Alfred the Great (c.849-October 26, 899) ruled the Britons from 871 AD to 899 AD. Alfred was for England what Charlemagne was for France.
In 865 AD, pagan Vikings from Scandinavia, called 'Danes', invaded England and destroyed cities, churches, schools and libraries. Their last opposition was 23-year-old King Alfred, who they forced into the swampy, tidal marshes of Somerset. Alfred rallied the Anglos and the Saxons and began a resistance in 878 AD. According to biographer Bishop Asser's The Life of King Alfred, 893 AD:
“Alfred attacked the whole pagan army fighting ferociously in dense order, and by divine will eventually won the victory, made great slaughter among them, and pursued them to their fortress (Chippenham) ... After fourteen days the pagans were brought to the extreme depths of despair by hunger, cold and fear, and they sought peace.”
Alfred drove the Danes back to England's coastal area of East Anglia, where he gave their King Guthrum the choice of sailing back to Scandinavia, or converting to Christianity, which he did. When Guthrum died in 889 AD, a power vacuum ensued and Viking ships numbering 330 invaded England in 892 AD.
Alfred reoccupied London and built a system of small fortified shires called burhs or boroughs, utilizing old Roman ruins. In 897 AD, Alfred made important advances in ship design and outfitted a navy with which he successfully repelled further Viking raids and incursions.
After numerous battles and treaties, the Danes eventually became christianized and ruled a significant part of England under their 'Danelaw.'
In the year 911 AD, Vikings called “Norse' or 'Normans' invaded on the opposite side of the English Channel into an area that came to be called Normandy, in northern France.
In the early 890's, King Alfred the Great wrote his Law Code,
attempting to blend the laws of Kent, Mercia and Wessex with the Laws of Moses, Christian principles of Celto-Brythonic Law and old Germanic customs. This grew into England's body of Customary Law or 'Common Law'.
Alfred drew from:
Lucius King of Britons (c156 AD) who "prayed and entreated...[that] he might be made a Christian";
St. Patrick's Celtic 'Senchus Mor' Laws (c438 AD);
Laws of Aethelberht of Kent (c602 AD)-the first Saxon king in England to be baptized, by St. Augustine of Canterbury;
Laws of Christian King Ine of Wessex (c694 AD), and Laws of Christian King Offa of Mercia (c755 AD).
King Alfred the Great emphasized education, which may have inspired the later founding of Oxford University. He wrote a Preface to his Law Code in which he copied verbatim the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and passages from Exodus 20:1-23:9. He referenced Exodus 21:16; 22:16; Numbers 25:12-25; 35:25; and Deuteronomy 1:13; 19:12; 22:23; 24:6-13.
Historian Edward Gibbon wrote in The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Oxford University Press, London, 1907-14 ed., IV, p. 115 & V, p. 178):
<The wise Alfred adopted as an indispensible duty the extreme rigour of the Mosaic institutions.> 0849AG001
In his Preface, King Alfred wrote:
<These are judgments which Almighty God Himself spoke to Moses and commanded him to keep. Now, since the Lord's only begotten Son our God and healing Christ has come to Middle Earth [the Mediterranean World] He said that He did not come to break nor to forbid these commandments but to approve them well, and to teach them with all mildheartedness and lowlymindedness.> 0849AG002
Alfred's Law dealt with oaths and weds, church associations, bail- breaking, treachery against a lord, church freedom, church stealing, (double compensation for thefts on Sundays), fighting in the King's Hall, seizing hold of a woman, fornication, rape, slaying a pregnant woman, the Elder's Roll, wood- burning, compensation for injuries sustained while working, cattle-rustling, child-care, kid-napping, aiding and abetting assaults, debt, pledges, fettering, negligence regarding dangerous weapons, wounds, homicide, house-breaking, and immovable property.
In his Law Code, Alfred wrote:
<The Lord spoke these words to Moses, and said: I am the Lord your God. I led you out of the lands and out of the bondage of the Egyptians.
Do not love other strange gods before Me!
Do not call out My Name in idleness! For you are not guiltless with Me, if you call out My Name in idleness. [ealleum minum Witum. Alf. 49:9]
Mind that you hallow the rest-day! You must work six days; but on the seventh you must rest! For in six days Christ made Heavens and Earth, the seas, and all the shapen things in them; but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord hallowed it.
Honour your father and your mother whom the Lord gave you — so that you may live longer on Earth!
Do not slay!
Do not commit adultery! Do not steal!
Do not witness falsely!
Do not unrighteously desire your neighbour's goods! Do not make gold or silver gods for yourself!
These are the judgments which you must appoint. If anyone buys a Christian slave [or man in bondage], let him be bonded for six years — but the seventh, he must freely be unbought. With such clothes as he went in, with such must he go forth. If he himself had a wife [previously] — she must go out with him. However, if his overlord gave him a wife — she and her bairn [must] go to the overlord. If, however, the bondsman then says, 'I do not wish to go away from my overlord; nor from my wife; nor from my bairn; nor from my goods' — let his overlord then bring him to the door of the church and drill his ear through with an awl, as a sign that he should be a bondsman ever since! [See Exodus 21:2-6]
Though anyone sells his daughter as a maidservant, let her not at all be a bondswoman like other women. Nor may he sell her to foreigners. But if he who bought her does not respect her — let her go free, [even] among foreigners. If, then, he [her overlord] allows his son to cohabit with her — let him give her marriage-gifts, and see to it that she receives clothes and the dowry which is the value of her maidenhood! Let him give her that! If he do none of these things to her — then she is free. [See: Exodus 21:7f 13]
The man who intentionally slays another man — let him suffer death [Genesis 9:5-6] He, however, who slay him out of necessity or unwillingly or involuntarily — as when God may have sent him into his power, and when he had not lain in wait for him — he is worthy of his living and lawful fine, if he [the involuntary manslaughterer] seeks asylum. But if any one presumptuously and wilfully slays his neighbour through guile — drag him from My altar, so that he should suffer death! [See: Numbers 35:11-33]> 0849AG003
In the Preface of his Law Code, Alfred included Christ's Sermon on the Mount and excerpts from the Acts of the Apostles, stating:
<Then, after His throes [sufferings], before His Apostles had gone throughout the Earth to teach, and while they were yet together — they turned many heathen nations to God. While they were all together, they sent errand- writing to Antioch and to Syria — there to teach Christ's Law....This is then that errand-writing which the Apostles sent to Antioch and to Syria and to Cilicia, which is meet for the heathen nations turned to Christ:
'The Apostles and Elder Brethren wish you health! Now we make known to you, that we have heard that some of our fellows have come to you with our words, and that they have commanded you to bear a heavier way than we enjoined, and that they have too much misled you with manifold injunctions, and have more perverted than corrected your souls. So we assembled ourselves about this. Then, to all of us it seemed right that we should send Paul and Barnabas – men who will give their lives for the Name of the Lord. With them, we send Judas and Silas, so that they may say the same to you'...It seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us, that we should not impose any burden upon you beyond that which was needful to hold — that is, then, that you should refrain from worshipping devil-gilds [idols], and from tasting blood and stranglings, and from fornication!'> 0849AG004
Alfred continued in his Preface:
<Moreover, do not do to other men whatever you wish that other men should not do to you. From this one judgment [doom] — a man may perceive that he should judge everyone rightly. He need keep no other judgment-book. Let him think that, if he seeks to judge another — he should wish [deem] upon no man that which he would not want to wish [deem] upon himself.> 0849AG005
King Alfred commented in his Preface on English Law since King Aethelbehrt of Kent c.614 AD:
<Now then, since it has happened that many nations received Christ's Faith — there were many Synods gathered throughout all the Earth. Also throughout the English race, they received Christ's Faith — from holy Overseers, and also from other exalted Wise-men [Witan]. They then set forth, from their mildheartedness, that which Christ taught — as regards almost every misdeed. Consequently, the worldly lords might by their leave — without sin — at the first guilt take the fine [fee-boot] which they then appointed...Yet in treason against a lord they did not dare to declare any mildheartedness. For God Almighty gave none to those that slighted Him — nor did God's Son Christ give any to him [Judas] who sold Him to death, and whom He bade to love such a Lord as He Himself.> 0849AG006
Alfred concluded in his Preface:
<Now I, King Alfred, have collected these laws, and have given orders for copies to be made of many of those which our predecessors observed, and which I myself approved.... I have not dared to presume to set down in writing
much of my own; for I cannot tell what [innovations of mine] will meet with the approval of our successors. But those which were the most just of the laws I found — whether they dated from the time of Ina my kinsman, or of Offa King of the Mercians, or of Aethelberht who was the first [Anglo-Saxon or Anglo- Jutish king] to be baptized in England — these I have collected....
I, Alfred King of the West Saxons have then shewn these to all my Councillors [Members of Parliament']. And they have declared that it met with the approval of all — so that they should be observed.> 0849AG007
King Alfred's Law, considered the basis for English Common Law, contained concepts such as liberty of the individual family and church, a decentralized government and equal justice for all under the law:
<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!> 0849AG008
Alfred respected the rights of his wise men called Witen or Witenagemot, which served as an early type of Parliament. He corresponded with Elias of Jerusalem and sent ambassadors to Ireland, Rome, and even India.
Alfred translated 50 of the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon. He send copies of Gregory’s Dialogues to the clergy in every diocese, writing in the Preface:
<I Alfred, endowed with royal dignity by the grace of Christ, have truly understood and often heard through the reading of holy books that the one God has given to us so much greatness of earthly things. There is the greatest need that we for a time should soften and bend our mind to divine and spiritual services, amid this earthly care.... Being confirmed in my mind through this admonition and love, I for a time study these heavenly things amid these earthly troubles.> 0849AG009
At the age of 33, Alfred wrote a translation of the African Saint Augustine's A.D. 386 meditative Soliloquies, followed by a translation of Bede's
A.D. 731 Ecclesiastical History of England, in which Alfred wrote:
<Britain is an island of the Ocean, which was of yore named Albion...In the beginning, the Britons alone were at the first inhabitants of this island - from whom it received its name....
The Island 'Britain' was unknown to the Romans, until Caius Caesar by surname Julius sought it with an army...sixty winters ere Christ's coming...After that, Claudius the emperor...again led an army into Britain [43 A.D.]....Then Nero [54 to 68 A.D.] took to the empire, after Claudius Caesar.... He lost the rule of Britain... Then it was from Christ's coming here, 156 years.... Lucius King of Britain...prayed and entreated...he might be made a Christian.... And then the Britons received baptism and Christ's Faith — and held that in mild peace,.... Britain was then raised very high — in much belief and confession of God... The Britons...went into the hands of their foes.... It then pleased them all, with their king named Vortigern, that they should call and invite the Saxon Nation from the parts beyond sea for their help. It is certain that this was ordained by the Lord's might... Then it was about 449 years from [our] Lord's incarnation that...the [Anglo-Saxon] nation of the English [Angles] and Saxons was invited by the foresaid king, and came to Britain...the Britons...vexed themselves with intestinal broils, and sunk themselves in many sins.> 0849AG010
Alfred translated Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, medieval Europe's most popular philosophical manual, in which he wrote:
<My will was to live worthily as long as I lived; and after my life to leave to them who would come after me, my memory in good works.> 0849AG011
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Endnotes:
0849AG001. Alfred the Great. Edward Gibbon wrote in The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Oxford University Press, London, 1907-14 ed., IV, p. 115 & V, p. 178).
0849AG002. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1-48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I-IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG003. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1-48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I-IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG004. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1-48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I-IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG005. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf See also: Matthew 7:1-2,12. J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1-48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I-IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG006. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1-48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I-IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG007. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1-48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I-IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG008. Alfred the Great. Law Code. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf J.H. Kurtz: Church History, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1892, I pp. 541f. Sir. W. Churchill: The Island Race, Corgi, London, 1964, II, p. 219. R. Holinshed: Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586), AMS Press, New York, 1965 rep., I pp. 662f. W.W. Lehman: The First English Law, in Journal of Legal History, Cass, London, May 1985, p. 29 n. 19. R. Holinshed: op. cit., I 247 f & 619 f. Chs. 1- 48, in ed. R.D. Giles's Whole Works of King Alfred, AMS Press, New York, I- IV, 1969. Chs. 20-23. Mt. 5. Acts ch. 15. Law Code, ch. 49:1-7. Ib., ch. 49:8.
0849AG009. Alfred the Great. In the Preface of his translation of Gregory’s Dialogues. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr- fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf
0849AG010. Alfred the Great. In his translation of Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the British People (A.D. 731), I:1-6, I:2-4, I:14 f, I:22. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf
0849AG011. Alfred the Great. In his translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. Rev. Prof. Dr. F.N. Lee, Department of Church History, Queensland Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Brisbane, Australia, August 2000, “King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law, http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs6/alfred/alfred.pdf