In April Ethelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the whole burden of the contest. On 22 January 871 the English were again defeated at Basing, and on 22 March 871 at Marton, Wiltshire, the two unidentified battles having perhaps occurred in the interval. A successful skirmish at Battle of Englesfield, Berkshire ( 31 December 870), was followed by a severe defeat at the Battle of Reading ( 4 January 871), and this, four days later, by the brilliant victory of Battle of Ashdown, near Compton Beauchamp in Shrivenham Hundred. Nine general engagements were fought with varying fortune, though the place and date of two of them have not been recorded. But at the end of 870 the storm burst and the year which followed has been rightly called "Alfred's year of battles." For nearly two years Wessex had a respite. The same year Alfred, fighting beside his brother Ethelred, made an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Mercia from the pressure of the Danes. She was the granddaughter of a former King of Mercia, and they had five or six children, one a daughter, Ethelfleda, who would become queen of Mercia in her own right. In 868 Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of Aethelred Mucill, who is called ealdorman of the Gaini, a folk who dwelt in Lincolnshire about Gainsborough. The arrangement of crowning a successor as co-king, however, is well-known among Germanic tribes, such as the Swedes, and the Franks, with whom the Anglo-Saxons had close ties (see diarchy and Germanic king).Īlfred the Great's birthplace Wantage boasts a statue of its greatest son It is likely that this arrangement was sanctioned by the Witenagemot, to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should Aethelred fall in battle. It is in this reign that Asser applies to Alfred the unique title of secundarius, which seems to show a position akin to that of the Celtic tanist, a recognized successor, closely associated with the reigning prince. But with the accession of the third brother, Ethelred, in 866 the public life of Alfred began, and he began his great work of delivering England from the Danes. In 858, Ethelwulf died.ĭuring the short reigns of his two eldest brothers, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, nothing is heard of Alfred. This tale is likely apocryphal, though in 854- 855 Alfred almost certainly did go with his father on a pilgrimage to Rome, spending some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks.
It is likely to be understood either of investiture with the consular insignia or possibly with some titular royalty such as that of the under-kingdom of Kent. That, however, could not have been foreseen in 853, as Alfred had three elder brothers living. At five years old, in 853, he is said to have been sent to Rome, where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV, who is also said to have "anointed him as king." Later writers took this as an anticipatory crowning in preparation for his ultimate succession to the throne of Wessex. He seems to have been a child of singular attractiveness and promise, and tales of his boyhood were remembered. He succeeded his brother, Ethelred I, as King of Wessex and Mercia in 871. Alfred was born sometime between 847 and 849 AD at Wantage in Berkshire (alterations to county borders in 1974 mean that Wantage is now part of Oxfordshire), the fourth son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex (or Aethelwulf), most likely by his first wife, Osburh.