acheter
la paix mais, en 878, les Danois s'emparent d'une grande partie du royaume.
Alfred doit se replier dans les marais du Somerset où, depuis l'île d'Athelney,
il mène d'abord une stratégie de harcèlement de l'armée ennemie. Puis, étant
parvenu à rassembler une armée autour de lui, il remporte la victoire à
Eddington (878). Les Danois se rendent, leur chef, Guthrum, se fait baptiser,
avec Alfred comme parrain, et ils s'installent l'année suivante en Est-Anglie.
En 885, une nouvelle armée viking, soutenue par les
Danois d'Est-Anglie, attaque le Kent. Alfred réplique et, en, 886, il s'empare
de Londres. Un nouveau traité est conclu avec Guthorm – son texte a été
conservé – pour délimiter leurs territoires respectifs. Dès lors, selon
la Chronique anglo-saxonne, « tous les Anglais se soumirent à
[Alfred], à l'exception de ceux qui étaient sous le joug danois ». En
réalité, son autorité se limite au Wessex et à une partie de la Mercie.
En 892, une nouvelle grande armée danoise, à laquelle
se joint Hasting, est tenue en
échec. Alfred a en effet profité des années de paix pour améliorer les défenses
du royaume : réorganisation de l'armée, dont une moitié doit être en
permanence mobilisée, développement d'un réseau de forteresses et de villes
fortifiées (les burhs), création d'une marine de guerre. L'armée danoise
se disperse finalement en 896.
Convaincu que les vikings sont un instrument de la
colère divine, et que les malheurs qui frappent l'Angleterre châtient le recul
de la piété et du savoir, Alfred a lancé une vaste entreprise de restauration
spirituelle et culturelle, à destination du clergé comme des laïcs. En plus de
la fondation d'écoles, cela s'est traduit par la traduction des « livre
qu'il est le plus nécessaire à tous les hommes de connaître », parmi
lesquels l'Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais de Bède le Vénérable
ou les Histoires contre les païens d'Orose1. Homme de culture, Alfred
a lui-même traduit Grégoire le Grand (Liber Pastoralis), Saint Augustin (Soliloques)
ou Boèce (Consolation de Philosophie).
Alfred meurt en 899.
Il a évité que toute l'Angleterre tombe aux mains des
vikings et permis à son fils, Édouard l'Ancien, et à son petit-fils, Athelstan,
d'unifier l'Angleterre sous l'autorité de la maison de Wessex.
La vie d'Alfred est connue par la Chronique
anglo-saxonne, dont la rédaction débute sous son règne, ainsi que par le récit
qu'en a fait le moine gallois Asser (893).
En plus de sa défense du royaume de Wessex, Alfred a aussi réformé l'administration, apporté un soin particulier à la justice, promulgué un nouveau code de lois.
1 Dans
la préface de laquelle figure le récit d'Ohthere (Ottar), un chef norvégien du
Helgeland qui séjourna à la cour d'Alfred et a laissé un précieux témoignage
sur le Nord de la Norvège à l'époque viking et sur les activité et routes
commerciales alors pratiquées.
Écrit par Frédéric
Vincent
SOURCE : http://www.fafnir.fr/alfred-le-grand
File:Alfred
in the Isle of Athelney, receiving News of a Victory over the Danes.jpg. Engraving
by Nicholas Blakey, reworked by François Vivares, published in 1778 by Richard
Sayer in English History Delineated
Profile
Youngest of five sons
of King Ethelwulf
of Wessex. Ideal Christian king of
Wessex, he came to the throne during a Danish invasion.
Alfred defeated the Danes and
preserved the growth of the Church in England.
Patron of learning, he established a court school,
invited British and foreign scholars to work there. Personally translated several
religious works into Anglo-Saxon. His laws made no distinction between British and Welsh subjects,
a first.
Born
849 at
Wantage, Berkshire, England
26 October 899 of
natural causes
Name Meaning
elf counsel
all peace
supernaturally wise counselor
“The Consolation of Philosophy” of Boethius
(translation)
“The History of the World” of Orosius (translation)
“Ecclesiastical History” of Bede (translation)
“Pastoral Rule” of Saint Gregory
the Great (translation)
“Dialogues” of Saint Gregory
the Great (translation)
Readings
We pray to you, O Lord, who are the surpeme Truth, and
all truth is from you. We beseech you, O Lord, who are the highest Wisdom, and
all the wise depend on you for their wisdom. You are the supreme Joy, and all
who are happy owe it to you. You are the Light of minds, and all receive their
understanding from you. We love, we love you above all. We seek you, we follow
you, and we are ready to serve you. We desire to dwell under your power for you
are the King of all. Amen. – Saint Alfred
the Great
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-alfred-the-great/
Alfred the Great. Stained glass window in St.Jamed
Cathedral. Toronto. Author: Clayton & Bell 1903.
Alfred the Great
(Also Ælfred).
King of the West-Saxons, born Wantage,
Berkshire, England 849;
died 899.
Alfred was the fifth son of Ethelwulf, or Æthelwulf,
King of Wessex, and Osburh, his queen, of the royal house of the Jutes of
Wight. When he was four years old, according to a story which has been repeated
so frequently that it is generally accepted as true, he was sent by
his father to Rome, where he was
anointed king by Pope
Leo IV. This, however like many other legends which have crystallized about
the name of Alfred, is without foundation. Two years later, in 855, Ethelwulf
went on a pilgrimage to Rome, taking Alfred with
him. This visit, recorded by Asser, is accepted as
authentic by modern historians.
In 858 Ethelwulf died and Wessex was governed by his
sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, successively, until 871, when Alfred
came to the throne. Nothing is known of his
movements during the reigns of Ethelbald and Ethelbert, but Asser, speaking of him
during the reign of Ethelred, gives him the title of Secundarius. In
868 he married Ealhswith, daughter of Ethelred, surnamed the Mickle, Ealdorman
of the Gainas. The West-Saxons and the Mercians were then engaged in a war against the
invading Danes and Alfred took an active part in the struggle. He ascended the
throne during the thickest of this conflict, but before the end of the year he
succeeded in effecting a peace, probably by paying a sum of money to the invaders.
Wessex enjoyed a measure of peace for a few years, but
about 875 the Danes renewed their attacks. They were repulsed then, and again
in 876 and 877, on each occasion making solemn pledges of peace. In 878 came
the great invasion under Guthrum. For a few months the Danes met with success,
but about Easter Alfred
established himself at Athelney and later
marched to Brixton, gathering new forces on the way. In the battle of Ethandún
(probably the present Edington, in Wiltshire) he defeated the Danes. Guthrum
agreed to a peace and consented to be baptized. It is in
connection with this struggle that many of the legends of Alfred have sprung up
and been perpetuated — the story of the burnt cakes, the account of his visit
to the Danish camp
in the guise of a harper, and many others.
For fifteen years Alfred's kingdom was at peace, but
in 903 the Danes who had been driven out made another onslaught. This war lasted for four
years and resulted in the final establishment of Saxon supremacy.
These struggles had another result, hardly less important than the freedom
from Danish oppression.
The successive invasions had crushed out of existence most of the individual
kingdoms. Alfred made Wessex a rallying point for all the Saxons and by freeing
the country of the invaders unwittingly unified England and
prepared the way for the eventual supremacy of his successors.
Popular fancy has been busy with other phases of
Alfred's career than that which is concerned with his military achievements. He
is generally credited with establishing trial by jury, the law of
"frank-pledge", and many other institutions which were rather the
development of national customs of long standing. He is represented as the
founder of Oxford,
a claim which recent research has disproved. But even the elimination of the
legendary from Alfred's history does not in any way diminish his greatness, so
much is there of actual, recorded achievement to his credit. His own estimate
of what he did for the regeneration of England is modest
beside the authentic history of his deeds.
He endeavoured, he tells us, to gather all that seemed
good in the old English laws and adds:
"I durst not venture much of mine own to set down, for I knew not what
should be approved by those who came after us." Not only did he codify
and promulgate laws but he looked,
too, to their enforcement, and insisted that justice should be
dispensed without fear or favour. He devoted his energies to restoring what had
been destroyed by the long wars with the
invaders. Monasteries were rebuilt and founded, and learned men brought from
other lands. He brought Archbishop Plegmund and
Bishop Wetfrith from Mercia; Grimbold and John the Old-Saxon from other
Teutonic lands; Asser, John Scotus Erigena and
many others.
He not only encouraged men of learning, but he
laboured himself and gave proof of his own
learning. He translated into Anglo-Saxon: "The Consolation of
Philosophy" of Boëthius;
"The History of the World" of Orosius; the
"Ecclesiastical History" of Bede, and the
"Pastoral Rule" and the "Dialogues" of St. Gregory the Great.
The "Consolation of Philosophy" he not only translated but adapted,
adding much of his own. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", the record of
the English race from the earliest time, was inspired by him.
Sources
BOWKER, Editor, Alfred the Great (London,
1899); PLUMMER, Life of Alfred the Great (London, 1902);
SCHMID, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 2d ed. (1858).
Contemporary authorities are the Life of Alfred by ASSER and
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. These and the later accounts by ETHELWERD,
SIMEON OF DURHAM, etc. can be conveniently studied in CONYBEARE, Alfred in
the Chroniclers (1900). For Alfred's writings see BOSWORTH, The Works
of Alfred the Great (Jubilee edition, 1858, 2 vols.). Alfred's laws are
printed in LIEBERMANN'S Laws of the Anglo-Saxons (1903). Among modern
accounts see PAULI, Life of Alfred the Great. tr. WRIGHT (1852);
LAPPENBERG, England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, tr. from the German by THORPE
(1881), II; LINGARD, History of England, I; KNIGHT, Life of King
Alfred (1880). For a literary appreciation, see BROOKE, History of
English Literature to the Norman Conquest (London and New York, 1878).
Taaffe, Thomas. "Alfred the
Great." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1907. 26 Oct.
2020 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01309d.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Vernon Bremberg. Dedicated to the Cloistered Dominican Nuns
of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus, Lufkin, Texas.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March
1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal
Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright
© 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.
SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01309d.htm
.jpg)
Alfred le Grand, roi du Wessex. A portrait
from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales.
Alfred was the youngest son of King
Aethelwulf and his wife, Osberga. He was born at the Royal Palace
of Wantage (Berkshire)
in AD 849. He was brought up and educated by his mother and a famous story
tells how she once promised an expensive illuminated book to the first of her
children to learn to read it. Despite his young age, Alfred won the prize and
he continued to understand the importance of knowledge throughout his later
reign as King.
When his brother, Aethelred, became King of Wessex in
AD 865, Alfred was sixteen. He quickly became a seasoned warrior and his
brother's right-hand man during one of the worst periods of invasion in English
history. The Vikings had been raiding along the English coast for thirty years,
but Aethelred's coronation year they conquered the Kingdom of East Anglia.
Within five years, their Great Heathen Army had arrived in Wessex and seized
the Royal palace at Reading (Berkshire).
The local ealdorman managed to contain them until the King arrived, with Alfred
and the English army. A siege at Reading was unsuccessful but, soon afterward in
January AD 871, Alfred regrouped his brother's troops on the nearby Berkshire
Downs and led them against the Viking hoards at the Battle of Ashdown.
It was one of his greatest victories but, unfortunately, a number of defeats
followed that same year, resulting in Aethelred's death.
Alfred was now King of Wessex, but he was still unable
to stop the Viking menace. After his defeat in the Battle of Wilton, at the end
of AD 871, he decided he must sue for peace. A large payment persuaded the
Vikings to retreat to York for the next four years; but, in the long-term, the
money encouraged their return. King Alfred was soon forced to give away more of
his treasury in AD 875 and again two years later.
Once again, however, peace was short-lived. Alfred had
spent the Christmas of AD 877 at his palace in Chippenham (Wiltshire). The
Vikings kept track of his movements and early in the New Year, they launched a
surprise attack. Alfred narrowly escaped capture but managed to flee into the
marshes of Somerset. It was here that legend says he famously burnt the cakes
of a local housewife while musing upon his predicament.
From a temporary fort constructed at Athelney, Alfred
rallied his remaining troops. For several months, they waged a guerrilla war
against the Vikings until Alfred was able to call out the militia from
Hampshire and Wiltshire. His new army crushed the invaders at Countisbury Hill
(Devon) and then proceeded to their decisive victory at the Battle of Edington
(Wiltshire). The Vikings were pushed back to Chippenham and besieged for three
weeks before their leader, Guthrum, agreed to peace terms. The Treaty of
Wedmore thus divided England in two, with the English ruling the south and the
Vikings controlling the north, thence known as the 'Danelaw'. Guthrum was also
obliged to be baptized into the Christian Church and retreat to East Anglia.
A new period of peace then ensued and Alfred ensured
that his people would always be safe from future attacks by setting up a
systems of defensive forts or 'burghs' around the country. They were given
permanent garrisons but were largely unoccupied. This allowed them to act as
easily taxable trading centres or mints, as well as places of refuge when the
need arose. Alfred completely reorganised his army so that half his forces were
always in kept in reserve and he established a proper naval attachment with
improved ships built with Frisian help. He also changed military tactics.
Having invited the great Welsh scholar, Asser, to his court, Alfred had him
negotiate the submission of Kings Hyfaidd of Dyfed, Elisedd of Brycheiniog and
Hywel of Glywysing. Since these Welsh monarchs were already being harassed by
the armies of King Anarawd of Gwynedd, they readily agreed; and an alliance
with King Merfyn of Powys followed shortly afterward. In contrast, Alfred
adopted an aggressive policy towards Viking settlers in Wessex and retook
London in AD 886. This Alfred returned to his son-in-law, Aethelred II of
Mercia and, along with the High-Reeve of Bamburgh, these two accepted his
overlordship and protection. Alfred was delighted and issued new coinage to
celebrate his becoming King of all the English. These alliances proved key to
both English and Welsh defence when, between AD 892 and 896 armies containing
of Wessex, Powysian and Mercian troops kept Viking invaders on the move and
frustrated their goals. Even King Anarawd of Gwynedd eventually saw the
advantages of Wessex overlordship.
The moral and religious well-being of his people was
as important to King Alfred as their physical protection. Influenced by
Christian kingship ideals developed during the Carolingian Renaissance, he
introduced law-codes based on traditional Old Testament legislation. The Royal
Court became a magnet for eminent scholars who became the nucleus around which
a great resurgence in Christian learning developed. As well as Asser, Alfred's
biographer, Frankish & Germanic scholars such as St. Grimbald (later
appointed Dean of the New Minster in Winchester) and John the Old Saxon (appointed
Abbot of Athelney) were a great influence on the King.
Despite a rebuke from Pope John VII for annexing
former church lands, Alfred was a very pious man and founded a number of
monasteries: Shaftesbury for his daughter, Princess Aethelgitha, and Athelney
in celebration of his regaining the kingdom. He was an especially remarkable
man who actually undertook a number of translations himself from Latin to old
English: the Regula Pastoralis of Gregory the Great, the De Comolatione
Philosophiae by Boethius, St. Augustine's Soliloquia and the
first fifty Psalms. He, of course, commissioned other scholars to follow his
example and was probably instigated the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle. The King was keen for others to benefit from having such works
available to them; and this is made clear in the preface to his Regula
Pastralis translation which he sent to every diocese in the Kingdom along
with accompanying golden manuscript pointers. Here, he calls for his bishops to
take the book's principles seriously and to ensure their priests do the same.
Royal officials, like Ealdormen, were all expected to study or risk dismissal.
Christian teachings encouraged the idea that kings were God's representatives
on earth, and Alfred always managed to use this to his advantage.
Alfred's will shows he could be ruthless when the need
arose, ensuring that his son, Edward, took
the throne upon his death, rather than one of his elder cousins. He was a
powerful king who commanded respect from all ethnic groups across the country;
and his legacy provided a springboard for his successors to reach even greater
heights. About AD 868, he had married Elswith, daughter of Aethelred Mucil,
Ealdorman of the Mercian tribe called the Gaini, by his wife, Edburga, thought
to have been the sister of St.
Wistan. They had at least four other children besides Edward: Aethelflaed,
Aethelgitha, Aelfthrith and Aethelweard.
King Alfred died on 26th October AD 899. His son built
the New Minster in Winchester as a family mausoleum to house his tomb.
SOURCE : http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/alfred.html
Samuel Woodforde (1763–1817) (attributed to). Portrait
of Alfred the Great, 1790
KING ALFRED THE GREAT, THE ENGLISH DAVID
Written by Vladimir Moss
The ninth century was a very low point in the history
of the Western Orthodox Church. The century had begun in spectacular fashion:
on Christmas Day, 800 Charlemagne, who ruled a vast territory comprising most
of Western Europe, had been anointed “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III.
So was this the rebirth of Christian Rome in the West?
It was not to be. Refused recognition by the Eastern
Roman Empire, and plagued by heresy (the Filioque, rejection of the
Seventh Ecumenical Council), as well as by Viking and Saracen invaders, the
empire began to disintegrate soon after Charlemagne’s death. By the early tenth
century a new social and political system, feudalism, had established itself in
France, and would soon be established also in Germany and Italy, while the
papacy was plunged into an abyss of immorality, “the pornocracy of Marozia”.
However, by the end of the ninth century one nation in the West was recovering and even building the foundations of a truly Orthodox kingdom that was to survive and flourish until its violent overthrow in 1066: England. This was the achievement largely of one man and his ecclesiastical advisors: King Alfred the Great. Let us look at the main stages of his extraordinary life.
The Roman Consul
Alfred was born in 849, the fifth son of King
Aethelwulf of Wessex, one of the traditional “heptarchy”, or seven kingdoms of
the Anglo-Saxons. [1] Wessex comprised most of southern
England south of the Thames (but not including London), and its capital was the
old Roman town of Winchester. A very pious man, King Aethelwulf gave one tenth
of his dominions to the Church and made several pilgrimages to Rome.
On one of them, in the year 853, he took his youngest
son Alfred, together with Alfred’s tutor, St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester.
“At this time,” writes Alfred’s earliest biographer, his friend the Welsh Bishop
Asser, “the lord Pope Leo [IV] was ruling the apostolic see. He anointed the
child Alfred as king, ordaining him properly, received him as an adoptive son
and confirmed him.”[2] This extraordinary event could be
dismissed as fiction – and has been so dismissed by many historians – if it
were not confirmed by a letter written in the same year by the Pope himself to
King Aethelwulf: “We have now graciously received your son Alfred, whom you
were anxious to send at this time to the threshold of the Holy Apostles, and we
have decorated him, as a spiritual son, with the dignity of the belt and
vestments of the consulate, as is customary with Roman consuls, because he gave
himself into our hands.”[3]
Roman consul? This was surely an archaism – although
in 754 Pope Stephen IV had given the title of patricius to Pippin,
King of the Franks, as a sign that the Franks, and not the Byzantines, were now
his secular protectors. Adoption as his spiritual son and godson? It was
possible. Anointing to the kingdom? This was unusual but a certain precedent
existed for it in that both Charlemagne and King Offa of Mercia had had their
sons associated with themselves in the kingship by Pope Hadrian. But the honour
accorded to Alfred seems to have been greater than that – and more surprising in
that Alfred had four older brothers who would be expected to ascend the throne
before him!
The only explanation of the Pope’s extraordinary action, according to the twelfth-century writer Aelred of Rievaulx, was that Pope Leo was a prophet and foresaw the future greatness of Alfred.[4] Certainly, if the pope foresaw Alfred’s greatness, it made sense for him to tie his destiny as close as possible with the city of Rome and the papacy. For that same prophetic gift would have told him that the Carolingian empire with which the papacy was officially linked would soon collapse, and so the future of Roman Christian civilization depended on reviving the already close links between the papacy and “the land of the angels”, as Pope Gregory I had called England.[5]
The Wild Boar
On his return from a second pilgrimage to Rome with
Alfred, in 856, King Aethelwulf found that his eldest son, Aethelbald, had
seized the kingdom and divided it between himself and his brother Aethelbert.
However, in 860 Aethelbald died, and Aethelbert reunited the kingdom under his
single rule. But in the same year the Vikings sacked Winchester and St.
Swithun, the protector of the kingdom and Alfred’s tutor, died. In 865
Aethelbert also died, and Aethelred came to the throne. He had to face a
renewed threat from the Vikings, who in 866 conquered the northern kingdom of
Northumbria, which was divided by civil war between two English kings. The
Danes conquered the Northumbrian capital of York, killed both kings in a
particularly cruel manner and then installed a puppet-king of English
nationality in their place. In 869, supplemented by reinforcements from
overseas, in 869 the Danes assembled their greatest army yet and invaded East
Anglia, conquering it after a bitter and bloody struggle against the Holy
Martyr-King Edmund.
The next year the Vikings crossed the Thames and
defeated King Aethelred and his brother Prince Alfred at Reading. However, on
January 8, 871 the two brothers met the Vikings at Ashdown and won a famous
victory – the first major setback for the Vikings in England. The manner of the
victory was significant. Prince Alfred and his men took up position blocking
the Viking advance. However, King Aethelred would not join him at first because
he was attending the Divine Liturgy in his tent, and said that he would not
fight until the liturgy was completed. Alfred had no choice but to begin the
battle without his brother and when he was not yet in position. He
charged uphill at the pagans “like a wild boar”. They retreated, and
when King Aethelred joined his brother the retreat turned into a rout. The
Vikings lost thousands of men, and were driven all the way back to their camp
at Reading.[6]
However, on March 22 another battle took place at
Meretun at which King Aethelred was severely wounded. On St. George’s day,
April 23, 871, he died, and at the tender age of twenty-one, after the deaths
of all four of his brothers, Alfred was king of Wessex. As the holy pope had
foreseen, he was now in the position of a Roman consul, commanding the last
significant army standing in the way of the complete triumph of the pagan
Vikings over Christian England.
But things did not go well at first. In his first battle
as king Alfred lost to the Vikings at Wilton. Four years of peace ensued,
during which the Vikings consolidated their control over northern and central
England, placing puppet kings in Northumbria and Mercia (Central England). In
874, King Burhred of Mercia fled to Rome with his wife, Alfred’s sister, and
died there as a monk.
Sometimes King Alfred would visit his spiritual
father, St. Neot, asking for his blessing. There is some evidence that the king
was in conflict with Archbishop Aethelred of Canterbury at this time - there
exists a letter dated to 877 from the archbishop to Pope John VIII complaining
about the king. It may be in this connection that St. Neot severely criticised
the king for his proud harshness, bringing before him the humility of David as
an example, and pointing out that Saul, who had been placed at the head of the
tribes of Israel when he was small in his own eyes, was later condemned for his
pride. Then he prophesied that the barbarians would invade the land and triumph
by God’s permission, and he would be the only one to escape, wandering as a
fugitive over the land. “O King,” he said, “you will suffer much in this life;
no man can say how much you will suffer. But now, beloved child, hear me if you
are willing, and turn your heart to my counsel. Forsake your wickedness; redeem
your sins by almsgiving, and wipe them out through tears.” And he urged him,
when he would see his words fulfilled, not to despair, but to act like a man
and strengthen his heart. For through his intercessions he had obtained from
God that Alfred would again be restored to his former prosperity, so long as he
ceased from doing evil and repented of his sins. And he further urged him to
send gifts to the Pope, beseeching him to give freedom to the English School in
Rome. This good deed would help him in his troubles. Alfred then sent the Pope
as he had been advised, and obtained his request, together with several holy
relics and a portion of the True Cross.
In 876, the Vikings resumed their offensive. Their new leader Guthrum rode from Cambridge to Wareham, deep inside Alfred’s kingdom. A Viking fleet was very near, and the combination of the army in Wareham and the fleet at sea presented a mortal threat to King Alfred. By God’s Providence the fleet was completely destroyed in a storm. However, being unable to defeat the land army under Guthrum, Alfred was forced to make peace with him. According to the agreement, Guthrum was supposed to leave Wessex, but instead, under cover of night, he established himself within the Roman walls of the city of Exeter. Alfred pursued him, and the two sides again made peace, exchanging hostages. On July 31 St. Neot died, and almost immediately, in August, Guthrum retreated north of the Thames into Viking-dominated territory at Gloucester. The threat had passed – for the time being…
The Guerilla King
King Alfred celebrated Christmas, 877 at his royal
villa at Chippenham in Wiltshire. On Twelfth Night, January 6, traditionally
the climax of the festivities, Guthrum made a sudden surprise attack on Alfred
and forced him to flee to the west. After Pascha (March 23), Alfred and a few
men arrived at a small island surrounded by marshes called Athelney, near
Glastonbury, the place where St. Joseph of Arimathaea had first preached the
Gospel in apostolic times. The island was 9,500 square metres in size – the full
extent of Orthodox England controlled by the king at this, the lowest point in
English Orthodox history.
Although the main sources for Alfred’s reign – Bishop
Asser’s Life and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – make no direct
mention of this, there is strong evidence that Alfred was betrayed - perhaps by
his nephew Aethelwold, who joined the Danes after his death[7], more probably by the ealdorman
(provincial governor) of Wiltshire, Wulfhere[8]. Guthrum and the English traitors probably
planned either to kill Alfred or force him to flee abroad, making way for an
English puppet-king for Wessex on the model of the puppet-kings already
installed in Northumbria and Mercia. But Alfred refused to flee the country as
his brother-in-law King Burhred of Mercia had done – and this decision probably
saved English Orthodox civilization. For as long as Alfred was alive no
puppet-king could be installed in Wessex and the Vikings’ position remained
precarious.
However, his situation was still desperate. Alfred,
writes Bishop Asser, “had nothing to live on except what he could forage by
frequent raids, either secretly or even openly, from the Vikings as well as
from the Christians who had submitted to the Vikings’ authority.”[9] One day, the king was asked for alms
by a poor beggar. He gave him some of the little he possessed. That night, the
beggar appeared to him in a dream and revealed that he was the famous St.
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (the greatest of the English saints, whose incorrupt
relics were at that moment being carried by monks around the North of England
to escape the marauding Vikings). He then told the king that God would now have
mercy on England after the great suffering she had undergone because of her
sins, and that Alfred himself would regain his kingdom. As a sign of the truth
of his words, the saint said, the next morning Alfred’s fishermen would bring
in an enormous catch of fish, which would be the more miraculous because of the
extreme coldness of the weather. When Alfred awoke, he discovered that his
mother had had exactly the same vision; and at the same time his men came in to
announce that they had made an enormous catch of fish. Soon the rest of the
vision was fulfilled…[10]
Encouraged by this, the king decided on some daring
reconnaissance work. With one faithful follower, he gained admittance to the
Danish camp as a singing actor, and there was able to find out everything he
needed to know before returning to Athelney.[11] Then, as winter turned into spring,
Alfred was joined by Ealdorman Aethelnoth of Somerset and a small force.
It was in this period that St. Neot appeared to the
king in his misery one night, and told him that he would triumph over the enemy
in the seventh week after Pascha, and that the Danish King Guthrum and his
nobles would be baptized. And so, in the seventh week after Pascha Alfred rode
to a secret meeting place called Egbert’s stone, and there, writes Bishop
Asser, “all the inhabitants of Somerset and Wiltshire and all the inhabitants
of Hampshire – those who had not sailed overseas for fear of the Vikings –
joined up with him. When they saw they king,… they were filled with immense
joy.”[12] Then, on the night before the
battle of Edington, in the village of Iley, St. Neot again appeared to the
king. He looked like an angel, his hair white as snow, his garments glistening
and fragrant. “Arise quickly,” he said, “and prepare for victory. When you came
here, I was with you, I helped you. So now you and your men go out to battle
tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord
mighty in battle, Who gives victory to kings. And I will go before you to the
battle, and your enemies shall fall by your arm before my eyes, and you will
smite them with the edge of the sword.”[13]
The next morning, during the battle, an invisible hand
seized Alfred’s standard and waved the English on. The Danes were so
overwhelmed that they agreed to leave Wessex forever, while Guthrum and thirty
of his leading men agreed to be baptized. This time the Danes kept their
promises, Alfred received his greatest enemy from the baptismal font, and for
twelve days the Danes remained with Alfred and enjoyed his very generous hospitality.[14] Guthrum and his men then moved to
East Anglia and settled there permanently.
In 885 a Viking fleet appeared on the Thames. Alfred
saw this as a violation of his agreement with Guthrum and seized London from
the Vikings. Then, according to Asser. And “all the Angles and Saxons – those
who had formerly been scattered everywhere and were not in captivity with the
Vikings – turned willingly to Alfred and submitted to his lordship.”[15]
Seizing the opportunity, Alfred now drew up a permanent treaty with King Guthrum. The English and Danish kings divided England between them: most of the north and east became the “Danelaw”, the administration of the Danes, while the English kept the south and the west (except Cornwall, which was a Celtic kingdom). Soon the Danish settlers in England were becoming Orthodox Christians in large numbers. Thus in East Anglia, early in the tenth century, the Christianized Danes were issuing coins commemorating the Martyr-King Edmund, whom they themselves had killed only a few years before! Again, by the middle of the tenth century the son of a warrior in the Great Army, St. Odo, had become archbishop of Canterbury, while later in the century another Dane, Osketyl, became archbishop of York. The foundation of this remarkable reconciliation of the two warring races in Christ was laid by the courage, generosity and statesmanship of King Alfred…
The All-EnglishKingdom
King Alfred was even greater in peace than he was in
war. Determined that he should never again be caught out and outmanoeuvred by
the rapid strikes of the Danes, he made three important innovations in the
sphere of military organization that proved to be very important when war with
the Vikings resumed in the 890s. Although the Vikings were not decisively
defeated then, they gave up their attempts to conquer England for another one
hundred years.
Alfred’s first innovation was the building of a fleet
in order to meet and destroy the marauding pagans before they ever set foot on
English soil. Alfred even ordered the construction of a long-ship according to
his own design.[16] This was the first permanent fleet
that any British ruler had constructed since the fourth-century Romans, who had
built a fleet to protect the island against – the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Secondly,
he went part of the way to creating a standing army, “dividing his army in two,
so that always half its men were at home, half out on service, except for those
men who were to garrison the burhs”.[17]
The burhs, or new towns, were Alfred’s third and
most original innovation: he constructed, or reconstructed, thirty of them at
equal intervals throughout Wessex so that no Englishman working in the fields
was more than twenty miles from a burh, to which he could flee in time of
Viking invasion. The burhs were laid out in rectilinear street plans
designed to facilitate the movement of soldiers. They were protected by massive
earthworks, and Alfred appointed 27,000 soldiers to man their walls at
intervals of 5.5 metres. The towns were also designed as centres of trade, so
the predominantly rural civilization of Anglo-Saxon England was soon acquiring
an urban “middle class”.
The only real city in England before this had been
London, which was now relocated within the walls of the old Roman town by
Alfred and subjected to extensive reconstruction. This Romanizing tendency was
also revealed in the coins he minted in London, which, as Hindley points out,
“show ‘design elements deliberately and carefully copied’ from Roman models”.[18] In his London coins Alfred calls
himself “king of the English” rather than “king of Wessex”; and, sensitive to
the Londoners’ feelings, he appointed a Mercian, not a Wessex man, as ealdorman
of the city.
Alfred’s policy towards London was a part of his wider
policy of abolishing the regional differences and rivalries among the
Anglo-Saxons and creating a genuinely all-English kingdom. Conscious that the
divisions among the Anglo-Saxons had been at least partly to blame for their
near-conquest by the Vikings, he deliberately tried to promote Englishmen from
north of the Thames, especially in Church appointments. He was also very
generous towards the Celts, who had only recently returned from a century-long
schism from the Orthodox Church because of their hatred of the English. Thus
the Celtic Bishop Asser moved to England as Bishop of Sherborne and became his
main counsellor and biographer, and by the end of his reign all the South Welsh
kingdoms had submitted freely to his rule.[19]
This policy of national reconciliation and unification was continued by Alfred’s son, Edward the Elder, who annexed Danish (Eastern) Mercia, and his grandson, Athelstan, who absorbed Cornwall, North Wales and much of Northern England. These gains were not always made without war, but the battles were against Celts and Vikings, not against other Englishmen. Thus in 937, at the battle of Brunanburgh in north-west England – “the great, lamentable and horrible battle”, as The Annals of Ulster described it – King Athelstan completely routed a formidable coalition between Olaf, the Viking king of Dublin, and Constantine, the king of the Scots, after which he appropriated to himself the Byzantine titles of basileus and curagulus of the whole of Britain…[20]
The Lover of Wisdom
An important aspect of Alfred’s unification policy was
his codification of law. His Lawbook of 893 acknowledges his debt to
the law-codes of earlier kings of Wessex, Kent and Mercia, and he seems to have
intended it to cover, not only Wessex, but also Kent and English (Western)
Mercia.[21] Alfred himself travelled round the
kingdom checking on the activities of his judges, and if he discovered that
they had committed some injustice he imposed on them an original penance –
further education. Bishop Asser recounts his words: “’I am astonished at this
arrogance of yours, since through God’s authority and my own you have enjoyed
the office and status of wise men, yet you have neglected the study and
application of wisdom. For that reason I command you either to relinquish
immediately the offices of worldly power that you possess, or else to apply
yourselves much more attentively to the pursuit of wisdom.’ Having heard these
words, the ealdormen and reeves were terrified and chastened as if by the
greatest of punishments, and they strove with every effort to apply themselves
to learning what is just…”[22]
Alfred’s attitude to wisdom was both mystical and intensely practical. The most famous relic of his reign, the Alfred Jewel, portrays a figure in cloisonné enamel that has been interpreted to represent the Wisdom of God.[23] Again, when Alfred translated Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy, he recast the work as a dialogue between the inquirer’s mind and Wisdom personified. And he added passages of his own composition which revealed both his devotion to wisdom as the key virtue, and his own conception of kingship. For example: “Look, Wisdom, you know that desire for and possession of earthly power never pleased me overmuch, and that I did not unduly desire this earthly rule, but that nevertheless I wished for tools and resources for the task that I was commanded to accomplish, which was that I should virtuously and worthily guide and direct the authority which was entrusted to me. You know of course that no one can make known any skill, nor direct and guide any authority, without tools and resources; a man cannot work on any enterprise without resources. In the case of the king, the resources and tools with which to rule are that he have his land fully manned: he must have praying me, fighting men and working men. You know also that without these tools no king may make his ability known. Another aspect of his resources is that he must have the means of support for his tools, the three classes of men. These, then, are their means of support: land to live on, gifts, weapons, food, ale, clothing, and whatever else is necessary for each of the three classes of men. Without these things he cannot maintain the tools, nor without the tools can he accomplish any of the things he was commanded to do. Accordingly, I sought the resources with which to exercise the authority, in order that my skills and power would not be forgotten and concealed: because every skill and every authority is soon obsolete and passed over, if it is without wisdom; because no man may bring to bear any skill without wisdom…”[24]
“From the cradle onwards,” wrote Bishop Asser, “in
spite of all the demands of the present life, it has been the desire for
wisdom, more than anything else, together with the nobility of his birth, which
have characterized the nature of his noble mind.”[25] But the bishop criticized his
parents for not teaching the young Alfred to read until he was twelve.
Nevertheless, he was a good listener, and memorized English poems recited by
others. And then one day his mother his mother offered to give a beautifully
embroidered book of English poetry to whichever of her five sons would learn it
fastest. Alfred won the contest…[26]
Having defeated the Danes, King Alfred not only
indulged his passion for book learning, but decided to educate the whole of his
kingdom. He lamented that England, which had once been famed for her literary
culture (especially Northumbria, the home of the Venerable Bede and of Alcuin,
Charlemagne’s “minister of education”), was now largely illiterate in Latin as
a result of the Viking devastations. So he invited the last few learned men of
the land to his court, and together with them and foreign imports such as the
Frankish St. Grimbald, who founded a monastery in Winchester, he began an
astonishingly ambitious programme of translation and copying.
Alfred himself did not at first know Latin, but having
learned “by divine inspiration”, according to Asser, both to read Latin and
translate it into English “on one and the same day”[27], he set about translating the following
books which he judged to be “the most necessary for all men to know”: St.
Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care, Boethius’ Consolation of
Philosophy, St. Augustine’s Soliloquies and the first fifty psalms of
David. Moreover, several other works, including St. Gregory’s Dialogues and
the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History were translated by others
at his initiative. In addition, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and
an Old English Martyrology containing the lives of about two hundred
saints were probably started in King Alfred’s reign. Nor did King Alfred
neglect the physical well-being of his subjects: a book containing cures for
eighty-eight illnesses (listed in order from head to foot) was composed in his
reign, and Alfred sent the second part of this work to Patriarch Elias of
Jerusalem (together with alms for the Church of Jerusalem and “the monks of
India”). And in addition to all this, the king founded a school for his sons
and the sons of other prominent men in his own palace.
Alfred sent his translations, together with prefaces written by himself, to the leading bishops of his kingdom, asking them to make further copies. In this way a strong vernacular tradition of sacred and secular literature grew up in England which continued to flourish into the tenth and eleventh centuries.[28] This Anglo-Saxon vernacular tradition was unique in Western Europe in the Orthodox period, but was destroyed by the Roman Catholic Church after the Norman conquest of England.
Alfred the Man
King Alfred’s astonishingly broad range of
achievements was accomplished in the face of enormous difficulties: enemies
from without, inertia from within his kingdom, and extremely painful illnesses.
As a youth, Alfred prayed to God for an illness that would help him suppress
his carnal desires, and contracted piles. Later, during a visit to the shrine
of St. Guerir (or Gwinear?) of Cornwall, he asked God to replace the piles with
a less severe illness that would not be outwardly visible. The piles disappeared,
and then on his wedding day, in 868, he was suddenly struck by a new and
mysterious illness which lasted until his forty-fifth year. “And if at any time
through God’s mercy,” writes Bishop Asser, “that illness abated for the space
of a day or a night or even of an hour, his fear and horror of that accursed
pain would never desert him, but rendered him virtually useless – as it seemed
to him – for heavenly and worldly affairs.”[29]
In spite of all this, continues the bishop, the king
“did not refrain from directing the government of the kingdom; pursuing all
manner of hunting; giving instruction to all his goldsmiths and craftsmen as
well as to his falconers, hawk-trainers and dog-keepers; making to his own
design wonderful and precious new treasures which far surpassed any tradition
of his predecessors; reading aloud from books in English and above all learning
English poems by heart; issuing orders to his followers: all these things he
did himself with great application to the best of his abilities. He was also in
the invariable habit of listening daily to divine services and the Liturgy, and
of participating in certain psalms and prayers and in the day-time and
night-time offices, and, at night-time,.. of going (without his household
knowing) to various churches in order to pray. He similarly applied himself
attentively to charity and distribution of alms to the native population and to
foreign visitors of all races, showing immense and incomparable kindness and
generosity to all men, as well as to the investigation of things unknown.
Wherefore many Franks, Frisians, Gauls, Vikings, Welshmen, Irishmen and Bretons
subjected themselves willingly to his lordship, nobles and commoners alike;
and, as befitted his royal status, he ruled, loved, honoured and enriched them
all with wealth and authority, just as he did his own people. He was also in
the habit of listening eagerly and attentively to Holy Scripture being read out
by his own countrymen, or even, if the situation should somehow arise, of
listening to these lessons in the company of foreigners. With wonderful
affection he cherished his bishops and the entire clergy, his ealdormen and nobles,
his officials as well as all his associates. Nor, in the midst of other
affairs, did he cease from personally giving, by day and night, instruction to
all in virtuous behaviour and tutelage in literacy to their sons, who were
being brought up in the royal household and whom he loved no less than his own
children.”[30]
Perhaps the only field in which King Alfred fell behind the achievements of other kings was in the founding of monasteries: he founded only two, a men’s monastery at Athelney, and a women’s monastery at Shaftesbury, whose first abbess was his daughter Aethelgifu. However, by his educational work, which was directed above all for the benefit of the Church, he made possible the great monastic revival of the tenth century. And if a man can be judged by his descendants, then he must be judged very highly; for his descendants in the tenth and eleventh centuries comprise one of the most distinguished dynasties in Orthodox history, with several canonized saints (the nuns Elgiva, Edburga and Edith, and Kings Edward the Martyr and Edward the Confessor).
Conclusion
King Alfred reposed in peace on October 26, 899.
In Western Orthodox history, only King Alfred and
Charlemagne among rulers have been accorded the title “the Great”. But Alfred
deserves the title much more than the heretical Charlemagne. Thoroughly
Orthodox in faith (the Filioque found no place in English churches in
his reign), Alfred accomplished more, in more directions, and in the face of
greater difficulties, than any other ruler of the so-called “Dark Ages”. Unlike
Charlemagne, he did not quarrel with the Orthodox Church in the East, but asked
for the prayers of the Eastern Patriarchs. And if his kingdom was smaller and
humbler than Charlemagne’s, it lasted longer and produced more fruit… He saved
English Orthodox civilization for another two hundred years.
So why, ask some contemporary English Orthodox, has
Alfred never been counted among the saints? Perhaps because it is not known
that his relics (which have recently been found in Winchester) were incorrupt,
nor that he worked miracles after his death. And yet his life was itself a
continuous miracle, combining the courage and humility of David with the wisdom
and justice of Solomon…
In any case, we can agree with his descendant, the tenth-century chronicler Aethelweard, who described him as “the unshakeable pillar of the western people, a man full of justice, vigorous in warfare, learned in speech, above all instructed in Divine learning… Now, O reader, say ‘O Christ our Redeemer, save his soul!”[31]
Vladimir Moss.
January 7/20, 2011.
[2] Bishop
Asser, Life of King Alfred, 8.
[3] Nevertheless,
this letter is considered by some to be a papist forgery. See William
Hunt, The EnglishChurch from its Foundation to the Norman
Conquest (597-1066), London: Macmillan, 1912, p. 278; Simon Keynes and
Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983, p. 232,
note 19.
[4] Justin
Pollard, Alfred the Great, London: John Murray, 2006, p. 63.
[5] Alfred,
too, seems to have been conscious of these links. As Geoffrey Hindley writes,
“he ascended the throne conscious that the aura of a Roman authority was bout
him and he consciously prepared to defend the Christian Roman legacy in his
kingdom of Wessex against the pagan invaders.” (A Brief History of the
Anglo-Saxons, London: Robinson, 2006, p. 210).
[6] Bishop
Asser, Life of King Alfred, 37-38.
[7] Michael
Wood, In Search of the Dark Ages, London: Penguin, 1994, p. 106.
[8] Pollard, op.
cit., pp. 166-167.
[9] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 53.
[10] William
of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, 121.
[11] William
of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, 121.
[12] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 55.
[13] Eleventh-century
Anglo-Saxon Homily translated in Whitaker, The Life of Saint Neot, 1809.
[14] Bishop
Asser, Life of King Alfred, 56.
[15] Bishop
Asser, Life of King Alfred, 83.
[16] Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, 896.
[17] Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, 893.
[18] Hindley, op.
cit., p. 210.
[19] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 80.
[20] Wood, op.
cit., p. 138.
[21] Sir
Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Clarendon, 1971, p. 276.
[22] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 106.
[23] Keynes
and Lapidge, op. cit., p. 205.
[24] Keynes
and Lapidge, op. cit., pp. 132-133.
[25] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 22.
[26] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 23.
[27] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 86.
[28] In
about the year 1000, Abbot Aelfric, who himself wrote many homilies in
Anglo-Saxon, referred to “the books which King Alfred wisely translated from
Latin into English, which are obtainable” (in Keynes and Lapidge, op. cit.,
p. 45).
[29] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 74; Keynes and Lapidge, op. cit., pp. 255-256.
[30] Asser, Life
of King Alfred, 76.
[31] Aethelweard,
in Keynes and Lapidge, op. cit., p. 191.
SOURCE : http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/341/king-alfred-great,-english-david/
Statue of King Alfred the Great, XIVe century, Trinity Church Square, Southwark, London
ALFRED THE GREAT
KING OF THE WEST SAXONS (26 OCT 899)
In the 800's the cycle partly repeated itself, as the
Christian Anglo-Saxons were invaded by the Danes, pagan raiders, who rapidly
conquered the northeast portion of England. They seemed about to conquer the
entire country and eliminate all resistance when they were turned back by
Alfred, King of the West Saxons.
Alfred was born in 849 at Wantage, Berkshire, youngest
of five sons of King Aethelwulf. He wished to become a monk, but after the
deaths (all in battle, I think) of his father and his four older brothers, he
was made king in 871. He proved to be skilled at military tactics, and devised
a defensive formation which the Danish charge was unable to break. After a
decisive victory at Edington in 878, he reached an agreement with the Danish
leader Guthrum, by which the Danes would retain a portion of northeastern
England and be given other concessions in return for their agreement to accept
baptism and Christian instruction. From a later point of view, it seems obvious
that such a promise could not involve a genuine change of heart, and was
therefore meaningless (and indeed, one Dane complained that the white robe that
he was given after his baptism was not nearly so fine as the two that he had
received after the two previous times that he had been defeated and baptized).
However, Alfred's judgement proved sound. Guthrum, from his point of view,
agreed to become a vassal of Christ. His nobles and chief warriors, being his
vassals, were thereby obligated to give their feudal allegiance to Christ as
well. They accepted baptism and the presence among them of Christian priests
and missionaries to instruct them. The door was opened for conversions on a
more personal level in that and succeeding generations.
He died on 26 October 899, and was buried in the Old
Minster at Winchester. Alone among English monarchs, he is known as "the
Great."
The writer G K Chesterton has written a long narrative
poem about Alfred, called, "The Ballad of the
White Horse." In my view, it would be improved by abridgement (I
would, for example, terminate the prologue after the line "And laid peace
on the sea"), but I think it well worth reading as it stands, both for the
history and (with minor reservations) for the theology.
by James Kiefer
SOURCE : http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Alfred.htm
King Alfred-South African War Memorial. Chapter House Gloucester Cathedral
Sant' Alfredo il Grande Re
del Wessex
Wantage, Berkshire, 849 – Wessex, 899
Etimologia: Alfredo =
guidato dagli elfi, dall'anglosassone
In alcuni ‘Martirologi’ antichi e soprattutto inglesi, il suo nome compare sia al 26 sia al 28 ottobre; sulla scia dell’antica tradizione che ha visto considerare santi, molti regnanti di Paesi del Nord Europa, che avevano bene operato per il bene dello Stato e dei sudditi; spesso con grande religiosità e fedeltà alla Chiesa di Cristo.
E il re Alfredo detto il Grande, appartiene a questa categoria, bisogna comunque dire che l’attuale ‘Martirologio Romano’ non lo menziona, l’unico sant’Alfredo riportato, è il vescovo della Sassonia ricordato il 15 agosto.
Il re Alfredo nacque a Wantage, Berkshire, in Gran Bretagna, nell’849 e morì nell’899, quindi a 50 anni; figlio di Etelvulfo (re del Wessex dall’839 all’856) e fratello e successore del re Etelredo I (866-871).
Divenne re del Wessex (antico regno dei Sassoni dell’Ovest, nella Gran Bretagna meridionale) dall’871 all’878 e re degli Anglosassoni dall’878 all’899.
Dopo aver sostenuto una lotta accanita contro gli Scandinavi invasori e in particolare contro i Danesi (876), che già dal tempo del regno di suo padre Etelvulfo avevano invaso il Wessex e sotto il regno del fratello Etelredo I erano quasi riusciti a sommergere tutta l’Inghilterra, impose la propria superiorità sui Regni Anglo-Danesi con le vittorie militari di Ethandun, di Benfleet, di Buttington.
Ripristinò l’autorità regia e preparò l’unità del Paese; nonostante le difficoltà del suo regno, riuscì comunque a promuovere una splendida rinascita della civiltà anglosassone.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92430
Statue of Alfred the Great by Hamo Thornycroft in
Winchester, http://www.wyrdlight.com Author:
Antony McCallum: Who is the uploader, photographer, full copyright owner and
proprietor of WyrdLight.com, 2006
ALFREDO il Grande, re di Wessex
di Francesco Viglione - Enciclopedia Italiana (1929)
ALFREDO il Grande, re di Wessex. - Con la sua
complessa figura, egli (848-899) domina tutta la storia d'Inghilterra dell'alto
Medioevo, eccellendo tanto come guerriero, statista e legislatore, quanto come
uomo pio e virtuoso, e protettore e cultore egli stesso eccellente degli studî.
Quando salì al trono (aprile 871), trovò il regno seriamente minacciato dalle
secolari invasioni dei Danesi; e benché riuscisse, sulle colline di Ashdown, a
riportare una splendida vittoria, pure, battuto e umiliato in altri meno
fortunati scontri, fu costretto a far pace. Pochi anni dopo (878), riapparsi
gl'invasori davanti a Chippenham, il giovine re fuggì riparando ad Athelney; ma
qui, riorganizzato l'esercito con nuovi elementi delle vicine contee, forte
delle passate esperienze, riuscì ad infliggere ai Danesi, nei dintorni di
Ethandun, una sconfitta decisiva, tanto che il loro re, Guthrum, chiese ed
ottenne il battesimo. Sancita la pace col trattato di Wedmore, A., prevedendo
nuovi pericoli, pensò di sistemare in modo organico la difesa. Fortificò i
punti più deboli, costruì nuove fortezze, aumentò le guarnigioni, obbligò i
possessori d'una certa quantità di terreno a entrare nel suo servizio militare
(thegns o gesiths), divise la milizia nazionale (fyrd) in due parti,
che si alternassero sotto le armi, diede maggiore sviluppo alla flotta, da poco
ordinata. Avvenne perciò che quando i Danesi, che frattanto si erano diretti
contro la Francia e avevano subito sconfitte dall'imperatore Arnolfo, si
rivolsero di nuovo, con raddoppiato furore, contro l'Inghilterra, trovarono una
ben salda resistenza. Divisi in due eserciti, essi si accamparono, l'uno più
numeroso ad Appledore, l'altro più esiguo a Milton, sotto il nuovo capo,
Haesten (892). Alfredo, interponendosi come un cuneo tra i due, riuscì a
sconfiggere il primo a Benfleet, il secondo a Buttington; indi chiuse il
Tamigi, imbottigliando le forze dei Danesi, i quali, visto il pericolo,
posarono le armi e si sbandarono. Con l'896, la non breve e non facile lotta
terminava: gl'invasori erano definitivamente ricacciati, e nel regno di A.
subentrava la tranquillità che contrassegna i suoi ultimi anni di governo.
Importantissima era stata l'azione politico-militare di A., che aveva salvati
gli Anglo-Sassoni dal pericolo normanno, e che aveva assicurato al Wessex una
riconosciuta egemonia su tutta l'Inghilterra non danese e non celtica; non meno
importante fu la sua azione interna, volta a organizzare più stabilmente lo
stato, a consolidarne l'assetto legislativo. Il Codice di A. è una silloge
delle leggi dei predecessori, Ine, Offa, Etelberto; ma egli raccolse, vagliò,
scelse, queste leggi; e, se non gradite a lui, le sottopose alla ratificazione
dell'assemblea nazionale (witenagemot); mentre invece, se a lui bene accette,
le adottò senza le approvazioni dei Witan, instaurando così, molto prima di
Guglielmo il Conquistatore, la massima romana e giustinianea che quel che piace
al principe ha vigore di legge. Alfredo cominciò inoltre a legiferare anche in
opposizione al diritto consuetudinario (folcriht) su cui si era imperniato, in
origine, l'assetto sociale e politico degli Anglo-Sassoni: nel che si deve
vedere l'effetto della maggiore autorità acquistata dalla monarchia. Della sua
opera legislativa qui basti ricordare che, oltre a rafforzare l'autorità regia
nelle assemblee regionali, fu volta a modificare il diritto privato in modo da
assicurare un più sicuro funzionamento della giustizia. A. temperò la severità
della ammende per offese personali, in armonia con le peggiorate condizioni economiche,
dopo le invasioni dei Danesi. Dispose che chi avesse motivo di querela verso
altri, non dovesse farsi ragione se non dopo aver chiesto un atto di
riparazione, e solo se questa gli fosse negata, potesse impadronirsi
dell'avversario e tenerlo per trenta giorni in custodia, finché i parenti,
informati, non pagassero la multa: sensibile passaggio, questo, dalla giustizia
privata al procedimento legale. Nel complesso, queste leggi volevano dire
maggior prestigio dell'autorità dello stato, maggiore giustizia e mitezza. Ad
esse Alfredo premise le leggi di Mosè, quasi a far intendere che egli aveva
preso l'ispirazione da Dio.
Ma il gran re era convinto che all'elevazione della
coscienza nazionale non bastassero le leggi, e fosse necessario, come leva
potente, l'amore della cultura. Per questo egli intraprese una serie di
traduzioni, in anglosassone, da opere latine di maggior fama nel Medioevo,
premettendovi preziose prefazioni, che rivelano il suo metodo e i suoi intenti.
Cominciò con la Cura Pastoralis di papa Gregorio, eccellente guida
per la vita dello spirito; continuò con la Historia adversus Paganos, di
carattere universale, di Paolo Orosio, inserendovi di suo le relazioni dei
viaggiatori Ohtere e Wulfstan sui paesi e mari scandinavi; e chiuse il primo
periodo di questa sua attività letteraria con la Historia Ecclesiastica
gentis Anglorum, di Beda, oggetto di orgoglio nazionale per gli AngloSassoni.
Al secondo periodo, cioè ad una fase di studî più larghi e più maturati,
appartengono la traduzione del libro di Boezio, De consolatione
Philosophiae, e varie opere attribuite ad A. oppure da lui ispirate: Soliloqui
di Agostino, Dialoghi di Gregorio, Proverbî, ecc. Insomma i tesori
della cultura, pagana e cristiana, più apprezzati nel Medioevo, Alfredo diffuse,
con crescente libertà di interpretazione, fra il suo popolo. Traducendole in
anglo-sassone, egli contribuiva anche a creare la prosa nazionale, non ancora
formata, laddove formata e ricca era la poesia, con poeti quali Caedmon e
Cynewulf. Ma al di sopra di tutte le traduzioni, si eleva per il contenuto e il
tono ispirato l'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, modello di storia nazionale dei popoli
occidentali, nella quale, nonostante le ancora malsicure conclusioni della
critica, certo re Alfredo ebbe parte, se non direttamente, indirettamente, con
il disegno, il consiglio e l'incoraggiamento. Con tutto questo, nessuno potrà
affermare che egli fosse un genio creatore; egli riuscì tuttavia ad
appropriarsi la cultura dei tempi e a diffonderla in mezzo al suo popolo. In ogni
modo, guerreggiando, ordinando leggi, scrivendo o ispirando le altrui
scritture, Alfredo elevò tanto il prestigio del suo regno che ben presto le
altre parti dell'Inghilterra cercarono la sua amicizia e la sua protezione. Nei
secoli precedenti la supremazia dal Kent era stata religiosa, quella di
Northumbria letteraria, quella di Mercia militare. Ora, l'egemonia della
monarchia di Wessex fu, per opera di Alfredo, insieme religiosa, letteraria,
militare, politica in sommo grado. Il grande re spinse l'occhio anche oltre le
isole britanniche: chiamò dalla Francia e dalle Fiandre persone reputate per
cultura, coltivò relazioni con Roma e offerse doni alla corte papale, inviò
ambascerie a Gerusalemme, e, si dice, anche nelle Indie. Alfredo il Grande,
nipote per parte di madre di Carlo Magno, ebbe della sua missione di sovrano
una concezione non insulare, ma cosmopolitica; e gl'Inglesi, anche oggi,
riconoscono in lui l'iniziatore della loro grandezza, designandolo, come già
amorevolmente lo designò uno scriba del secolo XII: Alfred, England's
Darling, il "diletto d'Inghilterra".
Opere e fonti: l'ed. completa delle opere di
A. è quella di J. A. Giles, The Whole Works of king Alfred the Great, ed.
del Giubileo, voll. 3, Oxford e Cambridge 1858. Per le ed. delle singole opere,
cfr. The Cambridge history of English Literature, I, Cambridge 1920, pp.
437-440 (in cui pure la bibl. relativa). Fonte principalissima per la vita di
A. è la Asser's Life of Alfred, together with the Annals of St. Neots, erroneously
ascribed to Asser, ed. W. H. Stevenson, Oxford 1904.
Bibl.: R. Pauli, König Aelfred und seine Stelle
in der Geschichte Englands, Berlino 1851; C. Plummer, The Life and Times
of Alfred the Great, Oxford 1902. Sulla sua attività di studioso S. A.
Brooke, King Alfred as educator of his people and man of letters,
1901; The Cambridge History, cit., pp. 88-107; M. Manitius, Geschichte
der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, II, Monaco-Berlino 1923, pp.
646-656.
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alfredo-il-grande-re-di-wessex_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/
Statue of King Alfred the Great, Wantage, Oxfordshire
Voir
aussi : https://gloria.tv/post/kAhYX3ns6UEs4zR44fiP4G66s
https://gloria.tv/post/gYKB1vSoYhvb4XxkjfAQf32zT
https://www.arlima.net/ad/alfred_the_great.html
