Alfred was forced to flee with just a small company of men into the Somerset Levels, an area he knew well from his childhood. On January 6th 878 the Vikings under their king Guthrum launched a surprise attack on Alfred’s base at Chippenham.
For the next few years an uneasy peace existed between the two sides.
Alfred was forced to ‘buy off’ the Vikings and make peace in order to prevent them from taking control of Wessex. However that April King Aethelred died at just 22 years old, and Alfred became king.Īlfred was not in good health (it is possible he suffered from Crohn’s Disease) and the years of fighting had taken their toll. After fierce fighting, the West Saxons managed to drive the Vikings back to Reading. East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia had all fallen and now the Vikings were preparing to attack Wessex.Īlfred and his brother, King Aethelred of the West Saxons, met the Viking army at the battle of Ashdown near Reading on January 8th 871. When and where was this supposed to have taken place?īy 870 AD, all the independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except Wessex had been overrun by the Vikings. She asks him to watch her cakes – small loaves of bread – baking by the fire, but distracted by his problems, he lets the cakes burn and is roundly scolded by the woman. Children are taught the story where Alfred is on the run from the Vikings, taking refuge in the home of a peasant woman. One of the best known stories in English history is that of King Alfred and the cakes. “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Rudyard Kipling.
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