Alfred the Great

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The title Doom Book (Old English dōm-bōc) comes from the Old English word dōm meaning judgment or law – as in Alfred's admonishment to "Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe!" [1] This reflects Mosaic Law, which says "You shall do no injustice in judgment! You shall not be partial to the poor; nor defer to the great! But you are to judge your neighbour fairly!" [2] In Anglo-Saxon times there were few schools in England and only a handful of people went to them. Schools were established in the 6th or 7th century. But eventually Alfred regrouped and raised an Anglo-Saxon army that defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington. Presenter: It doesn’t say Alfred read the book. It says he learned it. In Anglo-Saxon times, children were educated by memorising things. The text was translated into Latin during the reign of Cnut as the third part of the Instituta Cnuti, and survives in the following manuscripts: [6] :8

Alfred's grandfather, Ecgberht, became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historian Richard Abels, it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For 200 years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since Ceawlin in the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty. [d] This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839, he was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf; all subsequent West Saxon kings were descendants of Ecgberht and Æthelwulf, and were also sons of kings. [18] Years later a story was told of the time when Alfred was in hiding. It was said that for many weeks he stayed in the house of an old woman. Alfred was disguised as a poor man so that she had no idea the King was living in her house. Narrator: When Alfred was ready to leave the marshes he took off his disguise and dressed once more as king… Alfred had a keen eye for posterity (what people in the future would think about him). He asked Bishop Asser to write his biography and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles were commenced during his reign. When Alfred succeeded the throne, all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had fallen to the Vikings, with Wessex being the only one left.Another important step taken by Alfred was in his approach of unifying kingdoms that had previously operated separately. Under his leadership, a more unified Anglo-Saxon culture was forming. He commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a vital document for the time which promoted the unification of England, but also a valuable document today allowing us to learn so much information about this period of English history.

Narrator: But Alfred was too busy thinking about the Vikings, too busy trying to work out how he might defeat them… It relates how Alfred, traveling alone at this time, came upon the cottage of a swineherd and asked for hospitality without revealing who he was. They took him in for a few days, and one day when the swineherd was out, his wife was baking bread in the oven while Alfred sat nearby preoccupied with his troubles. The wife was cleaning house when she smelled the bread burning and hurried to the oven to draw the loaves out. She chastised Alfred, who was sitting close by, saying, “You hesitate to turn the loaves which you see to be burning, yet you're quite happy to eat them when they come warm from the oven!” (Keynes & Lapidge, 198). As part of the peace terms, Guthrun was baptised as a Christian (the religion which Alfred followed) with Alfred as his godfather. The Danelaw Bishop Asser – a Welsh monk who was recruited by Alfred to join the community of scholars at Winchester. In 893 he began writing his Life of King Alfred. He became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s.

Why is King Alfred famous?

In the book's extensive prologue, Alfred summarises the Mosaic and Christian codes. Dr Michael Treschow, UBC Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, reviewed how Alfred laid the foundation for the Spirit of Mercy in his code, [4] stating that the last section of the Prologue not only describes "a tradition of Christian law from which the law code draws but also it grounds secular law upon Scripture, especially upon the principle of mercy". Fortunately, at the Battle of Ashdown in 871, Alfred defeated Viking forces - restoring some kind of peace for 7 years. The Viking King Guthrun The Library's buildings remain fully open but some services are limited, including access to collection items. We're Alfred instructed Bishop Asser to write his biography. The writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles also commenced during his reign. Alfred was born in 849 and served as King of Wessex, a Saxon kingdom based in the southwest of modern day England, from 871 to his death on 26th October 899 AD. In this time he ruled successfully over his Anglo-Saxon kingdom and emerged as a military force, a strong leader and a promoter of reforms. His most important achievement was to prevent an island-wide invasion from the Danes and establish a united Anglo-Saxon culture.

That treaty divided up the kingdom of Mercia. By its terms, the boundary between Alfred's and Guthrum's kingdoms was to run up the River Thames to the River Lea, follow the Lea to its source (near Luton), from there extend in a straight line to Bedford, and from Bedford follow the River Ouse to Watling Street. [51] One might add to this list the translation, in Alfred's law code, of excerpts from the Vulgate Book of Exodus. The Old English versions of Orosius's Histories against the Pagans and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People are no longer accepted by scholars as Alfred's own translations because of lexical and stylistic differences. [138] Nonetheless, the consensus remains that they were part of the Alfredian programme of translation. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge suggest this also for Bald's Leechbook and the anonymous Old English Martyrology. [139] Similarly Alfred divided his code into 120 chapters because 120 was the age at which Moses died and, in the number-symbolism of early medieval biblical exegetes, 120 stood for law. [109] The link between Mosaic law and Alfred's code is the Apostolic Letter which explained that Christ "had come not to shatter or annul the commandments but to fulfill them; and he taught mercy and meekness" (Intro, 49.1). The mercy that Christ infused into Mosaic law underlies the injury tariffs that figure so prominently in barbarian law codes since Christian synods "established, through that mercy which Christ taught, that for almost every misdeed at the first offence secular lords might with their permission receive without sin the monetary compensation which they then fixed". [110] He learned poetry by hearing it recited & then repeating it but could not read it himself until sometime in his teenage years. Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridio, which seems to have been a commonplace book kept by the king, the earliest work to be translated was the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, a book greatly popular in the Middle Ages. The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command by Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king merely furnishing a preface. [70] Remarkably, Alfred – undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars – translated four works himself: Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, St. Augustine's Soliloquies and the first fifty psalms of the Psalter. [138]

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Enter Alfred. Alfred had fought commendably, described as a 'wild boar' on the battlefield - and great tactically, too. All upcoming public events are going ahead as planned and you can find more information on our events blog Michael Treschow, "The Prologue to Alfred's Law Code: Instruction in the Spirit of Mercy", Florilegium 13, 1994, pp. 79–110. In April 871 King Æthelred died and Alfred acceded to the throne of Wessex and the burden of its defence, even though Æthelred left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly at an unidentified place called Swinbeorg. The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. The deceased's sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving brother would be king. Given the Danish invasion and the youth of his nephews, Alfred's accession probably went uncontested. [38] Excuse me. Yes, you. Did you know that is the statue of Alfred the Great? Ever wondered why he was so great? Well, let’s start at the beginning.