Alfred, called the Great 849-99
Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex

Born in Wantage, Berkshire, he was the youngest son of King �thelwulf. As a child he travelled to Rome and the Frankish court of Charles I, the Bald. He succeeded his brother Ethelred I as king (871), when Viking invaders were occupying the north and east of England, and Wessex was under constant attack. Early in 878 the Danish army led by Guthrum invaded Wessex but Alfred defeated them at Edington, Wiltshire (878). He repelled another invasion (885), captured London (886), and made a treaty formalizing the partition of England, with the Danelaw under Viking rule. Modelling his kingship on Charlemagne and his Frankish successors, he created a ring of fortified strongholds (burhs) around his kingdom and built a fleet (hence his reputation as the 'father of the English navy'). His strategy enabled his successors to reconquer the Danelaw. He promoted education in the vernacular, fostered all the arts, and inspired the production of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He himself translated Latin books into Anglo-Saxon, including the Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory I, the Great, the Consolations of Philosophy by Boethius, and the works of St Augustine, the Venerable Bede and Orosius. He was buried in Winchester.