Alfred the Great
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Alfred the Great
During his reign there were many raids by the Danes (or Vikings), which finally stopped after the Treaty of Wedmore (878), after which Alfred ruled the western part of England and the Danes ruled the Eastern part.
After the peace was secured, Alfred reformed the law and codified the legal system, improved the education system, built fortifications, and built up the navy.
He invited European teachers and scholars to come to his court and he himself translated books from Latin into Anglo-Saxon (the forerunner of the English language).
Alfred the Great: The Man Who Made England
Alfred the Great: The Man Who Made England
Amazon Price: $10.62 (as of 02/17/2012)
Alfred was England's first king, and his rule spanned troubled times. As his shores sat under constant threat from Viking marauders, his life was similarly imperiled by conspiracies in his own court. He was an extraordinary character-a soldier, scholar, and statesman like no other in English history-and out of adversity he forged a new kind of nation. Justin Pollard's enthralling account strips back centuries of myth to reveal the individual behind the legend. He offers a radical new interpretation of what inspired Alfred to create England and how it has colored the nation's history to the present day.
Sir Winston Churchill on Alfred the Great
"We discern across the centuries a commanding and versatile intelligence, wielding with equal force the sword of war and of justice; using in defence arms and policy; cherishing religion, learning, and art in the midst of adversity and danger; welding together a nation, and seeking always across the feuds and hatreds of the age a peace which would smile upon the land."
-- Sir Winston Churchill
Alfred the Great (article)
Source: Wapedia
Statue of Alfred the Great at Winchester (Photo: Odejea)
Alfred the Great's Maxim
"A king's raw materials and instruments of rule are a well-peopled land, and he must have he must have men of prayer, men of war, men of work."
-- Alfred the Great, quoted in Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
Latest News on Alfred the Great
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"It seems better to me ... for us ... to translate some books which are most needful for me to know into the language we can all understand; and ... that all the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are able to read English writing well."
-- Alfred the Great
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