Alfred The Great's Character

 

Alfred The Great had an abundance of qualities that stood him in good stead in the face of the fearful threat of the Vikings. Firstly, Alfred had a seemingly endless supply of resilience. In 878, Alfred’s kingdom of Wessex was having to withstand Viking incursions led by a man named Guthrum who was already king of East Anglia and now had his eyes set on further conquest. Alfred soon found himself deep in trouble and on the run. The king could be seen trudging through swamps and woodland in the south west, trying to avoid capture. If Alfred was indeed captured, he may well have gone the same way as another Anglo Saxon king, Edmund of East Anglia, who was brutally martyred. It was during this ignominious retreat that Alfred had to employ all the resilience at his disposal. Since about 868, around the time of his wedding, Alfred had been suffering from Crohn's disease which brought him terrible and recurring pain that could be debilitating. Alfred, however, could not let illness get the better of him however; his kingdom and people needed him. Summoning up all his courage, Alfred roused himself and his men and routed the Vikings at Edington against impossible odds. This battle was a crucial victory for not only the future of Wessex but for the entirety of Anglo Saxon England.

The second quality I’d like to earmark with Alfred was that he was a quick learner. During the reign of his brother, Aethelred I, Alfred, still only a young man, joined in Aethelred’s battles against the Vikings. Alfred witnessed first hand how difficult a job it was to be a king under threat from these Scandinavian raiders and Aethelred suffered defeat far more than he enjoyed success. However, Alfred would have gained valuable insight into how the Vikings fought and the ferocious nature of it. By the time the battle of Edington was fought, Alfred would have recalled all the desperate moments he had shared with Aethelred and, no doubt, determined that wouldn’t happen again. Defeat at Edington may have spelled the end for Alfred and so was not an option. Everything he had learned in the past would now have to be put firmly into practice.

Thirdly, Alfred was a man with tremendous foresight. For him, it wasn’t only the present that mattered but the future also. Alfred knew, despite victory at Edington and other gains, that the future of Wessex was still incredibly fragile and he needed to plan accordingly for the next generation. He prepared his children for adulthood by providing them with the best education he could provide (and, indeed, he’d encourage this for all children in his kingdom). Most notable of his children were Edward The Elder, who would succeed Alfred as king, and a daughter named Aethelflaed who would marry a Mercian nobleman. Trained in the martial arts of a young warrior, Edward would, as a teenager, join Alfred on campaigns. On one occasion, young Edward, leading one half of the royal army, forced a Viking army to retreat and, somewhat rashly, went charging after it. Edward, given his youth, can be forgiven for his hot headedness. What was clear was that Alfred had reared a courageous heir to his throne and that courage could be seen equally as clearly in Aethelflaed.

On the death of her husband in 911, Aethelflaed became sole ruler of the Mercians and, with a combination of guile, force and diplomacy, she captured significant territory from the Vikings. Alfred, who had died in 899, would have been immensely proud of his daughter and her resourcefulness. Before Alfred’s death, he had presented his grandson and Edward’s son, Aethelstan, with a beautiful sword and belt, stating that, in this young boy, a great king would one day emerge and Aethelstan would grow to be exactly that. This was no coincidence. Alfred had cultivated, in his own children, a tremendous spirit. Aethelflaed, after a difficult birth to her one and only child, refused point blank to give her husband any more children which her husband, another Aethelred, accepted without question. For a woman to be so assertive in the Middle Ages was testament to both Aethelflaed’s strong womanhood and the rearing she had received from Alfred.

Alfred was also clearly a man who placed others before himself. As touched upon earlier, to him, the duty of kingship and the protection of his subjects was of greater importance than his own troubles with illness. When his loyalty was not reciprocated, Alfred would not be best pleased. For example, whilst in effective exile in 878, Alfred discovered that some of his subjects had surrendered to Guthrum and his men. Alfred was highly disgruntled by this as he struggled to survive on what food he could find. As a result, Alfred plundered food and supplies from not only the Vikings to ensure he and his men survived but he also targeted the land of those Englishmen who had chosen to wave the white flag rather than fight.

Alfred thinking of others can also be found in his published works. Alfred was a huge believer in knowledge and learning and he translated books into Old English so a wider audience in his kingdom could have access to them. On his motives to doing this, Alfred wrote;

“In short, I wanted to live honourable as long as I lived, and leave behind, for the people who would come after me, the memory of me in good works.”

Alfred was tireless in his efforts to provide his people with the best possible kingdom he could build. From staving off Viking raids to educating the rich and poor, great and humble alike, Alfred remains one of the most dutiful kings in English history. Touching one final time on his military accomplishments, and once more touching upon Alfred’s ingenuity, on more than one occasion, Alfred defeated the Vikings at their own game i.e in naval conflicts by building his own navy. Whatever the obstacle that confronted Alfred, whether it be illness, war or some other matter of life and death, he overcame it. And he had provided Wessex with a new generation, led by Edward and Aethelflaed, who would build on Alfred’s achievements.