Alfred was a skilled huntsman and enjoyed a good hunt. He valued wisdom above all things and eagerly listened to and memorized the ancient Saxon tales and poems. He had a passion to learn and eagerly sought to learn from any who would teach him. Alfred wrote: "He seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear." Though a Christian, Alfred delighted in his descent from the pagan gods of his ancestors and he shared many qualities with them such as courage in battle and the ability to inspire his people to defend their homeland.

Prior to receiving the crown from his brother, Ethelred, Alfred led several campaigns against the Danes which were then invading Britain. Alfred's reign was to be a series of attacks against the Vikings. One of his most important conquests was the defeat of the Vikings in London and it is from this victory that Alfred received the title of "King of England". Alfred then had London rebuilt and restored.

Victories against the Danes were not the only achievements of King Alfred. He was also instrumental in the fields of education, as he believed, education "makes life more rewarding and enjoyable;...the worst thing of all is ignorance" (Alfred University). He also kept the Anglo Saxon Chronicles preserving the history of the Anglo Saxons in Britain, an important and instrumental work which is a standard in historical works of Britain.Instrumental in reviving education and scholarship in England, Alfred contributed to the achievement of the British people. He brought in teachers from Wales and the Continent and had several works translated into the Saxon language. He established schools within his kingdom. He personally translated some works from Latin into his native Saxon language. It is said that he established the first university at Oxford. Noted for his achievement in establishing a code of law to the British kingdom, Alfred based his laws upon principles established in the Bible.

Alfred was a patron to the arts and was responsible for teaching his workers in the fine art of metalwork of all kinds. He encouraged his people to build better homes using new mechanical inventions. He was generous in his giving of alms both to his own peoples as well as to foreigners.

Alfred initiated a means of fortification to surround his country and protect it from invasion in a series of forts called "burhs". He encouraged his people to live in these fortified towns, which were no more than twenty miles apart. In exchange for receiving free lands within these towns, the townspeople provided a defense force. The burhs were also encouraged to become centers of commerce and local government. He is also known as the Father of the English Navy, as he was the first king to institute a fleet of ships for defense purposes. Alfred personally led his fleet to many victories against the Danes in eastern Britain.

King Alfred was able to look beyond his own glory to the future of the people of Britain and provide for them a golden age which rose from the despair of 877 when the Danes threatened to destroy all that the Anglo Saxons had built. He was indeed worthy of the title, "Alfred the Great".

Alfred married in 869 to Ealhswith, daughter of Mucil, Earl of the Ganni and had the following children: AEthelfleda, Edmund who died young, AEthelswitha, AEthelwerd, AEthelgiva, and his heir, Edward I "the Elder".

Various dates have been ascribed to Alfred's death, but the most accepted is 901. Alfred died in the thirtieth year of his reign and was buried at Hyde Abbey in Winchester. Ealhswith, Alfred's wife, died 5 Dec 904/5.

Alfred the Great is known due to the fact that it is he who united the sub-kingdoms of Britain under his rule. Alfred was born in 849 in Wantage, Dorset, England. Born of the royal Jutes of Wright to the parents of AEthelwulf, king of Dorset and his wife Osburga or Osbutga. At this time in England, the crown was not passed from father to son but rather from brother ot brother. Though Alfred was the fourth son of his parents, he ruled after each of his three brothers. Alfred is described as the greatest king England has ever known and served in that capacity from 871 until his death the 26th of October 901.

Arriving in Britain in the late 5th century, following the exodus of the Romans from England, the Jutes were a tribe which were probably from the area at the mouth of the Rhine in Jutland, now known as Northern Denmark. They settled in eastern Britain in the areas now known as Kent and the Isle of Wight The Jutes were a part of the Celtic race of people which had spread throughout Europe in the 4th century. These Jutes were yet another wave of Celtic invasion of Britain, the first being the Britons who inhabited England before the arrival of the Romans and who were the current landholders upon the arrival of the Jutes.

'The Venerable Bede records the arrival of large numbers of Germanic settlers in Britain beginning in the 430s, and notes: 'They came from three very powerful Germanic tribes, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The people of Kent and the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight are of Jutish origin, and also those opposite the Isle of Wight, that part of the kingdom of Wessex which is still today called the nation of the Jutes' " DBA The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, which record the history of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain and was instigated by Alfred the Great, state that the Jutes were brought to Britain at the request of the King Vortigern, as merceneries and arrived under their leader, Hengist to settle the area of Kent. The Anglo Saxon Chronicles read:
"449 In this year Mauricius and Valentinian obtained the Kingdom and reigned seven years. In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, King of the Britons, came to Britain at a place called Ebbsfleet at first to help the Britons, but later they fought against them. The king ordered them to fight against the Picts, and so they did and had victory wherever they came. They then sent to Angeln; ordered them to send them more aid and to be told of the worthlessness of the Britons and of the excellence of the land. They sent them more aid. These men came from three nations of Germany: from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes."

Under Alfred, the kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Wessex were united and acknowledged the overlordship of King Alfred. A nation was born. Wessex was Alfred's homeland, now composed of parts of Berkshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire. The land of Stonehenge, Avebury and land marked by strange figures and white horses which straddle the chalk hillsides. Alfred is the only king in British history known as "the Great".

Like King Arthur, Alfred managed to keep his enemies, the Danes, at bay long enough for his own country to become mature and sufficiently strong for his enemies to become civilized to be peacefully absorbed. Though the Danes had the best trained army in Europe, Alfred managed to fight them for 15 years while never coming close to giving up. In 878 Alfred's cause seemed lost as the Danes were raiding throughout Wessex. Alfred's neighbors, the Mercians, had capitulated to the Danes. Alfred's army had dispersed and Alfred had only a handfull of soldiers as well as his own family. Together they took refuge on the Isle of Athelney in the marshes of Somerset, building huts of brushwood and surviving using the ancient skills of hunting and fishing.

A story is told that during this time, Alfred was in the home of a family. The woman, not knowing who Alfred was, ask him to watch some cakes cooking before the fire but Alfred neglected them and they were burned. The woman, upon seeing the burned cakes, scolded Alfred for his neglect and then cringed upon learning whom he was. Alfred took no offense, but rather admitted that it was his neglect which had caused the cakes to burn and therefore it was his fault. The story is an image of the king's kind nature.

Alfred returned from the Altheny marshes to face the Dane, Gunthrum at Edington where Gunthrum was forced to retreat to his base at Chippenham and after a two week siege, Gunthrum surrendered and agreed to receive baptism later solemnized at Wedmore in Somerset and from which came the Peace of Wedmore which ended the conflict with the Danes.

Though unable to read and write until after he became king, he did receive instruction in the Christian faith under the tutelage of Pope Leo IV in Rome. Alfred departed for Rome in 853 along with an entourage of suitable notables for Rome where he was received by the Pope and adopted as his spiritual son. In 855, Alfred accompanied his father to Rome where they remained for a year, returning with Judith, daughter of Charles, King of the Franks. During this visit, AEthelred's son, AEthelwald along with Ealstan, bishop of the church of Sherborne, contrived a plan to forbid AEthelred back into Britain and therefore seat AEthelred upon the throne. Though the plan was foiled, after AEthelred's return, the kingdom of the Saxons was split into two parts, the West Saxons ruled by AEthelred and the East Saxons ruled by AEthelwald.