![]() Minorities were notoriously periods of weak kingship and factional infighting: the last thing the Anglo-Saxons needed.įor 600 years the Anglo-Saxons came to dominate England. Faced with Viking invasions, it’s unlikely that this was opposed. However, based on a previous agreement between Æthelred and Alfred, Alfred inherited the throne. When Æthelred, the third brother, died in 871, he had two young sons. He was never meant to be kingĪlfred had 3 older brothers, all of whom reached adulthood and reigned before him. Guthrum took the name Æthelstan and went on to rule East Anglia until his death. One of the terms of surrender for the Viking Guthrum was that he must be baptised a Christian before leaving Wessex. Whilst he did not enact any major reforms to religious practice, Alfred did strive to appoint learned and pious bishops and abbots. Alfred founded monasteries and convinced foreign monks to his new monasteries. Alfred was extremely religiousĪt the age of four he visited the pope in Rome and, he claims, was blessed with the right to rule. Some historians have pointed to what we now know to be Crohn’s disease as the cause of his poor health. ![]() He reportedly had painful cramps and often diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal symptoms. Sometimes it was so severe that it made him unable to leave his room for days or weeks at a time. He was often sickĪlfred had intense stomach complaints. They point to these ‘sins’ as something that the religious king had to overcome to become a worthy man and ruler in God’s eyes. Alfred admits this freely in his own works and Asser, his biographer, reiterates it in his biography of Alfred. He was known to chase many women in is younger years, from household servants to ladies of standing. ![]() A 19th century engraving of Alfred burning the cakes.
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